Radio Disney Resurrects Serial Drama

[DRW50]

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/local-broadcast/e3iee6a0d1f3ba0fce7441e5027871aeacb

[Mr. Vixen]

This sounds very good! I'm excited. I like listening to dramas on the radio. IT sounds good.

[DRW50]

I'm not sure if it's my type of show but I'd love to see radio soaps come back, as they are a viable artform all of their own, and have remained popular in the UK.

[Mr. Vixen]

Yeah, this particular show doesn't sound all that riveting...But the idea is great.

[DRW50]

There would also be some delicious irony in radio soaps returning and being successful when TV soaps are on their last legs.

[SFK]

I know, right? But in a way, short little radio dramas make sense if everyone supposedly has no attention span anymore and they're always stuck in their cars or glued to their MP3 players. Could GL have been onto something with their podcasts? But I think this is a cute idea for young girls, I can imagine them listening to this on the school bus. I used to listen to classic radio dramas on Sunday nights as I fell asleep, I have long forgotten the station but it was really neat, especially if it was a mystery, and the way people talked back then is always fun to hear... Erika Slezak would fit right in.

[DRW50]

How long did GL do the podcasts anyway? Were they just the TV version put on audio?

Given the satellite radio and all that becoming more and more popular, and people listening to the radio on their computer, this could be a time for drama to go back to radio. It's also cheap, and in the era of budget woes that must be tempting.

[SFK]

Exactly, the idea that you can listen whenever you want and it's no crazy time commitment.

Yeah, I checked out the GL podcasts a couple of times, they were slightly edited audio versions of the episodes. I don't even know how to work my MP3 player that I got for Christmas like three years ago I just listened on the computer. I do remember that they added in transition music and I'm trying to remember if they added in a little narration or if I'm making that up. I could be thinking of the movies for the blind they used to show on public access.

Do they still do those Internet radio soaps like Rockland County? I listened to one or two eps back in the day, it sounded like the actors called in and recorded their lines on an answering machine and then they got edited together.

[dc11786]

Off the top of my head, "Guiding Light" started doing the podcasts in September 2005. I remember because one of the first broadcasts involved the aftermath of Edmund stealing Michelle's baby. Danny found Michelle after her car exploded and they believed their baby was dead or something. God, what an awful storyline! The dialogue really wasn't strong enough at time to make a podcast interesting.

[ReddFoxx]

It's interesting to see such a minimalist and long gone format revived, even just a little bit.

[All My Shadows]

ATWT did the podcasts too. There was a female narrator voice that grated on my nerves...talked to us like we were kindergarteners. I remember she sounded similar to the "Comes back into our own" part of the GL opening at that time.

That was horrible. I listened to one episode and had enough. They were all literally phoning it in.

[DRW50]

Even the title My Dream is a throwback. I just wish they could do the overdramatic opening narration, even if the organ music is long gone

[JackPeyton]

For awhile back in 02 i use to listen to Days on the radio. Some random AM station carried NBCs broadcast over the radio.

[All My Shadows]

LOL It reminded me of an old radio soap called "Rose of My Dreams." This could really work, though. So many of those radio soaps and even early TV soaps focused on young, single heroines who are learning about life. They could easily update that for today's audiences. EASILY. MTV and TEENick should get it a try.

[NorrthCafe]

Doesn't it feel as if the OLTL writers are staging the show to be taken over as an eventual Disney property? Unreal. I could see OLTL on the radio along with the above show... of course, it will seem silly by comparison. Home and school life for OLTL teens includes annual kidnappings and being on the run from cartoon mob syndicates, partner swapping, etc, etc, etc.