RADIO FOR WRITERS – Amazing What You Think About In The Car….?
I was out driving last night. Not that far really, only eighty miles or so as the crow flies, a trip to the corner shop for those of you living in the States or Down Under, and I was thinking. I do that from time to time. Think in the car. I find the monotony of the motorway encourages it.
I was thinking about how awful the radio was, and how little there was on offer. Oh yes, I forgot to mention the radio….I had it on. It was supposed to be half an hour of ‘cutting edge comedy’ but it was about as funny as a wet sock drying on a radiator.
So I switched it off, and as I say, I mused.
I tried to think of what I would like to listen to if I switched it back on again. What would I really want to hear that was ‘different’ yet entertaining, inspiring, good fun, enjoyable, witty, bright….all those things. And do you know what I came up with? Well, obviously not, because you weren’t there in the car with me……
I wanted a radio station with likeable presenters, who played ‘written stuff’ not ‘music stuff’….
For example, I wanted to hear a presenter who was not a half-wit introducing an hour long programme of short stories written for radio….stories that ran for three to four minutes, with maybe an interview with the writer thrown in for good measure. Basically, a music programme where the music is replaced by audio short stories.
I wanted that programme to be followed by a much longer production….maybe a half hour drama, sci-fi, something you could enjoy as the plotline and characters developed.
I wanted really well produced and acted radio dramas, an hour long, ninety minutes…or a full length John le Carre novel…..take as long as you want.
I wanted an ‘arts’ type programme that featured new writers, reading snippets from their books, a phone in programme where writers could ask questions of publishers, literary agents, managers…..that kind of thing.
I wouldn’t want it on 24 hours…..I would like it on-demand please, when I want to listen to it. And choice. Half an hour of scary monster sci-fi or 30 minutes of gritty northern kitchen sink drama……great.
But, it couldn’t happen. Nope. Never. It’s not possible. Financial considerations would rule it out. No one would listen.
Oh really?
It could be done…..online….it would be terrific. Maybe in some ‘new’ way….some new technology. I’ll leave that to the techies to figure out. Surely it’s already possible?
Anyway, before I could develop the idea further, I arrived at my destination. I walked in. The radio was on. It was some half-wit yabbering on about the new hip indie band ‘Ice Cream Wallpaper’ and their latest free download and everything went sort of blurry…..
writegoodbooks 
With XM radio you can get worldwide (I think) distribution, so finding a market wouldn’t be that difficult–I think that the problem would be content. It takes about one page of script to equal one minute of air time, so we’re talking about 1,440 pages of script a day.
I think that what might work better than a dedicated “radio show” station is producing episodes of a radio play and then selling them to existing stations. I would start small, with a play broken into fifteen minute segments, and producing one month of shows (if we’re talking Monday-Friday, then twenty shows at fifteen minutes each or three thousand minutes of actual air time.)
You’d need some upfront financing, because while you might get actors and writers to work on spec, studio time is going to have to paid up front, and engineers aren’t cheap.
Just my thoughts.
Strike that. Three *hundred* minutes of airtime for one month of a show. A three hundred page script, broken into twenty fifteen minute segments? Yeah, I’d do that for no advance and points.
Great ideas…..and all very easy to do, relatively.
As for financing…… What if I already had my own studio? That would save money. And what if I already had my own engineer?
“I was thinking about how awful the radio was, and how little there was on offer.”
I have to agree with this sentiment.
I don’t know if it is a sign of ageing however I really struggle to find something that can soothe the miles.
At home I listen to speech radio, predominately BBC Radio 4, and this is my station of choice in the car.
However as I will be driving for two hundred miles to get to work tomorrow I know that this will get repetitive if I listen to the Today programme from start to finish.
I am currently reviewing and renewing the music on my phone but also downloading pod-casts to try and create my own “radio station” that I can control in the car.
I find internet radio to be very illuminating but sadly the coverage as I travel will not be good enough to be able to listen to anything.
Creating speech radio, apart from drama, is relatively cheap, but finding an outlet for it is a lot harder.
Great comment………thanks for that.
For my part I enjoy a lot of podcasts I have to say….these can be absolutely anything that takes my fancy……and I’d much rather listen to a handful of those than most things served up these days on the radio….even Radio 4 come to think of it.
Check out http://readerradio.net/
They seem to be on the right track of what you’re thinking, and they may already have some resources which could be used to push things in this direction.
Yes, I’ve checked out readerradio….always happy to take a look at other new ideas……and see what’s on offer.
Good to hear from you and thankyou for the comment.