Have you ever listened to a radio program and thought; "Gee wouldn't it be neat to do something like that?" Well, you can. I did. On the afternoon of Thursday, May 21rst of this year I recorded my first "official" radio show. At home. By myself!
Some of you folks may ask why one person would want to take on such an ambitious project? Let me begin by saying that one of the elements of radio which kept me interested in listening to these programs in the first place, and inspired me to create in this medium, is the fact that there are no ‘visible' pictures. This leaves everything to the imagination on the part of the listeners, and the ones who work in this medium. Especially the script writers! Radio writers can create any type of situation and set their plays anywhere (on their own imaginary planet if they like) without having to worry whether or not a producer has enough money to build those outrageous sets of which the stories may call for. The radio writer isn't concerned if a costume designer cannot come up with the right outfits for a certain character. These things are not needed in radio, for radio is not seen, but heard. Once those particular obstacles are removed, then the possibilities for drama are endless!!!
The continuation of radio drama has become a major passion of mine, and I want to take this opportunity to share a few things with those of you who are reading this article. First, the history behind the birth of "The Night Owl Radio Mystery Theatre." Second, some tips for those of you who wish to try your hands at producing your own homebrewed radio show.
I hope that the next few pages will be informative, helpful, and entertaining to all.
As I stated at the beginning, this was my first official radio show. By official I mean the first one that I did seriously. I have been tinkering around with little one man homespun radio productions for almost as long as I have been a fan of OTR itself. My earlier stints were just exercises in fun. A few classics, like "Frankenstein" & "The Hound of the Baskervilles." A remake of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre Presentation of "Dracula" & a very primitive rendition of "Sorry Wrong Number!" These were just a few of my earlier efforts. Like I said, they were only exercises in fun and mostly for my ears alone. Any thoughts I had of doing a radio series of my own back then died with the cancellation of CBS Radio Mystery Theater. I thought if a professional show like CBS RMT had been taken off the air, then who would be interested in listening to a homebrewed offering of mine
So I spent the next several years just listening to OTR. I didn't purchase very many shows back in those earlier days because they weren't very easy for me to find. My listening of these great treasures came from copies I borrowed from my local public library. The first cassette that I checked out was "Sorry Wrong Number." Needless to say, I was hooked on SUSPENSE ever since! As I said, I just listened. I had no more thoughts at that particular time of resuming my old hobby of little homespun productions. Let alone starting a New Time Radio series from scratch. I mean, radio drama was dead. Right??
I found out how wrong I was in assuming this. A few years later while I was browsing in a bookshop, I stumbled upon an episode of Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theater. Here was a brand new radio series! I can not express how overjoyed I was in discovering that someone was trying to keep this wonderful art form alive. It was then that the desire to create my own radio series came back.
One of my favorite radio plays has always been "Sorry Wrong Number." Once listening to Cape Cod RMT's "Caller On Line One," I discovered how similar the two shows were. Well my mind started to go into the "What if?" stage. (A GREAT TOOL FOR ANY WRITER...) What if I were to write my own "Terror By Telephone" radio play? "It couldn't hurt," I thought. Next I asked myself how should I approach such a story? From who's viewpoint? I decided to tell the story from the viewpoint of the authorities themselves, and soon the plot for the first episode of my own radio series started to unfold
Some of you may recall that monster blizzard which bombarded the East Coast in the winter of 1993. Remember those few days when we couldn't even step out our front doors because the snow was piled several feet high on our sidewalks? Well it was during that time that I picked up pen and paper, and wrote the first draft of my first radio play. I completed it in one night
I was so anxious to hear my new play performed as a radio show, that a few days later, after all of that snow had begun to melt, I went to visit some friends of mine. I showed them the script (entitled "555-HELP" back then) and the three of us decided to a recording of it that same afternoon. A few hours later the very first episode of "Dark Offerings" (which my series was called at the time) was completed. However when I listened to the show, I immediately discovered that it needed to be reworked. The story was disjointed in several spots, and I was dissatisfied with the titles for both the play and the series. Another dilemma also plagued me. Where could I find an audience who would be willing to listen to my efforts??
During the next few years several incidences occurred which caused me to put my dream on hold. One was a change in my locality. As I packed my belongings, the "555-HELP" script was shoved into the bottom of a box. It remained there for the next four years.
Last summer I dragged out that old battered script from it's hiding place and reread it. As I started to type it up, (the original was done in long hand) a nagging rhyme kept whirling around inside my head. The rhyme which began "Rattle-Rattle..." provided my play with a new title, and gave birth to a character who did not exist in the original first draft. Now with the final draft of my of my first radio script completed, I moved on to the next step. Which was to find a title for the series itself.
Now some of you may be wondering what I found wrong with my original series title "Dark Offerings?" The fact was, I couldn't come up with a gimmick to go along with that particular title. What I mean by a gimmick are those neat little catch phrases and hooks which were so popular in Old Time Radio. They were the shows' signatures. I not only wanted such a signature for my own series, but I felt it was necessary.
Over the next several months I ate, dreamed, and breathed, dozens of titles and gimmicks. Nothing came close to what I was looking for. I guess I chose "The Night Owl Radio Mystery Theatre" because of the basic fact I am a night owl by nature. It is usually late at night that I do most of my writing. I also felt that a new character needed to be created. It was this character who would become the gimmick for my series. I decided to have him introduce each episode in a voice as ominous as I could make it. He was to be my own version of "The Man In Black" and "The Whistler." His name? The Night Owl!
Now it was time for me to find a cast. I approached every person I knew, and could not find anyone in my area who was interested. My two friends who were involved in the original recording now lived a hundred and twenty miles away from me, and I didn't get to see them very often. So the script went into a drawer for another year
This past spring I got hooked up to the internet and began trading OTR shows. One of my trading friends told me she had received some shows that a friend of hers wrote. After reading her remarks on how much she enjoyed them, I wrote her back informing her about my play and my proposed series. Her response was so uplifting that it inspired me once again to do the show. This time however I didn't wait for anyone to help. I just went ahead and recorded it all on my own. Portraying every character. I even managed to come up with some music off from my keyboard, and I really don't know how to play it! (Can't tell one note from the other:-) I did find some keys that I liked and they became the theme for the series.
The final recording process of that little twenty-seven minute show took five hours! However, no matter how different each story may be, I usually try to follow a similar pattern for each production that I do. I use this guide in the hopes that each Night Owl RMT episode may sound more polished than the last one, and eventually be easier for me to produce
Once a script is completed then I do what I call a "tester tape" to get a rough idea on how the story will sound in radio format. This enables me to hear the lines & to help me to come up with the voices for all of those different characters that I create. I then go back, and edit the script to make the necessary corrections, and to delete the portions that don't quite work with that particular story. After this process is completed I then do a rehearsal tape. This recording is done complete with sound & music effects as if I am doing the actual show itself.
I do my sound effects in a variety of ways. Some I pull from my sound effects library, and they are recorded directly onto the master tape as I am doing the shows. I did this with my second show, "Shopping For Murder." I found a track that had a thunderstorm on it, and just programed that track to keep on repeating itself while I was doing the play. Some sound effects I do live. Like my telephone ringing effects when I did my first show, "Rattle-Rattle." I took those from the phones in my home. I had to keep pausing the tape. Go downstairs and dial from the extension telephone to call the main house number. The phone would ring, I would run back upstairs to my attic (where I record these shows) and take the tape off from pause. I let the phone ring far as long as is indicated in the script, and then answer it. Then there are the creative sound effects. These are the ones where I don't have a particular sound effect for, and I find I have to improvise by creating an effect and hoping it will achieve the effect that I am looking for. Oh, if you folks could only see me during production, you would probably LAUGH YOUR HEADS OFF!!!!!. It is probably too funny to watch me put these shows together!
After I listen to the rehearsal tape to make sure my recording levels are right (ALWAYS CHECK THOSE RECORDING LEVELS!!!), I then do the final production of the actual show itself. My next step is sending copies of the program out to my script publisher, and a few of my OTR friends, and wait for what I consider to be the hardest part of these shows..."THE REVIEWS!" And then on to the next show.....
My advice to anyone who wishes to create in this medium is to attempt a 30 minute homebrewed production of their own. Do a few rehearsal tapes to make sure everything sounds ok. You can never have too much practice:-) When your program is completed, send a few copies out to your friends. If you trade OTR shows you will find that your trading partners are very willing to listen to your efforts. You will more than likely receive some criticism as well as praise. This is to be expected. Always keep in mind that most of these folks REALLY WANT TO HELP YOU with your work, and are not trying to be mean. Of course you will probably get a few vicious critics as well. People who really don't have anything helpful to say at all, and who wouldn't even attempt this project themselves, but want to put in their two cents anyway:-) You can usually spot this group a mile away by their petty comments; you should just brush them off, and stick to those remarks from the people who really want to assist you in your efforts. A final piece of advice to those who wish to attempt this project is to HAVE FUN WITH IT! That's what it's all about folks...
And those were some hoots from a night owl.
Until next time . . .
try to get some rest!
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