Radio: Instant Communication and Information

Take a Bow

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Betty Bower, technician on WGY-radio engineering staff, tries her hand at creating radio sound effects, December 1942

Description

Before the invention of television, radio dramas were a common source of entertainment for families, broadcast regularly at a specific time for people to tune into and listen to a story be told. As time goes on, though portable radios have fallen out of fashion, the spirit of the radio play lives on as podcasts, pre-recorded stories that can be listened to.

But how is listening to a story different from seeing it in front of you? Writing for radio and writing for television may be similar, directing actors to say certain things or react in an appropriate way, but the execution is different. You can’t see the actors in a radio play or podcast, so the scene must be set for the listener, rather than having them look at a set in front of them.

In this activity, students will stretch their creative skills by writing the same scene for radio and for television.

Schenectady school children perform a drama on WGY radio, circa 1946

Materials

Writing materials (either paper/ pencil or computer)

Outline

1.      Introduce the concept of an audio drama: a purely audio-only form of storytelling. Some students may already be familiar with audio-only performances through podcasts. A podcast is typically pre-recorded, edited for clarity, and tells a story (either fiction or non-fiction) that is either ongoing or connects to a central theme.

2.      Divide the students into groups and have them develop their own short radio drama. Alternatively, you can give them a fairy tale to re-write, or a writing prompt. Students will perform their audio drama in front of the class

a.      Explain that they aren’t writing a story that they are then reading aloud, an audio drama is more like a play, but with no set pieces or props.

3.      Some elements students may not recognize that they need: sound effects, descriptions of settings read aloud, explanations of objects included in dialogue. Discuss what they may have missed at the end of the activity.

4.      Ask:

a.      What kinds of elements are recognized from television shows they’ve seen? (distinct characters, sound effects/ foley, plot/ a continuing story)

b.      What is different, or needs to be added? (Spoken clarification of location/ setting/ items around them)

Extended Activity

Have students rewrite their script “for television.” They don’t have to perform it, but what can they remove from the audio dialogue and instead have as a physical object/ set pieces?

WGY radio players perform "A Stormy Night in the Catskills," a radio play adapted from Washington Irving's tale "Rip Van Winkle," 1924. The WGY Players performed the first radio drama in August 1922 and created the first use of sound effects for radio broadcasts.