July 21, 2024
My Heart Belongs To Mummy - Black Jack Justice
The detective firm of Justice and Dixon is hired to guard a body. Only later do they find that the body is thousands of years old and has a tendency to not stay in one place.
Another episode in the casebook from Decoder Ring Theatre in Canada.
Lance Manley and the Case of the Bogus Bookseller
The library detective from Up North is shown a book that has all the right credentials to check out from the library, except for a receipt that says someone actually bought it.
One more in the casebook of the library detective from Icebox Radio Theater in International Falls, who celebrates their 20th Anniversary this month.
I’ve Got Skin Under My Playtex
A song by Frank Sinatra mangled by the talents of Jerry Modjeski, who used to have shows on KFAI that were full of imagination and dazzling word and sound play. July 28, 2024
Invasion From Planet Vampire
Crazy Dog Audio Theatre is quick to satirize and lampoon almost anything. This time it’s science fiction on TV. So aspects of this will seem familiar. But the rest of it?… Not so much.
Good Robot
A mad scientist creates a robot for nefarious purposes. So she sends it out on its first mission, and then things start to go right. You know…the usual stuff.
Sci-Fi silliness from Big Fun Radio Funtime. Performed at the Bryant Lake Bowl back… oh, a few years ago. Written by John Youker. Produced by Tim Wick. August 4, 2024
Press 3
A dialectically demonic drream of constant repetition. A dark comedy about a woman trying to escape from a totalitarian society riddled with paranoia, color-coded alerts, bureaucratic procedures and consumerist propaganda. (Well, that’s familiar.)
Crazy Dog Audio Theatre of Ireland sent us this episode from their Diabolic Playhouse series. It’s written, directed and produced by Roger Gregg, who also did the music.
August 11, 2024
2010: Space Commander
As we grow more concerned over whether we will be able to survive as the climate changes, this tale looks at the concept of how we survive when we want to explore space. One way might be to do away with the human body.
Wireless Theatre Company of the United Kingdom presents this story by Stuart Price. August 18, 2024
A Man Called X
A live recreation of the first episode of the series, first aired on CBS radio in 1944. The series is about about Ken Thurston, an American intelligence agent and precursor to James Bond, who takes on the dangerous cases in exotic locations. The show ran on CBS radio and NBC from 1944 through 1952. It starred Herbert Marshall. It was later made into a television series starring Barry Sullivan.
This production is a recreation of the first lost episode, done by Project Audition, who preformed several Old Time Radio recreations during the Covid years, live on Zoom. You can also watch them being performed, including the sound effects, on YouTube.
Precinct 5, New York City
A comic take on TV cop shows, done by Big Fun Radio Funtime.
And we’ll throw in a few faux radio commercials by me, the Mechanical Spider Clinic and the Firesign Theater. August 25, 2024
Clockwork
During the early days of World War II a Scotland Yard detective has to solve three murders – wait, now it’s four – before the next one occurs… like clockwork.
Jim French Productions of Imagination Theatre used to be popular on real radio stations, though not so much now that Jim French has passed away. They still can be found on YouTube with rotating stories available, and at HarryNile.com.
The Pigeon Drop
Voices in the Wind Audio Theatre gives us a description of how a well known bunco operation works. Written by Michael A. Black. Directed by Pat Goff and Produced by David Farquhar.
Call Waiting Goes Awry
Just one of the potential hazards of phone technology from The Radio Pirates.
September 1, 2024
Empire of the Air, Part 1
An audio drama about the men who made radio in the early days of the 20th century. Based on the book by Tom Lewis, and distinct from the PBS documentary by Ken Burns.
It is about the inventors of the audion tube, which was the first electric device that could amplify a signal, and the court battles over the patents involved. Edwin Armstrong and Lee de Forest spent most of their adult lives fighting each other over who could claim to be the inventor of this and other devices.
Written and directed by David Ossman, and produced by Judith Walcutt for Otherworld Media and WETA in Washington, DC. September 8, 2024
Empire of the Air, Part 2
The rest of the story about early radio, including the emergence of David Sarnoff, who took radio from a clever new toy and recreated it as a medium of entertainment, inventing the first radio company, RCA, and the first radio network.
This radio drama about the men who made radio was released in 1992, the same year as the Ken Burns public television documentary taken from the same book by Tom Lewis, published the year before. September 15, 2024
Travel
KFAI Fall Pledge Drive show. Since you came to this site you must be a fan of Sound Affects. You should also be a supporter of the show, and of the station, KFAI, that brings it to you. You just have to go to the station website at kfai.org and click on the Donate button. It doesn’t take much time and you’ll feel better afterward for helping out, because you and I make KFAI.
In The Shop
Big Fun Radio Funtime brings us this sketch about what might happen if the Batmobile should break down.
Don and Dora
Icebox Radio Theater talks to a local couple who love to travel.
Iowans Abroad
Folks from down south like to travel, too. So here’s a report by a couple of Iowans, as told to the Iowa Radio Project.
The Golden Hind
The Krumhungers went off to that desert island, and here’s the slides they took of those strange rituals by the local natives. A Firesign Theatre feature.
Crop Circles
For those who would like to travel a bit farther than is possible around these parts, here’s an occurrence when the first expedition makes it to Mars. Written by Jerry Stearns, and performed just this last July 4th by Big Fun Radio Funtime.
