RADIO DRAMA
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.
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.
• 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 (1934–47) 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
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.
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
• 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.
A sample of Radio 4 Drama’s
• Biographical- ‘women’s 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/d
rama/crime
• Political- ‘Afternoon Play’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/programmes/genres/d
rama/political
• Relationships and romance- ‘Classic serial’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/programmes/genres/d