And now Audio Theater Central. Hello and welcome to Audio Theater Central. This
is the show that explores family friendly audio drama through news, reviews and interviews.
I'm your host, JD. Sutter, and this is episode one hundred
and eighty two. Real quickly want to say to all of our Canadian listeners,
I hope you've had a wonderful Canada Day, and to all of you
in the US, tomorrow is Independence Day, so I hope you have a
wonderful holiday as well. So last time I had a few people asking me
about the coffee that I mentioned and wanting to know what it was, so
I've got some with me today again. This time it's an iced coffee that
I made with a roast from Kawhi Coffee and it's quite good. Earlier today
I had a cup of dark roast from Kicking Horse Coffee and it's called Grizzly
Claw and it was also quite good. So there's your little coffee update.
Well. Coming up in this episode, we have some feedback, and this
is going to be an extended feedback segment. We've got a lot of longer
questions that I wanted to take some time with. So we've got some feedback
from Sarah Easy, Jeffrey Blake, and Fad. We'll be getting to all
of that in a little bit. And I've got a monologue on using AI
in audio drama, quite a controversial topic, and we're going to dive into
that a little bit. But before we get to that, I've got a
whole ton of audio drama updates, including a bunch of information on some upcoming
adventures in the Odyssey episodes, and that's going to be a lot of fun
to get to and maybe do a little speculating on what's coming up. So
take a little sip of the iced coffee here. All right, let's jump
into this. We ad er up this program to bring you a special report
and in other news tonight, a brief look at the headlines now they want
exciting, fast piece news. It's relevant and entertaining like this first up,
just more of a couple of housekeeping type of updates. First of all,
is Lamplighter Theater recently launched an entirely brand new website, and it looks like
they may have even changed everything on the back end the way their site is
hosted and everything. So all of the links that we have posted on our
website to their website over the years are broken. They were apparently not able
to keep their original link structure in place with this new website. So you
know, we have thirteen plus years of links to Lamp Lighter Theater on our
website and they don't work now. In case you did not know, Audio
Theater Central is not my full time job, and I don't have a staff.
There are people who work with me on this, but we don't have
people who can go back and monitor and check all of these links. So
if you come across one that's broken, I apologize. We will try to
fix them as we come across them, but it's just too there's just too
many of them to go back and check every single post right now at this
time and look for broken links. You know, it's just something that we
just don't have the man hours to do at this point. So if you
find some that are broken and you can't find what you're looking for, shoot
us an email. Will definitely get the correct one for you and fix the
link on the website. You know, we're happy to do that if you
can't find something. We had Mariah do that just a short time ago.
She found a link on the site that was no longer working. It wasn't
a lamp ladder one but for a different show that just wasn't working anymore,
and just shot us a quick email. We fixed it and got her the
correct one. So yeah, if you come across those, shoot us an
email and let us know, we'll be glad to help you and get that
corrected. And speaking of links, Amazon has reached out to us and given
us an opportunity. Starting today July third, all the way through July eighteenth,
they are increasing our affiliate percentage for everybody who purchases anything through our links.
So if you're going to be going to be making any purchases on Amazon,
I would really appreciate it if you would hit up our site first and
click through to Amazon from our website. That would help us tremendously, And
it does not increase the price that you pay at all. It just lets
Amazon know that you came through us and they send us a little kickback.
So now through July eighteenth, especially, would really appreciate if you'd use our
links. Right on our homepage in the right hand sidebar, there is a
section says shop our affiliates and there are Amazon links right there. And of
course we link directly to products all the time all throughout the site, so
that would be very appreciated if you would help us out that way. And
one final little housekeeping note, and that is the Audio Drama Alliance is looking
for composers and sound designers and it is a great little community of a few
dozen people that are passionate about clean, family friendly audio drama and looking to
grow their skills. And so if you are a Christian who is looking to
get into composing for audio drama or sound designing doing post production on audio drama,
we would be interested in talking with you, so you can head over
to Audio Drama Alliance dot com. There is of course a link in the
show notes as well, and you can see on that website what we're all
about. And there is an application form on that site as well, So
specifically composers and sound designers. You don't have to have a ton of experience
in the industry or anything like that. If you are just skilled in those
areas and would like to start working towards getting a foothold in the industry,
this is an excellent way to do so, so again head over to Audio
Drama Alliance dot com and if it looks like something you might be interested in
participating in, feel out that application and we'll get back with you with more
information. Couple of quick event updates, and that is that the ATC Seneca
Awards. You've heard me talk about it already, but the broadcast is coming
up on August twenty fifth of this year, but I wanted to let you
know that the nominees will be announced this month in July, very very soon.
Also wanted to let you know that Heidi Stewart will be returning as our
announcer. So always great to work with Heidi. She's a great voice talent
and she always does a fantastic job. Still working on the speakers. Those
will be announced very soon, but I think you're really going to like the
ones that we have in the works if everything pans out. But that will
also be announced very soon, and also soon the voting for the People's Choice
category will open as well when those nominees are announced in a few days.
So all of that will be over at the Senecas dot org, so keep
an eye there. That's all coming up. Also, Sonic Con tickets are
now on sale. Adults are eighty dollars seniors will get a ten dollar discount
as well as military and students ages eight to eighteen are only sixty dollars.
And that's for the entire weekend. That's for all three days again, that
will be in November the sixteenth through the eighteenth of November this year. And
Chris Nelson said, they're really trying to make this reasonable in terms of the
price, and I think they have I think it's a really really great price
point. Now. Also, producers, this is really cool. We really
want to see the exhibit hall filled with vendors and exhibitors this time. So
you must be approved, so you have to submit information about what your product
or service is, but you do not have to pay any additional fees to
exhibit. Once you are approved, you own they have to purchase a weekend
pass and if you're approved, you can set up your booth in the exhibit
hall. So, producers, this is a great opportunity to get your show
or an adjacent service, you know, some sort of audio equipment or something
in front of industry people and up and coming talent in the space as well.
So all of that information is over at Sonic Dashcon dot org. Also,
new works submissions are still open. Those will be open all the way
through September first, so be sure to check all of that out, get
your tickets for Sonic Con, and now into the realm of upcoming releases on
demand. Three, The World of Lawbreakers from Glenn Haskell is coming out in
just a few days. July fifteenth is the release date, and that should
be available on YouTube and drama fy. I believe that post production is already
complete on it. It has a runtime of about forty five minutes, so
be sure to keep an eye out for that. Also, Glynn is working
on a new series which is a spoof of Dragnet, so that's going to
be really fun. And I believe he's already digging into the first of those,
and he says there's going to be at least three. The first one
is going to share the story of Daniel from the Old Testament from a detective's
point of view, so this is going to be really fun. So it's
always fun to see what Glynn Haskell is up to. Next up is Jonathan
Park series twenty one. Back to the Garden, is releasing on July twenty
first, Tentatively that's when it will start shipping. You can pre order it
right now at a fairly substantial discount. I believe it is only twenty five
dollars for the CD album if you preorder it right now. So link's in
the show notes to go check that out. If you'd like to hear more
thoughts on the teaser audio that they released, Austin Peachey and I did a
first Impressions episode reacting to that in ATC backstage, so join us over there
to hear more about that. The next upcoming audio drama tidbit of news is
from The Brinkman Adventures. Ian Boltman and Darby Kern met up in late June
to have a sort of writer's meeting and start outlining and actually begin the writing
for season ten of The Brinkman Adventures. And I spoke with Darby shortly after
he came back from that few days, and he's really excited about the new
season. I had heard little snippets of the direction that Ian had planned to
take the show, and this was several months ago, may have even been
close to a year ago, when we talked about some of the ideas that
he had for the show, and these are going to be worked into season
ten. I don't want to say anything yet because they haven't officially announced anything
about what they're planning, but it sounds like it's going to be really,
really interesting, and so it's pretty vague, not a whole lot to say,
but I just am excited to hear that they're working on some new episodes
and they just keep getting better and better with each release. So looking forward
to what is coming from The Brinkman Adventures. Next up is an update from
Audio Imagination seventy seven Productions. They announced that their new play is going to
be called Operator. Now. Matthew Warner reached out to me the other day
and said that he has spent about eight months doing research before writing the script
and that was why he did not release a production in twenty twenty two.
But he has just wrapped up recording on this new production called Operator, and
we'll be diving into post production very very shortly. And so this is going
to be an original story based around the night of October thirtieth, nineteen thirty
eight, when Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the Air performed The War
of the Worlds and as many old time radio fans know that that broadcast sort
of caused a panic among listeners, and some people actually thought there was a
real invasion from Mars. And so this story Operator is about that night,
told from the point of view of the telephone operators and all that they went
through during the time of the broadcast. So this sounds really, really fascinating.
Matthew said, quote this will be our biggest undertaking to date, with
a cast of close to thirty. The length of the play is currently unknown,
but I'm guessing it's going to be around an hour and a half long.
As always, this production is being done one hundred percent free, using
all free software, so that's a feat in and of itself. He's using
an Audacity and that program, while pretty powerful as a standard audio editor,
is not really designed for a major audio drama production, and that he's able
to pull this off is amazing to me. And so kudos to Matthew and
his team for always putting out some interesting shows, and I'm looking forward to
this one. He said that it is mainly going to be a female cast,
with Alicia Hanson, whom we know from Eternal Future Productions and Pirate Tiers.
Annie di Martino, who was the voice of Miss Davis in A Gift
and Logan Warner and Live Joe Hanson. Tiffany Reek, who was the voice
of Rebecca Randalls, the disc jockey in A Gift, will also be returning,
and also in this play will be Shamus Smith, who was the voice
of Wallace T. Goodwin in A Gift, and Jonathan Cook is going to
be appearing here and a few other voices that we've heard in previous releases from
Audio Imagination seventy seven Productions. And he said the artwork was drawn by a
local Seattle artist named Joseph Pettitt, and he even volunteered his work there,
So that's just really cool. So the release date has planned to be October
thirtieth, same date that the story takes place on, and it's going to
be the eighty fifth anniversary of the War of the World's broadcast, and it's
going to be a Drama Fi exclusive. So, as an oldtime radio fan
and a fan of Orson Wells work and this broadcast in particular, and even
of the original novel that this was based on, the H. G.
Wells story, I'm really excited about this one. It sounds like it's a
great premise and yeah, I'm really looking forward to this one. So we've
got a few months yet until this will be ready to go, but I'm
excited to hear what Matthew and his team have come up with. Well,
you may have heard the creator of the Life at the Pond audio drama,
Charlie Richards, on the show just a few episodes back, and he had
set up a go fund Me for a way to support his efforts to bring
back the show and create some new episodes. But he also just set up
another method for people to get involved, and that is through a Patreon page.
For five dollars a month, you get access to the entire library of
audio and video episodes. You'll get additional episodes that were never released, and
other perks, including the first the Pond book. So that's all coming and
this is a way. Yes, the go fund me is still around if
you want to make a one time donation, but if you are able to
become a monthly supporter, and you'll also be the first to get new episodes
as they are produced, this is the way to do it. So link
is in the show notes to check out that Patreon page. And if you
missed the interview with Charlie Richards. That is also linked in the show notes.
Now, before we move into the Adventures and Odyssey updates, I wanted
to mention something else that is related to Adventures Nadyssey, and that is a
new podcast in the space, and it's called All Things Adventures and Odyssey,
and it's hosted by Clint Brahms. Now, occasionally we mentioned other podcasts on
this show, but I don't always talk about all of the fan podcasts that
come along because lots of times it's because they're not very good quality, or
they kind of peter out after a couple of episodes, or or for various
other reasons. But this wouldn't really grab my attention. With the very first
episode, and it is titled a Defense of Modern Odyssey, and Clint just
outlines for a few minutes his thoughts on this era, this current era of
Adventures and Odyssey. And while I didn't agree with every single point that he
made, I thought he did make some very thoughtful and astute observations and I
liked his approach to how he presented his thoughts and I did agree with many
of them, and so I subscribed and have been listening he has since then
been doing reviews, working through the past couple of albums, and dropping one
or two episodes nearly every day. And so this is the description for the
show. All Things Adventures Odyssey is a future focused, contemplative podcast dedicated to
discussing modern AIO, starting with album seventy and continuing forward in perpetuity. This
is the place you can come to for reviews, predictions, discussions, etc.
Etc. Etc. Nothing is off the table as you're intrepid. Host
Clint Brahms delves into all Things AIO now, total side note and rabbit trail
here. I'm sure the reason why heap with that etc. In there like
that is because it is a reference to ALIGNE from the show. However,
when I see that in anything or hear that, it always makes me kind
of laugh because it is totally redundant, etcetera. By itself is perfectly fine.
It is totally redundant to add more et c's to it. So hey,
I'm not calling you out, Clint. I think it's kind of funny
because I'm sure you are doing it as an AIO reference. But I saw
that, and I just I couldn't stop myself from mentioning that. I'm sorry
but anyway, I've had a couple of email exchanges with him, and he
tells me that his eventual goal is to get to the place that he can
discuss happenings in Odyssey as they come. So he said, that's why he's
trying to go through these older review episodes relatively quickly because he wants to get
caught up in time for album seventy five, and he will be releasing reviews
of episodes as they are coming out. So I'm really enjoying listening to his
thoughts and opinions on the episodes. Again, like I said, I don't
agree with every single point that he brings up, but it's nice hearing another
opinion in the space that is very well thought out. He's very well spoken,
and it's just enjoyable. So link is in the show notes if you
just can't get in about Adventures in Odyssey. This is a podcast that I
think is worth checking out. All right, so let's jump into all of
this aio information. So they were back in the studio the last week of
June, and quick shout out to Ben Kim for helping me curate all of
this information. I was trying to follow little snippets here and there that were
being posted online, and then Ben pointed out to me that they shared a
bunch of this inside the club. So taking those little bits and things that
I've garnered elsewhere, I tried to put it all together. So let's take
a look at what they recorded and what we can look forward to coming up
here in the next little while. There was a two part episode that is
tentatively titled A Streak of Good Buck that is planned for album seventy seven,
which was written by Kathy Buchanan, and they said that that title could change
based on feedback, So if you don't like it, I guess you can
let them know. I don't mind it. I think it's kind of fun
to use the character name as a pun. Obviously they did it in a
recent album. So so of course Buck is going to be in this episode,
and he's going to meet a new friend named Braden, who will be
played by Grayson Smith, who, if you didn't know, is the winner
of the Get in the Show contest from twenty seventeen. And we also just
heard Grayson in twenty eight Hours as one of the thugs in the Cabin,
So that'll be cool to hear him back in the show again. So after
what happened with the first winner, Shona actually becoming a regular cast member and
some might even say a core member of the show, and then Grayson only
appearing in a couple of small bit parts. You know, as cool as
that was, I'm sure for him as a fan of the show, I
always kind of felt a little bad for him that he didn't get more of
a significant role. So it's kind of cool that they're bringing him back in
for various parts and maybe this character of Braden might stick around, so who
knows. But also we may be hearing from Jason in this episode in some
way as well, because we know the Townsend Coleman was at this recording session.
And then we have an episode called Right Notes, Wrong Key, written
by Kathy Buchanan, and this will have a story centering around Jewels and Bridget
and will involve Jewels joining a local band and the band's name is called Manic
Ravioli, which just cracks me up. And a couple of the band members
names are Gunner and raz so sounds like it's going to be quite a wild
ride there. And this episode is slated for album seventy six, and we'll
be in the club in December. So yeah, we know that Jewels has
had this musical tendency for a while. We had the whole thing with the
Westcots and that was interesting. Would have been nice to hear more from them,
though I doubt if we will, since the other two voices of the
Westcots are no longer around, and if you didn't know, they were shown
as sister and mother, and so that they are no longer in California and
available for recording. I guess they could do it remotely. You know,
Aio did move to some remote stuff during the whole pandemic thing, so I
suppose it is still a possibility in some way. But anyway, we had
that whole thing with her in that musical side of Jewels, and then we
had the whole thing with you know, trying to be a pop star in
California, and then Buck sort of helping her get things back into perspective and
all of that stuff. So yeah, we know that Jules has had this
musical ability, so this will be interesting. I guess they said it's a
local band this time, so this could be an interesting premise. I'm not
like super enthused about it. It's probably going to be more comedic. I
mean with the names that we're getting here, That's what I'm thinking. But
we'll see. And the next one that we found out about is an episode
with the Calhoun family called The Heroes Laundry. We don't know who the writer
was, but it was directed by Dave Arnold and will have all of the
members of the Calhoun family Kayla and Joseph and Cooper and Trey. And Trey
is going to be like the main focus in this episode, and the premise
is that he is trying to figure out what makes him special in a emily
of obvious difference makers. So, you know, we know that Joseph is
a doctor or a surgeon, Kayla is you know, the meteorologist, and
Cooper, I don't know what his difference maker ability is. He's a football
player, I don't know. But apparently Trey is feeling like he's not living
up to all of the cool things that the rest of his family members can
do. So it sounds like a you know, a Slice of life kind
of family episode. Also, Zoe and Ted Humphries will be making it an
appearance. Love Ted Humphries, So I'm excited that we'll be hearing from him
again, but overall this sounds like it could be a pretty good episode.
Then we have also coming up for album seventy six, a three parter called
The Rydell Realizations, and this was written by Phil Lawler and it will of
course have more in it. We don't know for sure if Suzu will be
but I would assume she would be, and this one is slated to hit
the club in either December or January twenty twenty four. Don't really know a
whole lot about these episodes yet, other than it is a three parter,
so it's going to take up half of album seventy six. So it remains
to be seen what these will be about. And as most AIO fans are
aware, there are some pretty mixed emotions and feelings about the Rydell's in general,
so we just have to wait and see where things go. Though I
must say the title has me intrigued, The Rydell Realizations, so that could
go a lot of different ways, all right. Next up is another three
partter. It is titled Running the Race, but it was changed was originally
titled The Runner. This one was also written by Phil Lawler, along with
Dave Arnold, and will feature mainly Bridget and Wilson Knox in an Imagination Station
adventure. And this will tell the story of Scottish athlete and missionary Eric Little.
And so this is an interesting story which I have heard of before,
don't really know a whole lot about it, but I like History episodes and
I like Imagination Station episodes, so this should be good. In the cast,
we'll have Michael Gough playing the Prince of Wales, and we've heard from
him before. He also voiced George Leonard White in The Jubilee Singers and General
Gaiman in Darien's Rise, and if you don't remember, this was the general
that Darien pretended to be crazy in front of and then turned around and captured
him. And he also played a couple of characters in Unsinkable, so he
will be returning, as I mentioned a minute ago, the Prince of Wales,
along with a few other bit parts. And speaking of bit parts,
we're also going to hear sound designer Luke Gno playing a messenger boy and possibly
a couple of other little bits. And there's going to be at least three
different actors voicing Eric a Little over the course of his life, so across
these three episodes, it sounds like it's going to tell his whole life story,
starting in childhood all the way up to middle age. So you know,
when they have time to really flesh out a story. Three parters like
this, those often are just really fantastic because you have way more time to
really dig into things, and so I'm looking forward to this. These will
be club episodes for early twenty twenty four, so still ways out, but
definitely looking forward to hearing. The next up is an episode called Quiet as
a Smouse written by Abigail Geiger, and this one will feature Buddy Jay,
Zoey, Vincent's mouse, Connie, and Red Hollard. So this sounds like
it could be interesting. If I'm remembering correctly. Vincent's mouse is the cousin
of Jay, who he has referenced a few times but we have never heard
from before. Am I remembering that correctly? I think so, so this
should be interesting. The short synopsis is that the kids enter their school project
the Case of the Blue Diamond in an audio drama contest, So we have
a little bit of a meta plot going on here, similar to that previous
episode where the kids were working on a script of an audio drama and they
kept taking it all these different weird directions. All the kids had their own
vision for the story. I'm blanking the title of that episode now, but
this sounds like it's something similar, or at least it's an audio drama within
an audio drama. And the Case of the Blue Diamond, I'm wondering if
that is a reference to the blue carbuncle or something the Sherlock Holmes story.
With the word the case of something in the title, it sounds like it's
going to be a mystery of some sort. So this one could be a
lot of fun. Quiet as a Smouse again, we have a pun in
the title. And Red Hollard. You know, I was never a huge,
huge fan of that character, but he was He was fun, and
so this will be the first time in over one hundred episodes that we'll hear
from him. So yeah, it'll be cool to hear from him again.
The last show that he was in was number eight fifty seven, the same
mold story there again with the puns again, but so you know, it'll
be interesting to hear from him again. And Steve Easton is still playing this
character who Incidentally, Steve also appeared in the Audio Bible superproduction that we have
talked about here on the show in the past, so he is going to
be returning as Red Hollard and this will be a club episode for June of
twenty twenty four, so quite a ways out. We're almost a year out
from that one. We also found out a little bit more about an episode
called Alibis, which was written by one of the newer writers, Jesse Kellum
the fourth and this one will have Jules Bridget and Ryan and this is coming
up fairly soon. It'll be a club episode in September of twenty twenty three,
and we do know that the episode is going to open in wits end.
And that's about all, so lots of interesting episodes to come. Man.
I was talking with some of the members of the Audio Drama Alliance recently
and just saying that the last eighteen months or so ish of Honesty episodes have
been some of the strongest in years in my opinion. I've just really enjoyed
a lot of the stuff that's been happening in recent months, and man,
I'm looking forward to this. I really have enjoyed the knox On episodes,
so I hope we hear more of those soon. That format is just really
interesting to me, and I just like the idea of the pastor just getting
behind the mic, bringing in a few friends to voice some different characters and
sharing some stories that illustrate a point and doing so in a really interesting,
compelling way. And look, I'm a podcaster, so I like the reference
to him having a podcast, so that's really cool. And speaking of podcasts,
Townsend Coleman, and Dave Arnold will be appearing in the July twelfth episode
of the official Adventuous and Odyssey podcast and they said that they will be quote
talking about a topic that will rock your world unquote. Now what does that
mean? I mean, you don't We don't have that long to wait to
find out, but that could be taken literally. Are they talking about,
you know, a band, a rock band. I don't know. I
don't know what does that mean? Or is this literally going to be a
major, huge, massive announcement for the show. I don't know, what
would they announce on the podcast like that. Maybe I'm reading more into this
and maybe it's just a poor choice of words or they're trying to overplay something.
I don't know, but that is a quote there a topic that will
rock your world. So oh man, I have no clue what is in
store for that podcast episode, but you can guarantee that I will be listening
the moment it drops to find out what's going on. So if you have
some thoughts on these, some predictions, any of these episodes, any additional
information that you may have gleaned, Hey, I'd be happy to hear that.
I always love talking AIO with you, So hey, let me know
what you think of this stuff. Testing one, two, three, testing
Dalla's just me talking. I do that a lot. Where's my speech?
Long? Are you going to war with it? That's what I want to
talk about. So here's what I'm thinking. AI has been blowing up in
the news and you're seeing it mentioned everywhere these days in all sorts of use
cases. But what about AI in audio drama. I've been thinking about this
for a little while now, and then just recently had a listener who runs
a technology blog out of Texas reach out and say that they had put together
a short AI created audio drama. And I was intrigued because, as I
said, I had already been sort of thinking about this where does it fit
in this space? And this tech blog called The Tech Boy just happened to
reach out right at the right time, and so I thought, well,
let's talk about this, and I got their permission to play this for you.
So it's only a few minutes. I think it's about four minutes long.
So this is entirely written by AI and voiced by AI as well.
So buckle up and let's take a listen to this short audio drama and then
let's let's dissect this. Mom, dad, guess what. I've been saving
up my money from once and I finally have enough to buy the new game
Box five thousand game console. Can I please get it? Michael? We
understand your desire, but we've discussed this before. We don't think it's the
right time for you to have a game console. We believe there are other
priorities for your money and time. Son. It's important to trust our judgment.
Disobeying us will only lead to consequences. We want what's best for you.
Despite his parents disapproval, Michael's secretly purchase is the game Box five thousand
With his hard earned money. Michael, we have a surprise for you.
We've been thinking and we decided to get you a special Christmas gift this year.
Wow, it's the game box five thousand. Thank you, Mom and
Dad. Michael eagerly unwraps the parents gift and begins setting up the game console.
Michael, we need to talk. We discovered that you bought the game
console secretly, even though we asked you not to. We appreciate your excitement
and your hard work, but disobeying us was not the right choice. I'm
sorry, Mom and Dad. I thought I knew better of it. I
realize now that I was wrong. Michael's parents decide to return the Christmas console
and have a heartfelt conversation with their son. Michael. We love you and
we want you to learn from this experience. We've returned to the Christmas console,
but you can keep the one you bought. However, there will be
consequences for your disobedience. You won't be allowed to use our electricity to power
the game console. I understand, Mom and Dad. I realize now that
my desire for a game console led me to disobey you, and it caused
harm to our relationship. I don't want that. I'll find a way to
make things right. Michael, driven by a newfound understanding decides to make a
selfless choice. I've decided to give away the game console I bought. It
has caused division and disobedience in my family. I want to make things right.
Hey, Michael, did you finally get the game box five thousand?
Yeah? I did, but something happened and I realized it wasn't the right
choice. What do you mean, well, I bought it secretly, even
though my parents had said no. It caused tension in my family, and
now they've taken away the Christmas consul and told me I can only keep the
one I bought if I don't use their electricity. That's rough, man,
but it's still a coal consul. Why don't you just keep it and play
it when your parents aren't around. No, I've learned my lesson disobeying my
parents was wrong, and I want to show them that I understand that.
Now Michael carefully packs up the game console, preparing to give it away.
I need to find someone who would truly appreciate and benefit from this console.
Missus Johnson, I've been thinking about my actions, and I'd like to donate
this game console. I believe it could bring joy to some one else.
Michael, that's a wonderful gesture. We have a local children's shelter that would
greatly appreciate such a gift. Your selfishness will make a difference in their life.
Michael visits the children's shelter and presents the game console as a gift.
I hope this brings you joy and happiness. Enjoy playing and make wonderful memories
together. Wow, thank you so much. This is amazing, Michael.
We just received a call from Missus Johnson. She told us about your active
selflessness. We are proud of you son, great job son. And so
Michael's journey teaches us that obedience to our parents and making selfless choices can bring
greater joy and fulfillment than any material possession. As we reflect on this story,
let us remember the words of Ephesian six one to three for children,
obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father
and mother, which is the first commandment, with the promise, so that
it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the
earth. Okay, so obviously has no music, no sound effects, just
the voices, but it's enough there to see where the AI was going.
Obviously it has a ton a ton of issues. Now Here is the prompt
that was given to chat Gpt to write this. They said, write me
a fifteen minute Christian audio drama script that will give me a story about a
kid who works hard and saves up his money, but buys a game console
when his parents say no. So fairly specific. And they did say that
there were three or four other revision prompts to help it refine it a little
bit more, but obviously it's still is very lacking. First of all,
the prompt was write a fifteen minute script that when voice was only four and
a quarter minutes, Even if you add music and sound effects, it's probably
only going to be about five minutes. So it was short by ten minutes
of what was requested. Also, where did this Missus Johnson character come from?
She just pops up suddenly he's talking to her. And of course there
are logical problems like why take back the console that they had gifted him,
but let him keep the one that he bought? Strange strange there, you
can keep it, but you can't use our electricity, no electricity. What
is he supposed to do if they're letting him keep it drag an extension chord
over to the neighbor's house and use their electricity. That whole thing was just
strange to me, and it made me laugh out loud, and it wasn't
supposed to be funny. So lots and lots of issues here with this script.
It is interesting though, that the prompt specifically requested a Christian audio drama,
and the narrator there at the end works in an actual scripture verse,
and so the moral was there in the story, although again logical issues all
the way through, and then we have this unnecessary narrator who tells little things
that are going on throughout the story which could have easily been shown through dialogue.
So obviously, using AI to just outright develop a script for an audio
drama is not a great idea. There's just so many issues with this.
And I actually heard one several months ago that was even worse than this.
It was just it made almost zero sense, and so this is not a
great idea to use AI to write scripts. Now. The whole point in
bringing this up for me is and side note here, I haven't fully thought
through all of this yet, so this is really just me talking it out
with you here on the show. But for me, I think it's an
interesting tool to use for inspiration, not as an actual scriptwriting tool. That
is, to me, it's cheating, it's disingenuous, and it's not going
to give you a great result, you know. But using it as a
tool for inspiration, I think that is where it could work. Case in
point, A couple of years ago, when Michael Schrader and I were flying
out to Sonic Con twenty twenty, he told me a story, and I
think we were on the plane or in the airport, and he told me
a story of an interesting thing that happened to him as he was up in
the mountains of Colorado hiking one time. And I'm not going to give too
many details of what happened, and you'll see why in a moment, but
he tells me the story of this encounter that he had just out in the
wilderness of the Colorado Mountains, and it was just fascinating to me. And
I told him that wouldn't make an amazing audio drama script. You could easily
take that and use it as the basis of a totally awesome audio drama.
And that was all that, you know, We moved on and we talked
about other things, and we didn't you delve into it any further. But
for some reason, that story stayed in the back of my mind ever since
then, and so I believe it was last year or very early this year.
I took that story, broke it down into a couple of essential elements,
and I asked chat Gpt to write a logline and a synopsis for an
audio drama script based on these couple of story elements. And it did a
really good job of creating again a logline and in a full synopsis, it
created characters, it gave the characters names, and it had this whole overview
of a plot for this story. Now, it was very very much thin
on details of exactly how things worked out in this story. It was very
much a high overview. I did follow up with a few other prompts to
flesh it out a little bit more, but I could never get it to
really give me a really good solid details of each plot point that I thought
would work totally. But I thought it was a very interesting start. There
is no way that you could take that and make it into a good story
as it was. It would take some major major revisions and refining and probably
even some complete changes in certain parts by an actual human to make it a
good story and one that would actually work for audio drama. So again,
this is early contemplations of this whole idea for me, but I'm saying at
this point, don't use AI to write audio drama scripts. Use it for
inspiration if you want to feed it little prompts to get the creative juices flowing.
Maybe it'll pull up something that you hadn't thought of before for a direction
you could take things, But don't rely on this stuff to create content for
you. And I know that I'm speaking primarily to audio drama fans here,
but I think it's probably safe to say that you, as audio drama fans,
don't want this kind of content either. You want good quality audio dramas,
great stories that you can really get on board with these characters. And
so, because I have seen people out there trying to create audio dramas entirely
from AI and actually putting them out there as a show and with multiple episodes
and stuff. And I'm not calling out this blogger, the tech boy,
he was doing this as an experiment, but there are people out there that
are actually creating these shows and actually releasing them as if they are just amazing
pieces of art. And I'm just saying, this is not the way.
This is not the way. And while we're on this whole topic, I'm
certainly not a fan of AI voices. Look, I'm a voice artist myself,
and this is a huge discussion right now in the voiceover world because some
small companies are actually opting for AHI voices for ads or company training modules and
videos and stuff like that, and so some of the work in voiceover is
going to AI right now because the voices are getting very good. However,
AI just can't reproduce the nuance and the feeling of a human voice. And
you've probably heard in this sample here from this little drama that it's severely lacking
in terms of the range that a voice can create. Of course, they
will get better and they will become more human like, but I don't think
it's necessarily an ethical thing to do to use these voices and to rely on
them. Yeah, again, this is off the top of my head,
and so maybe I'm overstepping a little bit to say that it's not ethical.
I guess you can do whatever you want to do as a creator, but
I think you should at least let people know that they're not human voices if
you're going to do something like this. I don't know. It is some
muddy waters, this whole AI thing. So I don't know. Am I
opening a can of worms here by even bringing this up? I don't know.
I just I just don't think it's a great idea to use AI voices,
and certainly not use AI to write your stories, because they're just not
great. And it's been shown over and over again that AI gets details factually
wrong a lot, and so I think most creators know this, but apparently
there are people out there who think it is a good idea, and I'm
saying, no, it's it's not. It's not a great idea, and
I'm sure the fans are saying the same thing as well. So Hey,
as always with these monologue segments, this is just what I've been thinking about
lately. Let me know what you think, even if you disagree with me,
I'm happy to hear from you, So let us know what you think.
And speaking of what you think, so what do you think of the
show? Please leave your message after the zone hi audiened Theater Central. Hey,
guys, this is awesome. How about j Roy Andrew Minuit Victoria.
Yesterday I received a letter from a big fan. No time to I've got
an email I keep for me today. No, it's actually just your mail.
Yes, it is that time to hear from you in the ATC community.
As I mentioned in the last episode, Easy had sent in a voicemail
and had a few different questions. And so we listened to the first part
and addressed to that last time. And so here is part two, and
he's got a couple of other questions. So let's give this a listen and
address this. My other question to you is what do you think constitutes success
in this space today with the producers who are not Odyssey and have not been
around for forever. I did not think that anything would come close to the
successful level that Odyssey had in the nineties and two thousands, because you got
to think every city had a Christian bookstore, and every Addisian bookstore had AUDI
few albums. It just did back then. I was huge. According to
Wikipedia. By the nineties they had sold over a million cassettes. That's amazing.
I didn't think that anything could come close to that until jen Z did
what they've done, which has just been unbelievable. So my whole thought,
and another side question, is if you are an independent content creator, and
even if we use ATC, which I love Durmser by the way, I
feel like ATC is the premier place to go, which is why I am
subscribed and I check all the time and I've gotten so many shows from you.
The fundamental problem still remains. I think you have to give people something
to get something. What I mean by that is aio is still available Monday
through Saturday online and on the radio, but online a free episode every day,
six days a week. Gen Z has done podcasting and has done it
to a level that they monetized it with advertising, and they have developed a
much bigger fan base, let's be honest, than anyone in the space has
accept Odyssey. So I feel like podcasting is the biggest source of engagement that
content creators can have today to get their stuff out, even if they put
out one or two of them and then they want you to buy the product,
because that's what they would have done with radio. The problem is people
will will then be able to keep it. So I'm curious to see what
even because I'm not going to buy something, And maybe this is just mean
I'm not going to buy something if I can't hear a good sample of it.
First, the first episode should be on YouTube. It should be available
of a podcast, because that's what Odyssey did, That's what everybody has always
done to get and then you run out and you want to buy the rest
and you want to see what happens. That's where their success came from and
comes from. But I don't know if the producers, the indie producers,
if you will, for lack of a better term, in the space,
can do that. I'd be curious to know if you think if they would
feel like it would be a waste of time to put out even one episode
for free. But then again, if you don't, I just don't think,
and I would like to be wrong, because the space can grow.
I just don't think that there are an exorbitant number of people who are going
to rush out and buy something that they have not hurt, even if you
give them a glowing review. But I'm just curious. There's just a lot
to try to throw out there for your consideration. I love the show,
I always have, you know that, and a huge hand people the monologue,
and I guess I'm very curious what you think. So there's a couple
of questions here. Let's let's dive into this. The first question, what
is success in modern audio drama? What does that look like? I would
say that that would probably look a little different for every producer. It really
depends on what their goal is with the project that they are working on.
Some might be satisfied to just be able to break even. Some might even
just be satisfied with just making the show and putting it out there. They
don't really care how many people check it out or if they garner a massive
following that may not even be on their their radar. Others might want to
be making enough to have the show be sustainable so that it could actually continue,
And others may actually be wanting to make a living from audio rama production.
So I don't think there is a one size fits all definition for success
in modern audio drama. Now we're talking about a business. Yes, they
have to make money. They have to generate substantial amounts of revenue to continue
to operate wise King Media, for instance, they are a for profit company.
They have to hit certain benchmarks in revenue with every single release. That
they have in order to keep operating and then of course make the next release.
So for an independent producer, obviously those benchmarks are much lower, but
again it would depend on whatever their individual goals and aspirations are for the particular
project that they are working on. And yes, you're right, Adventures not
Cy was massively successful. I think in any metric or definition that you have,
that effort has been successful. And to your next point about what about
giving away one or two episodes for free, I do agree that a good,
high quality product from a great producer could potentially take off in the podcast
market. That's exactly why I talked about this very issue in a previous monologue.
So I'm not going to rehash everything that I talked about there, but
I will say then, yes, I agree with that point. I do
think that it has been an untapped avenue so far in the family friendly audio
drama space. Now I do know there are some people that are trying to
crack that nut, so we'll see, we'll see how this goes. But
I would love to see somebody be able to just go crazy with a really
high quality, clean audio drama in the podcast distribution market. So yes,
I agree with that point, Now to the point of giving people a little
taste of of the auio drama before expecting them to make a purchase. Now,
I mean we have Discovery Mountain, we have Pirateiers from Eternal Future Productions.
We have Paws and Tails, Greenhorn Tails, a Bit of Time Travel.
All of these shows are available as podcasts. I mean, the episodes
are not held back, They're not behind a paywall. They're all there now.
Yes, Discovery Mountain does have a club, I forget exactly what it's
called, but they do have a premium option where you get additional content.
But all of their main episodes are distributed for free as a podcast. Anybody
can access them. Shadows in Daylight, Iliot House and others have their first
episodes available for free. You can stream them and so you do get exactly
what you were talking about one or two episodes for free. Bring Him An
Adventures Down, Gilead Lane, Lamp Ladder, Theater, Patch, The Pirate
Nick Guy, Private Eye, Your Story Hour. All of these shows still
air on the radio, so you can listen to them for free, and
all of them have premium options or you know, uncut versions, full director's
cut or whatever you want to call them available for purchase. Yes, you
can sample them on radio, and many of these programs actually air on our
radio station, Porchlight FM Radio, which you can check out at PFM dot
link, Slash Radio if you're interested. Saturday mornings, we have a block
of audio drama programming and you can listen to a lot of those on there.
Your Story Hour in particular, often puts up free episodes on their website,
and they even give away episodes. They say, you know, here's
a handful of episodes you can download for free. Lamplighter, Again, they're
on the radio, but they also put episodes up on their site every week.
So a lot of these programs are already doing what you are asking.
They're giving away a ton of content for free. And also many of these
shows can be listened to on demand whenever you want on Drama Fi for free
if you don't mind hearing an ad in between, and if you want to
get rid of the ads, then you just upgrade to the monthly Drama Fi
subscription for a few bucks and then you get no ads. So there is
a ton of content out there that is available to listen to for free.
Now, yeah, you do kind of have to go looking for it in
some instances, and that's why we try to make it easy for people,
let them know about what's available and where to get it. And so I'm
glad that you liked my answer to your previous question about ATC kind of the
answer for people who are looking to find stuff. There are so many resources
on our website, lots of different pages with different themed types of audio dramas.
If somebody's looking for something in particular a Christmas audio drama or a Western
audio drama, we've got all of those kind of groups. We've even got
a list of shows that are available on drama fy that we think are worth
checking out. So there's lots of ways to get content free and based on
an AD supported model. But to your point about a lot of people not
being willing to buy something, I do think that you are probably in the
minority. They're easy. A few years ago, we did a survey of
the ATC community and one of the questions I asked was what entices you to
check out a new audio drama? What does it take to get you to
go buy that? And this was not a set. I didn't provide options,
So these are not going to total up to you, but people could
put in whatever they wanted, so I broke down all of this data into
categories. The most common thing that was repeated over and over by the respondents
twenty nine percent of them said, all it takes is an interesting title or
a summary for them to go and buy an audio drama. That's it.
The second highest was twenty three percent said all it takes is familiar cast and
crew, so they know the people that are involved in this other show from
elsewhere, and so they're willing to go ahead and check this out without anything
else other than knowing that fact. The next one was recommendations and reviews.
Eighteen percent said word of mouth or reviews from people that they trust is enough
to get them to go buy it now. Of course that's not a huge,
huge number, but it's still significant eighteen percent. And lastly, the
next one that was in double digits was a trailer or teaser audio. Seventeen
percent said they like to have that and that's what it takes to get them
to actually go ahead and commit. So that was the lowest out of the
double digit percentage points. And so we've had a lot of people over the
years tell us that they wait until ATC reviews something to buy it. They
want to know what we think about it. And many times I've heard from
people saying, Hey, you just talked about this one, and I went
and bought it right after. You know, I've heard that so many times
over the years. So I know that people do want to find new content.
They're interested in looking for other shows, and they want to know what
other people think. And so I do think those numbers are significant, and
I think it's it's definitely indicative of the mindset of people here in the ATC
community, and these we are the super fans of audio drama. We are
the ones that are constantly on the lookout for new stuff. So these numbers
might be a little bit lower for your average audio drama fan. Maybe somebody
who just is like a fan of Adventurous Odyssey and hasn't really ventured out a
whole lot. It might take a little bit more for them to actually buy
something. But overall, I think that these are fairly representative numbers. So
that is kind of a long answer, but it's a big question. And
to sort of echo a little bit of what I said before in the monologue
about using podcasting, just because you release something as a podcast does not guarantee
success or a massive audience. You do also have to really work at it
and do a lot of marketing because ad supported shows are all based on listener
numbers, download numbers, and so you have to have a really substantial audience
to make ad supported content actually be worthwhile. So that's why I think it's
a great idea to do a combination of that. If you're going to go
down the ad model path, then it's also great to have other revenue streams
such as premium content or merchandise and that kind of stuff. So I mentioned
Pirateers earlier. Yes, they release their entire seasons for free as a podcast,
but if you really like the show, you can go to their website
and order a CD or digital download of the entire season, a full cut,
no episode breaks and credits in between. It's just a long, full
cut of the entire season. And I think that's great. It's an awesome
way to bring in a revenue source, and you're still using the free version
on the podcast as a way to bring in new listeners. So again,
a long answer, a lot to cover, and again there's lots of variables.
Because every single creator has different goals and has different thresholds for what revenue
they need to make in order to make more shows. So that's kind of
where things stand at this point. And again, I would love to see
more people entering that space and working really hard to put some advertising and marketing
dollars into a high quality podcast audio drama, and it would be amazing if
we could see them reach the level or even surpass what is doing. And
I think maybe one to watch is BYU Radio. Now. They did have
a connection to gen Z in the past with their show Treasure Island twenty twenty,
but they're venturing out on their own with their new show Kaboom, which
is being released as a podcast, so you know, well, we'll have
to see how things play out. They've released a full season already and they're
already working on season two of that show. So I'm definitely watching and we'll
see. We'll see how things play out for them. But it's an interesting
space and it's interesting to talk about the various methods in this new media consumption
world. How relevant is radio these days? I don't know. I would
love to know, So I don't know how satisfactory that answer is easy.
But if you have some thoughts that you'd like to add to it, I'd
like to hear from you as well. All right, Moving on to our
next piece of feedback, and it is an email from Sarah. She says,
immediately after ATC one eighty one, I bought The Generation's audio drama.
I just finished it. It may be my favorite audio drama of all time.
Oh that's interesting. Easy. You see that somebody actually when had bought
something after hearing about it on ATC. It's almost as if I planned that.
Oh sorry, I couldn't resist. I couldn't resist anyway. Sarah continues.
The way the suspense, mystery, romance, comedy, and action are
all woven together in a tangled web of past and present is absolutely breathtaking.
I found myself laughing, crying, and at more than one point clutching the
edge of a chair or table trying to get my breath back. I honestly
can't give this high enough praise. I also found the mixture of audiobook and
audio drama very masterfully done. It didn't feel choppy or like there was too
much of the narrator. I do have two very nitpicky items, though,
One is that I found Deputy O'Brien's voice much too young for the character.
I couldn't alway tell who was talking, and his voice didn't exactly exude tough
police officer. The second thing that I was a little uncomfortable with was the
word daddy being used for God. I suppose it's the fact that it didn't
seem as respectful as father does. What are your thoughts on those things?
Overall, though those facts didn't affect my rating at all, it's still five
hundred thousand million stars from me. I absolutely cannot wait for Generations too,
especially after the excerpt at the end of Generations one. Do you know when
it may be released? Well, I am so glad Sarah that you enjoyed
Generations. It's a wonderful story. It is so great. I really really
enjoyed it myself. Now. To answer your questions, yeah, there probably
were a few casting choices that were not one hundred percent the best fit.
But that is kind of what happens when you are working on a low budget
and you may not have access to a huge talent pool. You have to
work with what you have available to you. As you heard in the interview,
they were working with local actors that they knew from their theater work for
generations, so you know, that was probably just what they were able to
get for that character. And you know, that's not the only time I've
come across an issue of a voice that I didn't think was a great fit.
It happens even in some of these big budget productions I've you know,
I've even heard a couple of times on Lamplidder Theater where I thought, hey,
that probably wasn't the greatest casting decision there. So it happens on occasion,
and you know, you can only hope that it doesn't detract too much
from the enjoyment of the story, and it sounds like it didn't detract too
much for you as you listened your second question. You know, using the
word daddy for God, having a character who calls him daddy. It's never
really but it is not something that I do necessarily, but I don't necessarily
have a problem with it. You say that it doesn't feel like it's quite
as respectful as saying father. I think in some ways it could be even
more respectful, depending on your perspective, because it is being very familiar.
I mean, God does say that he is our father, and that he
cares for us deeply. He calls us his children. So you know,
again, it's not a term that I use in my prayers, but for
somebody else to do it, I don't have a problem with it. A
song from a Christian music artist that I really like is Sean Groves, and
he wrote a song called Abba Father, and it is a beautiful song that
is essentially a prayer to God, and at the end he says he calls
God Daddy in a really soft tone. And I always loved that moment in
that song because it did feel so tender and like you're so close to God,
you have such a good relationship that you are comfortable calling him daddy,
And I've always just thought that that was beautiful. So yeah, I don't
have an issue with it, And I'm not saying that you're wrong for feeling
that way. Everybody approaches these sorts of things differently, but for me personally,
while it may be a little awkward for me to say something like that,
I don't have a problem with it at all. As for when Generations
Too will be released, while they are still in pre production, still working
on casting, so it's going to be quite a while before we ever get
to that, and I would love for it to be this year, but
I don't know for sure if it will be coming this year or not.
The book is out, so the kindle version or print version of the book
is already available, but I do think it's going to be several months,
if not even twenty twenty four before we actually get the audio version. But
I know that the team has learned a lot from their previous two releases,
and I have really high hopes and expectations for Generations too, in terms of
the production values and the casting, and so I'm with you. I'm excited
for it, and it's going to be a lot of fun when it does
come. I'm definitely going to have to re listen to Generations one in the
lead up to getting to Generations two, just so it can kind of flow
right into the next story. So it's going to be a lot of fun.
But so glad that you enjoyed it, And thank you so much for
sending in your feedback. Much appreciated, Sarah. And next up is an
from Blake, and Blake said, what are your thoughts on having British actors
versus American actors doing a production with British accents. I ask because Catherine Kellgren
did a convincing English accent in her works for Focus on the Family Radio theater.
However, many of the US actors that many other audio drama productions feature,
while talented and amazing actors, same to struggle with the accent. What
are your thoughts on this topic. What are some audio dramas you know where
the American actors did a good English accent? Well, not being British myself,
I don't always know when somebody is absolutely one hundred percent nailing the British
accent or not. Sometimes I can pick out moments where I do think they
are struggling with it, but I don't always notice when they are mispronouncing things
because it's not native for me. I have listened to a ton of audio
drama that is recorded by British speakers, so I know what the real thing
sounds like. But there are such a variety of accents across that little tiny
island that there's all different variations, and there are even some that kind of
mesh certain elements of different regional dialects into one, and so for me to
know that they're nailing it. I don't. I can't always tell that,
so I don't know if I'm a good judge of this. I think that
for the most part, lamp Eider Theater and the Americans that they use for
some of these British characters, for the most part, I think they do
a fairly good job. But you know, I'm sure somebody from the UK
could listen to their accents and say, yeah, that's not great. But
you know, I don't have a problem with Americans playing British characters, or
British characters playing Americans like I mean, we've heard that in shows too,
And one that comes to mind is in the Gahinty story, Captain Bailey's Air,
a lot of those British actors played American characters, and so we even
have instances where British actors play French characters and they try to do a French
accent. Now, somebody who was a native to France could probably pick apart
their accents. And yes, a lot of these productions get accent coaches and
try to get these to be as authentic as possible, but there's always the
chance and the possibility that some things might not be perfect. Accents to me,
unless it is very very noticeable that it is terrible, I don't mind.
It's not something that I think too much about, so I don't know.
I don't have strong opinions on it one way or the other. If
they can pull it off, I'm all for it. If they can get
it remotely close, then I'm cool with it too. Now there is another
question besides just the accent, though, and this is another thing that I
was talking with some of the Audio Drama Alliance members about recently, and that
is that many of the British actors seem to have a little bit of a
different approach just to acting overall than Americans do. And they seem to have
us a little bit of an edge over many American actors just in terms of
their embodiment of character. And I don't really know what that thing is or
how to put it into words, but a lot of times I do seem
to elevate their performances a little bit more. And I think that maybe that
a lot of them are trained in Shakespearean acting, and they have done a
lot of theater. They have taken a lot of time to really hone their
craft. And I'm not trying to knock American actors at all, But there
is something. There's a there's just a little something about these radio theater or
lamp ladder theater productions that are done in London that just seems to have a
little bit more magic to their performance. Again, I'm not talking about the
accent here, just they're acting chops for lack of a better term. So
I don't really know what that is. If anybody else has any thoughts on
that, hey, I'd be happy to hear what you think about it.
But again, in regards to the accent, I don't have stronger opinions on
it either way. All right. Our next email comes from Fad and he
says, Hello, Audio Theater Central. I wanted to reach out and was
hoping that you may be of some help. Quite recently I reached out to
Paul McCusker regarding Focus on the Family Radio theater. He told me the Focus
on the Family stopped producing the show and that I should reach out to them
in regards to reviving the show. I reached out to Focus on the Family
and expressed my desire to have them revived Radio Theater, even going as far
as to donate money to support future adaptations. I was told by Focus that
they haven't produced a new show in ten years. They would love to revive
the show, but were concerned that they hadn't sold enough of their previous adaptations,
and Focus pulled funding on the Radio Theater series and put it into other
areas. I was informed that the audio drama team at Focus has submitted a
list of ideas they would love to do if Radio Theater were to be revived,
but they would need the funding and blessing from Focus on the Family to
do these adaptations. I was hoping with enough support and if enough people write
Focus on the Family, it will show that we want this series to be
brought back. To try and show Focus on the Family. How many people
are interested in bringing the series back. I created a petition on change dot
org. I would love to get the word out about this so that people
can contact Focus on the Family and express their desire to bring this series back.
Sincerely, fad So lots of thoughts here. Yes, it has been
quite some time. I think this year will be a right around ten years
since C. S. Lewis at War was released. That was the last
production from Radio Theater. And yes I know there are a ton of people
out there who would love to have them back in production. It's something we've
talked about here on the show off and on over the years, would love
to see that happen. I guess we're putting the call out to the ATC
community here. There is a link in the show notes to the change dot
org petition. Feel free to sign that if you want to, though,
I would say that it can't hurt to do that, but I think probably
the most effective thing would be for you to contact Focus on the Family directly.
So if they are open to receiving emails or contact from fans requesting them
to restart the series, then I say, why not reach out and make
your request known. Let them know that you would want to see that come
back. I'm sure that they will be tallying these up and if there is
enough support, it will be something that they do consider. He also said
that I asked him a couple of follow up questions regarding what are some of
his favorite radio theater shows, and he said probably The Hiding Place, Lame
as a Rob and Been Her, And he said also the Narnia ones too,
which are great, great selections of course, but he also added that
he had asked Paul about doing an adaptation of Pilgrim's Progress, and he said
that they had actually had plans to do that but never got to it.
And then he said when he wrote Focus about reviving the show, they said
that they had a list of titles and Pilgrim's Progress was on that list.
And so this is not a new topic. Many people have been wanting to
see this. It sounds like Focus is open to hearing from people. So
if you want to hear more on radio theater, reach out and let Focus
know. Yes, I had heard that before that they hadn't sales hadn't been
as well as they had hoped for some of the previous adaptations, and that
was why they had stopped making shows. So let them know, and then
go buy some more if you already have them, give them away as gifts.
I guess I don't know, but yeah, reach out to Focus.
Let them know you want to see this show. Come back link is in
the show notes to the change dot org petition, and also in the show
notes is a link to a post on the Aio Update website. David Hilder
wrote a post over there about a radio theater wish list that he had of
some great pieces of literature and ideas for future stories for radio theater, which
is definitely worth a read. This is a great topic and I would love
to see this happen too. Thank you Thad for making an effort to bring
this issue to the forefront. Hopefully something comes of it. And our last
bit of feedback is a message from Jeffrey. He says, has ATC considered
creating a quote billboard unquote for audio dramas in pre production, something where studios
or media groups could share their possible openings or needs, casting calls, sound
designers, composers, writers, etc. Great question, and no, we
have not done a public sort of place for people to post things like that.
I have done a lot of that kind of stuff behind the scenes,
just through email over the years. I have connected a lot of different people.
I've connected writers with post production people, or with actors, or connected
actors with producers or you know. I've done a lot of that kind of
networking behind the scenes. But we've never had a place where people could just
post their jobs or casting calls or anything like that. It is an interesting
idea. I would not be opposed to it. Necessarily. I'm just not
quite sure what that would look like now. Inside the Audio Drama Alliance,
that is something that we do have there, but that is of course for
members only. So yeah, a public billboard to use your term there.
If you have an idea of what that might look like, how we could
implement that, I would be interested in hearing that. If there are other
producers out there who think this would be something that would be helpful for them,
Yeah, let me know. I think it's an interesting idea. Don't
really know how we could implement that, so I'm open to thoughts from you
and Jeffrey. If you want to follow up on that with additional ideas,
definitely let us know. Well that'll do it for this episode. A whole
lot of content in this episode, and I really enjoyed answering your questions,
responding to your feedback, and I thank you for sticking around. If you
would like to get in touch with us, head over to Audio theater Central
dot com slash contact. All of the different ways to reach out are listed
there. Show notes with links to everything that was addressed here are at Audio
theater Central dot com slash one eighty two. See you next time. Thank
you so much for listening. Audio Theater Central is a production of Porchlite Family
Media. Our theme music was composed by Sam Avandangno. The show is produced
and edited by Yours Truly JD Center, and our website is audio theater Central
dot com. So when they Ashley saw her friend Marcia wearing a new locket,
and so she asked her is there some sort of memento inside and Marsha
said, yeah, it's it's got a lock of my husband's hair. And
Ashley looked at her kind of confused. She said, but but Larry's still
alive, and Marcia responded, I know, but his hair is gone.
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