Speaker 1: And now Audio Theater Central.
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome to Audio Theater Central. This is the show
that explores family friendly audio drama through news, reviews and interviews.
I'm your host, j D. Sutter. This is episode two
zero four. We have got a lot of content coming
at you in this episode. We've got an interview with
a couple of the team members from a new audio
drama streaming platform for Christian audio drama called window Seat.
I'm really excited about that, so stick around for that.
We've got some feedback coming from Jeremy and Sarah, a
ton of audio drama updates to get to. Unfortunately, for
those of you who really enjoy this segment, there is
no here's what I'm thinking segment this time. I have
been sick first with a severe cold for a while,
and then I ended up getting co COVID, so I
just have not had time to prep anything for that
segment this time around. But there's plenty of other content
for you. Also, just wanted to acknowledge that in September
of this year we hit our fourteen year anniversary, so
we're moving into our fifteenth year of doing this show,
and you know, it's not one of those nice round numbers,
so I didn't make a big deal out of it,
but I thought it was worth recognizing here and just
say thank you for everybody who's been listening over the years,
and hopefully you'll stick around and keep listening. All right,
let's move into the updates.
Speaker 1: We inter up this program to bring you a special.
Speaker 3: Report and in other news tonight.
Speaker 4: A brief look at the headlines. Now they want exciting,
fast piece news that's relevant and entertaining like this.
Speaker 2: Well, as always, if you have some information, news and
update about a show or an event, anything related to
family friendly audio drama, please let us know about it.
You can head over to PFM dot link slash atc
news or click the button in the sidebar on our
homepage at Audio Theatercentral dot com and send in that
news information to us so we can help spread the
word for you. Well, first up, some new releases. We're
going to dive into several here from Nick Guy Private Eye.
The first one is Nick Guy and the Myfair Trixie Affair.
It is based on My Fair Lady and the summary
is Trixie Prattle enrolls in Miss Pickering's School for the
well mannered miss in order to make herself more refined
and cultured, but she quickly finds that the school's curriculum
favors a superficial view of virtue and a subjective view
of morality, forcing her to come face to face with
the value of being right with God. That one is
out now. Also out from Nick Guy is Nick Guy
and the Shadows and Daylight Affair. Frank Youly said, we
teamed up with Christopher Green, producer of the Shadows and
Daylight series, and feature his characters Winter O'Brien and Matt
Delaney working alongside Nick Guy and Doctor de Soto to
thwart the plans of a secret society bent on taking
over the world. The Apologetic lays out the importance of
rightly dividing the word of truth and how bad doctrine
leads to bad results. Now I have heard this one
and it is quite good. One of my favorite Nick
Guy shows so far. I really really enjoyed it, and
in fact, Frank Youuley and Christopher Green reached out to
me and asked me to conduct a behind the scenes
interview with the both of them so they could go
a little bit more in depth on how this collaboration
came to be. It was a really fun conversation with
both of them, and you can find a link in
the show notes to go listen to that interview. And
of course you'll want to check out this audio drama too.
It's a five act Nick production and it's a really
really good production, and I think you'll really enjoy it.
Also from Nick Guy, Nick Guy and the Who's the
Greatest Affair, And Frank said of this one, we feature
the largest cast we've ever assembled for a Nick Guy adventure.
Nineteen voice actors are featured in this story, and most
of them are actually playing themselves. The setting is an
audio drama convention. Nick Guy and Trixie Prattle, the alter
egos of Frank Uley and Rebecca Bradford, must track down
two fictional characters who are trying to undermine the unity
of the convention. And I've heard this one as well,
and I also got to play a part in this one. Actually,
as Frank said, I actually played myself, which was a
lot of fun. And the setting, as the note says,
is at an audio drama convention and it's just really fun.
I had such a fun time with this one. I
think you're really going to enjoy this one. Especially if
you are a fan of the larger audio drama industry
and different producers. It's just a really really fun show
with lots of inside jokes that the average listener who
maybe listens to Nick Guy on the radio might not
pick up on. But they're just little references that are
a lot of fun. And Frank's writing, as always, is
really snappy and witty, and I love his sense of humor,
and so this is a really really fun one as well.
He also said that they've released some of their older
titles which until now have not been available as a download.
So Nick Guy and the Coming Messiah Affair, Nick Guy
and the Search for Luke Affair, and Nick Guy and
the Hidden Treasure Affair are also now available as a download,
and you can find the link to check those out
in the show notes. And The Caller from Audio Imagination
seventy seven Productions has been finished and it was released
on September thirtieth. Time is forty six minutes and you
can listen to it on Dramafy, iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music,
YouTube and all the major streaming platforms. Now quick note,
The Caller is a horror audio drama, but it has
no bad language or graphic violence, but producer Matthew P.
Warner says all this in mind, parental discretion is advised.
It is based on the urban legend the Babysitter and
the Man upstairs. I have listened to this and horror
is not my jam. I'll just say like that, so
it's not my thing. But if you do enjoy that
kind of story, I think you will enjoy this. The
production values are quite good, the acting is really good,
the actress who plays the lead character, the babysitter, is
really really good, and music, sound design all quite good.
But it is it is horror, and I know that's
not going to appeal to everybody, and I might characterize
it as more of a psychological thriller, but it does
have some creepy moments, and I do think this is
probably not one for the kids, but adults listening who
enjoy that kind of thing, this is probably one that
you're going to want to check out. So link is
in the show notes for The Caller. The latest production
from Audio Imagination seventy seven productions. Also just released from
Christopher Green is The Force, a brand new comedy micro
audio drama series. These are short, bite sized comedies that
follow Roman Jamison and their quirky squad as they navigate
the chaos of life on the police force. This crew
of officers fumbles through the streets and their personal lives,
where the line between law and disorder is never quite clear.
The show has two episodes out currently with more planned,
and it is exclusively available on DRAMAFI. You know I
mentioned earlier about Frank's snappy, witty sense of humor. These
are very similar in that regard. Much shorter, of course,
but that same just very punny and if you'll enjoy
that kind of thing, you'll definitely want to check these out.
It's very fun. Also in the recent releases category, we
have Pirateers. After two years in the making, the team
has finally released the epic conclusion to season three. The
final episode of the season is titled A Change in
the Wind and it is exclusively available on Drama Phi
and Window Seat, which we'll be hearing more about here shortly.
And Alicia Hansen said, this is our biggest episode yet
and she's really excited because Pirateeers has been trending number
one on Drama Phi for over two months now. And
not only can you stream the full season on Drama Phi,
but a season three supercut is also available as a
digital download and on CD, so all eight episodes from
season three presented together in one full feature length audio drama.
It's nearly two in length, so it's twice as long
as season two, so there's a lot more content in
this one, and it's really really good stuff. And I
am privileged to be able to play a character on
this show. But I think I can say this without
being too biased. This is a really really good show
and you'll definitely want to check this out support them.
You can also get a soundtrack of the music score
from composer Drew a Forbes of season three that's also available,
So lots happening with pirateers and just a quick note,
Alicia says that writing for season four has already begun,
so more content coming from this show. And speaking of
more content, the book. I think we've mentioned this before,
apologies if I haven't, but a novelization of season one
of the audio drama called The Fountain of Youth, which
was written by Craig Hart, Alisia Hanson, and Jonathan Cook,
is also available on ammaz on in kindle and paperback.
It's a one hundred page book and it's really really fun.
I just recently read it, and ATC contributor Austin Peache
has read it and really really enjoyed it as well.
You get to see the entire story from season one
in prose form, but there's also more, there's some backstory
that you get let in on that you don't get
in the audio drama. So it's really really nicely done.
And again that is called Pirateeers The Fountain of Youth
a novelization of season one and links in the show
notes if you want to grab your copy of that now.
As you may or may not know, Pirateeers is a
production of Eternal Future Productions, and another show that they've
been working on is Venture and episode one of that
show is out now. It premiered on YouTube on September seventh,
and you can listen to it now. They're on YouTube
or on Drama PI. It's a fun Star Trek parody
that all ages can enjoy. And episode two is in
the voice track editing phase right now, so that will
be coming pretty soon. They've always got some great stuff
in the works over at Eternal Future Productions. Well, while
we're talking about Eternal Future Productions. Another thing they've got
coming out is this second episode in their micro audio
drama series Chester and Ralphie, and they just recently posted
the cover art for this second episode, called forest Fires
again with a punniness. I love it and if you
missed that first episode, it's quite fun. It's called Rise
and Yikes, and that episode is already available at Eternal
Futureproductions dot com. And this one, First Fires, will be
coming hopefully in a couple of weeks, but very likely
by the end of this month October of twenty twenty four.
So another fun micro audio drama to look forward to.
Also coming soon is the next episode from Faith Filled Stories.
It's called An Extraordinary Lunch and it's an adaptation of
a biblical fiction story based on an account from the Gospels.
Recording is nearly complete, sound design has already begun, and
this will be the first Faith Filled Stories episode with
original music composed specifically for the production. The cast includes
some people making their audio drama debut, some Audio Drama
Alliance members, and an actor from Adventures and Odyssees Early Days,
So this is going to be really fun and An
Extraordinary Lunch is tentatively scheduled for a late twenty twenty
four or early twenty twenty five release, And I was
able to be a beta reader on an early draft
of this script, and it's shaping up to be probably
my favorite from this series faith Filled Stories. Austin Peachee
has put in a lot of hard work on this
project and I'm excited that it's coming out very soon.
Oh and what do you know, We've got more news
from Eternal Future Productions, this time for a new standalone
production called Resurgence. Now, I do believe, I'm not one
hundred percent sure, I can't remember off the top of
my head, but I do believe this is going to
be a long form production that is a standalone And
they have announced that the recording for this show is
complete and they are officially sharing a synopsis for it
for the first time. And here it is a world
class voyage pleasure or business. In the early nineteen hundreds,
many would have done anything to book passage on this
transatlantic expedition, but the struggle faced by Thomas and Hazel
Elsner as they board the ship will bring them face
to face with some hard realities amidst danger and mystery,
threatening to separate them. They must come to terms with
the possibility that not every story will have a happy
ending and not every wish comes true. Interesting. Interesting, that
sounds rather bittersweet there, so who knows? Who knows? They've
been pretty tight lipped about what this story is actually about,
and so this is interesting. Not long ago they announced
the cast and there are lots of familiar names Bethany Baldwin,
Jonathan Cook, Daniel Cross, Craig Hart, Glenn Haskell, Jason Markiwitz,
Kara O'Brien, and Tricia Rose was recently added to the cast.
They are calling this a romance with a twist, and
so I'm looking forward to it. I am a fan
of Eternal Future Productions and the content that they produce,
so I have no doubt that this is going to
be a really well done show. So Resurgence is coming soon. Also,
they've made some announcements about the upcoming season of robin
Hood Rising to Honor, which is a co production with
LRT Media, and they said they are excited to announce
that Ian Lollam has joined the cast and he will
be a bandit in season two and his character will
stand by the true King in a dramatic scene of
this season. So Ian is a newcomer to audio drama,
but he spent the last six years as a full
time actor, and he worked on his first audio drama
production in May of twenty twenty four and has shared
that the last few months have been a whirlwind of
creating connections, auditioning, and meeting new people. And he is
excited and thrilled to work for Eternal Future Productions and
LRT Media. So I haven't heard any work from him
as of today, but again, Eternal Future and LRT they
do good stuff. I have every confidence that they are
bringing in great quality talent. So I loved season one
of Robin Hood Rising to Honor really looking forward to
season two. These guys just always put out good stuff.
I feel like I'm repeating myself, and I probably am,
but I'm just really excited about what's going on in
this space, especially from these two producers. I mean, they're
just really cranking out good stuff. Well. Moving on to
a brand new project that probably most folks have not
heard about yet, and this is one that John Fornoff
is producing. It's called The Surround Bible. This is a
word for word audio drama of the entire NIV Bible,
and it's going to be launching in December of twenty
twenty four with the Story of Christmas. But they are
going all out with radio distribution. They're going to have
a couple of different versions on radio. This is a huge,
huge project. They are shooting to have the entire Bible
completed by the end of twenty thirty one. And here
is John Fornoff to tell you a little bit about
the Surround Bible.
Speaker 5: All right, I'm John Fornoff, producer for the Surround Bible
and Immersive Audio Experience. Do you remember back when you're
at graduation, high school, college, and you remember the commencement speech.
They always use these three words pretty much every single time, right,
change the world. You're going to change the world. We're
going to change the world, that kind of thing. And
you're sitting there in your funny looking cap and your
dingle dangle thing, you know, and you're saying, yeah, I'm
going to change the world. And then there's this thing
called reality. And I don't know about you. Maybe you
have changed the world by the way we all change
the world right around us, but I'm talking about more
of a global thing. I've got something that can literally
changed the world, and I want you to be part
of it. We're talking about the Surround Bible, an immersive
audio experience, and what this is. First of all, it's
an audio drama. I've worked with audio dramas like Adventures
in Odyssey. I was a writer and director for that show.
Wonderful show, lamp Lader Theater. I love working with the
lamp Lader Theater, Different Unshackled, Jonathan Park, Adventum, all kinds
of projects like that. I've worked on seventeen audio dramas
and I've launched ten of them, and I've written over
two hundred and fifty episodes. It's all leading up to this.
An amazing experience with an amazing team of sound designers, writers, directors, producers, musicians.
We're going to take the word of God and immerse
you with new technology where you're gonna hear it all
around you. You're gonna be in the middle of the
boat in Galilee. You're gonna hear the storm as the
waves are hitting the side of the boat, and you're
gonna hear rip across the sky rain falling on you,
and you'll hear Peter in the front of the boat,
and you're gonna hear disciples all around you. You're gonna
be right there in the middle of the Word, experiencing
it all around you, and then you'll hear Jesus coming
off to the left. That's the kind of surround Bible
we're talking about. Imagine passages of the Word coming alive
light never before.
Speaker 2: Now. There is more from John about this project at
the website which is linked in the show notes surround
Bible dot com. But I also wanted to share a
little snippet. So here is a sample from the Book
of John, chapter twenty, and I think it's the first
ten verses of that chapter, So give a listen to this.
Speaker 1: Early on the first day of the week, while it
was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and
saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.
So she came running to Simon, Peter and the other disciple,
the one Jesus loved, and said, Mary.
Speaker 6: They've taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we
don't know where they have put him.
Speaker 1: So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.
Both were running, but the other disciple out ran Peter
and reached the tomb first, he bent over and looked
in at the strips of lenin lying there, but did
not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him
and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips
of lenin lying there, as well as the cloth that
had been wrapped around Jesus's head. The cloth was still
lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally, the
other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside.
He saw and believed they still did not understand from
scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Then
the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Speaker 2: Now that should give you a little bit of an
idea of what to expect with this production. And again
more information is available at the website. Link is in
the show notes. And you know, this is not necessarily
new territory. There have been all kinds of audio Bibles
in the pasto it's not necessarily new. And there have
even been dramatic audio bibles before. We had the Word
of Promise several years ago, which had music and things
like that, And there are all kinds of these sorts
of productions out there. Just a couple of years ago,
the Audio Bible Superproduction did a word for word dramatization
of the Bible with sound design, with full cast recorded
in Hollywood, and they even went to Israel to record
sound effects. So I'm not sure exactly how this is
going to differ. They are using a different translation of
the Bible, so that is one thing that is different.
And of course the team John Forornoff and Alan Hurley,
these are people who have been involved in the family
friendly audio drama space for a long time, so they
know audio drama. But in my book, this is not
true audio drama. It is a word for word nation
or dramatic reading of the Bible, but it has elements
of audio drama in the background, and it is a
full cast, so it's more like an audio drama audiobook hybrid.
But you know, I know John has been working on
this for a long time. He's very passionate about this.
They have huge plans for this to take it all
over all over the world, you know, via radio and
all kinds of different distribution models, and so this is
a huge, huge project and so it's definitely something to
watch and if you are an actor, auditions are open
right now. They are recording in Hollywood. So if you
are interested in potentially being involved in this project, again
link is in the show notes. Surround bible dot com
is the website. Go check it out and you can audition.
But again, huge, huge project and definitely one to watch.
And the sample that I for you is just a
portion of what is available on the website. There's a
full eight minute sample that you can go listen to.
So if this is something you're interested in, you definitely
want to check this out. Also for the actors out there,
another bit of news from John Fornoff. The Audio Drama
Institute is announcing their first online lab. They're calling it.
This is a one day class that will be taking
place on October twenty sixth, and it is voice acting
for Audio Drama and it will be taught by John Fornoff.
So that is going to be coming up very soon.
As I said, October twenty sixth, more details coming later
this week, so stay tuned. But if you are looking
to get into acting for audio drama, this is going
to be something you're going to want to check out.
And the Audio Drama Institute, which is an effort from
John and a few other folks in the space, they
just recently wrapped up the Writer's Recharge Seminar, which was
a week long, intense training session.
Speaker 6: And.
Speaker 2: I'm excited to see where this goes. I've been passionate
about the idea of training this next generation of creatives
in the space from the current top folks in this industry,
and so I'm so excited to see this happening so
Audio Drama Institute. More information will be coming on that soon.
And finally, our last bit of news, and that is
the Audio Drama Alliance recently announced they are heading into
production on an adaptation of The Hardy Boys and the
Tower Treasure, the very first book in the Hardy Boys series.
I am super, super excited about this. We've had this
in the works for a very very long time and
we've tried to keep it hush hush in just in
the group as we were working out all the details
and things like that. But we were thrilled to finally
be able to tell the public we had in the
works and things are moving along on it very quickly.
The script is complete. There is more details about the
production at the link in the show notes, which will
take you over to the Audio Drama Alliance website and
there will be some graphics. The cover art has been revealed,
so lots to come on that. We're heading into casting
now and Craig Hart is our director and lead writer
for that project. More information again is at the link
in the show notes. But I am super super excited
about The Hardy Boys. If you are a fan of
The Hardy Boys, or you know somebody who is, please
share this news with them. The more people we can
get fired up about this and excited, the more chance
we can continue the series and do more of the books.
So I know the entire Audio Drama Alliance team is
super excited about this as well, and so cannot wait
to get into production on that. But this is one
of the projects that I've been most excited to be
involved in, and so man super super excited about it.
Well that'll do it for all the updates. Goodness, there
was a lot of stuff to get to. I hope
you're as excited about all this stuff as I am.
But let's move into our interview with our guests from
window seat.
Speaker 1: Just say your name and the role you're playing in
this production.
Speaker 2: Please excuse me, excuse me, The local news station would
like to talk to you.
Speaker 1: Oh, here's a couple of me.
Speaker 5: Play right, I'm here to ask you a couple of questions.
Speaker 2: Well, if you have been around the show for any
length of time, you've heard me reference a new platform
a couple of different times called window Seat, and I
am excited to be talking with a couple of the
folks from their team today. We're going to talk all
about what window Seat is, what it offers, and just
get into the nitty gritty because I know as an
audio drama fan you're always interested in what's going on
new ways to access content. So I am so glad
to have Mark Cook, the founder and CEO of window Seat,
and Mark Ullham, chief content Officer. Thank you, gentlemen for
coming on Audio Theater Central.
Speaker 4: Thank you. J D excited to be here.
Speaker 7: Yeah, thanks for having us.
Speaker 2: Well, we talked about this earlier. You guys both have
the same first name, so we're going to refer to
you by your surnames throughout this conversation to keep things
a little clearer for the audience. But before we dive
into the specifics about the window Seat platform, I'd kind
of like to just hear from you guys. Each of you,
what is your experience with audio drama, either currently with
your own family or growing up. What was your experience.
We'll start with you, Mark Cook.
Speaker 4: Yeah, grew up on audio drama. So I remember fondly
listening to audio drama in our house on vinyl, which
is in vogue and fun now, but it just was
the reality of my life when we were growing up
and pulling out records and listening to Audie drama on
the weekends, and we'd spend time together as a family
doing this. A lot of fond memory with audio drama.
And then my kids now are a little bit older,
but it's been part of my life, really my whole life.
So my son's now off to college and my daughters
in high school. We still listen to audio drama when
we're all together. We've listened to audio drama their whole lives.
Ventures in Odyssey has been a really big one for
our family, and we've spent a lot of time on
that platform. But I mean, we listened to Your Story, Hour,
listened to I remember framing your Bill, and all kinds
of stuff from like Moody. When we're growing up. It's
just always been a way for the family to sort
of gather around and listen to something together and enjoy
that time. So it's yeah, it's always been a part
of our family.
Speaker 2: What were you listening to on vinyl?
Speaker 4: I was listening to Your Story Hour? Okay, yeah, we
had some old records of that program.
Speaker 2: Interesting. Yeah, so I had a few. Back in the day,
Disney used to release some of their stories audio versions
on LPs and even also the smaller what are those
forty fives? Yeah, yeah, and I had some of those.
And then I also had a Bible story. I'm blanking
on the name of it now, but that was one
that was on record, and I listened to that one
all the time. A couple of years ago, I've talked
about this on the show, so longtime listeners will know this,
But a couple of years ago, I found a copy
on eBay of that exact one, and it was so
cool because it had like a comic book built into
the sleeve, so you would open up the record sleeve
and there was the whole Bible story there that you're
listening to, and I remember loving that thing. So I
was so excited when I found a copy that I
could actually have again after all those years, so many
memories sitting around the radio, Dad's great, what about you, Olam.
Speaker 7: So there's a little bit of overlap between Mark and
I in our history, and it totally dates us. I'm
going to just give a date. This is the mid
nineteen seventies, mid to late nineteen seventies, and in printed
in my mind are the LPs of Your Story Hour.
My dad was a pastor and so he had all
of the there must have been like at least forty
LP's at the time, and I would listen to them
just day in and day out in the evenings with
my mom, just hanging out. And so that's sort of
the core memory of my initial engagement with audio dramas.
And it's interesting after having revisited these stories, you know,
decades later, they're so deeply imprinted in my DNA, in
my mind. It's kind of crazy. But Your Story Hour
was the primary audio drama that I listened to.
Speaker 2: Isn't that amazing? How audio does? It really just gets
stuck in your mind. And you know, I'm a little
bit younger, so I have definitely listened to Your Story Hour,
but I didn't grow up with it quite as much
as some of these other shows. I listened to a
lot of Moody stuff and children's Bible Hour programming and
Odyssey and even now, I listened to an episode that
I heard as a kid, and I haven't listened to
it in a long time. But sometimes that the lines,
I can remember them word for word. It's crazy how
that happens.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is. I mean, I think audio has a
unique way of staying with you because you do have
I think, so much more of a focus on what's
happening there, and you don't have the distraction of visuals,
and your imagination is creating these vivid scenes, and it
just it does imprint and it has a way to
really stick with people for a long time.
Speaker 2: Well, while you're talking about that, why do you think
an audio service is so important or valuable to the
consumer today?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think there are a few really good reasons
for that. I think one of the big ones is
screen time. We have a huge issue right now in
our society that everyone just sort of inherently knows when
it comes screen time, and especially with our kids. I
mean as adults we have the same issue, but we're
very cognizant of the amount of time our kids are
spending in front of screens and the kind of things
that come through on those screens, and having an app
like window Seat that is just an audio experience will
give everyone a chance to spend time in the real
world together while they're also listening to a great story.
So it's not this mind numbing sort of experience or
a thing where you're being exposed even to ads that
you really worsh your kids weren't being exposed to. It's
you know, window Seat is an ad free, social media free,
audio only platform that really does encourage a lot of
real world interaction and play and spending time together while
also listening to really great content that's edifying and biblity based.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. So that's a perfect segue into going a
little deeper into what exactly window Seat is. And I
don't usually like to stack questions, but this kind of
goes hand in hand with it. What this means for
the audio drama fan, So either whoever wants to take
that one.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so I can speak to that a little bit.
What we are doing with window Seat is bringing together
all of the best Christian audio dramas in one place,
and it seems to us that this is a needed
platform because over the years, you know, audio drama is
an old medium all the way. It goes back to
the fifties, and the distribution models for the content has
been largely LPs originally and then CDs cassettes. Now we
have a lot of platforms or a lot of distributors
and producers who are selling MP three's, So we felt
like there was a fragmentation in the distribution model, and
that bringing together all of this content that has been
around for decades into a modern streaming platform that would
allow do you subscribers to discover all of this content
that some of it maybe is not easily accessible, has
really been one of the driving forces discoverability of the
legacy of audio drama.
Speaker 4: If I could add in just a little bit more
on that too. I mean, I don't know about how
common this is. Like I don't even have the ability
to play a CD anymore. My car doesn't have a
CD player, I don't really have one at home. MP
three files or just a hassle, And so it's one
of those things where how do I access this? How
can I easily access this and listen to it wherever
I'm at, wherever my kids happen to be. And this
is solving that. It's a really practical problem to solve.
But access is a big part of it. And even
through this experience of building Window Seat, as much as
audio drama, like we said at the beginning, has been
part of our histories, I mean as far back as
I can remember, like audio dramas are in and around
our house, I have discovered so many really amazing new
to me audio drama through this process of building Window Seat,
and it's because we're having conversations with people like you.
We met really great producers, really great writers, really great performers,
and people are like, oh, have you talked to his own? So?
And there's this really great, rich world of Christian audio
drama that I didn't even know was out there. And
finding it on a platform like Apple Podcasts or Spotify
or wherever this might be, it's almost impossible to just
happen upon it. It's this ocean of content and unless
someone is giving you a specific name or sending you
a link, it's just lost out there. So with Windows Seat,
because of the niche that operates in, because it's so specific,
it's really easy to find these shows that you maybe
have never heard of, but you're going to love, and
your family's going to love and will really create this
great experience for you. So access and discovery we're certainly
two really practical problems that we're trying to solve with this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now, both of you have mentioned that this is
Christian content, so please elaborate on that a little bit,
a bit more about what your mission is with Window Seat,
what sort of content people can find, and talk a
little bit about how Philippians plays into this.
Speaker 7: Sure, you know, we we thought long and hard about
the content guidelines for our platform, and I'm sure Mark
will speak to it, but Philippians four eight. In fact,
I'm going to hand this off to Mark. The Philippians
four eight thing came from him a little bit more
than me. So why don't you talk first about four eight?
Mark put you on the spot.
Speaker 4: Okay, Okay, Yeah, I'm happy to talk about that, and
then I'll let you talk about the content guidelines. But yeah,
when we were first thinking about creating this platform, that
verse was very top of mind. It's like we wanted
a place where people could go that celebrated things that
are true, noble, right, pure and lovely. You know this,
this is overtly Christian it's leaning into that. And the
name window Seat is part of an organization that's all
these things, so that the umbrella organization is these things.
Window Seats, the app that we're making right now and
everything that we're creating is about celebrating thinking on things
that we should be spending our time with, you know,
according to Paul, and so that is a fundamental reason
why this exists, and it informs all of our content
guidelines and Mark, I don't know if you want to
go into those more specifically.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I can give a high level overview, and these
are available on our website at windowseat dot io as well. So, yeah,
the Filippians four eight is the foundation, and beyond that,
we are looking for content that one comes from Christian creators,
and that the content is overtly Christian. It's not just good,
but it actually is putting forth Christian messages, if not
on an episodic level, that the show is overtly Christian globally,
in the in the narrative arc and in the scope
of the show. We also are looking at content that
is made for listeners age five to sixteen, and content
that clearly understands and puts forth that the Bible is
the Word of God, and that biblical principles are celebrated overtly.
And lastly, content that upholds traditional Christian values. Actually that's
not lastly. The very last one is no swearing. We
understand that sometimes family friendly content isn't family friendly at
the level we want it to be, and so we've
added the no swearing guideline so that it clearly demarks
the difference between just something that might be family friendly
to some families but not Christian families.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I appreciate that. Yeah, I thank you for
clarifying all of that. And I know there are other
options out there. We've talked about on this show numerous
times in the past, Drama FI and they're doing something different.
I mean, I think there's room for different places like this,
and I love that you guys are focusing on a
specific customer demographic and doing your best to serve that
demographic as well as you possibly can.
Speaker 4: Yeah, one hundred percent. I mean, there's we're not trying
to say we're replacement for anything. We do see window
seats a nice compliment to other work that's that's already
happening out there, great work that's happening out there. And
one of the reasons we wanted to be this specific
was for family. So safety is a thing that we
hear a lot as we're talking to families about window
Seat and they just don't want to have to worry
about it. It's like, I can let my eight year
old loose on this app and they're not going to
happen upon anything that I don't feel comfortable with. You know,
everything aligns with the content guidelines Mark just went through.
There's no questions there, no weird ads are going to
show up. There's no social aspect to this at all,
and so it is a really safe, curated environment for
Christian families that just want to have a space for
their kids to explore and listen to some great content.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good point too to clarify because even
other options such as The Adventures and Odyssey Club, there
is a social aspect because there is commenting available on
different episodes and actually, I think pretty much every piece
of content that they have in there, there's a way
to interact and kids talk back and forth in the
comment section and they have to moderate all of that.
And this is a different thing you cause you're not
trying to do that. You're trying to just say here's
some great content, you can listen to it here and
you can discuss it with your family. But we're not
facilitating discussions within this app.
Speaker 4: Absolutely right. And I think this also even goes back
to the screen time thing, like we're really trying to
make intentional decisions to not keep people in the app.
And I know it is an app. You have to
use a screen to access the app, but the ideal
scenario is, man, you put together a playlist, you start
that going, you stream it to a Bluetooth speaker, and
that the phone's closed, and now you're spending time with
each other. You're spending time drawing, you're spending time with Lego,
whatever that might be, but you're not really spending time
in a screen interacting with that more than just setting
things up and getting it started.
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly, So, Olim, you're in charge of the content
here on the platform. So can you give us a
picture of what is available as of now? If somebody
goes and downloads on the app today, what shows are
they going to find?
Speaker 7: So we're really happy with the launch collection. We've worked
really hard with your help actually to connect with as
many producers, and we've met fantastically talented and mission minded
groups of people and individuals making this content. So we
have twelve shows currently over fifteen hundred episodes and many
hundreds of hours. I could just run through the list,
and many of these will be familiar. We've mentioned Your
Story Hour, Discovery, Mountain Pirateers, Witnesses, Base Camp Adventures, Nick Guy,
Private Eye, Human Eel Dow, Gilead Lane, Red Rock Mysteries,
Brinkman Adventures seasons one and two, and Coral Island Adventures,
as well as The Bible in Living Sound.
Speaker 2: That's a huge, huge lineup and getting your Story Hour
library is massive. I mean, that's that's really cool. Now.
I don't recall myself ever listening to The Bible and
Living Sound, but I know we have listeners who are
big fans of that, grew up with that show, so
I know people are going to be excited to hear
about that too. So, man, what a great lineup. That's exciting.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we couldn't be happier. Were initially when we were
thinking about the launch and what we might be able
to bring on board for the app launch. This has
far exceeded and it's largely because of the eagerness that
producers have been willing to look at this as a
platform and they go, we see what you're trying to do.
We want to we want to participate, anything to add
on that.
Speaker 4: Cook No, I'm just really excited. Like this is such
this is a collection. I mean, there's so many things
that are it's easy to build something for yourself, and
it's like it's kind of always a little bit of
a red flag, you know, who am I building this for?
But as a consumer of window Seat, I'm so excited
about the launch collection that we have and who's here
and even the conversations that we're still having with producers
that aren't on here yet that I think will be
on soon. There's just so many great shows, and like
I said, I these are some some of these are
new to me as going through this process that I've
completely fallen in love with. My kids love it, and
like I said, my kids even older. My daughter's in
high school, my son just started college. They have not
aged out of these, like these are shows they love.
There's shows I love. I mean, we even do this
thing still. We'll have sleepovers once a month in our
living room and we just play audio dramas together while
we're going to sleep in the living room, camping out,
and it's a great time. I mean, I just I'm
so excited about this medium, and I'm so excited about
the producers and the makers that have agreed to be
part of this and their enthusiasm for window Seat and
where this is going. No, I'm just really excited.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fantastic, And I'm glad you alluded to the
fact that more is coming. So this is not the
extent of what you can expect as a consumer of
the window Seat platform. There's more to come. And in fact,
there is an exclusive new show that is coming or
is actually on the platform already, and it is called
Time Truck Chronicles. Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 7: Oh Man. Time Truck Chronicles is a fun show, brand new,
created by Christopher Green, and he's run basically what we're
calling a pilot season. And the thing about Time Truck
Chronicles is that it was made exclusively for Window Seat
and is only available on Window Seats, So it's sort
of a the first one in what we hope to
be a long line of exclusive content for our platform.
Speaker 4: And I'm guessing your listeners may hear some familiar voices.
Speaker 2: That's that's absolutely true. And ATC backstage pass holders have
already heard some initial reactions to the first three episodes,
and so yeah, I'm really excited about this one, and
I'm excited to share with the ATC community that I
got to be involved in this show, had such a
wonderful time working on these episodes, getting to play one
of the lead characters, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I
think it's a really fun show. And yes, it is
aimed towards the younger demographic, but it's just fun and
there's some jokes in there that I think even the
adults are gonna enjoy. The rest of the cast was amazing,
and yes, you're gonna hear some familiar voices like Christiana Thomas,
you're gonna hear, Frank Yulei, You're gonna hear Jonathan Cook,
You're gonna hear I'm gonna I know I'm missing somebody.
Speaker 4: Here, gonna doctor.
Speaker 2: Yes, and Bethany Baldwin. And it's just a really fun show,
sort of taking a little interesting approach to Bible stories
and not diving deeply into the entire story but pulling
out little lessons that kids can apply to their lives.
And I love that aspect of it.
Speaker 4: I need too. I think it checks such a unique
box on window seat because there are other stories that
go more in depth, but you know you mentioned Bible
and Living Sound that really does dive into these stories
on a much more in depth level. But this is
such a cool survey of a bunch of stories you've
heard before, but it pulls out a couple of key
points that kids can take away. And the length is
really nice. They're relatively short. It's an easy thing you've
listened to while commuting or just one a few minutes
with your kids here there and the response we've already
had to again listening to our family. I know you
said it's made for younger kids. Again, my kids still
love it. We loved it. So I think it's a
show that while the target audience does consider a younger group,
which is wonderful, you don't age out of this very quickly.
I think it it's a show that a lot of
people will really enjoy listening to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 7: I also think that listeners will really love to re
listen to the episodes they're just they're so adorable. I
could imagine five, six, seven, eight, nine year olds just
wanting to listen to it time and again to see
what Mayra's up to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I thought about that too, because you know,
I hear from parents that their kid wants to listen
to the same thing over and over. They'll listen to
the same Odyssey episode every night as they go to
bed or whatever. And I think these do have that
same kind of replay value for kids. And I think
it's a I think it's a really fun show, and
I think people are going to really enjoy it, and
I think it's a great opportunity for people to go
check out window seats. So we're going to hear more
about that later on in the episode. I'm going to
play the trailer for that show for you, so stick
around for that. But on your website you talk about
devotionals and podcasts that also may be coming to the platform.
Talk a little bit about that, what that might look like,
What sorts of content are we talking about here.
Speaker 7: So initially at launch, we have created an original devotional
called the Word Nerd. This is an original, which is
this different than an exclusive because we have created it
we've done the writing, all the producing, and it is
only available on Window Seat. So it's a daily devotional
that is going through the Bible one chapter at a
time with a new vocabulary word that helps you learn
about the word.
Speaker 2: And I've listened to a couple of episodes and it's
quite fun. You know, I would be a self professed
word nerd, so I enjoy having those things. And what's
the target h for This.
Speaker 4: Target age is probably very broad on this one as well.
It probably is closer to time Chark chronicles. I mean,
we wanted to make sure our youngest listeners could benefit
from this, So I mean you could be four and
five and six and still really getting a nice blessing
from this devotional every day. But again, I think you
could be twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and still find this interesting.
And the vocabulary words aren't so basic that it's like,
oh man, we've all heard of that, Like that's just
the basic word. Some of these are still challenging and
they're going to extend your vocabulary. But I think it
also makes it more memorable when you think about that
chapter of the Bible and now you have a word
that can kind of trigger other lessons learned from that
and that really help you understand the character of God.
So these are every chapter. Like Mark said, there's like
one and eighty nine episodes that will be coming out
on the Word Nerd over the course of time, and
that covers everything. I mean, genealogies are in there, and
it's like, oh, man, I don't normally read that. I
kind of skip over the genealogy and jump to the
next part. Well, there's really interesting things that can be
pulled out of chapters like a genealogy, and Word Nerd
helps expose that and give people insight into why why
that chapter is important and maybe how we can better
understand God through something like a genealogy. So really excited
about it. I think Word Nerd is the first devotional,
but it's not gonna be the last devotional. We're in
talks with other content creators that already have a long
history of devotionals that we want to include on the platform.
So this is the one they have access to it launch,
But again, there'll be more devotionals coming up, some of
them original and some of them exclusive, and some of
them will just be another place where you can find
a devotional that may be already accessed from another location.
Speaker 2: So I don't know if you can answer this or not,
but is it possible that we might at some point
have keys for kids on Window Seed.
Speaker 4: I don't know if we can answer that either. I
can say like, that is exactly what I had in mind.
So we've been in talk with keys for kids. Obviously,
we have Don gilly ed Lane, we have Red Rock Mysteries,
and we've talked about including their devotionals on the platform.
There has been interest in doing that. Part of it
is the mechanics of figuring out the best way to
translate you know, hundreds of different devotionals over or to
our platform in a way that makes sense because those
are primarily built for radio, and so there's some pieces
to those devotionals that don't make quite as much sense
on a streaming platform, and so we just have to
work through the mechanics of it. But there's interest on
both sides to have piece for his devotionals here.
Speaker 2: So in terms of podcasts, what might that look like?
Speaker 7: Yeah, so the podcasts we're looking at, I mean, podcasts
are easily accessible, but we're going to be curating a
pretty tight set for kids that are christian centric as
everything on Window Seat is, but also just a really
great list of podcasts that'll be brought in and available
for kids and families to listen to. So that'll be
one more component that will just sort of centralize the
consumption of this audio content.
Speaker 2: So briefly described, and we don't have to get into
the nitty gritty here, but just briefly describe how the
content is laid out in the app, how it's cataloged,
what a family can expect to find when they first
open it up, How are they going to find the
shows that they want to want to see, that kind
of thing.
Speaker 4: So when you first launched the app, there's gonna be
three main tabs, So there's a home tab, there's a
discovered tab, and a library tab. On the homepage, you're
going to find the devotional section at the top. Right now,
that'll be the word nerd. Right below that, you'll have
all of your continue listening for shows that you've already
started or next up in a series, and then you
might find some recommended stories below that. On the discovered tab,
we will soon have a search function. So right now
it is a discovery experience that you just tap through shows.
But below that you'll see a listing of all the
shows on the platform, organized by age. So the first
grouping would be all ages, and then we have some
shows that are eight plus and some shows that are
twelve plus. Again, all of these follow the content guidelines
mark outlined, So I don't want people to think, like,
what's going on with a twelve plus show on Window?
See that I thought this was safe. It's all very safe.
None of the content is questionable. But some of these
shows may have intense moments or they're dealing with an
intense sort of topic, and we just want parents to
be aware of that as they're sorting through and thinking
about what might be appropriate for their kids. So that's
the primary way of discovering content on Winnessy. You'd go
to a show, you dig into that, there's a trailer available,
free show, there's an intro that you can find that
gives you a little bit more information about the creators
and why they're making content.
Speaker 2: And so you learned about that. I love that. Oh
it's really cool.
Speaker 4: Oh it's great. I'm glad to hear that. And then
your library is your library, so if you want a
favorite episodes, those will show up there. If you want
to again go back to your history in any way
and re listen to something you listen to before continue listening.
That's all accessible from your own library.
Speaker 2: And I think another point also to mention is even
some of the shows that are in the older categories
may not even be that they're necessarily too intense, but
they may just not keep the tension of a younger
listener as well. So for witnesses, for example, a very
young child probably wouldn't be able to grasp everything in
a show like that, so it makes more sense for
that to be in that older age bracket.
Speaker 4: A great point.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. So we've talked a little bit about why this
is a benefit. It's a curated library, but you know,
many of these shows currently are found elsewhere. There are
some exclusives, But what is the benefit for paying for
a platform like this? What do you say to families
who are kind of on the fence here or maybe
you are having a bit of subscription fatigue.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I totally get that. I just want to give
a personal conversation point. I have my wife the other day. Now,
my kids are twelve and fourteen, so they're aging towards
the teenage years and a little bit towards the end
of the window seat sort of age range. But I
remember my wife spending hours trying to find this is
back when they were three, four, five, six, ours trying
to curate a list of things to listen to audio dramas.
She's like, oh, I had to go over here to
find this, and I had to go over here and
put it on my computer and download these MP three
files for this road trip that we're going on, to
try to get it so that we can entertain our
kids on a road trip, or so that they can
have something to listen to that's not junk. So we
find the biggest benefit from at least my wife's perspective,
is that it's all there, easy to access and convenient
for when you're on the go.
Speaker 4: Practically speaking, I would add, you're gonna save money. So
even though a lot of this content is available other places,
a lot of it is still paywall, some of it's not.
Some of you can find on a podcast, or there
may be another platform where you can get to this.
But you're talking about ten dollars a month for unlimited
access to for fifteen hundred episodes, and quite a few
of these shows are shows where you need to either
purchase a CD or purchase MP three's or they may
have some ability to stream, although most don't, but some
do and those come at a cost. So on the whole,
if you had any interest in multiple shows, this is
going to be definitely a money safer versus trying to
access each one of these shows individually. Outside of the
convenience that Mark was talking about, I mean, it's it's
certainly checking that box.
Speaker 2: So you mentioned it's ten dollars, that's per month. How
does a Windows eat subscription work? Is it per person?
It can a family share? Are there limits on how
many people can access an account? How does that? How
do the what are the logistics of that look like?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a great question. So right now it is
a family account. There's no limit to the number of
devices or people that can use it. It's ten dollars a month,
and you have unlimited access to everything. Everything also starts,
it's probably we're saying, with a seven day free trial,
so you don't have to enter a credit card, you
don't have to do anything. You just name an email
and you're in and you can check one to see
for free for seven days. And see if it works
for your family. One thing it's also worth mentioning is
we look ahead a little bit on a sort of
a product roadmap side of things. We understand the value
that will come with profiles. So right now there will
be a single profile that you're logging into that you
share across all your devices. Soon when I say soon,
I do mean soon. We are really working on creating profiles.
So there'll be an account holder mom or dad, and
then kids can have their own profiles, which will be
great because then you can have your own favorite list,
you can have your own listening history. All of that
will be tied to a specific individual, which can also
be tied to their own device. And this will also
come with some parental controls. So if you have a
big age range, you might have a four year old
or five year old and a fourteen year old. There
may be some shows like Witnesses or something like you said,
where it's like, yeah, I don't know, maybe this one's
a little too young, and so that can be parents
will have the ability to control a little bit what
their kids can access that they have get access to
on the platform. So profiles are a big part of
what we're going to be looking at here in the
near future.
Speaker 2: So the majority of the ATC audience are fans and
the listeners of audio drama, but we do have a
significant number of industry folks who listen to the show
as well. So let's touch a little bit on the
producer relationship. What that might look like for somebody who
wants to participate in Window Seat, if they have a
show that they think would be a fit, what should
they do?
Speaker 7: First of all, so the best thing to do right
now is to go on to the website window seat
dot io and send me an email. We're going to
be working on a little more formal form that will
have a lot more teeth to it, but for now
we're going to be using a contact form where you
just send me an email when we start the conversation.
Speaker 2: So, what does the relationship with window Seat look like
for a producer? We don't have to get into all
the nitty gritty, but in broad terms, what does that
monetary relationship look like?
Speaker 7: It's a royalty sharing model based on listening time.
Speaker 2: Mark.
Speaker 7: Do you want to unpack the broader general fundamentals of that.
Speaker 4: Sure, yeah, So it was really important to us to
make sure content creators producers were motivated to distribute their
content on window Seat. You know, we have as a
team a pretty strong background in design and user experience,
so we felt like we can we can build a
great app, and we can build a great user experience.
But we know that really means nothing if we don't
also have really great content for people to access through
window Seat. So one of the ways we want to
do that is by providing great royalty payment. So right
now it's it is a fifty to fifty split. All
the profits that come in, half of them go back
to content creators, half of them are reserved by window Seat,
so we can continue to invest in improving the platform
and the experience.
Speaker 2: So you mentioned the UI and the UX and I
got to say, you guys nailed it, Like from the
splash screen to the way the app works. There are
a couple of things that I'll be talking with you
guys about later that I came across, but for the
most part, it's a beautiful app. The way it functions
is very intuitive, and I think that families are going
to find this really easy to work with and incorporate
into their media consumption habits.
Speaker 4: Thank you I'd love to hear that.
Speaker 2: So for the producer, is there going to be a
way for them to see how their show is performing
on the platform? Is there going to be some sort
of a dashboard or monthly reporting or how does that work?
Speaker 4: Yes, there will be, So we are in the process
of working through the reporting piece of this. Obviously we're
already collecting all the listening data, and listening data will
be the factor. So on this royalty sharing program, we
are going to split these profits, like we said, and
then from the royalty pool that's created each one of
the producers. We paid based on listening time. So if
time Chuck Chronicles, for instance, is accounts for ten percent
of the listening time over a given royalty period, ten
percent of the royalty pool would go back to Time
Chuck Chronicles in a payout. So there will be reports
at this point. We're going to be generating reports after
each royalty pay period, which will be quarterly, and so
they'll receive a detailed report that shows how their show
performed total listening time across the platform, all the details
that sort of fed into that payout. But we are
moving towards a system that will allow producers to log
in and see more of a real time performance of
how their content's doing on the platform.
Speaker 2: That's good, that's good to hear. So what's next for
the platform? You talked about profiles are coming, There's more
content that's coming, I know that you've alluded to in
the past and some of our conversations some teen and
more adult content that could be potentially coming, audiobooks. So
what does the roadmap look like?
Speaker 7: And if want to talk about the content first, Yeah,
the audiobook component is really something that we're going to
be you know, post launch. We're going to make sure
that the audiobook conversation that we're having both with some
publishing houses and with the design team becomes a priority.
Speaker 2: So right now, the you can access through an iOS
or Android app. Is there a web version coming as well?
Speaker 4: I'm actually not sure how to answer that question, only
because I don't I want to say yes, We've talked
so much about having a web version of this as
something we're moving toward. It's not on the roadmap right now,
but it's something that's in conversation and part of what
we're going to do is we're paying really close attention
to feedback. In fact, we love feedback. If anybody wants
to provide feedback, there's an easy way to provide feedback
pretty much anywhere on the app. You can go into
a more menu and do that from any point. So
we would love to hear from people, well if that's
a thing that they really need. We felt like mobile
first was where we need to go. We needed to
make sure this worked really well wherever people are at
on their phones. If a web version of this becomes
something that customers are asking for, it will be something
we'll we'll move toward and develop eventually. But at this
point where we're kind of collecting information and feedback to
see if that's if that's something that we need to do.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, is there anything else that I didn't cover
that you think is important for the listener to know.
Speaker 4: One of the things that we like about Windows C
is it not only provides a screen free experience for kids,
which is something we're trying to move away from. I
think as parents, really good parents make time for themselves,
Like you have to. You have to make time to
spend time with a devotional or respond to something or
get something done. You have to make time in your
day for the things that you need to be doing
and investing back into yourself so you can engaged with
your kids. And one of the things we like about
window seed is it does provide a screen free, biblically
based option for your kids. So it's like, hey, I
need twenty minutes, let's put on a really great show.
You guys can do something over here while I'm taking
care of this over here. And we really like that
window Seed does that in a really guilt free way.
You're not setting them in front of a screen, You're
not worried about the content that's coming in. In fact,
you're excited about the content coming in. It's reinforcing all
the same values and principles that you're trying to instill
in your kids day to day anyway as a Christian parent.
And so you can feel good about taking those twenty
minutes whenever you need to step away and take care
of something that you need to be looking at, or
even yourself. So that's just another aspect of window Seat
that we're really excited about.
Speaker 2: Well, for the listener, you head over to window seat
dot io. There's links there to grab the app and
sign up for that seven day free trial. Check out
the catalog check out Time Truck Chronicles please, because if
you like that show, we want to make some more.
At least I do, because I had such a fun
time with that show. So yeah, Window Seat, dot Io,
Cook and Olham, thank you so much for joining us.
Anything else that we should add here before we hit
out the door.
Speaker 7: I just wanted to say thank you for taking the
time to speak with us and put us on your podcast.
This has been a great, great time for both of us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks so much. This is fun to talk about it.
It's fun to have a conversation with you again. Thank
you for being part of Time Truck Chronicles. Like, we're
so excited about that show. And yeah, we also hope
so many more episodes are going to come out for
that's that's.
Speaker 2: Awesome, fantastic. Thank you guys, so much.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 2: Well. As promised in the conversation a few moments ago,
I'm going to share with you the trailer for that
new show, Time Truck Chronicles and we'll talk a little
bit more about it. Because I realized we didn't really
do a good job of explaining exactly what the sho
show is in that conversation, So I want to do that.
But before we do that, I also want to say
that as much as I love the idea of what
window Seat is doing and other streaming platforms like Dramafi,
I think it's a great tool to access and discover
audio dramas. But don't forget that you don't own these shows.
Just like a Spotify or Apple Music subscription, you're leasing
access to a catalog of content. So again, I think
it's wonderful to support the folks who are trying to
curate these specialized lists and catalogs of shows. So definitely
check them out. But if you find a show that
you really love on these platforms, I highly recommend going
over to the producer's website and purchasing a copy or
show merch if they offer that, or even sending them
a donation to help support them directly too, because I
think that's just a great way to ensure that these
shows keep being made. Now, with a show like Time
Truck Chronicles, which is an exclusive to the platform, there
isn't a place where you can go get it elsewhere,
So in that case, as I said earlier, just send
in feedback and let people know that you're enjoying that
show and tell other people about it. So that is
always super helpful for producers in knowing if their shows
are connecting with people. And of course the monetary support
is huge. It's huge. Now let's talk a little bit
more about Time Truck Chronicles specifically, as we said, it's
a brand new audio drama, and here is the promo
copy from producer Christopher Green. He said, we join the
time traveling adventures of Dad and daughter duo Philip and Mira,
played by J. D. Sutter and Christiana Thomas, as they
drive through the Bible in the Time Truck, a modified
pickup truck with endless possibilities, join them on lightheart but
meaningful trips, meeting the cast of characters in scripture and
learning about God along the way. So, as I said
in the conversation with the Window Seat guys, three episodes
are available now and it features telling us that the
ATC community will be familiar with, such as Bethany Baldwin,
Craig Hart of LRT Media, Frank Uley from Nick Guy,
Jonathan Cook of Eternal Future Productions, Nathan Marlette of Glenn
Haskell's Dragnet series, as well as original music by Dominic
Trice and All of the shows are written and produced
by Christopher Green, who you know from Shadows and Daylight
or Greenhorn Tales or When Worlds Collide from Heart Matters,
and so you definitely want to check this show out.
I think you're going to really enjoy it. And Christopher said,
preliminary test audiences are loving the show, and as a producer,
it's one of my most anticipated projects of this year. Now,
as I mentioned also earlier, if you are a backstage
past member, there is an initial Reactions episode where I
I talk about all three of the pilot episodes. So
if you want to check that out, definitely go ahead
and log into ATC backstage. But all that said, let's
give a listen to the trailer for Time Truck Chronicles.
Speaker 3: Get ready for the adventure of a lifetime as we
join niall, Queen Mira and her dad Philip I'm not
balding as they travel through time in their trusty Time truck.
Really can we drive over to meet it?
Speaker 2: Well, that is what this truck is for.
Speaker 3: And face danger he.
Speaker 2: Was blocking the road and he has a really scary
looking song, and.
Speaker 3: Meet heroes of the Bible. Wow, you must be Queen
Esther listen to Time Truck Chronicles, produced by Christopher Green
and starring the prolific voice talents of Christiana Thomas and JD. Sutter,
Only available on Window Seat.
Speaker 2: You ready, Yes, I'm ready, and I hope the ATC
listeners are as well. Oh my goodness, I think that
might be the first time I've ever been called prolific,
So that's pretty cool. Anyway, it's a fun, fun show.
Head over to window seat dot io sign up for
your seven day free trial and definitely check out that
show and the whole catalog. I think it's a great
option to check out a bunch of audio dramas and
support some original content like Timetruck Chronicles. So what do
you think of the show?
Speaker 5: Please leave your message after the show.
Speaker 6: Hi, Audio Theater Central.
Speaker 2: Hey guys, this is awesome. Hello, J D. Royan, Andrew
minum It Victoria Now.
Speaker 3: Yesterday I received a letter from a big fan.
Speaker 1: No time to try, I've got an emails another package
for me today.
Speaker 2: No exactly, just your mail. Yes, it is time to
hear from you. You can always send in feedback feedback
at Audio Theatercentral dot com, comment on the show notes,
or send your text or voicemails to six two three
six eight eight two seven seven zero. Now. Feedback has
been really sparse as of late, so I would love
to hear from you. I gotta tell you, it gets
pretty lonely being a podcaster sometimes, and feedback goes a
long long way. So if you hear something on the
show that you like, you enjoy, please reach out. Let
us know what you think, If there's something you'd like
to hear us cover, let us know that. Yeah, it
just really does help give us a little boost to
hear from you now. Sarah reached out after listening to
episode two hundred and two and she said, just finished
ATC two oh two. Great as always, by the way,
Thank you, Sarah, and was curious if you would consider
Slack as a replacement for the ATC Throne Room. I've
been part of different groups for writing and personal things
there and have enjoyed the platform. So I have considered
Slack and we actually use slacky internally for Portslite Family
Media and it's a great platform and I have considered
using that. So if you also think that is a
good option, let me know. I've also considered a WhatsApp
community or group or whatever they call those I forget now,
but I've looked into that possibility, and there are several
other things I've considered. Again, not looking for a social
media platform kind of thing like a Facebook group. It's
not what I'm interested in. I'm looking for a more
of a closed off experience where it's just our community.
And so if you have options or if you like
the slack idea, let me know. And thank you Sarah
for reaching out. Appreciate that very much. We also got
an email from Jeremy about episode two oh two. He said,
I really enjoyed listening to this month's Audio Theater Central
podcast with the interview with John R. Ericsson. I discovered
the audio of his books back in New eighteen ninety seven.
You are right, these are really great audio books. I
am so glad that he read a sample of the
eighty first book. I really enjoy listening to books that
have narrators that do different voices for the characters. I
didn't know that he played the music as well. That
was interesting to me. One other author that I have
enjoyed that set up the books as audio dramas is
Bruce Covil. He does books for younger listeners, but they
are still fun to listen to. Have you heard of
his books, well, Jeremy, it's interesting that you mentioned him.
I was a big fan of Bruce Covill's books when
I was a kid. I remember reading several of them.
He had a whole series I think about Aliens now
sounds it sounds creepy and stuff, but it's not. They're
books for kids, and they're not really scary. They're more
funny with some weird, wacky things in them. I don't
really remember much about them, but I remember loving them
when I was a kid. I remember reading another one
that had something to do with like holograms. I cannot remember.
It's been such a very long time. I mean we're
talking probably thirty thirty years ago or something like that.
But I remember loving his books. But I had no
idea that he did audiobook versions that you're talking about
with sound effects and music and stuff. Had no clue. So, yeah,
it's definitely something worth checking out. If they're anywhere close
to the quality of the Hank the Cow Dog books,
then that's really interesting. So you know, this whole idea
of enhanced audiobooks, whether it's a single narrator or a
full cast narration, but if it's you know, the full
text of the book enhanced with sound effects and music,
I think that's a really interesting space. And I've been
having some conversations well in the Audio Drama Alliance and
with other producers that are really embracing this medium. The
audiobook industry is massive, and it has pervaded the public
consciousness much more than audio drama specifically, so I think
it's a good bridge for people. I think everybody knows
what an audiobook is, right. They started decades ago as
books on tape, and actually there's even some going back
to records, but they really got to be big, you know,
with a cassette tape, and you'd go by truck stops
or places like that and you'd find big sets of
cassettes where you could rent, even audiobooks for your road trip,
and libraries would carry them. And then they went to CD,
and now of course you have Audible and all kinds
of other audiobook platforms. But this idea of using a
full cast or supplementing the narration of a novel with
sound design and music is really fun. I know there
are some people that are, you know, audiobook purists. I
guess you might call them. I see comments reviews on
audiobooks all the time where people think they're getting a
single narrator audiobook and they actually get one that has
other elements to it and they don't like that. But
generally speaking, I think most people are open to trying these.
And I'm actually involved in a couple of different organizations
that produce full cast audiobooks, so there are different levels
here of audio content, and I think these full cast
audiobooks or enhanced audiobooks that have sound design and music
are great ways to bring people over into straight audio drama.
So I'm all for this kind of stuff. So anyway,
I'll definitely have to check out Bruce Kovil's audio editions.
Thank you very much, Jeremy Well, thanks again to Mark
Cook and Mark Oulham of Window Seat for coming on
the show. Really enjoyed that conversation and I hope you'll
check that I'm out again. The website is linked up
in the show notes, and I'm looking forward to seeing
Windows Heat just break into this space and really make
a splash. So be sure to check them out, and
if you'd like to get in touch with us here
at Audio Theater Central, head over to Audio theatercentral dot
com slash contact. All the ways to reach out are
listed there. Of course, show notes for this episode are
at audio theatercentral dot com slash two zero four. All
the links to everything we've talked about can be found there.
I will see you next time. Thank you so much
for listening. Audio Theater Central is a production of Porchlight
Family Media. Our theme music was composed by Sam Avandanio.
The show is produced and edited by Yours Truly JD. Stter,
and our website is audio Theatercentral dot com.
Speaker 4: Porksly Familymedia your source Family Center Content, Porchlitfamilymedia dot com