Washington Post article asks if this is radio's second golden age
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Kind of an odd piece, but maybe I read it too quickly. Did it even mention modern radio drama? I think it was all audiobooks and podcasts, which have nothing to do with radio. But good on the author for getting the Post to give a bit of space to our favorite medium! Ryan www.RyanEllett.com The Old Time Radio Researchers "Saving the Past for the Future"
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Wild West Designs
I don't think there will be a "2nd Golden Age" of radio. Certainly have nice little niche productions out there, Imagination Theatre, Colonial Radio Theatre, Repertory Company of America, Graphic Audio, Louis L'Amour (while still technically active, it really hasn't gone anywhere since 2015 as far as I know with regard to audio drama) but all still really, really niche. And even Amazon has done some of the audio drama productions as well, but none are mainstream. As to what went on between the "Golden Age" and this supposed "2nd Golden Age", I would actually still say that revival is as good of a term as any. I would say that what we have here, is still a revival of sorts. Maybe the first one went further compared to this one, hard to tell. Numbers aren't as easy to figure out since not every one of those is broadcasted in the traditional sense. Although at one time Colonial Radio and Louis L'Amour dramas were broadcasted under Imagination Theatre, but I don't think that holds true since Imagination Theatre came back after Jim French's death and it's just Imagination Theatre's original content that is broadcasted. I would actually argue that the approach that is going on now, has a better chance compared to anything that would have come out of the same "machine" like it did the "Golden Age", if it were to be done now and have reached "2nd Golden Age" status. Especially considering "scripted entertainment" does fall behind other forms of entertainment, particularly video games, which wasn't a thing back during peak "Golden Age" time. I think our entertainment is so "fragmented" (and this isn't necessarily a bad thing), that it's really going to be hard for any one thing to reach "Golden Age" status. Most of it is curated by us as well for our own entertainment, it's not going to be quite as easy as it was back in the good ole days. Evan On 2022-04-07 03:59 PM, adam wrote:
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adam
While I appreciate the history the writer’s sharing with a broad general audience, I don’t really buy into the “Second Golden Age” idea. Although to be fair to him, the “Second Golden Age” stuff seems more an opportunity to make his article talking about the history of Golden Age Radio be a bit more relevant and are given minimal passing references.
I think parts of what made the golden age of radio in the United States so unique is how it was the a universal form of free entertainment. Because of radio’s popularity, it drew large national sponsors, the best writers, and high quality actors and music. Though, this became less true as the Golden Age came to an end.
Our audio entertainment phase is something else entirely. While there are some interesting and decently popular audio drama podcasts, I don’t think many approach even the sheer numbers (let alone percentage of the population) that Golden Age programs have. Individual podcasts haven’t made the level of impact on culture. If you watch a Looney Tunes Cartoon, you’ll find references to lines like, “You’re a hard man, McGee.” Or “I wouldn’t say that.” Let someone try to slip a reference to something from Serial into a Pixar film and see if anyone gets it.
The Second Golden Age formulation ignores a lot of productions that came between the Golden Age and the Podcast Age, namely the “radio revival” stuff in the 1970s. If this is the Second Golden Age, what was the 1970s with its soap operas and CBSRMT? More people listened to Mutual Radio Theater than listen to any given Audio Drama podcast or audiobook.
So while I like that the author is reminding readers in multiple publications that the Golden Age of Radio happened, the second Golden Age formulation is a bit awkward and kind of leaves out a lot of history. I’m wondering. Has anyone ever come with a more concrete formulation as how to define the different eras of radio/audio drama?
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From: Joe Webb via groups.io
Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2022 1:35 PM To: main@OldTimeRadioResearchers.groups.io Subject: [OldTimeRadioResearchers] Washington Post article asks if this is radio's second golden age
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/is-radio-in-a-second-golden-age-here-e2-80-99s-what-the-first-looked-like/ar-AAVXuax ----------
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Joe Webb
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/is-radio-in-a-second-golden-age-here-e2-80-99s-what-the-first-looked-like/ar-AAVXuax
WaPo article via msn.com -- ---------- Suspense resource page https://sites.google.com/view/suspense-collectors-companion Suspense enhanced log https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11XflGB-S18jQ8JPr4EV1C9aZsRM_3Dw4xlLpGqgpBiU/edit?usp=sharing The Whistler complete log, presentations, and more https://sites.google.com/view/the-whistler-files The Big Story Revealed! https://sites.google.com/view/thestoriesbehindthebigstory/ Casey, Crime Photographer episode analysis https://bluenotebulletin.blogspot.com/ |
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