#WorldAudioDramaDay: Evolution of non-music audio entertainment — from ‘audio drama’ to ‘audio series’
Written by Ashu Behl
“Radio Listeners in panic, Taking War Drama as Fact” — that was the front-page lead story of The New York Times on October 31, 1938. Halloween it was. And, surely, Americans did not want to wake up to such a headline. The subhead of the story read: “Many Flee Homes to Escape ‘Gas Raid From Mars’ — Phone Calls Swamp Police at Broadcast of Wells Fantasy”.
The story was a report on the aftermath of a live show on CBS Radio Network that broadcast a dramatic adaptation The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells as the Halloween episode of its radio series — The Mercury Theatre on the Air directed and narrated by Orson Welles.
Any non-music entertainment programme on any radio had, till that day, not created so much impact on people in general. The success, naturally, led to proliferation of audio drama that dominated non-music audio entertainment across radio networks.
Forty years later, audio drama got its first upliftment with BBC Radio 4 broadcasting The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams in a serialised manner. And, a new form of non-music audio entertainment — Audio Series — was born.
A success short-lived
The success of BBC’s broadcast of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy encouraged radio stations across the world to come up with their own episodic audio dramas in local languages, and audio series gained popularity very fast.
The frenzy, however, started fading away in just about a decade. Post 1990, emergence of cable television as the most preferred form of entertainment pushed audio series, and probably all forms of non-music entertainment, to premature death slowly and steadily.
Next couple of decades are known as the golden era of cable television. But, that too, had to make ways for streaming services as the internet and smartphones proliferated. Today, entertainment is all about online streaming — both video and audio, both music and non-music.
With digital streaming platforms making inroads in the 2000s, the entertainment industry, especially audio, witnessed a bunch of innovations including podcasts and audiobooks.
#WorldAudioDramaDay
Interestingly, audio drama — the oldest and most successful non-music audio entertainment format — has come into existence long before CBS Radio Network’s The War of the Worlds. According to historian Elizabeth McLeod’s research, 2022 was the 100th year of organised audio drama production led by WGY Players in New York. The first successful and popular audio drama was The Wolf was broadcast back in September 1922.
But, CBS Radio Network’s The War of the Worlds was the most famous audio drama that was broadcast on October 30, 1938. That’s also the reason why Sibby Wieland — writer, creator, new media researcher and an audio drama enthusiast from Texas, chose October 30 as the #WorldAudioDramaDay. Wieland came up with the idea in 2012, and the first celebration of #WorldAudioDramaDay took place next year, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the first broadcast of The War of the Worlds.
Return of the audio series
With cable television and later over-the-top (OTT) streaming services, which were primarily video-led, non-music entertainment lost its popularity, and both audio drama and audio series became concepts of the past.
Things, however, turned different after the pandemic caused by the deadly coronavirus.
Towards the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, Covid-19 pandemic forced most governments to enforce lockdowns, making people stay within the four walls of their homes for multiple weeks. Globally, companies had to shift to work-from-home as people could not commute.
As a result, people were staying home more than ever and were spending time on screen — across desktops, laptops, smartphones and television like never before. Increase in screen time led to massive consumption of digital content.
What was a compulsion during the lockdown became a preference afterwards. Over a period, that led to ‘screen fatigue’ and people started looking for an alternative mode of entertainment.
Like every other OTT, we at Pocket FM also started experimenting with possible innovations. Based on our research and understanding of the current market, we realised we needed to bring something that would enhance the ‘engagement’ quotient among the listeners.
The outcome was serialised presentation of written drama in audio format backed by gripping narration. The 10–15-minute episodes ensure meaningful engagement. The idea was to keep it short and leave the listeners curious. This worked well to keep the listeners hooked.
And, the resurrection of the audio series happened. The oldest, and the most successful, format of non-music audio entertainment was back in its modern avatar.
Happy #WorldAudioDramaDay.
(Join us on this exciting path! Write to us at careers@pocketfm.com with PocketBytes on the subject)
