FAQ

How come when I click on a show title in the Plot Archives, it doesn't download?

The Plot Archives are NOT sound archives; they are for information purposes only. It would be nice if I could afford the web storage and traffic needed to offer shows in that manner, but alas, I am but a mere mortal....

So how do I download shows?

I offer bi-weekly downloads in the Listening Booth. All you have to do is left-click on the show you want, or right-click and choose 'Save Target As' from the pop-up menu. I try to offer as wide a variety of shows from different series as I can, on a rotational basis.

What if I want a particular show I read about in the Archives?

No problem, usually—just send me an email with your request, and IF I have the show in my collection, I will add your request to the queue. Usually it takes 2-3 weeks, depending on how many requests have come in before yours.

What if I can't wait that long?

Hmm... well, if instant gratification is your thing, there is a way you can bribe me to put your request at the head of the list. See the the Request Policy.

How come there are only two shows per week?

My web host imposes limits on how much download traffic is permitted for the site. I've found that 2 is about all my allotment will allow without incurring heavy fiscal penalties.

Can I help out by making a small contribution to help defray the costs?

Very kind, but the managing of this site is a hobby and a labour of love, and I don't feel comfortable accepting cash for it, even if it is not-for-profit.

So there's no way I can help?

Au contraire! My one disappointment with the site is that it has not proven as interactive as it was intended to be. There are plenty of people out there who download shows, but very few who give something back in the way of plots or reviews—especially reviews. I had hoped the Plot Spot would be a forum for fans to exchange opinions and ideas, but sadly, most OTR fans seem to be a rather quiet bunch...

OK, OK, so now that I feel all guilty-like, what do I have to do to write a review?

It's easy—just email me a brief statement to say why you liked or didn't like any show listed in the archives. Only remember to keep it clean (profanity will be edited out) and to tell me whether you wish to be credited or remain anonymous. If you're totally flummoxed, check the writer's guide for more info.

Do you sell or trade CDs or tapes?

Nope. Sorry.

Some of the shows in the archives intrigue me, but you don't have them for download. How can I get hold of them, on either cassette or mp3?

My only suggestion is to surf the net. Start by following the Links. Or put your favourite search engine to work. Or post a query for trade at an online collector's clubs, like Yahoo's OTR group. Or check out one of the OTR ftp sites.

How come some archives only list certain episodes from a series rather than the whole lot?

The Plot Spot is devoted primarily to the genres of Sci-Fi and Horror, though I do include a number of shows which are straight Adventure, as well. Some series, like Suspense, Crisis, CBS Radio Mystery Theater, and Theatre Five, covered multiple genres. Generally, an episode must have some element of the fantastic to qualify, and it must be a 'genuine' one; in other words, a show using the supernatural only as a red herring to spice up a mundane explanation at the end of the story doesn't cut the mustard. Occasionally, I may make an exception or two to these rules but, hey, after all it's my website... As time allows, I may branch out and include more episodes and series, but that would require a lot of help from other fans (to write plotlines and reviews). Are you volunteering?

Why don't you list broadcast dates with the episodes?

First, I feel there are plenty of sites out there already that deal with air-dates. There are VERY few, however, which deal with plots, and NONE which have cross-referencing, themes, or author listings, so I will stick to what I feel makes the Plot Spot fairly unique. Second, I just don't want to get caught up in the morass of conflicting info regarding air-dates. Third, I just don't give a hoot about the exact date a show was aired. I refuse to get bogged down by minutiae.

Whatever happened to Jeff Dickson?

Jeff retired as webmaster in 2011... after 11 years of service and many thousands of hours of relentless toil.

He graciously allowed me to take over the site so I could continue to provide this content to others (and to build upon it if I could), in the hope that the audio drama art form won't be lost forever. But I miss him; I miss his succinct plot summaries, perceptive reviews, and wry sense of humour. It's just not the same around here without him.

So, if I go away on vacation, will you take care of my cat?

Er.... no.

Dystopia

In 2012, the website "Exploring Dystopia" featured an article written by Jeff Dickson entitled "An Introduction to Dystopias in Radia Drama". Sadly, that website no longer exists, but an eagle-eyed contributor found a copy on The Internet Archive. I am reposting it here.

An Introduction to Dystopias in Radia Drama
by Jeff Dickson

October 30 1938: Orson Welles presents a frighteningly realistic portrayal of our world overrun by Martian war machines. Adapted for a contemporary American audience and performed as a live news broadcast, Welles' rendition of The War of the Worlds was arguably the most famous—and infamous—broadcast in American history. Welles was subsequently obliged to apologize for the hysteria caused by the show.

Its potency derived not only from the original story's merits, but from the power of the medium itself to influence the imagination, not to mention the eagerness of the human psyche to accept such a nightmarish scenario as gospel, with very little prompting or hesitation. Perhaps it is this willingness to accept the broadcast word as truth that may ultimately lead us down the dark road to a dystopian future. Certainly, it demonstrates why aspiring conquerors and dictators always seek out the radio stations as their primary objective in seizing power.

Radio producers of Welles' day were acutely aware of how receptive and malleable was the mass consciousness of the public. The inherent dangers were equally obvious, carrying the implications for Dystopia. While most of radio drama was, admittedly, purely escapist fare, many producers and writers must have felt the need to warn and frighten, for dystopian themes were a popular venue, particularly in the paranoid atmosphere of the McCarthy era. The CBS Radio Workshop devoted extended airtime to productions of "Brave New World" and "The Space Merchants", as did the Theater Guild on the Air when it presented a version of "1984". They were not the first—Karl Capek's 1920 stage play "R.U.R." found its way onto the airwaves as early as 1937. During the war, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation undertook its own form of manipulation of mass consciousness with a series called "Nazi Eyes on Canada", which proposed an inevitable future where Canada wept under the jackbooted heels of a victorious Third Reich—unless, of course, listeners were to rush out at once to purchase war bonds. Welles made a guest appearance here too.

The 1950's saw an explosion of anthology series dedicated entirely to science fiction. Several anthology series appeared, beginning with 2000 Plus and Dimension X. Sadly, much of the former series has not survived, but the latter has come down to us intact. Its dystopian efforts were numerous, among them dramatizations of Bradbury's "To the Future" (a.k.a. "The Fox and the Forest")—in which a couple attempt to escape a totalitarian, war-torn future for the visceral delights of modern-day Mexico—and "The Last Objective", a vision of a future war that has so devastated the Earth that Man has been forced underground to continue on with his favorite pastime.

Other series followed. Exploring Tomorrow was hosted by John W. Campbell, the legendary editor of Astounding. It offered several nightmarish visions of the future, including "The Trouble with Robots", the story of a dictator who puts his faith in a mechanized security force, and "Overpopulation", in which a diplomat pleads with a representative of the Venus colony to allow emigration from an overcrowded Earth. Perhaps the most popular science fiction radio anthology was X Minus One, which aired for three years, from 1955 to 1958. Among its more salient dystopian efforts were versions of Heinlein's "The Roads Must Roll", Robert Sheckley's "The Seventh Victim", Philip Dick's "The Defenders", and Fritz Leiber's "Appointment in Tomorrow".

The hugely successful, multi-genre anthology Suspense, which ran for twenty years on CBS, produced several episodes could be interpreted as dystopian in nature, but only two clearly stand out as fitting the criterion—in "2462", a poet is sentenced to death for being 'non-productive'; in "The Wait", a futuristic secret police task force relies on human greed and self-interest to infiltrate and wipe out a cell of social insurgents.

The proliferation of television ended the Radio era in the early Sixties. Though radio drama continued, its popularity was on the wane. The only truly successful series through the Seventies and into the Eighties was the CBS Radio Mystery Theater. Computer overlords, institutionalized virtual reality, capital punishment presented as primetime entertainment—these are a few of the many dystopian ideas which appeared on the program.

Some others: "Who Made Me?" portrayed a caste-oriented matriarchal society in which an elite-born couple's dedication to the system is tested when their son demonstrates only lower class potential. "Resident Killer" postulates what use—or is it abuse?—a pacifistic society has for those whose capacity for violence is hardwired into their psyche. "Prisoner of the Machines" is the story of a robot-controlled POW camp. Unfortunately, someone neglects to tell the robot guards when the war has ended.

With the demise of CBS Radio Mystery Theater in 1982, the major American networks abandoned radio drama. National Public Radio still made occasional efforts, including a 7 hour dramatization of Walter Miller's apocalyptic epic "A Canticle for Leibowitz", which traced the history of a monastery that sought to rediscover science during the long dark ages following a nuclear holocaust. A fairly recent NPR series specifically commissioned to portray life in the post-millennial era—appropriately called 2000 X—presented several dystopian offerings, including H.G. Wells' "Dream of Armageddon", Robert Sheckley's "Watchbird", Harlan Ellison's " 'Repent Harlequin!', Said the Tick-Tock Man", and Frank Robinson's "The Hunting Season".

One of the most interesting episodes was a version of E.M. Forster's early 20th century precautionary tale "The Machine Stops". In the far distant future, Humankind has moved underground, becoming so reliant on a global computer complex for even the simplest daily needs that direct human interaction has become a repulsive notion (how the main character, Madam Vashtai, manages to have a son is not explained, at least not in the radio play). The original story was intended as a rebuttal against the then popular faith in technology as the solution to all of Man's ills, an idea touted by many of the day's futurists, among them H.G. Wells.

Sadly—or perhaps thankfully—audio drama in America is now predominantly in the hands of independent producers. In Canada and Britain, however, professional radio drama was—and is—still very much alive. Among the more recognizable dystopian titles to come out of the BBC: Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451", John Wyndham's "The Day of the Triffids", Isaac Asimov's "The Caves of Steel", and Alfred Bester's "Tiger! Tiger!" (better known as "The Stars My Destination"). Their two-hour rendition of Robert Harris' "Fatherland" was one of the most poignant productions of the modern era of radio.

The above is only a sampling of what has been produced. The student of Dystopia will find virtually all of the genre's themes well represented in the audio drama format. While the natural limitations of the medium preclude the myriad subtleties possible with the literary or cinematic format, radio dramatization does provide an ideal vehicle for the imagination to fill in the gaps, a means of inviting the listener to take an interactive role in bringing the experience to life. Perhaps it might even be argued that it prompts a temporary amalgamation of mind and machine, a potentially dystopian notion in and of itself…

Hearing these dramas, or learning more about them, is not difficult. Typing any of the series titles listed here, or simply “otr” (common acronym for Old Time Radio), into any search engine will conjure a plethora of online resources. You will find that most of the online community of otr hobbyists believe that these old shows should be shared freely, and there are many free download sites; even private vendors of CD's generally only charge to cover the cost of shipping and materials.

In the juggernaut wake of television and film, the art of audio drama has largely disappeared from the popular consciousness. Even hardcore speculative fiction enthusiasts are generally not aware of the multitude of both rare and classic stories the medium has to offer. Perhaps it's time we strained to listen to those dim voices out of the past—they may have something to tell us about the future.

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