RADIO DRAMA

1
RADIO DRAMA
2
ABOUT RADIO DRAMA

• Radio drama is a form of audio storytelling
  broadcast on radio. With no visual component,
  radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound
  effects to help the listener imagine the story.
• Radio drama achieved widespread popularity within
  a decade of its initial development in the 1920s.
  By the 1940s, it was a leading international
  popular entertainment.
• With the advent of television in the 1950s,
  however, radio drama lost some of its popularity,
  and in some countries, has never regained large
  audiences.
• However, recordings of OTR (old-time radio)
  survive today in the audio archives of collectors
  and museums.
• Thanks to advances in digital recording and
  internet distribution, radio drama is
  experiencing a revival.

3
THE HISTORY OF RADIO DRAMA

• Radio drama seems to have started in the United
  States.
• Serious study of American radio drama of the
  1920s and early 1930s is, at best, very limited.
• Elizabeth McLeod's recent book on Gosden and
  Correll's early work is a major exception, as is
  Richard J. Hand's 2006 study of horror radio,
  which examines some programs from the late 1920s
  and early 1930s.

4

• One of the first radio drama written in UK -
  Danger by Richard Hughes, broadcast by BBC,
  January 15
• One of the earliest and most influential French
  radio plays was the prize-winning "Marémoto"
  ("Seaquake"), by Gabriel Germinet and Pierre Cusy
• In 1951, American writer and producer Arch Oboler
  suggested that Wyllis Cooper's Lights Out
  (193447) was the first true radio drama to make
  use of the unique qualities of radio
• Radio drama (as distinguished from theatre plays
  boiled down to kilocycle size) began at midnight,
  in the middle thirties, on one of the upper
  floors of Chicago's Merchandise Mart.
• By 1930, Tyrone Guthrie had written plays for the
  BBC like Matrimonial and The Flowers Are Not for
  You to Pick.
• They were published in 1931
• Guthrie's plays aired on the American networks

5
RADIO DRMA- WIDESPREAD POPULARITY

• Widespread popularity
• Perhaps America's most famous radio drama
  broadcast is Orson Welles's The War of the
  Worlds, 1938
• By the late 1930s, radio drama was widely popular
  in the United States
• There were dozens of programs in many different
  genres, from mysteries and thrillers, to soap
  operas and comedies.

6
RADIO DRAMA TODAY

• Radio drama remains popular in much of the world.
  
• The relatively low cost of producing a radio play
  enables them to take chances with works by
  unknown writers.
• On the BBC there are two on-going radio soap
  operas The Archers on BBC Radio 4 and Silver
  Street on the Asian Network.
• On occasion television series can be revived as
  radio series.
• When an organization owns both television and
  radio channels, such as the BBC, the fact that no
  royalties have to be paid makes this even more
  attractive.
• Regular broadcasts of radio drama in English can
  be heard on the BBC's Radio 3, Radio 4 and BBC 7
• BBC Radio 4 in particular is noted for its radio
  drama

7

• In the U.S., radio drama can be found on ACB
  radio
• In the mid-1980s, the non-profit L.A. Theatre
  Works launched its radio series recorded before
  live audiences
• With 21st-century technology, modern radio drama,
  has experienced a revival
• The digital age has also resulted in recording
  styles that differ from the studio recordings of
  radio drama's Golden Age.

8
A sample of Radio 4 Dramas

• Biographical- womens hour http//www.bbc.co.uk/
  programmes/b00vspgz
• Classic and period- Classic serial
  http//www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vrbq7
• Crime- A Charles Paris Mystery
  http//www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/programmes/genres/dram
  a/crime
• Political- Afternoon Play http//www.bbc.co.uk/r
  adio4/programmes/genres/drama/political
• Relationships and romance- Classic serial
  http//www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/programmes/genres/dram
  a/relationshipsandromance
• Soaps- The Archers http//www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/p
  rogrammes/genres/drama/soaps