2024 Retrospective & Audio Drama Terminology

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And now Audio Theater Central. Hello, welcome to Audio Theater Central.
This is the show that explores family friendly audio drama
through news, reviews and interviews. I'm your host, JD. Setter.

(00:21):
This is episode two zero seven, the final episode of
twenty twenty four. Thank you so much for joining me.
Well in this episode, we're gonna break the mold a
little bit. We're switching things up and today at the
very end of the episode, I'm going to share a
pretty serious message from me, and I hope you will

(00:44):
stick around for that. We've got some feedback from Camden
and Blake, a bunch of audio drama updates to get
to which I'm really excited about, and I'm going to
be sharing two here's what I'm thinking Segments one about
some audio drama terminology which has been popping up lately
and I thought it would be fun to address that.

(01:05):
And then it'll look back at some highlights from the
year of twenty twenty four. So let's jump into it.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
We interrupt this program to bring you a special.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Report and in other news tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
A brief look at the headlines.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Now, they want exciting, fast piece news that's relevant and entertaining,
like this.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well, as always, if you have some updates about an
upcoming or recently released audio drama that you think our
community needs to know about, be sure to let us know.
Go to PFM dot link slash atc news and fill
out that form. Get us all the pertinent information, and
we will do what we can to help you spread
the word. And even if it's not something you want

(01:47):
to be announced on the podcast, if it's just something
you want to let me know about, you can do
it that way as well. All right, First up, a
couple of really time sensitive things. Today is Cyber Monday
at the release of this episode, so Black Friday is passed.
But we did recently post a list of a roundup
of year end sales. Many of them were happening on

(02:09):
Black Friday, but some are happening still today as well
as some will be continuing throughout this week or through
the end of the year, maybe some happening around Christmas time,
So be sure to hit up that link and maybe
bookmarket check back as we move through the holiday season,
as we will be updating that post with the most
up to date information regarding some of these end of

(02:31):
the year sales from your favorite audio drama. Series, so
be sure to check that out. Also, the second annual
Christmas Audio Drama Spectacular. This is an event that ATC
teams up with Odyssey Geek to put on. This is
obviously it's a second annual, so this is our second
year doing it, and it's a live stream that you

(02:54):
can tune in, listen to some audio dramas with some
other family friendly audio drama fans and chat about it
in the chat room. And you know, we're going to
be sharing some really cool behind the scenes information from
each one of the featured productions, so you don't want
to miss this. It will be streaming live on the

(03:14):
Porchline FM radio station as well as the Odyssey Geek
YouTube channel. Now it isn't a video, it's just audio,
but those are the places where you can tune in.
This will be taking place on Friday, December thirteenth, so
it's going to be a lot of really really cool
shows featuring stuff from First Acts Productions, Adventures and Odyssey

(03:37):
LRT Media, Playful World Ministries, Life at the Pond, Witnesses
and more. So there's a link in the show notes
to a post on our website which has all of
the details there and all the pertinent links for you
to be able to tune in, but again that will
be Friday, December thirteenth. It's going to be going for
a few hours, so you don't want to miss it.

(04:01):
Moving on to some recent releases, Shadows in Daylight season two,
episode two, titled Trojan, has been released. Here is the summary.
Kaylan's grades are mysteriously slipping until she learns it is
the result of a hacker who's infecting the entire university
and beyond. Can private investigator Winter O'Brien find the hacker

(04:21):
and save Klan's grades before it's too late. You can
get a copy of this episode at the Shadows and
Daylight website or through Christopher greens Buy Me a Coffee page.
You can also stream it on Dramafy. All of the
links for all the various places to get this episode
are in the show notes. It's a really really fun
one and if you'd like to hear my initial reaction,

(04:43):
that is over in atc backstage. But I also got
to play a character in this episode, which was really
really fun for me, so be sure to check that out.
As I said, links for all those different places are
in the show notes. The latest Patch the Pirate album
is out now. Danger in the Deep is available on
CD and digital download. Here is the summary. Dive into

(05:07):
a thrilling underwater escapade where danger lurks around every corner,
especially in the gray area. Join the Patch the Pirate
crew and their new friend Ferdinand the Young Explorer as
they learn the importance of authority, the reality of consequences,
and the wonderful blessing of forgiveness. Link is in the
show notes if you want to grab your copy of

(05:29):
this brand new release. And actually, Roy former ATC co host,
just texted me about this one and he said the
new Patch is great. They just keep getting better, so
he really enjoyed it. I know his kids are really
enjoying Patch the Pirate two. So again, link is in
the show notes if you want to get your copy.
Also just released a new Christmas edition of On Demand. Now.

(05:52):
If you've been around for a while, you may remember
last year Glenn Haskell for Stax Productions released a three
part mini series called on Demand and it's sort of
like a BTV style show and it was really really
interesting and I got to play a character in those
sort of a bookend character in this series and just

(06:15):
released is on demand Christmas. The summary for this is
a new show is on demand and Jeffrey wants to
share it with his sister. They sit down to watch
a holiday special she was not expecting. You're invited to
join these siblings as they experienced the holiday in some
very unique and affirming ways. This is exclusively available on Dramafy.

(06:36):
Link is in the show notes. And I really enjoyed
being asked to come back and play the character of Jeffrey,
and this time he is joined by his sister, who
is played by Rose Beasley. So that was a lot
of fun. And thanks Glenn for having me come back
on that show. And link is in the show notes,
so you can go ahead and give this one a listen.

(07:00):
And the last note here for our new releases is
from Pirateeers. The Pirateeers Season three soundtrack with music composed
by Drew A. Forbes, is now available on CD. So
I think it was already released digitally, but now you
can get a CD copy if you want. There is
so much music in this season of the show that

(07:22):
this one is also a two CD set, just like
this season of Audio drama episodes as well, but that
is also available now at the Eternal Future Productions website,
which is linked in the show notes. Now something really
exciting that I know. There are those of you in

(07:42):
this community who have been looking forward to this for
quite some time. There have been little hints at it,
and the Lamplighter Theater catalog featured some information about it.
But we got some really cool information about the Chronicles
of Finny and Jones. The Bookend Collection. This is really cool.

(08:03):
This is a compilation of all the bookends from the
very beginning of Lamplader Theater in two thousand and nine
until now. Three volumes of shows, plus some never before
released behind the scenes stories of Lamplighter Theater and how
it began. So it is going to be available as
a retail product. You can purchase these yourself, but it
will also be airing as a Lamplader Theater radio special

(08:27):
this month and into early January. So take a listen
to this promo for the Chronicles of Finnian T. Jones.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
If you enjoy Lamplader Theater, we have something very special
just for you, for me, for you, Lamplighter Theater presents
the Chronicles of Finnian T. Jones, The book nd Collection.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
If you're truly ready for a change. Open the door
as Finian invites you to the Exploratorio, ride Rollo the
Rolling Ladder bus. We clear the trucks. Next we pull the.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Then Wayne j.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Plus the Ever Leader, the Thepipulator, the excavator. At each
book end is filled with timely wisdom inspired by scripture.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
God makes everything beautiful in its time.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
Plus the story of how Lamplighter Theater began with doctor
Mark Hambi.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
That moment changed my life of faith forever.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
The chronicles of Vinnian T. Jones. The bookend collection go
to Lamplighter dot net. Lamplighter dot net.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Oh my goodness, this is something we've been looking forward
to for a while, as I said a moment ago.
So the full broadcast of the radio special, parts one
and two will feature the bookends. And then in volume three,
Mark Hamby and John Fornoff they're going to take a
tour of Fidian's antiques, books, coffees, et cetera. And John said,

(09:57):
it's the most fun I've ever had in the studio,
Mark throws me in the defibrillator. We step inside the Exploratorium,
then we hop for a ride on Rolo the Rolling
Ladder and explore the rooms and talk with Finian himself.
It's a blast. Oh man, I'm really looking forward to this.
And John also said that this three volume set here

(10:18):
is going to be leading up to the launch of
a new mini series with Finian, where all the hints
that they've been planting since two thousand and nine all
come together in an action packed, exciting rescue adventure. So, oh,
my goodness, we've heard little hints at a Finian only
focused audio drama for quite some time now, and it's

(10:41):
finally coming to fruition and this collection of bookends is
all leading up to that. So my goodness, this is
going to be some really exciting stuff here in twenty
twenty five from Lamplider Theater, and I mean, I'm here
for it. I am here for the main story. In

(11:03):
lamp Ladder Theater, they're always fantastic, they're always really really interesting,
and they totally stand on their own. But there's just
been something that has been so intriguing about the character
of Finian and that little air of mystery about him
and his backstory and things that they've been slipping in,
like John said, since the beginning in two thousand and nine,

(11:24):
and it's just really cool that all of this stuff
is sort of coming to a head and we're going
to get some really cool stuff. So oh, lots to
look forward to there. And our final bit of news
things we'd have to look forward to. This is an
update from New Birth Audio Productions regarding the Claim, the

(11:47):
audio drama that they are producing in partnership with Tracy
van Doolder of Witnesses. This is that Western that we've
talked about in the past, and mikeah Touchet says that
production is complete on the Claim, So I don't know
if that just means recording or if that means entirely
finished and it will be released soon. We will find out.

(12:09):
But also he says the first phase of post production
is complete on Reckoning of Cowards, which is another show
coming from New Birth. Oh my goodness. And these are
both ones that we've heard little bits about over the
last several months, in fact going back to last year,
and these are ones I've really been looking forward to.

(12:32):
It's just they just both sound really interesting. I've said before,
I love Westerns, so super excited about that. Speaking of Westerns,
we haven't heard much about it, but I know that
LRTE Media is also working on a Western, which also
sounds amazing. But of course New Birth Audio is sort
of a partner on the Jake Muller Adventures, and so

(12:55):
Micah also says that they will be returning to Gap
Digital in early March twenty twenty five to record two
new Jake Muller Adventures, which we talked a little bit
about hinted at a little bit in a previous episode,
but two more coming up soon and that is just
some exciting stuff. And of course in that episode we

(13:15):
talked primarily about Jake Muller Adventures two, which is titled Blood,
and Micah also shared that that production is available on
CD now in addition to the digital version. So oh goodness,
lots happening with New Birth Audio productions and lots to
look forward to here in the coming year of twenty

(13:36):
twenty five.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
Testing one, two, three, testing.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
That was just me talking. I do that a lot.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
Where's my speech?

Speaker 1 (13:43):
How long you're going to work with it?

Speaker 3 (13:46):
That's what I want to talk about.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
So here's something that I've been thinking about a lot recently,
and that is audio drama terminology. Why are you thinking
about that? Jd Well, because it is a discussion and
a topic that I see floating around in the community
off and on here and there, and a few months
ago there was a big discussion about it in the

(14:10):
Audio Drama Alliance group, and unfortunately, while that was going on,
I was extremely busy and was not able to join in.
I saw that it was happening, and I know there
was a big, long thread in our group, and I
saw snippets of it as it was happening, but wasn't
able to really dive into it. But it was something

(14:30):
that was already on my mind because I'd been seeing
it talked about, as I said, here and there in
the space, and we have addressed it here in the past,
different parts of it in different episodes, and I thought, well,
maybe it's time to take a few minutes here on
the show and just talk about all of these different
things all together, all at once, and let's just get

(14:52):
it all in one place. And so let's dive into this.
Let's start off with just the basics here. What do
we mean by audio drama? What is audio drama? And
the discussion in the group was sort of centering around
awareness of this medium in the general public and people
not understanding what it is and talking about do we

(15:16):
need a different term. So before we can make that decision,
I think let's define it so to us here at ATC,
audio drama is a dramatized audio production consisting of a
full cast of actors performing a story, accompanied by sound
design and music to create an immersive oral experience. Now

(15:41):
that is a you are al not orl There is
such a thing as oral storytelling, which that's not what
we're talking about here. Oral is referring specifically to sound,
and so that's what we're talking about here. Full cast audiobooks,
one voice, spoken word performances, those are something else. They're cool,

(16:03):
and we've talked about those things before, but they're not
audio drama. Now. An audio drama of production may be
highly produced with some custom folly and detailed soundscapes, or
they may be recorded live with minimal sound effects. But
as long as they have the essential elements of acting
and sound design, that is what we consider to be

(16:25):
an audio drama. Now. They're also referred to as radio
drama or radio theater or audio theater as the name
of this show reflects Audio Theater Central, and we technically
could have gone with Audio Drama Central as the name
of this show, and perhaps that would have made more

(16:46):
sense in the long term since we've really gone full
in on the term audio drama as opposed to audio theater.
But audio theater central it just felt I don't know it,
it flowed a little nicer at the time, That's what
I was thinking. I just liked it a little bit better.

(17:07):
And because you know, the high quality series in the
industry used the term theater focus on the family, radio
theater and lamp lader theater both spelled with the th
h e a t r e spelling. That was one
of the big influences for the name of this show.

(17:30):
But I'm not opposed necessarily to using the term radio
drama or radio theater, but audio drama. It just is
the one that has also started to grow in the
consciousness of the you know, the average consumer out there.
Because of the proliferation of podcasts in the last several years,
audio drama has become a more recognizable term. And a

(17:55):
couple of things about that term audio drama is too words.
I have seen a lot of people putting them together,
like audiobook sometimes is written as one word, and I
tend to do that myself when I'm writing it out
I'll say audiobook has one word, but it is two words,
and it is short for audio dramatization, and so that's

(18:19):
why it's separated there. And it's not referring to drama
in regards to a genre of story. So audio drama
doesn't mean that the story or the production is a
dramatic or a drama necessarily. I've also seen people writing
because they see the term audio drama and they think

(18:39):
that it means the genre of story. I've seen people
write audio comedy or audio thriller or something along those
lines to differentiate the genre of story, and that's a misunderstanding.
So audio drama is just short for audio dramatization. So
if you would prefer to say you are a puer

(19:00):
of audio dramatizations, I'm totally fine with that. It's just
a very long word, and so it's just been kind
of shortened to audio drama. And if you look on
the cover art for a lot of productions, even stuff
from the BBC or other production houses, many times on
the cover art it will say an audio dramatization or

(19:22):
something along those lines, and so that's where this term
audio drama comes from. Now, of course, theater spelled with
either the er or re spelling often gets used as well,
because we can trace our roots back to the theater,
the stage and radio drama or old time radio was

(19:46):
just a sort of a progression of storytelling from the stage,
which goes back far far into history, and so that's
where the roots of our storytelling medium come from. And
so with a lot of things in life, the terminology
just gets just evolves in morphs as things change, and

(20:09):
in this case, as technology comes about that changes the
way storytelling is done. And so because of that, you know,
we have the term radio theater or audio theater, and
also radio play or audio play. Now, the reason why
I don't necessarily embrace those terms is because this is

(20:33):
just my personal thought on it. But a radio play
or audio play tends to carry with it the connotation
of less of an immersive type of storytelling. Now, there
are stage plays out there that use a lot of technology,
including full sound design and musical scores that run underneath it. Now,

(20:54):
I know there are a lot of those out there
in London's West End, or Broadway in New York, or
even cited sound theaters here in the US. They do
amazingly huge productions on stage, But generally speaking, a stage
play is much more stripped down. You're focusing primarily on

(21:18):
the performance of the actors and sometimes the sets, which
are sort of the visual equivalent of elements of sound design.
For audio drama, sometimes those sets are very minimal as well.
The main thing there is the actor's performance, and so
I think when you call what we do an audio

(21:41):
play or a radio play, it sort of does minimize
the other elements in my mind, and it also can
carry a connotation of melodrama because stage plays and theater
you tend to sometimes overact a little bit or project
because you're speaking to a crowd in this room, you've

(22:02):
got to make yourself hurt. Many theaters are more of
an intimate space, so they may not even use amplification.
I've been in lots of small theaters in the round
where they just focus on the actors' performances and they
don't use any PA system. So I think audio play,
radio play, those terms sort of feel a little less

(22:26):
applicable to what we do as an industry here in
audio drama. Now, if you want to use those terms,
that's fine. This is just a personal preference for me
and so that's why I'm just explaining my thought process
on why I don't prefer those terms. Now, there are
many others that are floating around audio movie, theater of

(22:49):
the mind, audio fiction, fiction podcasts, all of these things
are floating around too. Now. Theater of the mind is
a more general term that I've heard a lot of
people use, even just for oral storytelling, because you're telling
a story and the person is sort of picturing it
all in their mind on the theater of their mind.

(23:13):
And so while that can apply and it can work,
it's not my favorite term. Audio movie comes a little closer,
but then you're sort of merging two different mediums into
one term. But I understand why people use that because
the general population are far more familiar with what a

(23:34):
movie is versus audio drama. So combining those to make
it clearer, I guess sort of makes sense to me.
The problem with both of those is that there are
very similar terms that are trademarked. Now. Wayland Productions has
a trademark for the term theater for the mind, and
that is with the th e a t er spelling

(23:55):
of theater, and of course they switch up the prepa
is there for instead of but theater for the mind
is a trademarked term of Wayland Productions, and another one,
a movie in your mind is a trademark of graphic Audio.
So you've got to be careful using those sorts of

(24:17):
terms to market your content because it could get too
close to those trademarks. Now, in general conversation, if you're
just sharing with a friend trying to explain what it
is that you do or the medium that you are
interested in as a consumer, then you can use those terms.
But in marketing I would tend to steer clear of those,

(24:40):
just so you can avoid any potential of legal issues.
So that brings us to audio fiction and fiction podcast.
Those are both also big terms that are thrown around
in the indie audio drama space, and the reasons why
I don't really care for those is because audio While

(25:00):
the vast majority of audio drama is fiction, there are
many that are not. There are some that are true
biographical stories, and I think if we call it all
audio drama audio fiction, that's a little misleading. It doesn't
apply to every single one. And there are of course

(25:22):
stories that are primarily based on true historical figures or
things like that, and there might be some artistic license
taken with them. So you might be saying, well, if
that's the case, then it's still fiction. But it's just
a bit too gray for me, and so audio fiction
just doesn't feel like it fits to my mind. And

(25:45):
fiction podcasts, well, I think have already explained the fiction
part of that. Not all audio dramas are fiction, and likewise,
not all audio dramas are podcasts. In fact, I would
say the vast majority of the high quality audio dramas
that are available in the world today are not podcasts.

(26:07):
Focused on a family radio theater Adventures and Odyssey, The
Extraordinary Adventures of Ga Hinty Lamplighter Theater, Many of the
BBC radio shows. I say many, not all, because I
can't give a blanket endorsement of everything that the BBC produces,
but many of them, especially the classic lit adaptations, are
some of my favorites. None of those are podcasts. Now,

(26:31):
some of these shows may have dropped an episode here
and there on a podcast at some point in time
as a marketing tool, but the main show, the major content,
is not available as a podcast. So to call all
audio drama or just use a blanket term for all
of this content as fiction podcasts. That's not accurate either.

(26:57):
I mean I didn't even mention Big Finish Produce Actions
and The Brinkman Adventures and many of these other shows.
They're not podcasts, so that term doesn't work either. Now,
thinking back to the term radio I said earlier, I'm
not necessarily opposed to using the term radio theater or
radio drama because you know, people still use the term

(27:19):
film and TV or television to describe content that is
completely digital these days and not broadcast on the airwaves
or cable, so radio could still be used if you
wanted to, though in this case I prefer the more
general term audio. It feels a little more modern and
it feels like it encompasses things a little better. But again,

(27:40):
I won't quibble if you want to use the term
radio drama or radio theater. So that's my thinking on
the whole term audio drama slash audio dramatization. The key
thing here is we're talking about a full cast of
actors that is performing a story, So it's not just
acitation or a narration of a story. This is a performance.

(28:06):
And then those other elements of sound design and music
come together to make that whole cohesive piece of content
that we love called audio drama. Now, there are other
things I mentioned in a recent episode. I think it
was actually the last episode. There is sort of a spectrum.
If we have audio drama way over here on the
right side, then over clear on the other side, the

(28:28):
left side, you might have oral storytelling and audiobooks. They're
kind of synonymous there. They're typically one narrator, sometimes dual
like a male and female narrator, but there also can
be full cast. Occasionally they might have an opening music
cue and maybe one at the end, but generally there's

(28:50):
no music throughout, no underscoring for sure. I have heard
some audiobooks where they have a music que at the
beginning and the end of each chapter that I find
to be rather annoying. If I want to listen to
an audiobook, I just want to hear an audiobook, so
having a music cueue to bring in and out each
chapter not my favorite thing. But these are productions of

(29:14):
the full word for word text of a novel or
a piece of fiction written in prose. That is an audiobook.
And again I think oral storytelling, where it's just a
single person telling a story, those are similar. Those are
clear over on the left side of the spectrum here.
But then if you move a little over towards the right,

(29:36):
you have what I call an enhanced audiobook, and it
is the above sort of production, typically one narrator, sometimes two,
but more commonly with the enhanced audiobook, it might be
a full cast, so you have narrators for all the
different characters. But it's still a narration of a novel.

(29:57):
But it might also have some sound effects and some music.
But again the key thing here is it's still a
verbatim narration of the text of this prose piece of fiction.
So that's what I call it an enhanced audiobook. Then
move a little further down this continuum you have the
hybrid audiobook audio drama, and that is a full cast

(30:20):
of actors. And this time it's just not narration. This
is acting. You get the vocal folly, the efforts. When
there's some combat, you know, say in some sort of
a medieval piece, you might have the actors actually performing
as they're you know, having a sword fight or something
along those lines. So it's not just a narration. It

(30:42):
is full performances by actors, and you have a more
immersive sound design and musical score. But again, these hybrid
audiobook slash audio dramas are still a performance of the
text of a novel or piece of fiction written in prose.
That's the big difference here. But they may omit dialogue

(31:07):
attributions such as John said this, or those sorts of
things or even other small sections of the original texts
that are unnecessary due to the sound effects actually portraying that,
and so that narration of the text may not be
quite necessary. So sometimes those things are stripped out, and
that is what graphic audio produces. In general, most sections

(31:31):
of prose are left intact, but they remove the character tags,
so to speak, or those dialogue attributions and other small
things like that, but it is still a narration. You
have a narrator reading the majority of the text of
the book, but it does have a performance from actors,
immersive sound design, many times original music score. So those

(31:54):
I call a hybrid audiobook audio drama. So just to review,
on the the left side of the spectrum, we have
the straight audiobook, then a little further over we have
an enhanced audiobook. Then we have a hybrid audiobook audio drama,
and then at the far end on the right, we
have a standard regular audio dramatization, and there may be

(32:19):
other things that fall somewhere in that spectrum, but that's
sort of the terms that I'm using these days now.
In episode one ninety nine, we talked a little bit
about the different lengths of productions and how we had
to break it down for the Seneca Awards, because it
wasn't fair to have an episode of Adventures in Odyssey
it's coming in around twenty five minutes, go up against

(32:41):
an hour and a half audio drama from lamp Ladder
Theater or something like that. So we had to break
it up into short form and long form, and we
chose the forty five minute mark. So anything under forty
five minutes we call short form. Anything over forty five
minutes was long form. And then of course, like a
feature link would be generally speaking, you know, sixty seventy

(33:04):
ninety minutes, it would be a feature typically somewhere around
ninety minutes. But then you have you know, things like
a mini series or stuff like that. But of course,
the big focus in that episode I was talking about
micro audio dramas, and I generally speaking at that time,
talking specifically about something that was five minutes or under Now,

(33:26):
I do think, as I've looked back on this, I
think if you're over a little bit over five minutes,
you could still consider that to be a micro audio drama.
But I think anything under ten minutes could technically be
considered a micro audio drama. But within that short form
range there's a lot of wiggle room and different terms

(33:48):
you could use. But recently, when I was telling somebody
about a micro audio drama that I had worked on,
when I was explaining it to them, I used the
phrase it's the audio equivalent of a short film or
something like that. People tend to understand that it makes
sense to them, and so I think that works. But

(34:08):
I do really like the conciseness of the term micro
audio drama. And I'm not going to retread all of
that ground that I covered in episode one ninety nine,
So if you missed that, head over to that episode
and check out that segment there. But the bottom line is,
I think audio drama is as good a term as
any and there's really no need to try to rebrand

(34:29):
the medium. I think it's just as easy to educate
people as needed. I mean, just use the term audio
drama when you're talking about this, don't try to think
up other different terms necessarily, just explain it when when
you need to. I think it's very simple to say
when you're talking to somebody in a conversation, Oh, I'm

(34:51):
a fan of audio dramas. Have you ever heard an
audio drama? Oh, it's these great stories that are told
with a full cast of actors, with sound design and music.
It's really cool, you know. I mean that's very simple,
and I think people understand that. If they don't, you know,
obviously you can go a little further to explain more.
But I think just the term audio drama it works.

(35:13):
And so I would like to hear your thoughts on
this idea. What are your thoughts on audio drama? Do
you think we need to dig into finding a new
term to use, or do you have any other thoughts
on some of the other terms that I addressed here. Again,
I think this is important because there has been such

(35:33):
a growth of interest in audio content in general. The
audio book industry is growing year on year on year,
and it's growing very very quickly, and as more people
get into making audio and they're looking at these different
types of audio productions, I think it makes sense to

(35:54):
sort of differentiate Now. Platforms like Audible do make it
a little bit more difficult because as they lump all
of this stuff together. They even have just regular podcasts
talk show format podcasts on Audible now, so they're just
lumping all kinds of audio stuff together, and it is
hard to find. If you're looking for straight true audio drama,

(36:19):
it is harder to find it on there. They don't
have a separate section, so it does make it more difficult.
But anyway, as always, this segment is just about what
I'm thinking, what's on my mind at this point in time,
and I'm not necessarily saying that I always have all
of the correct answers. So I would love to hear

(36:40):
your thoughts on this.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
So what do you think of the show?

Speaker 3 (36:47):
Please leave your message after the chowne.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
Hi Audience Theater Central. Hey, guys, this is awesome teaching Hew.

Speaker 3 (36:53):
About j D Royan, Andrew minum It Victoria.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
Now, yesterday I received a letter from a big band.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
No time to try, I've got an email.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
This another package for me today? No, it's actually just
your mail.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
Well, speaking of hearing your thoughts, this is the feedback
segment where we get to hear from you I always
like to hear what you have to say. You can
always reach out via the email address feedback at audiotheatercentral
dot com. You can comment on the episode show notes,
not the website, or you can send a text message
or leave a voicemail at our feedback hotline which is

(37:27):
six two three six eight eight two seven seven zero
again six three six eight eight two seven seven zero.
And actually that is what our first piece of feedback
is from a voicemail which I'm actually just going to
touch on some of the highlights here. In this particular case,
this was a voicemail from Camden. I believe Camden from Montana,

(37:50):
so apologies if I misheard. The name was only spoken once,
so I may have misheard, but I think it's Camden
from Montana. And this is Guarding ATC episode two zero five.
And he said that he was listening to the episode
and he heard us playing the trailer for blood in
the updates segment, and he called in to let us

(38:14):
know that he was extremely disappointed and quite disappointed. He
used that term a few different times in the call.
He said that he had five siblings and he would
have been very embarrassed and horrified if they had been
listening to that episode with him when that trailer was played,
and he said that he lost quite a bit of

(38:37):
confidence in this podcast, and he said, quote, I have
to be cautious now with this podcast, and so I
wanted to address this feedback. First of all, Camden, thank
you for sending in your feedback. But he said in
his message that he heard that trailer and he immediately
stopped listening and said he had no intention of going

(38:59):
back to finish the episode, and just the playing of
a short section of the trailer of Jake Muller Adventure's
Blood was enough for him to stop listening. Now, I
understand if that particular production is not for you. I
can understand that because it is touching on some topics

(39:21):
that are what some people might call edgy. And while
this show is not, nor has never been intended for children,
I think very intentionally about every single thing that goes
out on this show, because I am very cognizant that

(39:41):
younger folks do listen, and it would never be my
intention to alienate or offend anybody by endorsing something that
is not good content. And so I just wanted to
address this feedback to Camden if he is still listening,
and to anybody else who may have had some qualms

(40:03):
about this particular show that we talked about in episode
two oh five. Now, Camden, if you had stuck with
the episode and actually listen to the conversation that I
had with the creators the producers of that show, you
would have heard the behind the scenes of that. Yes,
there is a focus in that story about vampires and

(40:26):
the vampire subculture that we find here in the USA
and potentially in other countries around the world as well,
But there are a couple of things that you need
to keep in mind. Firstly, it is not talking about
vampires in the pop culture. Since you know the over
the top white face, paint, cape wearing things that people

(40:52):
talk about on Halloween or maybe even dress up as
on Halloween. That is not what this show is talking about. Secondly,
never once in the entire production does it ever glorify
any of those elements. What it does is it talks
about a very real subculture that is pulling young people

(41:15):
into it these days that focuses on these very occult
related types of things. Yes, what those folks engage in
is distasteful, but the audio drama does not promote that
or glorify that in any way. And what it does

(41:35):
is shine a light on what is happening and the
allure the draw that it has for young people. And
it shows the folly of that mindset and that lifestyle,
and it also shows the downfall of those people who
are involved in that stuff. Moreover, it presents the antidote.

(41:57):
It shows the power of the blood of Jesus and
how that is an essential part of salvation. It's the
blood that washes away our sins, and so Jake Muller
adventures blood. While it uses the prism of the vampire
subculture to tell this story, it is an overtly Christian story.

(42:22):
It is an overtly God centered story. Now, I also
said in that episode, this is not one for the kids.
This is not a show for young listeners. This isn't
aimed at older teens, college age adults who may be
susceptible to these sorts of communities in some way, and

(42:46):
also for others just to be aware of what's out there.
And it also can illustrate ways that we as Christians
can witness to these people who are involved in this
type of lifestyle. So Camden, It's unfortunate that you bailed
on the episode at that point just from hearing that
short section of the trailer. I think you only played

(43:06):
about two minutes of it, because the rest of the
episode we talked about this and you would have heard
the heart behind these stories from Darby and Micah. So
I would strongly recommend that you go back to that
episode and listen to that interview just to get the
full context. Again, if this audio drama is just a

(43:28):
little bit too edgy for you, I get it. I
totally understand. If it's not for you, skip that audio drama.
But just to be perfectly honest and perfectly transparent here,
I felt a little bit hurt that you use such
strong language saying that you were quite disappointed and extremely

(43:50):
disappointed just because we talked about that and you didn't
even listen to the full context of what that show
was about. Because again, I try very very hard to
be intentional and mindful of everything that we promote here
on this show, and so I just thought it was
important to address this, and Camden, if you have any

(44:13):
further feedback, feel free to send that in, and anybody
else who might have been thinking similar things, I would
be open to hearing from you as well, But just
know it is always forefront in my mind to promote
clean content on this show. That's what this is about.
Family friendly content. Now, we talked about terminology a little

(44:36):
bit ago. Just because I say family friendly audio drama,
that doesn't mean that it is applicable for all ages.
If we're talking about terms that might need some revision,
that might be one of them. I've thought about this
a lot as well, trying to think of another term,
because family friendly is the best thing that I've been

(44:57):
able to come up with that sort of describe. In
the comics world, they have a term called all ages,
which means that the comic book is applicable for anybody.
But even though we talk about clean audio drama, to me,
that doesn't mean that every single one is going to
be applicable for all ages. It can still be clean

(45:18):
and not be appropriate for very young listeners. And so
I think that's where Jake Muller Adventures Blood falls, And
we're going to probably run into a similar thing with
Jake Muller Adventures Undead, which is going to be tackling
a similar sort of subculture idea. So I hope that

(45:41):
alays some of your concerns, Camden, and anybody else who
was thinking similar things something along those lines. Again, be
assured that I think very intentionally and carefully about everything
that we promote on this show. So I hope that
you'll stick around, keep listening and what we're doing here
to help get the word out about clean, family friendly

(46:04):
audio drama. But if not, if you feel like you've
got to part ways, then I wish you the best well.
Our next piece of feedback is an email from Blake,
and first of all, is a bit of sad news.
And he mentioned in his email that Polly Marsh, who
was a very well known actress and has been in
lamp Ladder Theater and lots of BBC radio stuff and

(46:29):
focus on the family radio theater productions, just a wonderful,
wonderful talent. He had mentioned that she was not doing well. Well.
It turns out she actually passed away. And I don't
think I had heard this news until I went looking
for more information, but she passed away on October seventh
of this year at seventy seven years old. She had cancer, unfortunately,

(46:51):
but there was a very very wonderful oh bit that
was written up in the Guardian in November of this
year about her, and so that is linked in the
show notes. It highlights a lot of the projects that
she was involved in and what a wonderful, wonderful talent
and it is a shame that we have lost her,
but we can always enjoy the amazing work that she

(47:14):
provided to this industry through all of the projects that
she was involved in. So I think I'm going to
be going back through listening to some older releases from
radio theater and such, just to revisit some of her performances.
But he also mentioned that on the Fast and Like
Nails podcast from Lamplighter, there was a recent episode from

(47:36):
October twenty second, called Through the Eyes of a Child
in which Mark hamby while they were at the soundhouse
in London recording the next two lamplightder theaters, which we
talked about in a previous update segment, he sat down
in the studio with Philip Glasboro and Michael Hockey and
did an interview about twenty some minutes and it is
a delightful conversation with them. You know, Philip has been

(47:59):
a guest here on the show. He spoke at the
Senecas in the past wonderful, wonderful writer, director, casting director, actor,
just a wonderful talent. And Michael Hockey You've heard him
in all kinds of shows over the years, so it
was a really really wonderful conversation. And interestingly enough, I

(48:19):
was subscribed to the Fast and Like Nails podcasts, but
there hadn't been any recent episodes in the feed that
I was subscribed to, so I completely missed this episode.
It turns out that they have switched their podcast provider
or something and they have a completely different feed that
I wasn't subscribed to, and that's why I missed this,
So thank you Blake for the heads up about This

(48:41):
link is in the show notes if you want to
listen to this episode. A really really enjoyable conversation with Mark,
Phillip and Michael talking about some of the highlights from
over the years of Lampliter Theater, as well as a
few little tidbits at what is coming in these new
ones that they just recently recorded. Kids in the show
notes again to check that out.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
Testing one, two, three, testing.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
That was just me talking. I do that a lot.

Speaker 3 (49:07):
Where's my speech? How long you're going to work with it?
That's what I want to talk about.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
All Right, well, here we are at the end of
twenty twenty four looking back on this year in this
industry and personally. I'll share a little bit about that
at the end of this episode. But twenty twenty four
was not a great year for me personally in my
day to day life. However, it was quite an eventful

(49:37):
year for me as a voice actor. I was privileged
to have some really fun projects come out this year
that I was involved in, and I just wanted to
sort of look back at some highlights from this year
related to personal projects. What has happened in the space
over this past year, And we'll end with some of

(50:00):
my favorite releases from this year. And I want to
throw that question out to you hear from you about
that your personal favorites. But let's start off kind of
looking back at some of the projects that I get
to be involved in this year as an actor. I
was privileged to be able to work with Heart Matters,
Eternal Future Productions, Protectorate Productions, Rumble Stump Entertainment, First Acts Productions,

(50:24):
The Jake Muller Adventures. I worked with Christopher Green on
Shadows in Daylight and Time Truck Chronicles, I was cast
in one of Bethany Baldwin's micro audio dramas. Just a
lot of really really fun projects. I don't know for
sure if this is the most active that I've been
in the space in terms of acting in a single year,

(50:46):
but I think if it isn't the most, it is
very close, and I'm just very, very thankful for that.
It is one of my favorite things to do, to
be involved in acting for audio drama. I kin some
of other voice over projects. You know, we talked earlier
about full cast audiobooks. I've done several of those. I've

(51:08):
done radio spots, I've done all kinds of things, but
one of my favorites is acting for audio drama. I
also referenced this earlier in this episode, but the Christmas
edition of on Demand from First Acts Productions, that was
a really fun one for me this year, getting to
bring back that character of Jeffrey after doing those first

(51:30):
three releases last year. I was in season three of
Pirateeers this year. Some of my favorites midty moments from
the show where in this season I think, you know,
of course, my view is skewed from my perspective, of course,
but I think some of my better moments portraying that
character happened in this season. I really enjoyed in one

(51:53):
of the early episodes that I was in previously getting
to sing a sea shanty in that episode, and that
was a highlight. But this year, in terms of acting moments,
I thought there were some really cool ones for me
as being able to bring that character of Smitty to life,
and those happened in this season. And another highlight from

(52:16):
this year was Nick Guy and the Who's the Greatest Affair?
Getting to play myself in a sort of an alternate
reality where there's an audio drama convention similar to Soniccon
and getting to mc that sort of it was just
it was really really fun. I had a lot of

(52:36):
fun with that. If you haven't heard that, you need
to go check it out. Huge thanks to Frank U
Lee for putting together that project. He put a lot
of time and effort into bringing that one to life.
Worked with a whole bunch of people in the industry,
and many folks were playing themselves in that like I was,
and it was just a lot a lot of fun.

(52:57):
So that was a highlight for me. And then getting
to have a very small cameo in Jake Muller Adventures
Blood That was super cool. I thoroughly enjoyed being involved
in that. As small as the part was, I had
fun getting to participate in that show because I really
really like it. Another highlight for me was getting to

(53:20):
play a lead character of Adam in the Genesis Story
of Adam and Eve. That was a really interesting audio
drama to be involved with, called the Serpent from the
beginning from Heart Matters. That performance was one of my
favorites of the year. And again I'm biased, but I

(53:41):
think I think there are some really good moments. As
I've been able to grow as an actor. I know
that I am not a phenomenal actor and I'm still
in the early days of performance. I can't even compare
to many, many, many folks in this industry. But that
was a really challenging role for me and I felt

(54:05):
like I was able to stretch myself in that role
and I really enjoyed it and the experience of recording
together with Alisia Hanson, who played Eve that that was
really really great as well. So those are some highlights
of projects that I was involved in, but the top
ones for me in terms of ones that I wasn't

(54:26):
involved in producing would have to be my micro audio
dramas this year. So I've worked in audio production for
well over two decades now, and I've worked on all
kinds of audio content over the years, and I have
done some things related to audio drama myself, but this

(54:48):
was the first time where I sat down and said,
I'm going to do the process myself. I'm going to write,
I'm going to edit, I'm going to sound design, I'm
going to score with stock music. I can't compose myself,
but I'm going to do the whole process on some
audio dramas. And so far, as of the recording of

(55:11):
this three of them have been released, with another coming
very very soon, hopefully before the end of this month.
But I really really enjoyed this process, and so another
year older, another year wiser. The first one released in
February of this year, and Loomy and the Daffodils, which
was in this spring, and then this fall The Broken Hearted.

(55:35):
I just had a great time just exploring what I
could do in a micro audio drama in a very
short form piece. And the other thing I guess I
forgot to mention in the last monologue segment one thing
that differentiates what I consider a micro audio drama is
that it has to be self contained. It's not just

(55:56):
an episode of a continuing story that's broken up into
five mins it chunks. The whole story is contained within
that five minutes. And so that's what makes this micro
audio drama format a challenge, is to tell a full
story and not just leave things hanging. Now. Of course,
you could leave certain threads open that you could address

(56:18):
in a later time, but the episode itself has a
full story in it, and so that was a challenge
and I enjoyed tackling that challenge, and I think I
was able to put out some really decent stuff. And
as I've said in previous episodes, that first episode, Another

(56:39):
Year Older, Another Year Wiser, has grown into a series.
Now One Day in Aspen Creek, which is the episode
that I alluded to a moment ago, will be coming
out very very soon, will be the second episode of that,
so those characters will be returning, and Loomis and the Daffodils.
I really enjoyed building out a fantasy story world, and

(57:05):
much of what was built out in that story world
does not even appear in that episode of Loomi and
the Daffodils. So Salus the Wondersmith, the world of that
story will probably be returning at some point and we'll
get some more from that. So this year, being able
to work on these projects and some other non audio

(57:26):
drama pieces has really helped me to grow as a
creative and helped me to really understand this industry and
this storytelling medium that we all love so much, even
better than I did before. And so I'm really appreciative
of that fact and the people that I've been able
to work with on my personal projects this year. Worked

(57:49):
with Rose Beasley on another Year Older and she will
be returning in future episodes of Aspen Creek, and Glenn
Haskell also in that and I have worked with Glenn
before Greenhoorn Tails and it's always a pleasure, and of
course I've worked for him in his shows, but having
him involved in that first episode was great. David Sanborn

(58:10):
getting to work with such a great talent in The
Broken Hearted, he just did a fantastic job in that one.
Working with Bethany Baldwin in The Broken Hearted, I mean
she did a fantastic job as one of the main
characters in that piece, and Christiana Thomas working with her
and Loomi and the Daffodils, and she's a fantastic talent
that is up and coming in this space that I'm

(58:30):
excited to watch what she does because she's got some
great talent. And then in the next episode that's coming soon,
getting to work with Phil Lawler. I mean, I am
so blessed with such great, great contacts in this space
and people that are willing to work with me to
tell these fun stories. And so thank you to every

(58:50):
single person who was involved in one of my projects
this year. First of all, if you're listening, thank you
very very much. And I'm excited about where we're going
with this focus on micro audio dramas, and I am
going to be continuing into the next year to produce
those micro audio dramas and we'll see where things go.
And so I'm just very very happy with what I

(59:12):
was able to accomplish this year, and the feedback that
I've gotten from my projects has been very, very helpful
and very encouraging. And so if you sent in feedback
on any of those projects, thank you, Thank you. It
means a lot. Now, the other top project that I
was involved in this year was Timetruck Chronicles. When Christopher

(59:35):
Green reached out and asked me to be involved in
this show, I was very, very happy and honored to
play a lead character alongside Christiana Thomas now I mentioned
her a moment ago. I worked with her on Loomi
and the Daffodils, and another project that was released this
year was The Spider and the Fly from Heart Matters,

(59:56):
and we also played opposite each other in that production
as well. So this was a third project that we
were involved in where we were playing opposite each other.
And you know, I'm playing the father Philip alongside her
portrayal of the daughter Mira in Time Track Chronicles and
it was just a great, great experience and being asked

(01:00:20):
to undertake that project meant a lot to me. So
thank you to Christopher Green and to Window Seat for
making that show happen. And if you've missed it, head
over to Window Seats website or their app and listen
to the first season, which is three episodes already out now.
And if you missed this announcement, season two has already

(01:00:42):
been recorded and there will be five episodes in season
two also coming to Window Seat very very soon. And
so I've already been able to record eight episodes of
that show, getting directed by Christopher and it was just
a wonderful experience. So that is a highlight of this
year in terms of projects that I was able to

(01:01:03):
be involved in and act in. So time. Chuck Chronicles
a very very fun show and I'm thrilled, honored, and
very happy to be a part of it. A couple
of other highlights from twenty twenty four The one Grand Party.
Oh my goodness, There's so much I could say about this,

(01:01:24):
but I would just say to go back and listen
to the episode where we recap that event. But getting
to go to Colorado Springs and experience hanging out with
a bunch of Odyssey fans, seeing cast and crew, talking
with people, just getting to hang out and have dinner
with some amazingly talented folks and other fans, and Audio

(01:01:46):
Drama Alliance members and the live show and all of that.
I mean, it was a once in a lifetime experience
that I will never forget, and so that was certainly
certainly a highlight of twenty twenty four for me. Also,
Episode two hundred of this show happened this year, and

(01:02:07):
that was a huge, huge, highlight. Blake reached out earlier
in the year asking what we were planning to do
for episode two hundred, and I hadn't even thought about
what to do. I was not even planning anything special,
and his question sort of spurred me on to try
to do something. And the idea I had was audacious,
and I probably should have tried to do something a

(01:02:30):
little bit on the smaller scale, but I'm so pleased
with how it turned out. And having so many amazing
people in this industry, the creatives in this industry involved
in that episode, and then getting to hear from so
many of you in the ATC community in another segment
of that episode was just a wonderful, wonderful experience, and

(01:02:52):
so that is, of course a highlight of this year
for me, Episode two hundred. If you're new to the show,
I highly recommend you going back to episode two hundred
and listening to all of those really fun interviews with
so many great creatives from this space, and hey, maybe
if you've already heard it, it might be fun to

(01:03:12):
go listen to again. And finally, I want to talk
about some of my favorite releases audio drama releases from
twenty twenty four Now, as I alluded to a couple
of times already in this episode, this has been a
tumultuous year for me, and so I have not actually
gotten to listen to everything that has been released so

(01:03:33):
far this year, but I have listened to a good
chunk of it. And so while things might change, and
we still have a month left in this year where
some other stuff might come out, and so this ranking
might change a bit, but as of things right now
that I have heard, here are my top four favorite

(01:03:53):
audio dramas from twenty twenty four, starting off with number four.
That is A Far Off Planet from Heart Matters And
this was just a really, really interesting science fiction take
on the Prodigal Sun's story. Now, the Prodigal story is

(01:04:14):
one that we've heard numerous times in audio drama in
various different ways. You know, it's not a new story,
and when we're talking about a story from the Bible,
but this twist on it was so unique and so
well done that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

(01:04:36):
And if you haven't heard that yet, you definitely want
to go give that one a listen. A Far Off
Planet from Heart Matters that is my number four favorite
audio drama from twenty twenty four. Number three would be
Robin Hood Rising to Honor season one. This is a
joint production from LRT Media and Eternal Future Productions, with

(01:05:00):
some amazing, amazing talent in that cast. I mean, we
have Daniel Cross and Craig Hart and Jonathan Cook and
Alisha Hansen and Kara O'Brien and oh my goodness, just
so many. I know, I'm forgetting people, Andy Harvey, just
some super super talented folks in that show. And I

(01:05:24):
know it's just the beginning of this epic story, but
I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was really, really compelling. I
am really looking forward to hearing where they go with
it in season two and beyond. I don't know how
many seasons are planned, but just had a wonderful time
with this first season of this show and really looking

(01:05:46):
forward to the next ones. So that is my number three.
Number two is Nick Guy Private Eye number seventy one.
Nick Guy and the Shadows and Daylight Affair. Really enjoyed
this one quite a bit. I really liked the Nick
Guy show just because of Frank Youuly's wit. I mean,

(01:06:08):
his sense of humor is so fun. I thought it
particularly shined in this one. Just so many fun jokes
and witty things. I just thinking about it makes me
laugh right now. It's just such a such a fun show.
And the combining of the Nick Guy world with the

(01:06:28):
shadouts in Daylight World, I thought was so well done.
And if you missed it, we did an entire behind
the scenes interview. I talked with Frank Uley and Christopher
Green about that process and everything like that. Such a great,
great production, and I mean everything about it was so

(01:06:48):
fun and the acting, the cast all came together so nicely,
merging the various actors from both series together. It was
just such a fun show and a great mystery in there,
and of course the apologetic that they tackle in that production.
I just had such a fun time listening to that,

(01:07:11):
and it's one that I will be revisiting again because
it has become one of my top favorites from the
Nick Guy series. All Right, we come to number one,
and that would be Jake Muller Adventure's Blood. Wow, what
a production to come out in the last part of

(01:07:32):
the year. Just an amazing story with some of the
highest quality production values and acting. I just thoroughly enjoyed
listening to this story. I mean I was enthralled on
the edge of my seat with this one, as I
was with Unidentified. I mean the writing, the sound design,

(01:07:56):
the music, the acting. We're talking about top tier stuff
right here. I mean, as I talked about just a
few moments ago, in this episode, this is not one
for young kids, maybe not even for younger teens. But
this is a phenomenally done audio drama tackling a very

(01:08:18):
interesting topic but with some beautiful moments of redemption and
hope and my goodness, it's fantastic. It's absolutely fantastic. And
this was my favorite audio drama to release in the
year of twenty twenty four, So looking forward to what

(01:08:40):
comes next in this in the Jacob Muller universe. This
is top tier audio drama. I mean, there's no other
way to put it. Setting aside the fact that it
might be controversial in terms of the content and the
topics that they're addressing, it cannot be denied that this
is top quality audio drama. So that is my pick

(01:09:02):
for number one for my favorite audio drama release from
twenty twenty four. Now, i'd like to hear from you
what are your favorites. I mean, if you want to
share a few like I did, fine, or if you
just want to share your top favorite from twenty twenty
four and why why is that one your favorite? Be
sure to let me know. I would love to hear

(01:09:22):
from you now before I head out the door. I
did say at the top that I had a more
serious note that I wanted to share with you, and
it is not a fun topic or subject matter to
bring to you, and honestly, I feel very uncomfortable talking

(01:09:45):
about it, but I just want to share a little
bit about this with you because it affects the future
of this show as we move into twenty twenty five. So,
as I said earlier, the year of twenty twenty four
has been a struggle for me personally in my personal life,

(01:10:10):
probably one of the worst years of my life in
a lot of ways. Some major major health struggles this year,
financial struggles, and just a myriad of other things. To
put it succinctly, life has really beat me up in

(01:10:33):
twenty twenty four. And so the reason I'm bringing that
up to you is a couple of the things that
I've been facing the last few months are some major
computer issues and our main studio computer that I run
everything with, from the website stuff to recording, to hosting

(01:10:56):
files for the Seneca Awards and for the ATC team
for reviews, all of that stuff. It went down and
had to be replaced, then had some major hard drive
issues shortly thereafter, and right now I have a corrupted

(01:11:18):
hard drive which has the vast majority of all our
entire library of audio dramas on it, and including all
kinds of business records, all kinds of valuable information is
on that hard drive and it is corrupted, and I'm
having to find somebody who can recover that data, and

(01:11:43):
that's going to cost money. And again I said, I'm
very uncomfortable with this kind of thing, but I'm sharing
it with you because well, and first let me say
I understand the need for backups, and I did have
a backup in place. However, because of the previous computer

(01:12:03):
dying and some misunderstandings, the backup got lost as well.
And so while I do have some partial data at
this point, I'm not exactly sure how much of that
data survived in the backups versus what is still left
on the corrupted hard drive. And so anyway, all of

(01:12:29):
that said, I'm asking if you would be able to help,
and you can help by joining Audio Theater Central Backstage,
because that is the easiest way for you to help
contribute to what we do here and get something in
the process. And it's only a few dollars a month,

(01:12:50):
or if you pay for a whole year, that would
be wonderful as well. But if you are able to
do that, I would really really appreciate that. There is
a very very small percentage of the ATC community that
is involved in Backstage, and there's some great content back there.
We do our best to add content every single month

(01:13:10):
to ATC Backstage, and so that would be the easiest
way for you to get something back and also help
us out. Also check out our merch store purchasing any
of those things which are available at our website see
the merch tab at the top, that would be a
helpful thing as well. Or if you are able to

(01:13:32):
just donate, I have a link in the show notes
to our PayPal and to might buy me a coffee page.
Either one of those options would work to help us
get the funds we need to fix this computer issue
and get everything in place so that we don't run
into something like this again have some more redundancies in place,
but if you can help at all through any of

(01:13:55):
those methods, I would deeply, deeply appreciate it. As I said,
this year has been a terrible one for me, and
all of these things that I've been having to deal
with in terms of technology at the end of this
year has just compounded everything else, and it is also
sort of brought into question the viability of the future

(01:14:18):
of ADC on a broader sense, and the senecas specifically,
just because of how much it's costing financially to keep
these running at the place that I would like them
to be and to continue to bring this content to

(01:14:38):
this industry and to the fans of this amazing audio
drama that we love. And I could just really use
your help in one of those ways. So if you're
able to ADC backstage our merch or PayPal or buy
me a coffee donations. I hate having to make these

(01:14:58):
kinds of pleas but that's sort of where things are
right now, So if you're able to help it all,
I would really appreciate that. And as always, if you'd
like to stay on top of everything else that's going
on here, you can join the ATC Insiders, which is
our newsletter. We'll send you emails about what's going on
whenever we have something cool to share with you. You

(01:15:20):
can always get in touch with us at Audio Theatercentral
dot com slash contact and the show notes for this
episode with links to everything I've talked about is at
Audiotheatercentral dot com slash two zero seven. I don't want
to end on a downer note, so I want to
say thank you to everybody who has listened to the
show this year. Everybody who is sent in an email

(01:15:43):
or voicemail or text or commented on the website. Thank
you so much. I've said it before and I will
say it again. Your feedback means so so much. It
is very encouraging to know when somebody finds an audio
drama that they've never heard of from ATC and gets

(01:16:05):
to connect with other people in the space who love
this content as well, whatever it might be. Getting to
hear from you, you sharing your stories with us, it
really really means a lot and it does help keep
us going. So thank you. Thank you for that, and
I'm hopeful that twenty twenty five will be a brighter year.
I know there's some amazing, amazing audio drama coming in

(01:16:27):
twenty twenty five, so there's definitely a lot to look
forward to on that front. And of course I want
to wish you a very very merry Christmas and a
happy New Year. Again, thank you so much for listening.
I'll see you next time. Audio Theater Central is a

(01:16:51):
production of Porchlite Family Media. Our theme music was composed
by Sam Avandanio. The show is produced and edited by
Yours Truly, JD. Setter. Our website is audio Theatercentral dot
com h.

Speaker 3 (01:17:09):
S porch Light Familymedia your.

Speaker 1 (01:17:11):
Source for family centered content. Scorchlightfamilymedia dot com. H

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