Thought I'd share the following blog on the future of radio drama  
posted on the Guardian website this April.
To access the links to the live recording etc. see the blog post at:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/theatre/2007/04/ 
the_podcasts_the_thing_to_revi.html

Best,
Eve

Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - theatre
The podcast's the thing to revive radio drama
Toby Lichtig

April 24, 2007 12:04 PM

Last week, the Department for Education and Skills announced that it  
would provide free downloads of Shakespeare podcasts. Starting with a  
live recording of Much Ado About Nothing, made at the Globe Theatre  
last month, it aims to help those without easy access to professional  
productions to engage with performance. This is not a substitute for  
live shows, but will be a welcome complement to slogging through the  
texts. The Royal Shakespeare Company has used podcasts in similar  
ways, and with the ubiquity of MP3 players and the popularity of  
podcasting, we could be on the threshold of a new golden age of audio  
drama. TV won the battle decades ago, but is a fight back now on the  
cards?

Frederick Greenhalgh of Radio Drama Revival! thinks so. His blog,  
which began at the end of last year, includes a range of new radio  
dramas. He is based in the US, where audio theatre, he admits, is  
still an especially "small world" desperately in need of promotion;  
but he is convinced that things are changing. Greenhalgh runs Final  
Rune Productions and is dedicated to making this happen. He reminds  
us that that Orson Welles started in radio, and laments the current  
paucity of commercial radio drama in the US: "Today's modern radio  
drama scene can be characterized as an orphaned medium with a lot of  
guts but not a lot of polish."

The popularity of programmes such as Sonic Theater on XM Radio and  
sites such as Dramapod also indicate a resurgence, though a quick  
look at the latter's main categories - Superhero, Dr Who, Star Trek -  
points to Greenhalgh's fears. He is enthusiastic about the more  
illustrious recent history of radio drama in the UK: "They actually  
think it's valuable to have written stories recorded and played on  
the radio for people. What's crazier, is that they PAY people to do it!"

Since the passing of the classic era of American radio, Britain has  
definitely led the way, but we've relied on Radio 3 and Radio 4 for  
too long. Surely it's time for some more sources of audio theatre to  
put on our MP3s? To be fair, the BBC has responded to the new  
technology and interest, and has recently set up Audiotheque, a  
project dedicated to "creative audio", which it defines as  
"innovative, original audio with some kind of narrative. It could mix  
elements of fiction and documentary material, it might be completely  
dialogue-free. As long as it's fresh and different from standard  
radio drama. It also needs to be under three minutes long." It's  
worth browsing through the site to stumble across small gems such as  
this oddly compelling (French) piece of audio theatre without words.

Just in case you're still not convinced about radio's fight back,  
Audiotheque's creator Conor Lennon is currently masterminding Radio  
4's first feature film. Two 45-minute radio dramas, based on a story  
by Peter Ackroyd, will be put to visuals and shown at London's IMAX.  
The project aims to revert the dominant relationship between sight  
and sound: welcome to the new concept of the "vision track".

"Radio is very excited about introducing visual material because of  
new technology," comments Lennon. "In Korea they are developing Eye  
River radio sets which can transmit images to accompany the sound and  
Radio 4 wants to be a part of this multiplatform revolution." I look  
forward to the vision tracks of the future that might help to spice  
up GCSE Shakespeare. A psychedelic Hamlet anyone?