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Television Media The Internet Entertainment

Fictionalized Storylines Absent from Podcasts? 38

Posted by Cliff from the home-made-multimedia-content dept.
goldenglove asks: "With the recent boom of Podcasts online, there seems to be a glaring hole when you try to search for free podcasts that have fictionalized stories, and semi-concrete plotlines. The podcast videocast scene seems to be saturated with content that is about news or about personal life, centralizing around information rather than entertainment. Why is this? The only exceptions I've found are the recently released Marcus Hates His Job free TV show sponsored by Sprite, and the Finnish distributed movie: StarWreck -- although entertaining, a very thin selection. Does Slashdot have any recommendations of uninhibited, undiscovered content in this field?"
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Fictionalized Storylines Absent from Podcasts? More

Fictionalized Storylines Absent from Podcasts?

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  • Have you tried good 'ol Radio 4 [bbc.co.uk]?

    Not a podcast I know, but, and I hate to sound like I'm spamming, one of the best non-music sources of audio on this planet that I know about. You can get selected programmes - From Our Own Correspondent, for example - as podcasts (they're in the iTunes database of podcasts), and listen live, albeit over an EVIL real stream. In terms of fiction, radio four really is top notch - watch out for some of the plays, and have fun for the 'Listen again' buttons. Download the stre
    • Not just BBC (as in Radio 4, as the parent points to), but if you do a search for "Old Time Radio", or OTR as it is sometimes called, you can find quite a bit. I just downloaded several days worth of MP3s of Sherlock Holmes, some done with Rathbone, some with Conway, and many others playing Holmes and Watson. While the best links were on, I believe, the Londian Sherlockian Society, there are other places to obtain these particular recordings.

      But don't think it's just Sherlock Holmes shows. I've been a fa
    • alt.binaries.multimedia.mp3.audiobooks.fiction
      alt.binaries.multimedia.mp3.audiobooks.sci-fi
      alt.binaries.multimedia.mp3.audiobooks.mystery
      alt.binaries.multimedia.mp3.audiobooks.spokenword

  • Talent (Score:2, Redundant)

    by duffbeer703 ( 177751 )
    Talking about computers to a quick cam doesn't require much. Writing a coherent story and creating an entertaining performance is a non-trivial task.
    • Redundant? Second thread in the whole linup, posted 8 minutes after the article, and it's modded redundant?

      Anyway, on the topic at hand:

      That's a very good point. It's certainly easier to make a professional sounding documentary/interview/polemic than it is to make a believable piece of narrative fiction.

      But, it is also true that there has been a conspicuous absence of fiction in radio for a long time. Even among the big, relatively well funded public radio powerhouses, fiction is hard to come by, and wha
      • I think its a use problem. We have too many entertainment outlets, and the public as a whole gravitates more toward "easy" entertainment like movies, TV or video games that don't require alot of attention to get value from.

        Think about how radios are used today -- probably about 60% in the car, 35% while cooking/studying/etc. Listening is a secondary task.

        Reading a book or paying attention to a radio drama requires constant attention -- you cannot divert your attention to something else and get anything out
    • I agree. The closest I've seen so far is Tiki Bar TV [tikibartv.com]. Even then, the storeys aren't that coherent. Not that these episodes really need to be coherent to be entertaining.

  • Earthcore (Score:3, Informative)

    by Wolfbone ( 668810 ) on Thursday December 22, 2005 @06:17PM (#14322563)
    You might like this: http://www.scottsigler.net/earthcore/ [scottsigler.net] I did, even though it's not the sort of book I'd normally choose to read.

  • Cory Doctorow (Score:3, Informative)

    by samrolken ( 246301 ) * <samrolken AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday December 22, 2005 @06:22PM (#14322609)
    http://www.craphound.com/podcast.php [craphound.com] Cory Doctorow is an award-winning science fiction author who reads his stories in podcasts. Audio only, though.
  • Wow, that question was a bit of a shock. Do you realize that you are using a slick 2005 device, and asking for content that was last popular in the 1940s? Everything old really is new again.

    It'd be cool if more people thought like you did, the old-time serial radio shows were neat. You can still hear them on NPR on the weekends... Robert Blake hosts an old-time radio show. You could probably convert that for your iPod.

    • Do you realize that you are using a slick 2005 device, and asking for content that was last popular in the 1940s?

      Things like this are why the fiction industry has lobbied so hard for copyright term extensions.

  • Escape Pod (Sci-Fi/Fantasy) http://www.escapepod.info/ [escapepod.info]

    PodioBooks (various) http://www.podiobooks.com/ [podiobooks.com]

    LibriVox (books in the public domain) http://librivox.org/ [librivox.org]

  • radiolovers.com (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Check out radiolovers.com. There have a very large select of old time radio shows. (GIGABYTES of it). Not just fiction, but variety shows as well.. its very interesting (at least to me it is) to hear what was popular in the 40's. Interesting snapshot of society. Just think what peeople 60 years from now will think about us from our entertainment... Fear Factor, Survivor, etc.

  • DTV (Score:3, Informative)

    by booch ( 4157 ) <slashdot2010@cra ... m ['k.c' in gap]> on Thursday December 22, 2005 @07:02PM (#14322922) Homepage
    I've started using DTV [dtvmac.com] on my Mac. It's basically Internet TV done mostly right, where anyone can create a "channel". I've found many good videocasts, some of them fiction. My favorite is Bush's Speech Writer. Turns out it's a commercial production by Comedy Central, but who cares? I don't know about audiocasts though. I'd suspect NPR would have some.
  • http://www.radiolovers.com/ [radiolovers.com]

    They did it best in the 40s and 50s when podcasting was called "radio shows."

    • You've got at least one AC agreeing with you [slashdot.org].

      But aren't most of these recorded radio shows still copyrighted (until 2067 under State of New York copyright) and all rights reserved?

      • If you read the copyright information on the radiolovers.com website, you'll find that they believe (and they have good reason to believe) that all the recordings on the site are in the public domain. If they find information to show that some of them might still be under copyright, they will pull the show.

        There's a possibility that they are violating copyright laws, but if you read their case, it looks pretty strong to me.

        • If you read the copyright information on the radiolovers.com website, you'll find that they believe (and they have good reason to believe) that all the recordings on the site are in the public domain.

          Here, I quote directly from radiolovers.com:

          all such recordings are generally in the public domain, as sound recordings were not allowed under the previous copyright law and that such recordings have not been granted copyright status under the new laws

          Sound recordings were not restricted under federal cop

      • But aren't most of these recorded radio shows still copyrighted (until 2067 under State of New York copyright) and all rights reserved?

        Yes under US (or various state) laws; but "no", by virtue of the 2nd law of thermodynamics, which trumps US law every time.

        The VAST MAJORITY of OTR shows have irretrievably vanished due to exactly those laws designed to "protect" the interests of the copyright holder. A part of our (well, on Slashdot, our grandparents') culture gone forever.

        Some of them never existed
  • If you think of something, write it down, and look at it later, chances are you'll still think it's brilliant.

    If you say something, record it, and play it back, your suckiness will be all to apparent.

  • Two quickies (Score:3, Interesting)

    by yotto ( 590067 ) on Thursday December 22, 2005 @07:30PM (#14323138) Homepage
    First: Spaceship radio at http://www.spaceshipradio.com [spaceshipradio.com] not only does sci-fi radio dramas from the 50's, but also is working on coming out with new content.

    Second: Planet Retcon at http://planetretcon.com [planetretcon.com] is my website and I'm working on episode 1 of an original "sitcom in space" sort of podcast.
    • Oops, I surrounded that second one with <plug type="shameless"> and </plug> but I actually used the greater than and less than symbols.

  • Good Fction Podcasts (Score:2, Informative)

    by Van Vleck ( 223561 )
    For podcast books there's Podiobooks [podiobooks.com] which has a number of books on offer, both new and public domain.

    For comedy sketch and short story, there's Firesign Theatre [firesigntheatre.com] where you can browse the comedy albums (they've been making them for 40 years) and from each album download sample tracks. They also have a podcast. [firesigntheatre.com]

    For podcast short story and essay, there's The Seanachai [goodwordsrightorder.com]. Patrick Mclean comes from advertising, I think, so he has some good writing chops. He has a series called "How to Succeed in Evil with
  • Check out Podcast of the Red Death [blogspot.com] for an original story set in Lovecraft-land. It's rough around the edges, but pretty interesting if this sort of thing is your bag.
  • This guy is looking for voice actors for his sf story podcast:

    http://childrenofthegods.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]

    If you want more audit stories take part...

  • ...the all fictional TikiBar TV [tikibartv.com] !!! Curse the French !
  • Pure Pwnage? www.purepwnage.com

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