Hello again to my readers! I was recently informed of a yearly celebration of the joys of audio drama and felt that it was my duty to let those of you who may be interested know.

World Audio Drama Day is admittedly somewhat more famous in America – especially since the day for the celebration is the anniversary of the Orson Welles 1938 War Of The Worlds dramatisation on October 30th – but audio drama is universal.

Audio Drama may be somewhat more common in the UK especially thanks to radio dramatisations from the BBC of all sorts of genres (The dramatisations of the John Le Carre George Smiley novels, Ian Rankin’s Rebus or the 1980s BBC Radio 4 Lord Of The Rings dramatisations just to name a few examples) but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other creators. Radio dramatists, classic radio broadcasts, podcast (Think of them as specialised Internet radio shows or broadcasts based on certain topics) listeners and producers are all celebrated on Audio Drama Day. Be it new releases for Halloween, the 11th Hour Audio Challenge (An equivalent to the 48 Hour Film Challenge) or attempts from up and comers. I guarantee you you’ll find something interesting if you look!

Modern audio drama can be very engaging if done well. Just close your eyes and visualise. Be it a war story complete with loud gun fire and character drama, a traditional Cold War era spy drama with code words and typewriter clacking or something set in the modern day in the age of the internet, social media and the infamy of Facebook et al, audio drama of all stripes can be something that you can lose yourself in easily.

Modern podcasts such as dramatised attempts at History – L’Histoire Podcast -,Historical podcasts in more the vein of an interesting lecturer – Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, Revolutions, The History Of Rome -, science fiction podcasts such as Slice Of Sci-Fi or horror podcast classics such as Welcome To Night Vale can all be recommended depending on your tastes.

The company behind WADD is Kettle Falls Media who has sponsored the event since 2013. KFM produces original audio and video content of their own along with their own podcasts. The other mind behind the concept is Noir Dame Productions which was born in 2002 as a distributor of original audio drama as well as classic media of old – e.g. film noir – and live film showings.

In short you can find diamonds in the rough all over the place even without listening to your radio. Like I said long ago now in my very first article for the Orkney News audio entertainment takes us back. They compel us by not just reminding us of when we were young, but by entrancing us in stories. Making us remember what it was like when the tribe was huddled round the campfire listening to the chief and the wise woman.

I can’t wait to return to my favourites again tonight.  My favourites may not appeal to you or yours to me but I promise you something is out there. And if not? Go ahead and make it! Hopefully one day there will be an audio drama based in Orkney or a few made here to listen to one day. You never know, you just might find it or make it yourself!

Sayonara!

Nephrite