Idea Development: Original Concepts

One of the first concepts we came up with was to create a radio drama based on a zombie invasion of the UK. However, this idea was soon shot down as we decided it would be to an extent unrealistic, and difficult to record the zombies voices. We felt we would also be copying concepts which have already been put into action.

Another idea was to create a kind of comedic action adventure, if you can imagine such a thing. Yet, this was only breifly discussed, as we had difficulty in agreeing on concepts such as character choices, and motives.

Nonetheless, setting it within the UK was always going to remain, as we are not very good at changing our accents. I next decided that we could change the concept of a zombie invasion into a sort of post-apocalyptic war-stricken world. Perhaps a sort of world war three, in that the face of the earth has been destroyed, along with a huge majority of the population. So much so that only four civilians remain. (Our characters for the drama). This idea seemed most favourable within our group, so we went with it.

Radio Drama Analysis Part 3: The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone is a Sci-fi / fantasy Radio drama, which was very popular in the 1950's and 60's. The original concept was for a televised series, which was later adapted in 2002 to radio. Every episode tended to feature a different, well known American celebrities, such as Stacy Keach, Jane Seymour, and Lou Diamond Phillips. These celebrities do not have much relevance to a modern audience, but back in the 50's and 60's, they were main faces of TV. The episode that I watched was very well crafted. The SFX used truly reflected the moods of the characters and of the atmosphere around them. The accents were representative of the different characters and power divides. For example; the captain was a military man, and thus his lexis reflected that of intelligence and strength. His tone of voice in particular was very low, which was indicitive of his high authority over others aboard the ship. Nowadays, radio drama is quite widespread, and it is quite intriguing to see how a drama such is able to compete with more modern dramas.

Radio Drama Analysis Part 2: Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy

The drama begins with very jolly, upbeat music. Next, we get a narration by a man not yet identified to us. His pitch and tone are very low, and his rhythm is quite slow, suggesting authority. Meanwhile, strange futuristic sound effects are present in the background. The first main character has a very unique voice. His tone and pitch are quite high, and he speaks with a certain distinct rhythm. This piece is much more upbeat and comedic than war of the worlds, suggesting that the genre is comedy. The background noises whilst in the pub, for example, cleverly replicate that of a real-life social situation such as this. When the female character speaks for the first time, she speaks with very formal, received pronunciation. She appears to be very subjective here, referring to the townspeople in a very indirect manner. The sound effects are very futuristic. The spaceships for example, firing down upon earth. These noises have clearly been added for realism. The Vogon aboard the spaceship's voice is quite low, and incorporates further futuristic sound effects. The characters throughout the drama have accents which are more light-hearte, differing from those used in war of the worlds, which were very serious, adding a sense of comedy and happiness to the piece. There were several differences between War of the worlds and this piece. War of the Worlds was supposedly meant be be very realistic drama, showing the end of the world in a dramatic way. Opposed to this, this piece is quite clearly a comedy. The Jolly music which began the piece ends it.

Radio Drama Analysis Part 1: War Of The Worlds

On Sunday, October 30, 1938, millions of radio listeners were shocked when radio news alerts announced the arrival of Martians. Many people ran out of their homes screaming while others packed up their cars and fled. Before the era of T.V., people sat in front of their radios and listened to music, news reports, plays and various other programs for entertainment. In 1938, the most popular radio program was the "Chase and Sanborn Hour" which aired on Sunday evenings at 8 p.m. The star of the show was ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy Charlie McCarthy. Unfortunately for the Mercury group, headed by dramatist Orson Welles, their show, "Mercury Theatre on the Air," aired on another station at the very same time as the popular "Chase and Sanborn Hour." Welles, of course, tried to think of ways to increase his audience, hoping to take away listeners from the "Chase and Sanborn Hour." For the Mercury group's Halloween show that was to air on October 30, 1938, Welles decided to adapt H. G. Wells’ well-known novel, War of the Worlds, to radio. Radio adaptations and plays up to this point had often seemed rudimentary and awkward. Instead of lots of pages as in a book or through visual and auditory presentations as in a play, radio programs could only be heard (not seen) and were limited to a short period of time (often an hour, including commercials). On Sunday, October 30, 1938 at 8 p.m., the broadcast began when an announcer came on the air and said, "The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air in The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells." Hours after the program had ended and listeners had realized that the Martian invasion was not real, the public was outraged that Orson Welles had tried to fool them. Many people sued. Others wondered if Welles had caused the panic on purpose. The power of radio had fooled the listeners. They had become accustomed to believing everything they heard on the radio, without questioning it. Now they had learned - the hard way.

The codes and conventions present throughout the drama, was the use of a formal address towards the listener, which in some respects commands a sense of authority over the listener. Another convention was the typical sound effects, such as the cannon firing, and the capsule sliding open, which all added to the atmosphere. The accent of a majority of the characters was central American, with the dialect being stereotypical of early 1930's America. Overall the codes and conventions used are done to entice the listener. For all they knew, these series of events were believed to be really happening.

Radio Drama Analysis: The Colour Purple - Sony Radio Academy Silver Award 2009

This radio drama centred around a young black woman, born into poverty and segregation - the struggle of uneducated black girl Celie in America's Deep South. The episode was heavily revolving around the idea of inequality of two main races: the white and black populations in America. The female characters are all young, yet intellectual black women, which goes against the stereotype of the ''white man'' in the drama. The male characters are all middle aged black men and they share the stereotype of violence and unintelligence, though they too are very intelligent. To begin, the young girl Celie is being abused by her harsh father, who takes his anger out on her as there is no one else for him to take it out on. Every character here has a stereotypical Southern American accent, with the black characters dialect being stereotypically representative of the black communities. Their expressions and phatic conversations reflect a sociolect of well educated people. Religion also played a large part in this drama.

Research: The Effectiveness of Radio Today

It can be argued that young people nowadays listen more to the radio via the internet than by any other source, with the conventional AM/FM radios receiving less than 20 hours of listening via them per week.

So yes, to an extent, it would seem as if the radio is slowly dying out, with the enabling for more and more 15-24 yr olds to utilise the internet as a means of listening.

The benefits of radio production over television production are that: There is a higher level of control here, in the sense that radio presenters can have structured scripts in front of them, as no one else can see them, whereas TV presenters must learn the script before going on-air, and pray that they make no mistakes.

Hopefully, as we have scripted the entire drama, we shall have it presented in front of us during the recording. If there are any mistakes that we make during the recording process, we can edit them out, or simply record over them electronically.

Research: The History Of Radio

Twenty years after the telephone was invented and music was first sent down a telephone line, Guglielmo Marconi sent radio signals. Marconi (1874-1937) was born in Italy and studied at the University of Bologna. He was fascinated by Heinrich Hertz’s earlier discovery of radio waves and realized that it can be used for sending and receiving telegraph messages, referring to it as “wireless telegraphs.” Marconi’s first radio transmissions, in 1896, were coded signals that were transmitted only about a mile (1,6 km) far.

 
But Marconi’s wireless telegraph transmitted only signals. Voice over the air, as we know radio today, came only in 1921. Marconi went on to introduce short wave transmission in 1922.

Marconi was not the first to invent the radio, however. Four years before Marconi started experimenting with wireless telegraph, Nikola Tesla, a Serb who moved to the USA in 1884, invented the theoretical model for radio. Tesla tried unsuccessful to obtain a court injunction against Marconi in 1915. In 1943 the US Supreme Court reviewed the decision. Tesla became acknowledged as the inventor of the radio – even though he did not build a working radio.

  

There are other claims to the throne of radio inventor. Indian scientist J.C. Bose

demonstrated the radio transmission in 1896 in Calcutta in front of the British Governor General. The transmission was over a distance of three miles from the Presidency College and Science College in Calcutta. The instruments (‘Mercuri Coherer with a telephone detector’) are still there in the science museum of the Calcutta University. Thus writes contributor Dipak Basu, referencing the Proceedings of the IEEE, January, 1998.

Bose repeated his demonstration in the Royal Society in London in 1899 in the presence of Lord Rayleigh (Nobel prize winner in Physics, 1904), J.A. Fleming (Professor at London university and later an advisor to the Marconi company), and Lord Lister (President of the Royal Society). As a result he was offered Professorship in Cambridge, but declined.

Bose had solved the problem of the Hertz not being able to penetrate walls, mountains or water. Marconi was present in the meeting of the Royal Society and it is thought that he stole the notebook of Bose that included the drawing of the ‘Mercuri Coherer with a telephone detector’. Marconi’s Coherer, which he used in 1901, was the exact copy of that of Bose. Apparently Marconi was unable to explain how he got to the design. He said that an Italian Navy engineer called Solari had developed it, but Solari later denied it. Marconi then said that Italian Professor Timasina did, which later was exposed as a lie by another Italian professor, Angelo Banti, who claimed that the design was invented by signalman Paolo Castelli.

 
It is reputed that Nathan B. Stubblefield, a farmer from Murray, Kentucky, made a voice transmission four years before Marconi transmitted radio signals. In 1892, Stubblefield handed his friend Rainey T. Wells a box and told him to walk away some distance. Wells said later: “I had hardly reached my post.. when I heard I heard HELLO RAINEY come booming out of the receiver.”

Stubblefield demonstrated his invention to the press in 1902 but, being afraid that his invention will be stolen, never marketed his wireless radio. When he was found dead in 1929, his radio equipment was gone.

Nikola Tesla remains acknowledged as the inventor of the radio.

Today, there are more than 33,000 radio stations around the world, with more than 12,000 in the US alone. Worldwide there are more than 2 billion radio sets in use, or about one radio for every 3 persons; proof that video never killed the radio star.

Lesson 1: Radio 4 Material - 'Ring around the bath'

The Radio drama that i watched was a social situation named 'Ring around the bath'. I thought the name was strange too, but anyway, it involved several middle aged men and women discussing issues regarding their partners. Typically targeted at an older audience, this specific target audience minimised the mass appeal. I believe this drama is thus aimed at a niche audience.