Roy, our U.K. correspondent writes in to lament the imminent cancellation of Jerry Stearns’ Sound Affects: A Radio Playground from Minneapolis/St. Paul station KFAI‘s schedule.
I couldn’t believe it so I went and checked myself. HORROR of horrors Roy is right, there is a small note on Jerry Stearns’ website noting that Sound Affects is set to be terminated in March 2007.
It seems that KFAI has decided that “there is no audience for audio theatre”!!!
Programs aired on Sound Affects just in the past year have included:
–Anne Manx On Amazonia which we called “…funny, action-packed, and touching.”
–The Red Panda Adventures which we said was “…a super-fun diversion delivered in delicious half-hour doses. “
–The Adventures Of Red Cloud which we described as “very entertaining.”
-The Parsec Award nominated Falcon Banner series.
–The Last Harbinger which we said was “setting the highest of standards for fantastic audio drama.”
Roy writes “This is rather sad and alarming. I keep a close eye on this website as it is one of the best sources for ‘New Time’ SF/Fantasy productions and often comes up with things that I have not found elsewhere. It will be greatly missed.”
If you too are Sound Affects listener, and think that they are making a mistake, send the station’s Program Director, Dan Richmond, an email and let him know your feelings
Well that stinks, but it also might be an example of how radio is struggling to keep up in a world where media choice for consumers is larger than ever.
Red Panda is enjoying a decent distribution with us at Podiobooks.com. I wonder what we can do to help all of those properties reach a wider audience?
Syndicating non-standard programs across radio stations is hard — been there, done that. And without wide syndication deals, the number of listeners to non-standard programs on individual radio stations (terrestrial or satellite) is tiny.
Seems to me that this is content that begs to be consumed in a time-independent manner — either as download or in some type of physical delivery method.
It’s worth pondering. And what can I do more to help?
Thanks, Jesse, for your support. Sound Affects is indeed being taken off the air on Saturdays. I have the opportunity to apply for other open time slots elsewhere in the week, but no guarantee that I’ll get one. I WILL be applying. After 13 years doing this show, I won’t go down easy.
I don’t know if sending comments to the program director, Dan Richmond, will help or not. It’s okay to do it. I have some testimonials I will attach to my new proposal, and if anyone wants to send me one to include, I will use them. And when the pledge drive comes around in April, call and pledge, that’ll give them the message that there IS an audience out there.
Evo makes a good point about Podiobooks. When we re-released the first season of Red Panda Adventures through Podiobooks, they had already had a great run – but a lot of new folks are on board with our second season that have found us through Podiobooks. Folks with longer runs should really look at how a Podiobooks re-release can help them reach the large “one-stop-shopping” audience at Podiobooks. It’s been nothing but positive for us.
But there is something about knowing that your show is out there, drifting over the airwaves, being discovered by people who didn’t seek it out… Those opportunities always mean a lot to us, and we were very grateful to Jerry for giving us one of those rare opportunities. Sound Affects will be much missed.