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, and this is episode
two thirteen. Got some really cool stuff to get to
in this episode. We've got some interviews from some guests
from Sonic on twenty twenty three. Yes, I know that
it is now twenty twenty five. I'll explain why we're
getting to these interviews now in a moment, but we're
going to be talking with Timothy Gregory of Unshackled, a
couple of actors Jake Phillips and Caleb Bresler, and writer
and actor Colton Grellier. We've also got some feedback from
Samuel Grayson and Robert But before we get to that,
I've got some really fun, exciting audio drama updates, so
jump into it. We interrupt this program to bring you
a special.
Speaker 3: Report and in other news tonight.
Speaker 1: A brief look at the headlines.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: They want exciting, fast piece news that's relevant and entertaining.
Speaker 2: Like this, Remember audio drama producers, if you have some
news about an upcoming release or a project that has
just recently released that you want to let us know
about so we can share it with the community. Head
over to PFM dot link slash ATC news and submit
that information to us well. First up, an upcoming release,
and this one is from Sergeant Family Productions. We've talked
about this before. This is Generations to the DC Gambit,
which is of course the follow up to Generations, and
it is coming very soon. But they just dropped a
new trailer and so I wanted to share that with
you before I hit play on that. Here is the
summary of this production. In the swirl of a hit
Man's revenge, Blackmail terrorizes the Senate as two hackers face
off in a battle of wits that could shake the
foundations of the US government. And here is that trailer.
Speaker 6: Hello, Bethany, did you miss me?
Speaker 3: Oh no, I can't believe what I just saw.
Speaker 2: I need you to tell me I'm not crazy.
Speaker 7: If you're not, this could be a big problem, could
be so stupid.
Speaker 2: I understand there's a young lady from out of town
who threatens one of your goals.
Speaker 6: You think money, status and physical beauty means somebody can
actually sing.
Speaker 1: I can find solutions to problems that might otherwise go unsolved.
Speaker 8: I love this town.
Speaker 2: Is it a deal.
Speaker 9: It's a deal.
Speaker 6: You're going to tell him and everybody else for the
rest of your life that you don't love him anymore.
Speaker 5: Fairlight, too bad your country who we saw that dance?
Speaker 9: He's not my country boy.
Speaker 2: I don't believe you.
Speaker 9: How dare you tell me why I.
Speaker 4: Should help you?
Speaker 2: Because I'm a nice guy. Nice guys don't blackmail people.
Speaker 8: So if I do this.
Speaker 10: You'll leave us alone.
Speaker 6: That's just if you want your parents to live.
Speaker 5: Jordan Nolan is a dead man.
Speaker 11: Did you spend a night under my bed?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 10: That was pretty much insane.
Speaker 6: You're this close to having a bullet in your head.
Speaker 2: I've been that close for over a week. Make your choice.
What do you think it's time to find?
Speaker 4: Elizabeth Sheridan. Even if Senator Smith loses this vote, he
has become a problem we can no longer tolerate.
Speaker 10: I can't let you do this.
Speaker 5: You said I have what it takes to be a
federal agency.
Speaker 2: If I find out any of you have lied to me,
heads are going to row.
Speaker 9: You're going to assassinate Senator Smith.
Speaker 10: Drive anywhere but here go?
Speaker 2: Are you in?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 10: Get out of there.
Speaker 5: Now, but that he might be in there, release her
or die here.
Speaker 1: Stop, we know what you did.
Speaker 9: You're going down.
Speaker 10: It's a grim thought. But if this doesn't work, we're
going to meet Jesus looking like this.
Speaker 2: Generations too the DC gambit, Oh my goodness, so much
excitement and energy and oh my goodness, this isn't going
to be a thriller. It's going to be a roller
coaster ride. And if you're unfamiliar with the productions from
Sergeant Family Productions, they do full cast, full sound design,
full musical score, fully dramatized books. So they take the
full text of the book and have actors for every
single character. But there is still narration. Now in this trailer,
they chose to only use snippets of dialogue and just
that you see what's happening in the story, rather than
showcasing the narration of the pros sections of the production.
But this is going to be, again, a very long
audio drama. It's a full length novel, So we're talking
about several hours of content here, many hours of content.
And if you have not heard the first book, Generations,
you'll want to go listen to that one before this one,
because you know you're going to be spoiled on what
happened in the first one, and according to Kinney Sargent,
they're looking to target Memorial Day weekend for the release.
This has been in the works for quite some time. Again,
it's a massive project, huge cast, hours and hours and
hours of tracks to edit, so they're working as quickly
as they possibly can, but you know it's it's taking
some time to get this one out, but again, looking
to target Memorial Day weekend, so it should be coming
very very soon. Link the show notes if you want
to go listen to this trailer again and grab your
copy of Generations one. And this one is probably one
aimed at teens and older because there is some crazy situations,
some peril and some action that might be a little
scary for younger listeners, so just a heads up on that.
So again, that is Generations to the DC gambit. Really
looking forward to hearing that, all right, So moving on
to productions that are out now. First up is Chapel
and Squeak episodes one through four, called The Great Church Robbery.
Such a fun, fun show. If you'd like to hear
my initial reaction to those episodes, you can go ahead
and log into etc. Backstage because I talked about it there.
But there are still four more episodes coming in season
one here of this show, So episodes five through eight
are coming very soon on the window Seat platform. This
is a window Seat exclusive show, so you have to
be a member over there, but it is worth checking out.
It's a very, very fun show. And here is the
trailer for the first four episodes, which is a four
parter called The Great Church Robbery. Welcome to Chapel and
squeak a flashlight.
Speaker 6: Someone's moving around behind the pulpit, Liliza, she has the
offering plight.
Speaker 9: Oh, he's putting the money into his pocket.
Speaker 11: What are we going to do, squeak.
Speaker 9: We can't let the church lose all that money.
Speaker 5: The mission's fund.
Speaker 9: Look at the date he wrote at the top.
Speaker 4: What are you saying?
Speaker 9: What I'm saying that detective Homes might be our number
one suspect. Yeah, it looks like you kids might be
onto something.
Speaker 2: No check it out.
Speaker 9: You know, it might actually be kind of fun. Lap
the cuffs on those skinny little English riskses.
Speaker 4: Well as we do with these two.
Speaker 9: Lock them up for now. They might still be useful.
Speaker 2: So fun. Oh my, goodness. So I know we've talked
about this show before, and we even featured it in
the updates not too long ago, but that was before
the episodes were actually released. So again, these first four
episodes are out now, and if you're unfamiliar, this is
a show that is aimed at the younger audience and
it's very fun. The main characters are all mice and rats,
and it's just very fun there. There's some witty lines,
lots of humor, and some great lessons to gain and
glean from what is what these animal characters, these rodent
characters encounter. So it's produced by LRT Media exclusively for
the window Seat platform and it's worth checking out. And
while you're over there on window Seat, there's all kinds
of other great stuff to listen to, including Red Rock
Mysteries and Down Gilead Lane and Coral Island Adventures and
Your Story Hour and a bunch of audiobooks they've just
recently added to their platform, and Time Truck Chronicles, which
is a show that I have been privileged to be
involved in. So lots of great content over at windowseat
dot io. Well. Next up is an update from Basecamp
Adventures Album seven is airing or Slash releasing now. It's
called Upside Down Kingdom and episode one has been released
on May one and it's called The Mystery of the
Missing Gum Shoe Shoe. The summary for that episode is
Join for eager kids as they step into the their
junior detective training at the one and Only do Write
Detective Agency under the enthusiastic guidance of Irving McLaurin. I
really appreciate the work that the Base Camp Adventures team
is doing. They came on the scene a handful of
years ago and put out some really decent quality stuff
and they've only improved as the show has gone on,
and here we are with album seven. They're just putting
out some really cool stuff and it's definitely worth a listen,
and they are even offering the show for free. You
can listen in the Life Action app. Life Action is
the ministry that is producing this program. It's also available
on a window Seat and all the podcast apps, so
you can go check out this show wherever you want
to listen, and it's a great show for the family.
And also want to say huge congratulations to them. In
March of this year, they hit a massive milestone over
five hundred thousand streams on spot Spotify. So congratulations to
the Base Campa Adventures team just doing some really really
good work and just making a really solid audio drama
for the family. There's a link in the show notes
to their link tree page where you can check out
their website and the different platforms where the show is available.
So definitely check it out. It's a really great show
for the family, all right. Next up in the lineup
of recent releases, we have Stand Affirm and this is
an adaptation of a novel. Now, unlike Generations Too from
Sergeant Family Productions, this is not an enhanced audiobook version.
This is an adaptation, so it does condense things down
into an audio drama, but it is an adaptation of
the novel Stand Firm Echoes of War Book zero by
Daniel Gibbs. And this is a sci fi interplanetary war
drama and it's fantastic. It's really really good. It's ninety
minutes of sci fi goodness. Now, I'm not a huge
sci fi fan, but this one just grabbed my attention
because the characters and the story was so well told.
And the book is adapted and produced by LRT Media
Sound design was done by in Victim Digital, and the
cast includes some names that you might be familiar with,
Daniel Cross, Jason Markowitz, Jake Phillips, Caleb Bresler, Kara O'Brien,
and several of the Audio Drama Alliance members, including myself.
I got to play a couple of very small bit
parts in this one, and it's just really, really fun.
So here is the summary of stand Firm Major Levi
Cohen readies to retire after twenty years of peacetime service
to the Terran Coalition. With mere weeks remaining, he allows
the luxury of imagining days alongside his wife and eight
year old son instead of being separated by a duty.
He promised that this year he wouldn't miss another one
of David's birthdays, and he intends to keep his word.
His plans are cut short when the League of Soul
sends a massive force of warships into Coalition territory. The
only chance they have is to drag every available ship
from mock balls and pray their superior technology will carry
the day. When an opportunity to strike at the heart
of the enemy arises in the middle of battle, Levi
realizes it is the one and only opening that will
stave off complete disaster, the last option to save his
wife and son from enslavement by the League. It's just
an action packed, really interesting story. The characters are so vivid.
It's well acted, well produced, and I did an initial
reaction to this on ATC backstage as well, So if
you want to check that out, just head over to
backstage and you can listen to that. But here is
a teaser for stand.
Speaker 9: Firm navigation Confirm our current heading.
Speaker 4: Aye aye, sir, regen.
Speaker 8: Wait one Lieutenant navigation of course confirmed on heading zero
five zero.
Speaker 7: Sir, What is the lieutenant incoming message from the Goddard?
Speaker 2: Sir.
Speaker 7: Now with attack, Sir, we are ordered to adjust opposition
and intercept a group of leak frigates following the Goddard's lead.
Speaker 9: Are you ready for this exl Yes, sir.
Speaker 5: Trained for the last three years to do the job, Sir.
Speaker 8: It is perfectly acceptable to admit fear going into battle.
Speaker 5: Captain, what's the fear? Superior Taran coalition and technology and
all that.
Speaker 8: I heard the same briefing in PEV talk, But no
one really knows how we'll stack up against an unknown enemy,
especially not an enemy that has apparently been planning to
hit us for decades.
Speaker 5: Yeah, gives new meaning to the phrase you can run
but not high, doesn't it? Sir? It's been what three
hundred and fifty years since we've let eart to get
away from these people?
Speaker 8: About that, yes, and now they've showed up on our
doorstep with a thousand ships.
Speaker 5: The League of Soul Indeed.
Speaker 8: Navigation flood, intercept course and synchronize our movements with the
Goddard too. Display the zoomed in tactical plot.
Speaker 9: Of my viewer, Ay, Sir.
Speaker 8: Tactical firing point procedures, magnetic cannons and forward neutron beams
Master ninety eight.
Speaker 10: Hi ISO firing solutions set for enemy vessel night.
Speaker 9: Master ninety eight too.
Speaker 11: This is not a drill.
Speaker 2: Hi Io.
Speaker 10: Shields produced by thirty percent from our courts.
Speaker 9: Coot navigation.
Speaker 8: Increase the power to our engines, take aggressive evasive action,
keep them guessing.
Speaker 9: Firing solutions subser po riche Yeah, we are.
Speaker 8: Match bearings, shoot magnetic cannons and neutron beams, coordinate firing
segments with our squadron mats of breast tactical any life
pod losses in sight nonsir.
Speaker 10: Next target from the Goddard is Master four hundred five.
Speaker 9: Sir, Master four five.
Speaker 10: She'll be with and ranged in five minutes.
Speaker 8: Firing point procedures, magnetic cannons and neutron beams Master four
hundred and five.
Speaker 5: You know I've said before it would just be easier
to save fire.
Speaker 8: Now the word fire is only used on a ship
if there's an actual fire. Goes back to the days
of woodhulled sailing ships. The worst possible event for a
vessel on the ocean or in space is fire, so
we keep up that tradition.
Speaker 5: You're not put off in the least by how suddenly
this battle began. Yesterday the idea of war was the
furthest thing from our minds. Today we're fighting a major
fleet action over our capital planet.
Speaker 8: The fleet has trained for it, including you and me.
Today we find out how well that training has prepared
us for the real thing, not how I expected to
spend the last twenty four hours.
Speaker 11: I will agree with you on that.
Speaker 5: I was studying for the four exam last night when
I got the call what about you?
Speaker 8: At home with my wife and son, already checked out
of the CDF and ready to start a job I
had lined up with a defense contractor in a couple
of weeks.
Speaker 2: It's so good, and I'll say this, this is one
of my favorite things to release so far this year.
I was just completely engrossed in the story, and as
I was listening, I totally even forgot that I'd done
a couple of little voices for this story, and it
was a surprise to me to come across my voice
in this production. So anyway, that's neither here nor there,
but highly recommend stand Firm. There's a link in the
show notes to check it out on libro FM. I've
talked about libro on the show recently. It is an
alternative to audible, which actually gives you DRM free downloads
of the products that you purchase, so you can listen
to it on your own device and at the same time,
you can support a local bookshop to your area with
your purchase. So go ahead and check out LIBROFM link
in the show notes to stand Firm. A great great
audio drama and our last recent release is a little
bit different. So this is from the Audio Drama Alliance
and the ADA Member Audio Challenge, So this is something
that we do periodically in the group, we assign a
theme and the members have thirty days to produce a
five minute audio production. And in April of this year,
we wrapped up our fourth one and the theme was escape.
So a handful of our members did take up the challenge,
and I will be sharing some more of those as
we go on as they publish their public versions of
these productions. But if I'm allowed to say it, I'm
really proud of the members of the Audio Drama Alliance
to take up this challenge again. Like I said, this
is our fourth time doing this over the last couple
of years, and each time they have stepped up and
created some really interesting things. Some of them have turned
into series, some of them have went on to be
recognized at different awards, festivals and things like that. So
it's just really really cool to see what's coming out
of this challenge. And like I said, we just wrapped
up the latest one on the theme of escape, and
so I wanted to talk about my submission in this
episode here real quickly, and like I said, once the
rest of the members start publishing theirs, I will talk
about those as well. So my project was called Watching
Over Me, and this one is not quite audio drama.
It is a narration of a true story from my
own life that I enhanced with some sound effects and
actors voicing the dialogue and a bit of music. So again,
it's called watching over Me. It is published on my
website with a blog post accompanying the audio player there
with some behind the scenes information about the creation of
the project and a little more context for this true story. Again,
this is a true story from my life and I'd
love it if you would give it a listen. It's
five minutes and it's free, So link is in the
show notes to head over to my website Jdsetter dot
me and check it out. And while you're there, join
my email list so you can get notified whenever I
publish a new project. And our final item for the
updates segment is the Audio Drama Institute's latest offering is
coming up this summer. It's called Making Great Audio Drama.
This is going to be fantastic for those of you
who are interested in getting into the audio drama industry.
This is not going to be an event for fans
of audio drama. But if you are a creative, even
if you've been doing this for a little while, and
you want to level up. This is going to be
a fantastic opportunity. It's a week long, in depth training
on the entire audio drama production process, from ideation and
writing all the way through to distribution. It's going to
be at a retreat like setting in Colorado Springs with
teachers such as John Fornoff, Phil Lawler, Kathy Buchanan, Katie Lee,
and Moore again covering the entire process. You do not
want to miss this if you are at all able to.
There will be more details to come, but save the
date if this at all seems like something you are
interested in. It'll be August third through the ninth of
twenty twenty five. Website is not up quite yet at
the time of this recording, but keep an eye on
our website. We'll let you know once that goes live again.
More details to come. I will say it's going to
be an investment, but these are some of the best
people in the world to learn this craft from. I've
said it before, the people in the family friendly audio
drama industry are making some of the the highest quality
audio drama in the world right now. There are a
few other production houses out there that are making super
high quality stuff. But people like the creatives behind Adventures
in Odyssey and Lamp Ladder Theater and the Ga Hinty series.
I mean, this is some of the highest quality stuff
ever made. And you know we're talking about Emmy Award
and Audio Award and Peabody Award winning creatives. So this
is going to be a fantastic opportunity to learn directly
from them. So again, that is August third through the ninth,
and more details to follow. All right, well, let's jump
into these great interviews that were recorded at Sonicon twenty
twenty three.
Speaker 7: I have some very important information and I thought i'd
be getting it into the hands of a real reporter.
Speaker 11: Sir, sir, can I speak to a moment?
Speaker 9: Oh well, there's nothing to it.
Speaker 8: I just ask you the question and you answered them
in the tape recorder here played the interview.
Speaker 2: I'm really excited to share these interviews with you because
they were some really good conversations that we were able
to have at Soniccon twenty twenty three. And the reason
why we're just now getting to them is I've alluded
to this a couple of times over the last little
while here on the show. But the last couple of
years of my life have been pretty tumultuous in several
different ways which I'm not going to get into. But
upon return from Sonocon twenty twenty three, which was the
end of the year there, things just got super crazy
and I wasn't able to get this interview tape up
and clean up the audio and edit it down and
already for release on the podcast, And then time got
away from me. And then, as I have talked about
here recently, I had some hard drive issues and thought
I was going to lose all of my data and
so it was just a big ordeal that caused a
whole lot of delays with getting this audio out. But
it is here now and I think it is worth
listening to again. Had some great conversations with some attendees
and exhibitors there at the event, and so in just
a couple of minutes I'll be sharing those with you.
But first I want to talk about the future of Sonicicon,
the event itself that so many of us in the
community have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of, and I
know there are lots of you in the ATC community
which are also interested in attending future events and we
talked about it just recently in the feedback segment. Well,
I'm going to be meeting with the organizers of Sonicicon
very soon to talk about some options on what the
event might look like in the future. Cannot go into
any detail on that right now. However, I think it's
pretty safe to say there will not be an event
in twenty twenty five, but that doesn't mean it's going
to go away. So if you have enjoyed Sonicon in
the past and have been looking forward to it in
the future, don't lose hope. And if it is really
something you want to see, continue, I would say head
over to the website Sonicdshcon dot org and reach out
to them through the contact page and just let them
know if you've been able to attend in the past,
let them know what you loved about the event in
the past, and if you haven't yet, let them know
what you are looking forward to what you would like
to see at future events. So that's where we are
with Sonicon. But just because there isn't going to be
one this year, there are still options. So if you
are just a super fan of audio drama and you're
looking for an event that has that vibe. Sonic Con
was great at balancing content for super fans of audio
drama and people looking to get into the creative side
and produce their own audio dramas, and so it was
sort of a hybrid event. So if you're a fan
and you're looking for something, I would highly recommend looking
into the Realm Maker's Expo which will be happening this
year in July, and there is a link in the
show notes to go check out that event. That will
be a great, great event. There's actually going to be
a big focus on audio drama this year, and I
was talking with Scott, the organizer of that event recently,
and he said there are several audio drama producers that
have signed up to be exhibitors at this event. There
will also be some live audio drama performances, which was
one of the things that I know that many of
the Soniccon attendees love getting to see people up on
stage performing audio dramas live, super super cool, and so
that's going to be happening at Realm Makers Expo this year.
So that's an option for audio drama fans as well
as creatives. Now for the people who are looking to
get into the production side and wanting to learn more
about that. Well, the Lamplader Guild, the Summer Guild, is
still a great option that's also going to be happening
this summer, and the link is in the show notes
to check that out. Though I will say the Lamplader
Guild has moved a little bit away from its original
focus on audio drama. It is still a part of it,
but they have expanded their class offerings and they cover
a whole lot more than just audio drama, a lot
of different creative and artistic disciplines. But that is still
an option. I know several people personally that I have
met and spoken to about the Lamplader Guild and how
impactful those sessions have been on their life and their
creative journeys. So that is still an option if you're
looking to get into production on audio dramas. And then,
of course, what I just mentioned in the updates segment,
the Audio Drama Institute, which is headed by John Fornoff,
and he's working with some of the top creatives in
the space to begin offering these different avenues for people
to get into the space and learn from some of
the best in the biz. And so the Audio Drama
Institute has done a writer's focused session last year called
Writers Recharge. Right now, they're doing online classes teaching acting
for audio drama and it's John and Katie Lee doing those,
so there's options there. And then of course the big
event that's coming this summer that I just talked about,
So again there are still options. Even though sonic Con
is sort of on hold right now, there are still
options for fans and creatives to get involved and either
learn more and also just to socialize with other people
in the space. So again, great options still available in
addition to what Sonic Coon offered. Now, with all that said,
let's jump into these interviews. And it was absolutely thrilled
to meet Tim Gregory, who is the head of the
Unshackled Audio Drama. We're going to talk about it in
the interview, but Unshackled is a trailblazer in the audio
drama space, not just family friendly audio drama, but just
some amazing, amazing content that Tim is involved in. And
I am excited to share this interview with you from
the exhibition hall at Sonicon twenty twenty three. All right,
this is JD here on the exhibition hall floor at
the atc table and just happened to be right next
to the Unshackled booth and here with Timothy Gregory. And Timothy,
I've grown up listening to the show, and you've been
on the program for several years now, but can you
explain to the listener exactly what your title is, your
position Unshackled, and how long have you been there?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, first off, it's great to see you and
be at this wonderful event with you. I've been with
the show since nineteen ninety four. I started as an actor,
and then in two thousand and early twenty twelve, I
stepped in as the announcer and director of the episode,
and then in twenty sixteen I stepped in as program director.
Speaker 2: So I remember, you know, I don't listen to every
single episode, but I listened to them pretty frequently, and
I always just loved your voice and that they real
calm and I'm Timothy Gregory, and you know, I just
I loved the sound of it. And a couple of
years ago, I was listening to an audiobook and I
just kept thinking, this really sounds so familiar, and I'm like,
who is this? And then I looked at the narrator,
and I said Tim Gregory and it still didn't register
because you always say Timothy on Shackles. And then when
I finally made the connection, I was like, it's so cool.
It was a Hardy Boys book and I just love
that narration. So how long have you been doing audio books? Oh?
Speaker 1: My goodness. I think I started doing audio books in
I want to say early two thousands, so probably about
twenty years. I've been doing audio books, The Hardy Boys,
Box Car Children, some of the Ted Decker books, Why
Wham Christian Heroes of the Faith.
Speaker 2: Do you have a preference view? Do you like audio
books more than audio drama or vice versa or the
pros and cons with each different medium.
Speaker 1: That is a great question. I've never been asked that
question before. You know, I think for different reasons. I
like creating an audio in the audio book realm. You know,
you're kind of on your own. You're kind of coming
up with stuff yourself and hoping that it works for
the engineer. But you know what, and doing audio books
is exhausting, especially if it's a long book. Plus you're alone.
You're isolated. If you're a lone wolf, and you like
being by yourself. Audiobooks are great, but if you like
working with people and collaborating, then audio dramas are great.
And that's and I actually prefer collaborating and working alongside people,
which is what Unshackled affords me. It's we have great
professional actors out of Chicago. We have great staff, great
team musicians, live fully people, great engineer So I love
that process and being able to kind of jump in
together and create something or fix problems together, that sort
of thing.
Speaker 2: So well, I know, Unshackled has been around for a
very long time, and we've corrected people in the past
who think that Odyssey is the longest running audio drama.
It is not. Unshackled is the longest continuously running show
in the world. Some in the UK dispute and say
it was the Archers, but you guys have been a
continuously continuously. They had a little bit of a break there,
so they started around the same time. But I'm still
going to give it to you guys.
Speaker 1: So they had a break. When was their break It
was early on.
Speaker 2: In the run. It's been running continuously for many, many years,
but there was a break. They did a sort of
a pilot run of a few episodes and then there
was a break. But you guys have never had a break.
Speaker 1: We have never had a break. And we're exhausted. No,
we're not exhausted. We love doing it, but we have
never had a break. Since nineteen fifty September twenty third
of nineteen fifty, we have done a new show every
week and we're still going with God's grace and favor.
Speaker 2: How many thousands of episodes are you at right now?
Thirty five hundred or.
Speaker 1: Thirty three thousand, eight hundred and you see, I don't
even remember the number. There's so many three thy eight
hundred and something. I want to say, ten fifteen three
eight hundred.
Speaker 2: Impressive. It's so amazing that you've had such a longevity
For the listener who doesn't know what Unshackled is. Can
you give a little elevator pitch for what the program covers?
Speaker 1: Yes, So we tell true stories of real people. People
share their testimony with us about how they came to
faith in Christ, and we condense it down into a
thirty minute audio drama. Hire professional actors to play all
the characters within their life. All the integral parts have
live sound effects or fully sound effects, and music, and
it's a thirty minute testimony dramatized.
Speaker 2: And like I said, I've been listening for many, many years.
I don't intend to make you feel old or anything,
but I was listening when I was just a child.
You know, my parents would be listening. It would come
on in the late in the evening. It was probably
because sometimes the subject matter is not really intended for
young children, but it's true to life. It's real events
that people who have dealt with, you know, drug addiction
and abuse and all kinds of tough subjects. But you're
having an eight and nine year old kid sitting there
listening to these stories. But I was fascinating by them.
In fact, I don't know if you still do this,
but you used to offer little booklets to people. I
remember ordering a couple of those and devouring the stories
because I were always so fascinated by these real people
that faced real difficult things and they overcame.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's one of the things that speaks
to the longevity of the show. I mean, aside from
God's grace and mercy and favor over the show. You know,
the show has been bathed in prayer and we stick
to the word of God. But the fact that they're
real stories. That is a compelling thing to hear someone's
real life testimony, but dramatized in the way it's you know,
it's not just relayed and narrated, it's actually performed, and
you know that's compelling. Sometimes we'll be in the studio
recording stuff and we're just overcome with emotion or you know,
it's powerful because you realize this actually happened. This moment
that we're recreating actually happen, and it's incredibly powerful.
Speaker 2: It really is, really is. Now forgive me for eavesdropping,
but our tables are right next to each other, and
I heard you telling somebody earlier something about getting some flackbirds,
trying to change up things, maybe update the program a
little bit. Can share that.
Speaker 1: Yes, wow, you really opened the door there too. So
this person came up to the table and I was
a young person and was not crazy about the organ music.
Speaker 10: So we're just talking about that.
Speaker 1: You know, there are different schools of thought about the
organ music. You know, some of our more mature audience
members they like the organ music, and some of the
younger folks not really crazy about it, not so much. Well,
I under I get it, I understand. So we're trying,
you know, we have so we have some episodes where
there are orchestrations, you know as the interstitial music, and
then we have some episodes where there's organ music. So
we're trying to give them a bit of both. But
it's the same song. It's just what instruments are you
going to have play? So you know, we have the organ.
The organ is actually what we use when we do
the show live on Saturdays in front of an audience.
It's the organ that Don Badorf sits up there and plays.
So if you really want to see the organ, I mean,
if you really love organ music, come to the show
on Saturday, the live performance.
Speaker 2: Well that's the other thing too, that you guys still
do live productions, which is not which is very rare
these days. I mean blanking on the name of the
they change used to be Jim Fringe Productions up in Kirkland, Washington.
They still do productions that they have a new name
now and I'm sorry, I can't remember off the top
of my head, but they do live shows at the
Kirkland Performing Arts Center, and then you guys are doing it,
but I don't know if too many others on a
regular basis who are doing that. So it's kind of cool.
Brings that old classic feel. So that's how Audio Drummer
used to be done exclusively, and so it's kind of
kind of an interesting experience and I haven't experienced it
myself yet, but that's on my bucket list.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, that's how the show started. The production
that was broadcast all over was actually a live performance
that was taped in front of an audience, and over
the past few years now we're now recording the show
in a studio and then doing that same show in
front of a live audience, just like we've always done
and we'll continue to do that. The show is different
in this the show is actually connected to a bigger ministry.
So you know, a lot of the audio dramas that
are out there, they kind of stand alone and they
have actors that are brought in to a studio or
work remotely and then they piece the show together. We're
connected to Pacific Garden Mission, which is a rescue mission
and which is why the show started in the first place,
because the superintendent of the mission had his own radio show,
had a fifteen minute show where he would just talk
about the people who came through the doors and the
come to know Christ. And so a buddy of his said, hey,
you're doing You're talking for fifteen minutes on the radio
telling people about these people that come through the doors.
Why don't you just dramatize these stories? And that's how
Unshackled was born. And so people would come to the
mission to either volunteer or visit the mission or go
on a tour, and then we just started doing the
show for them there. So it kind of serves a
double purposes. There's a meaning to it. You know, there's
a reason why we still do the live performance because
it's some it's part of something that's much bigger.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's beautiful. And so speaking of PGM, you
recently are you know, within the last year or two
maybe sort of made a move into children's content with
the Clue Crew, And I would love to let you
talk to the audience a little bit about that and
what your mission is with that project and maybe some
of the people that you're working with on that, whatever
you want to share.
Speaker 1: Yeah, great, Well, we did start a show about a
year and a half ago called The Clue Crew. As
you mentioned earlier, some of the Unshackled episodes have mature themes.
You know, you're dealing with some real life experiences that
people you know are rescued from are unshackled from, and
some of those experiences are very dark or they're you know,
you're dealing with mature themes, and it's not so that
the content is not always appropriate for kids, and so
we wanted to offer children something from Unshackled outside of
just the Unshackled episodes. So we thought of the Clue Crew,
which is based on it's actually the Clue Family, that's
their last name. It's for kids their parents died in
a plane crash. Their parents, who were missionaries in South America,
died in a plane crash. The kids are then taken
to Chicago and given to their uncle, who does not
have children and is single and doesn't know what to
do with them.
Speaker 2: And that's not a spoiler that all happens in the
first episode.
Speaker 1: It's right that all happens in the first episode. And
so it's the story follows these kids and they're particularly
good at solving mysteries. So every episode is based on
the Clue Children. The Clue Crew solving some type of mystery.
So it's faith friendly, family friendly, and there's always scripture
involved in biblical principles.
Speaker 2: It's it's a really fun show and you've got some
great talent on their Amy Lilies involved too many people
know from Kids Corner for many years. She played the
Lizarardo on that show, and she's she's just a delight.
And do you record all of that on site there
as well?
Speaker 6: We do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we record that right in our studio in Pacific
Guard Mission.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. Any plans to do live shows for that one.
Speaker 1: No, we've thought about it. I don't know that we're
there yet. I don't know that we have the I
don't know what that would look like, you know what
I mean. You know, your audience would consist of probably
mostly kids or young people, and so we have to
figure out where we would do that where there would
be maybe a facility and enough people there to warrant
doing a live performance. And maybe we'll get there someday,
but that would be fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, Well, I just want to thank you so much.
I was so glad when I heard that you were
going to be here, and I've we've talked to I
think we connected it two to three years ago now
and it just has not worked out to make our
schedules aligne and then I'd get busy with other things.
But I'm so so glad that I got to have
you on the show, and thank you for agreeing to
do it. And it was so wonderful to meet you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you as well, JD. It's a real pleasure. And
maybe we'll be back here next year, next right next
to each other.
Speaker 2: There we go. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Again. Super excited
that I got to meet Timothy and hang out with him.
Just one of the most genuine and kind people I've
ever met. I was just super impressed with him. He's
an amazing voice talent himself, but also on the production
side running this show for so many years. And as
you heard, they've launched a kid's show as well, called
The Clue Crew. There are links in the show notes
to both Unshackled and The Clue Crew. Unshackled is now
at the time of this recording, over thirty eight hundred episodes.
It is free to stream on their website or podcast.
They're still aired on the radio around the world as well,
so lots of places for you to check out Unshackled,
and then The Clue Crew is also airing on radio
stations around the world, and it is also available for
purchase on the Clue Crew website, which again is linked
in the show notes. You can purchase them by individual
episodes or full seasons. But if you're not ready to
make that purchase yet, you can stream the pilot episode,
which is called The Case of the Missing Monkey. You
can stream that for free on the website to get
a sample of what the show is about. Again, this
one's aimed at younger listeners. It's really fun, great cast
in this one, and they're just really fun mystery shows
for kids, and I highly encourage you to check them out.
Links are in the show notes. And thanks again to
Tim Gregory for taking the time to sit down and
have this conversation with me. Well. Next up is a
chat with actor Caleb Bresler, and ATC contributor Austin Peachee
had a chance to speak with him.
Speaker 11: Hey, everybody, this is awesome.
Speaker 6: Peachee coming at you from sun Con twent twenty three
for ATC and with me, I have actor Caleb Bresler.
Welcome Caleb, Thanks good to be here. Well, it's so
great to talk to you. And for those that don't
know you were in King Jack a while back, you
when I talk about your role on that.
Speaker 3: Sure, So I played the antagonist person so who was
named Harold. So he was basically the nasty the nasty
kid at the school who causes problems and kind of
throws challenges.
Speaker 2: At the main character.
Speaker 10: So that's mainly what is his is.
Speaker 3: But then of course you do learn that of course
he does have a backstory which explained some of some
of his behavior. Not that that excuses him, of course,
but you kind of get a little bit more insight
into the character that way.
Speaker 11: Yeah, for sure, So I think that was that your
first audio drama production.
Speaker 2: That you were in.
Speaker 3: That was my first Lamplighter one some thing. If I
get any other ones before that, that might have been.
Speaker 10: Actually, yeah, so.
Speaker 11: Have you landed any other roles since then that people
may recognize you in?
Speaker 10: I was actually the Victim.
Speaker 3: Digital just put out an audio drama last week, and yes,
I play a character called Basher in that and so
basically it's like an archaeological type of adventure story where
I'm one of the characters who's kind of a sidekicked
for the Archaeologist. So that's the Invicta Collectives that just
came out. I did done a number of different things.
I've worked with Sultwin Audios. I actually produced my own
Sherlock Holmes audio drama. Yeah, some different things like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 11: So this is your first time at Sonicon, right, Yes,
it is, so I'd be enjoying it.
Speaker 1: So far.
Speaker 10: The classes have been good, good.
Speaker 3: It's some good information and interesting to hear from some
people who you know, were like Paul McCusker and Phil Lawler,
who of course I've listened to honestly for for years,
so of course I knew their name. So it's interesting
to actually get to see them in person and hear
them talking in person and you know, getting getting tidbits
and stuff like that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, awesome. It's been a lot of fun and also
again into network with people. So any face down here
that you're surprised to see that you have to meet
me here recently.
Speaker 3: I don't think necessarily surprised to see. I obviously some
people because a lot of the stuff is online. You
know people's names, and I've spoken with people kind of
via email, so it's kind of nice to be able
to meet people in person, because you know, it's just
a little bit different when you're meeting someone in person
versus everything's digitally done.
Speaker 11: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 6: Well, thank you so much, Caleb, and I hope you
have a continue to get enjoy your say a sonicon.
Thanks thanks for talking with me all right, and this
is Austin signing off.
Speaker 2: If you would like to hear more from Caleb, you
can go check out ADC one seventy three where I
talked quite a bit more in depth with him about
his role in Lamplider Theaters King Jack. So that episode
is linked in the show notes. Also linked up is
Caleb's website. He's a great voice actor if you'd like
to hire him for a project that you are working on,
that is linked in the show notes, as well as
the Sherlock Holmes audio drama that he mentioned and a
new project that we've talked about here in recent episodes.
He's teamed up with LRT Media to produce a new
show called He Vanished below that is also linked up
in the show notes as well. Thank you Caleb for
sitting down with Austin for this interview. Next up is
another great actor you've heard us talk about him before.
He's been in all kinds of cool audio dramas in
the last handful of years. Jake Phillips and Austin also
had a chance to chat with him. So I'm going
to roll that tape now.
Speaker 6: Hello there, everybody, This is awesome Peache coming to you
from Sonicon twenty twenty three, and I have Jake Phillips
here with me.
Speaker 4: Hello, Jake, Hey, Austin. How's it going do you?
Speaker 11: And Gray? How are you enjoying sonecon so far?
Speaker 4: I'm really enjoying it. It's my first time.
Speaker 12: Had some great classes, great loved the ATC Live episode
last night that was awesome.
Speaker 4: But yeah, having a great time.
Speaker 11: So you've been some of the classes right this morning?
Speaker 12: I went to John Thornoff Art of the Start, and
then Paul McCusker with Fundamentals of Dialogue.
Speaker 11: Awesome.
Speaker 6: So people may know you from some of your roles
in lap Player with Theater and from Witnesses. We'll tell
us about some of your more recent roles that you've
been in right now.
Speaker 12: Yeah, So I was in ed Vinum six, I play
Jeffa So that one just came out. So that was
I guess we recorded it last spring, but that's probably
the most recent thing to come out. But yeah, I've
been as far as Lamplighter. I've been in quicksand My
Golden Ship and The Hidden Hand Let's see. Yeah, witnesses
that play a smattering of characters, one of the main
ones being a rufous that's centurion.
Speaker 4: Thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 12: That was a great I tend to be cast as
villains and biblical things, but I you know, my thought
process is, you know, if I can help make you
think of you know, Jesus waited for us, I'll be
as bad as you need me to be. So because that,
I just love Tracy's I mean everything she did, the writing,
sound design, the other actors in it, you know, Daniel
and Andy like last night Nato amazing, amazing actors on that.
Speaker 11: Yeah for sure. So you also have a podcast you
want to tell our listeners about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 12: So I have a podcast called The Cultured Bumpkin, and
it's also I've just started putting it on.
Speaker 2: YouTube as well.
Speaker 12: So it's mostly audio stuff or me doing Shakespeare monologues
in a Southern accents. Mostly what that is My goal
is to just make literature more accessible to people because
a lot of there's some great writing that nobody ever
talks about anymore because nobody, I don't know, nobody talks
about it.
Speaker 4: So I'm talking about it.
Speaker 12: And I'm not a literary analyst, so I don't really
do too much analysis. I sort of introduce it and
then just get right to it. And you know, my
goal is to as the voice actor, just give you
an audiobook experience with the Ransom of Red Chief by
O Henry or the Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
by Mark Twain. That those good classic stories not necessarily American,
but most of them tend to be American or British
or English if it's earlier, let's say poetry, but yeah, poetry,
short stories. And then one of my favorite authors is
Jane Austin. I love Pride and Prejudice, and there are
a lot of similarity between American, Southern and English.
Speaker 2: It fits very well.
Speaker 12: They're very closely related, more so than other American accents,
I think. So I'm doing a audiobook version right now.
Speaker 4: It's on my YouTube.
Speaker 12: What I've done so far in and Prejudice and Magnoia,
as I call it, just a Southern version of very
antebellum sound, and I guess you know, retelling that not
changing any of the words, but just in a different
accent and just it's a different experience and it's fun.
But yeah, the Cultured Bumpkin, and it's on pretty much
anywhere you get podcasts and then on YouTube, and you
have some.
Speaker 11: Of those recordings as audiobook form, don't you.
Speaker 12: Right, some of them will be on on like audible
or Libra FM stuff like that. Why pay for it
if you can get it free, is what I always say. So,
I mean you can get the same things on YouTube
or podcast.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, if people want to support what you're doing,
they can go buy that by those audiobooks and also
share your podcast with everybody.
Speaker 11: Thanks so much for taking some time to do this interview.
Speaker 4: Jake, absolutely, thank you. Awesome, You're welcome.
Speaker 11: All right, this is Austin signing off.
Speaker 2: Jake is such a cool guy. He is a fantastic
voice talent and just a super genuine nice guy. And
the podcast that he mentioned, The Cultured Bumpkin, he goes
into classic literature and lots of poetry, and if you're
a fan of classical lit and the classic poets like
Whitman and Dickinson and oh my goodness, so many others.
You'll definitely want to check out his podcast. And he
actually had me on the show a while back, and
so I got to chat with him a little bit
about ATC and voice work, and I get to perform
a poem on the show as well. So that episode
in particular is linked in the show notes, and I
think you'll want to check that out. And also Jake's
voiceover website if you are looking for voice talent, that
is also linked in the show notes. So thank you
Jake very much for taking time to come on ATC. Well,
our final interview from Sonicicon twenty twenty three is with
Colton Grellier and you may not have heard his name before,
but you will find out here in just a moment
why I thought it was important to have him on
the show. So I was able to sit down and
talk with Colton. Here is that audio. Now, Well, this
is JD here on the exhibition floor and I'm losing
my voice here, but we're gon We're gonna push ahead,
and we're at the ATC booth and I've got Colton
Grellier with me, and you know, it may not be
a name that's super familiar to many of you in
our audience, but you should know this man because he
is one of the instigators. Is that a negative word
and I don't mean it that way, but he's responsible
in a large part for Sonicon even being a thing.
So can you tell us a little bit about how
that happened?
Speaker 10: Thank you, jd Well.
Speaker 7: It basically, Soniccon was born out of the Encounter, which
is The Encounter is a show that you've talked about
on your show. It's kind of Liberty University's primary audio
drama at the moment. Really, that's kind of where they
in that space. And it was really after a writer's
meeting for one of the seasons. I went back to
my job at the time at the law library here
and I was just so pumped after that writer's meeting,
I'm like, I don't really want to do like any
homework I want to do.
Speaker 10: I want to be like, I want to see stuff
more for the show. I remember at the time Comic
Con was going on. I just saw an ad for it.
Speaker 7: I thought, wait a minute, is there like a con
for audio drama? And I was looking up and I'm
like I wasn't really finding anything or like anything big.
I'm like, wait a minute, we're at Liberty, Like, why are.
Speaker 10: We doing something like this.
Speaker 7: I immediately whipped up like a like like a five
paragraph email to like.
Speaker 10: Okay, Professor Nel said, hear me out, just.
Speaker 7: Just roll with me for a little bit and just
kind of a rough outline of what a convention for
audio drama could be. And then Professor Nelson was both
generous and crazy enough to want to run with.
Speaker 2: That idea, and I for one am super thankful that
he did, and thank you for having the wherewith all
the gumption to say, hey, I've got this idea, roll
with me here.
Speaker 7: One of the few times my ADHD distractability is coming handy.
Speaker 2: So you've been at every one of the events and
you've performed. I can't remember if you did see anything
on the on the first year or was there a
live encounter the first year. I know you did broadcast
Babylon the last time.
Speaker 1: Yes, on the first year.
Speaker 10: I'm oh, man, it a few years ago.
Speaker 7: Blake and everything that I think was in the middle
of COVID as well for the first one. I was
part of the encounter panel as well for part of
as one of the writers on that. I'm trying to
remember if I was a part of that some kind
of new work there, I can't quite remember. I think
I was helping a lot backstage as well. But no,
the second year doing a show called Broadcast Babylon for
the new works is kind of my main thing at
that point. And then this year I'm actually here now
with my own studio and everything, and I'm just just
extremely happy to just just be back and like see
a lot of friends I've not seen in a while.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so we've mentioned Sounding Fury Entertainment on the
previous episode here, but tell us a little bit about
what you're doing there and the new show that you've
premiered at the event here.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 10: Absolutely, So.
Speaker 7: Our first show for Sound and Fury Entertainment is called
Root Sticks, kind of a pun on Root sixty six
and of the river Sticks from Greek mythology. The basic
gist of the show is the Twilight Zone meets the
Great American Road Trip, where every episode is a ghost
story in a vehicle, and it's kind of a loose
anthology where every time people are going to stop at
this gas station pay for gas and everything but when
they get back on the road, hey, you never know
who might be joining them in the car and everything,
and having a way of kind of a spooky ghost
story every episode, but without it getting too dark or creepy,
but still being able to talk about stuff that kind
of the supernatural ghost story allows a way to talk
about certain conversations and things that like that John to
really endears towards those kind of stories.
Speaker 2: So could you share maybe some of the talent that
you have lined up for this show and maybe when
we can expect to hear some content out for the public.
Speaker 4: We have a lot of.
Speaker 10: Talent on the show.
Speaker 7: We have Mercury Glavin, who was the voice of Violet
in seasons one and two of The Encounter, who is
also my girlfriend we actually met because of The Encounter
and Sonicicon both she is voicing Orlely in season one.
We also have Joshua Prentiss who is a voice in
the Encounter and also Chicken Skid with Jonathan Winstead Savage Waking,
a lot of other audio dramas that he's been active in,
and also a lot of new faces, surprisingly, a lot
of incredibly talented freshmen like Maya Pal, Christopher deary who
are doing two main characters.
Speaker 10: I'm blown away, like.
Speaker 7: When I was in booth with them, like, is this
your first time doing a voice acting gig?
Speaker 10: Like, yeah, we think it'd be fun. Blown away. So
just I'm really happy for that.
Speaker 7: As for when you might be able to hear some
of Rootsticks, we have just released our trailer, so if
you want to go to Sound and Fury Entertainment either
on Facebook, Instagram, or Patreon, you'll be able to hear
the season one trailer.
Speaker 10: And we are.
Speaker 7: Expecting to release sometime i'd say in the middle of
spring twenty twenty four, middle or end of spring of
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: That's exciting. So and I know you had other projects
that you've been working on, but this is the first
one that's kind of going to go to market. So
congratulations on that effort.
Speaker 7: Thank you so much, Jady, and hopefully this is only
the first of many. God willing. As long as I
can go, I'm gonna keep running.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much for taking the time. I've
wanted to do this every year. We finally made it
happen this year.
Speaker 10: Hey, third times that you third times of jar Thank
you so much. Thank you so much, Jady.
Speaker 2: So after multiple years of wanting to make this interview happen,
we finally had a chance to do it. So glad
that Colton had the time to chat with me and
come on the show. A couple of updates since this recording.
Mercury is no longer his girlfriend. She's now his wife,
so congrats to them. And now about the show that
he was talking about, his production company, Sound in Fury
Entertainment is still working on root Sticks, and he let
me know that they are ninety five percent done with
season one and they're looking to premiere the show sometime
in June, so coming up very very soon, just a
few weeks away. And he said they've also wrapped up
principal recording of season two just about a month ago,
and they're already working on scripts for season three. So
that show is going strong and will be launched very
very soon. Links to Sound in Fury Entertainment and to
all the stuff that Colton's got going on is in
the show notes, so if that show sounded interesting to you,
you can definitely check it out. Well. Thank you again
to Timothy, Caleb, Jake, and Colton for taking time at
Soniccon twenty twenty three to talk to us for ATC,
and I apologize for the extreme delay in airing these interviews,
but it's still timely information. All four of these folks
are still active in the space and they had some
valuable things to share with you, So I'm glad that
we were able to get these out to you. And
of course thanks to Austin for conducting a couple of
those interviews and just generally helping out all throughout the
event with ATC related stuff, manning the booth with me
and hosting the live podcast we did at the event.
So just a huge help to me there, So thank
you Austin. So what do you think of the show?
Speaker 8: Please leave your message after the Zelle hi Audi Theater Central.
Speaker 2: Hey guys, this is awesome PG.
Speaker 4: Hell about j d Roy.
Speaker 2: Andrew Minum is Victorian.
Speaker 4: Now, yesterday I received a letter from a big band.
Speaker 11: No time to joy, I've got an email list another
package for me today, No.
Speaker 2: Actually, just your mail. Well, we've got a couple of
bits of feedback regarding ATC two ten, where we shared
the news about AIO getting rid of CDs and digital downloads.
If you didn't hear that link is in the show
notes to go check that out. But if you have
some information or some feedback for us here at ATC,
you can always email us feedback at Audio Theatercentral dot com,
comment on the show notes, or give us a call
or send a text to our feedback line which is
six two three six eight eight two seven seven zero
again six two three six eight eight two seven seven zero. Well,
the first bit of feedback is from Grayson and he said,
I agree that not being able to own albums is
a downside to getting rid of CDs, but I understand
the reason why they are doing that. But what I
don't get is that they might not be airing new
episodes on the radio anymore because I listened to the
newest episodes on the radio. I own most of the
albums on CD, except for the most recent ones. But
unlike you, even if I own them digitally, I wouldn't
want to mix AIO episodes with other shows because that
sounds like you would be confusing to tell which show
you're listening to. Well, to address that last point, first,
most audio dramas have an intro to their show, which
either says the name of the show or has some
recognizable theme so it's not that different from making a
playlist of songs from different albums. If it's music that
you're familiar with and you know the artists, it doesn't
really matter that it's mixed in with music from other
artists or different albums. So the same with audio dramas.
It's just something like I might put together a playlist
of Christmas related episodes, or sometimes I just want to
listen to a couple of different shows back to back,
and so I'll just drop several of them in the queue,
so I might have an AIO episode in there with
something else. So that's just how I listen to them,
which is just one of the benefits of having and
owning your own copies. It's not like the main focus
for me personally. The main thing for me is about
ownership of the content and not having to perpetually rent access.
So that's the big thing for me personally. And I
know that you know, not everybody would consume content in
that manner. I was just using that as an example
in that episode for how I consume personally. One of
the perks of being able to add all my content
into my own media library. And to your first point
about radio, yes, that is an interesting thing. So I know,
as I said in that episode, there still trying to
figure out all of that what the future of radio
distribution will look like for AIO, But it did seem
like there was the potential that the radio calendar would
sort of just rotate through these first thousand ish episodes
and not have new ones added into the rotation. That's
just something they're considering. So if you have feedback on
this that you want to let them know, definitely reach
out to Focus and let them know and give your
thoughts on what they're trying to figure out here for
the future of the show. So thank you so much
Grayson for the feedback, and Robert said, whoa, thanks for
covering this news. The CDs going away is not shocking,
but as you said, a bit sad. It's getting harder
to actually own anything these days and streaming and subscriptions
are taking over the entertainment world. Hoping that this benefits
their storytelling with the flexible schedule, and yes, that is
the huge positive, and I hope I made that clear
in that episode. There is a big positive to the
change in the schedule allows them to have a little
bit more flexibility in what they can cover, how quickly
they can release episodes, they don't have to try to
wedge it into a timeslot format and that kind of thing.
So I like that, being able to maybe even release
multiple episodes in a single month, so that sort of stuff. Cool.
Love that. Again, not to beat a dead horse here,
but my main concern with this whole change is losing
the ownership option, and that is, even if CDs have
to go away, still having the option to purchase a
digital copy, even if it's a year after the fact,
you know, everything hits the website first, and then at
the end of the year, maybe they offer a twenty
four episode bundle that you can purchase for download. And
even if I don't remember if I mentioned this in
that episode or not, but even if if they pull
from all the other distribution outlets, the online retailers like
Apple Music or Christian Book Distributors or Amazon or whatever
wherever else they're currently distributing digital copies of the albums,
even if they pull it from all of those and
they only exclusively offer a download sale through the Focus
on the Family store, And I'm totally cool with that too,
you know, just I want to be able to own copies.
That's the big thing for me. So thank you Robert
for the feedback, really appreciate it. And our last bit
of feedback is from Samuel, and he said, I agree
about the digital download option. I don't even think there's
an issue with continuing to release first on the club
like they've been doing with current albums, but to take
away the option for non club members to even enjoy
the newer episodes, I'm concerned that will be an overall negative.
And yes, Samuel, I totally agree with that, as you
can tell from my response to Robert's comment. So I
don't want to repeat myself too much here, but the
consensus in the feedback that I received on that episode
was everybody was saying, why are they removing the option
to purchase digital copies? And there was a lot of
extremely negative feedback online in some of the communities, and
I don't want to go into all of that, but
there were some, let's just say, tempers flared in some instances,
and there was a lot of strong opinions. And I
get it. I get it when you come to love
a thing so much, you know, if you've followed Odyssey
for years and years and years, the fact or the
idea of the thought, the potentiality of losing it. Potentially,
it can cause some strong feelings and I totally get that.
I understand, and again I recommend reaching out to Focus.
Let your voice be heard, let them know, but do
it with kindness and with love and with grace, because
there are human beings on the other side of that
email that you send, and so you know, make sure
you're doing it with the proper attitude. And I'm not
directing this comment at Samuel or Robert or Grayson particularly,
just anybody and everybody you know. Let your voice be heard, absolutely,
of course, but do it with love. So anyway, there
was a lot of feedback regarding this announcement, and honestly,
for the most part, I agreed with what most people
were saying, and I personally would love to see Focus
revisit and reevaluate that decision to get rid of the
digital download option. I understand their reasons for why they're
trying to steer people to the club. I get it,
but as I outlined in episode two ten, I personally
think it's not the most consumer friendly decision. So I
think I've said enough about this topic. But I did
want to address some of these prominent pieces of feedback
from you in the ATC community. So thank you Robert
Grayson and Samuel. And again, if you missed that episode
and you hadn't heard the news, go listen to it.
And then if you feel strongly one way or the
other on these issues, let's focus on the family. No,
all right, Well that's going to do it for this episode.
Thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to
get in touch with us, head over to audio Theatercentral
dot com slash contact. All the ways to reach out
to us and get in touch are listed there. The
show notes with links to everything from this episode are
at audio Theatercentral dot com Slash two thirteen. I will
see you next time. Thank you so much for listening.
Audio Theater Central is a production of Porchlit Family Media.
Our theme music was composed by Sam Avendano. The show
is produced and edited by yours truly, JD. Sutter, and
our website is Audiotheatercentral dot com.
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