Well, I listened to a few episodes here and here. I think there is a general disdain for updated radio drama on public radio these days, which is a real shame. There should be more entertaining options than what public radio is now... primarily NPR, Jazz or Classical music. (yawn) CBC still has some radio drama thrown in, a lot of which isn't as fun to listen to as this.

Sampling just one episode doesn't really do this series justice. Maybe that's the way a listener might listen, but they might also get hooked in and want to follow the storyline and be sure to tune in regularly. This could be a useful pledge vehicle under the right circumstances. I found the radio dramas on the Rider's Radio Theatre quite addicting. That was a wonderful show, yet I'm sure it had pretty poor carriage. What a shame.

The pacing in this series is fast and humor does have to be spelled out to work on radio. Producers do have to be careful about this. Maybe it would be good to include some host copy to assist in the setup and would tie the stations in more.

However, I don't fault anyone for demanding attention from the listener. We should try to do that more often (of course, without the expectation that they will pick up on every subtle nuance). Yes, people use radio as background at times, but isn?t it also ironic that classical music?s highest listening hours (typically in the afternoon) are when it can pledge the worst? More listeners don't always equal more pledges, especially if listeners are used to tuning out at that time.

BTW, to compare this type of thing to what Tom Keith does isn't really fair. Tom Keith is a folly guy with a big budget and lots of help. I assume they don't have that kind of a budget. Despite that, it is quite well done and the acting and production are better than I have heard in a lot of other modern radio drama pieces.

I would like to hear some folly sound effects rather than relying on CDs entirely. Though I know that takes a long time to prepare and pull off. I produced similar material in the past with out-of-date music libraries and those effects can be hilarious as well. Modern sound libraries are sometimes too slick to be funny.

Hey, I give anyone credit for trying something brave and would like to see that spirit encouraged in American public broadcasting. Two minutes isn't too much to dedicate to this module, though I can already hear the excuses that many PDs will make. It might be interesting to see if longer segments (once a week) would be more useable within a program. Plus weekends are when more of the wackier stuff is typically heard.

Comedy is tough to pull off, especially on the radio. Nit picking it is the easy part. Who else has the guts to stand up and try?