General
- What station are you on?
- This is the question that frustrates us the most. We understand why you're asking, since we do call ourselves a "Radio Theatre", but at the moment, we do not have a regular broadcast outlet. The good folks at Peach State Public Radio invited us in to play every Hallowe'en for several years. Even though we spent the first two summers of our existence with a weekly program on commercial radio (nobody told us it was impossible), in recent years the Atlanta market has been unfriendly to spoken-word dramatic programming. Every now and then, a program director takes interest in us, and asks for sample tapes, which he takes home and listens to endlessly -- but somehow he never gets around to putting it on the air.
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- So you don't have a regular show?
- I just said that. Don't rub it in.
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- Then why do you call yourself "Radio Theatre"?
- Because there really isn't a consensus among those who do what we do as to what we should call it. Back in 1984, "Radio Theatre" seemed the obvious choice. Lately there's a swing towards "Audio Drama", but in our personal appearances we do a lot of comedy, and we don't want to mislead people. (As if "Radio Theatre" doesn't: See question one.) Plus, if we changed the name of the company, we'd have to change all the stationery, letterheads and business cards... Let me tell you, it's a real bear to get a corporate jet repainted. :)
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- No, seriously.
- We've been wrestling with the question of exactly what we are for a while now. Are we a neighborhood theater company without a theater? Or are we a radio theater without a radio station? Are we "new old-time radio"? We like to think that we're what traditional radio drama and comedy might have become, if it had lasted long enough in the United States to take advantage of today's technology and dramatic techniques. Perhaps the best label for us, if you must have one, is "Small-Press Audio Publisher". We're an art form divorced from its medium, and the Internet is the greatest thing to happen to us since Norman Corwin.
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- But all this time and energy you're putting into a dead art form...
- It's not dead at all. It's largely moribund in America, although there are still dozens of companies here who produce dramatized radio programs. Elsewhere in the world, particularly at the BBC, radio thrives as a storytelling medium. And we have confidence that sooner or later, the US will catch up.
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- Have you ever heard of a television show called Remember WENN...?
- We love Remember WENN. In fact, one of our writers, Linda Young, has created the definitive Remember WENN fan page. Take a look! (I'll never understand why AMC canned this charming program.)