I liked the radio dramas of yesteryear. When I first discovered Live365 a few years back I went through it and listened to every Science Fiction related radio show I could find. The novelty wore a bit thin eventually, there’s only so much 1950s Science Fiction radio dramas I could listen to.

But with podcasting the radio drama looks to be making an interesting comeback. Today I bring you a short interview with J. Marcus Xavier, the man behind a Science Fiction podcast called Silent Universe which I’ve been following with interest. Here’s our exchange:

MT: I understand that when Silent Universe started you and the cast hadn’t yet met in person. Is this true? And if so can you describe how you got together and coordinated the production?

JH:Yes, that’s exactly the case. We’ve got voice artists spread over the United States, Canada, London and other countries. Only two of them (the voice actors for Ritsu Kobayashi and Isaac Walker) work in the same studio. Everyone else either works out of their home studio or a local recording area they have access to, and then send in their material electronically.

The genesis of all this was a posting that I made on a professional voice artist database, explaining the basic premise behind the Silent Universe and asking for voice audition samples. After I submitted, something of a miracle occurred . . . I ended up getting over 300 responses. From there, I was able to pick and choose the voice artists I felt best suited to the project (with input from other members of my staff), and we had a basic roster for our premiere episode. After that, it was just a matter of tying up the work details and emailing the final cast members a copy of the script. As lines came back, I was able to snip up, compile, and mix them together in a fashion that seems convincingly conversational, but in reality most of these VA’s have never met each other.

MT: You’ve ressurected the radio drama into a new medium. Do you think podcasing dramas offer any fundamental new oppurtunities for the form or is it largely just a new delivery method?

Well Podcasting obviously is a great new delivery method for a form of entertainment that was ruthlessly murdered by television (I mean radio dramas, and not talk radio, because talk radio is still alive and well). But that’s not the fullness of it . . . Podcasting is–by its nature–an “on demand” kind of medium. Whereas with old school radio you had to be in front of a box at the time of broadcast, Podcasting lets you download and listen *on your terms.* In that sense, it’s very much like TiVo and I think very well suited to the internet user who values control over his or her time to interact with the things they like.

Podcasting is also extremely “niche” in the sense that it gives you the ability to talk to similar groups of people. Mass broadcasting (including radio) has millions of people at their beck and call, but it’s a heterogeneous group . . . if you start talking about any one subject, no matter what it is, a certain percentage of listeners are going to automatically tune out. Podcasts, on the other hand, tend to draw people with similar interests and backgrounds . . . in my case I obviously appeal to people who like science fiction and who are comfortable with technology.
Given that, if I were to (for example) look for an advertiser, I could easily select someone who sells a product or service that my audience would be interested in (say, consumer electronics, or movies on DVD — think Netflix). Podcasting allows you to get close to your audience, and try to serve their needs. It’s no longer about “try and attack as many people as possible with your offering” but rather “make great content for a specificially defined group of people.” It’s fast, it’s cheap, and people enjoy it.

MT: What’s coming up next from you with regards to Science Fiction podcasting?

Well, in terms of the Silent Universe, I’m going to be stepping back from main writer (I wrote the first 3 episodes of the series) for awhile, and acting as editor for some of the other folks on the production team. We’re already cooking up a 2 part story for episodes 4 and 5, which should drop some hints about the over-arching story of Season 1 and Isaac Walker’s path in the story. One thing that I love about this is that there’s a lot of flexibility with the storytelling, so if we ever fall into a place where people think they know what’s going on with the show, we can (quite literally) shake everything up in a heartbeat.

Aside from that, I’m trying to be more active in the Podcasting and blogging communities at large. I spend so much time with the Silent Universe, it sometimes makes it difficult to stay involved with the larger conversations going on in the blogosphere and the Podcasting world. There are other science fiction Podcasts out there that I just need to be more proactive in listening to and contacting, and so many blogs to keep up with. I recently just hooked up with Bloglines, though, so that’s helping keep me up-to-date.

Silent Universe Homepage

Related posts:

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response to this post, or trackback from your own site. Wax-political uses threaded comments so you can reply to any comment directly by clicking on the relevent reply to comment link.