Mark Time Radio Show at Convergence 2010

We had a great time at Convergence this year, doing the annual Mark Time Radio Show with two of the convention Guests of Honor, Wally Wingert and Chuck McCann. The show went along with the Convergence theme, "Bring on the Bad Guys", and was called "Villains on Parade". We were able to give Wally and Chuck parts that they could have fun with. Here's a photo of the perpetrators: Brian Price, Chuck McCann, Eleanor Price, Wally Wingert and Jerry Stearns.

The show was broadcast on KFAI's Sound Affects: A Radio Playground on July 25th, so go and take a listen to the archive at www.kfai.org. It'll be there at least two weeks from the original broadcast.

Wally's blog has some of his experience of the convention and the show. Take a look under Wally's Week, then Thursday, July 1.

Both Wally and Chuck were nice enough to give us a little of their voice talent to use on Sound Affects: A Radio Playground, on KFAI-FM. Here's an example from Wally, and from Chuck.

Mark Time and Ogle Awards

Congratulations to the winners of the Mark Time Awards for Science Fiction Audio, and the Ogle Awards for Fantasy/Horror Audio for the 2009 Production Year.

The Official Presentation is made at Convergence, July 1, 2010.

This year we have two winners who have won awards before, and two who entered this year for the first time.  A part of our mission is to recognize writers and producers who make good science fiction and fantasy audio, and to encourage those who make it to get better at it.  This year we get to do both. We’ve had winners from outside the U.S. before, but it was our first time having a winner from Australia.

MARK TIME AWARDS for Science Fiction Audio

GOLD

The Rookie

Written & Produced by Julie Hoverson
Seattle, WA
19 Nocturne Boulevard
www.19nocturneboulevard.net

SILVER

Henry Current, Space DJ

Written & Produced by Tom Hogan & Hamish Sinclair
New South Wales, Australia
Nerds and Whey
www.nerdsandwhey.com

OGLE AWARDS for Fantasy/Horror Audio

GOLD

We’re Alive, Chapter 10

Written by Kc Wayland
Produced by Kc Wayland & Shane Salk
Los Angeles, CA
Modern Myth Productions
www.zombiepodcast.com

SILVER

The Thing on the Ice

Written & Produced by Jeffrey Adams
International Falls, MN
Icebox Radio Theater
www.iceboxradio.org

Our thanks to the Geek Partnership Society for their support and encouragement.

We’d also like to say thank you to our experienced judges.

Brian Price – Great Northern Audio Theatre
Kris Markman – University of Tennesee at Memphis.
Philip Proctor – The Firesign Theatre
Dani Cutler – Society of Audio Addicts
Jerry Stearns – KFAI Community Radio

Happy Birthday Norman Corwin

4/12/10

Father Time: Now what was it you wanted, little man?

Runyon: Well, sir, could you tell me how I could get to Curgatory, because my dog Pootzy…

Father Time: Oh, yes, was he a delinquent dog?

Runyon: No, sir, a mongrel.

-- The Odyssey of Runyon Jones, 1938

Writer, director, journalist and teacher, Norman Corwin, will be 100 years old in less than a month, May 3rd. His generation most likely has seen more changes and transformations in art, technology and culture than any other group of humans in the history of human beings. And Corwin was part of the process—he was there. He was riding the waves, the radio waves. He’s had a huge influence on the style of how America communicates, on how America sounds to itself.

During the Golden Age of Radio (1938 to 1950) Norman Corwin created some of the most impassioned, literary, and entertaining programming of the era. With the use of poetic heightened language for his narratives, film-like jump cuts and transitions, and original music scores Corwin found he could talk about any subject and go any place, including outer space, on the radio, in audio, in just sound.

There are a couple of reasons why Corwin approached radio from a different angle than other radio personalities of the times. One is that like Orson Welles Corwin was so young. He was just 27 years old when started producing and writing original pieces for CBS. These “youngsters” didn’t come out of the Vaudevillian traditions that Fred Allen or the Marx Brothers hailed from. They sensed that although radio broadcast to millions of listeners, it was a very intimate and personal medium. One could whisper to the listener rather than shout from the stage.

The second reason is that Corwin saw radio as a very American innovation. Like jazz and the automobile he saw radio crossing boundaries and bringing people closer together. Like his heroes, Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, Corwin was constantly examining and celebrating the idea of America.

The subject of America holds center stage in some of his most famous creations: We Hold These Truths (1941) celebrated the 150th anniversary of the United States Bill of Rights just a week after Pearl Harbor was attacked. On A Note of Triumph was broadcast just as Allied victory in Europe was announced on May 8, 1945.

Corwin’s influence spans the last 70 years. You can hear his rhythms and observations reflected in the work of some of his most ardent fans: Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling, Gene Roddenberry and Norman Lear.

I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Corwin speak and I’ve never heard anyone make being an American, being a patriot sound so relaxed and so apolitical. Loving his country and talking about it was just natural for Corwin. Like George Gershwin or Babe Ruth Corwin was and remains a true American original.

Happy Birthday, Norman.

the gang at Great Northern

(Published on Audiobookdj.com)