January 24, 2021
Somebody Talking To You
Someone, or something, is distributing cassettes free in the mail, marked only with those four words: "Somebody Talking To You". Everybody hears something different, and soon they can't listen to anything else. Only one man hears what is really being said.... and he doesn't like it! Can he stop the epidemic? And does anybody want him to? It's a richly sonic fable that finds something new in everything from answering machines to talk radio, and you'll never feel the same way about your Walkman.
From Jeff Green’s Soundings series, and Canada.
And another dispatch from Uncanny County’s Tales From a Distance of No Less Than Six Feet. January 31, 2021
Excuse Me While I Disappear
Phineas Sparks is a private detective in Manhattan, Taylor Dixon is his assistant. They take on cases that are a little offbeat. A woman by the name of Laura Collins has disappeared, but her friend Polly has seen her. When Polly attempts to approach Laura, she vanishes, slowly. That is, she fades away.
A Dixon and Sparks Mystery from ZBS.
And while we’re at it, here’s the first act of another Dixon and Sparks mystery.
The Night Has Begun.
Polly Parker believes someone has put a curse on her fiancé, Clifford Barnett. Clifford and his partner, Alan Hendrix, are what’s called headhunters, they find executives to run companies. Polly suspects, and so does Dixon, this may be a real headhunters curse. February 7, 2021
The Night Has Begun, Acts 2-3
The conclusion of a Dixon and Sparks Mystery from ZBS.
“The Asmat believe their ancestor’s spirits actually live within the works of art.”
But a headhunter’s curse in Manhattan? Not likely. And yet, Hendrix and Barnett have been receiving frightening phone calls in the night. When Dixon & Sparks begin receiving calls on their cell phones, with strange gibberish and chanting, they suspect if this is an Asmat curse, then the primitive headhunters have gone hi-tech.
And a couple of 2 Minute Film Noir tales, also from ZBS.
February 14. 2021
The Velveteen Submission or The Lighthouse At The End of the Tunnel
Pangborn shows up on an interstellar lighthouse that is about to be obliterated by an out-of-control cruise ship. One of his devoted students follows him, and she’s followed by her out-of-control father. A hot bath is suggested.
A comic sci-fi tale from the Great Northern Audio Theatre, starring David Ossman of the Firesign Theatre, and Irene Ruderman Clark as Ripley. Stu Mathews, of KFAI’s Little City in Space show is also featured.
Shadows in the Night, Part 1
A Dixon and Sparks mystical mystery, from ZBS. Margo Parker worked for a tech company called Enochian Incorporated. When she didn’t like what she saw, Margo quit. Now she feels they’ve come after her, using subliminal mind techniques that have gone beyond mere technology. February 21, 2021
Shadows in the Night, Part 2-3
The conclusion of a Dixon and Sparks mystery - Dixon’s Uncle Hans arrives from Munich with bionic glasses for Taylor Dixon, who is visually impaired. When the bionic glasses are activated, Dixon begins to see herself detached from her body, looking back at herself. One evening in a Manhattan restaurant, Dixon observes two translucent beings floating in the air whispering strange words to Margo as she slowly slips into a trance.
Nick Danger - The Case of the Missing General
Yet another radio detective, this one coming from the Firesign Theatre’s Box of Danger collection. from Shout Factory. Nick deals with fraudulent Fashionistas and NATO ne’er-do-wells in a doozy of a kidnapping case.
An excerpt from The Almost Comedy Hour two-record set. February 28, 2021
Nick Danger - Shack Out on the Alien Highway
Nick’s in real danger now when his striking writers insist he improvise his adventures with a grumpy group of old radio actors and an announcer who appears to be, ominously enough, Canadian.
Seven acts from the Firesign Theatre’s XM Radio Show, Fools in Space. Each starts with a script, but they really do improvise it all as they go along, and it only gets better.
From the Firesign Theatre’s Box of Danger CD collection. Many of these episodes were filmed as they were performed and are available on YouTube.
March 7, 2021
If You Can’t Stand the Heat - Spontoon Radio
The Spontoon Islands are in the South Pacific around the 1930s and populated by funny animal cartoons with seaplanes. Created by local artist Ken Fletcher, cartoonists from all over contribute strips and stories. E. O. Costello contributes original radio scripts that are evocative of the time and place. This is one from an Old Time Radio style series called The Headline Chaser, which are tales of Micheal Mooney, a reporter for the Spontoon Evening Observer. In this episode Mooney hears from his mink lady friend that local restaurants have been losing food right off their loading docks. He's a reporter: he can't help himself. He has to investigate.
Featuring the voices of Jackson Buck, Michael Fischbein, Amanda Balagur, and Dixie Treichel of KFAI, local actor Don Cosgrove, and special guest star Simon Jones of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Nick Danger Meets E.T.
A Firesign Theatre short subject. March 14, 2021
It’s Shot From Guns - Spontoon Radio
THE place for lunch on Meeting Island in the Spontoon Archipelago is Luchow’s. A restaurant needs lots of clean napkins and table cloths, so Rosie sends dimbulb fox brothers, B'onss and K'nutt, out to do some laundry. B'onss sets up a washing machine powered by an airplane engine. And the usual wacky characters stop by on Rosie’s Place- like Nicholai Lopanearov, Rt. Hon. A. Cadbury Mouchoir, Cuthbert Calico and police Sargeant Brush.
As the furry animal characters the cast includes former KFAI programmers Andy Driscoll, Beryl Greenberg, Charles Brin, Ian Thompson, Mike Fischbein, and Amanda Balagur, with local actors Don Cosgrove, Tom Joyal and Jeni Warwick. Original Music by the Imaginary Islands Quartet.
This is a KFAI Pledge Drive Special show, so we ask you to go to kai.org/donate and make a financial contribution to Sound Affects, and to this radio station, a valuable resource on the Twin Cities airwaves for over 40 years.
Star Trek: The Baby Boom Generation
Written by DavE Romm for a Shockwave live show, it’s loaded with TV references. Original silly sci-fi, as one would expect from Shockwave. March 21, 2021
The Tuning
You find yourself in a strange future world where everyone is implanted with devices that allow them to "tune" into a full-immersion, fully-interactive broadcast net, their ability to influence the content determined by their "access rating". Young Artemus Tamerlane is a particularly talented 'tuner', and with the help of a dematerialized mentor, a hyperactive sister, and a renegade cult that has hijacked Earth's moon, he makes his bid for control of the net and man's destiny.
A fantasy sound poem on the theme of transcendent technology. Possibly the most truly prophetic of Jeff Green’s Soundings plays, at least as regards the future of media. The rich sound design makes this a special treat, especially for listeners with headphones.
Events at the Convenience Store.
It’s a robbery, actually, and it comes to us from the Iowa Radio Project. A bit of philosophy and personal angst make it an unusual event. Produced by Dan Coffey.
