The History of Radio Drama And Notable Broadcasts

Radio drama is a style of storytelling that is broadcast on the radio. Radio drama contains no visual aids so solely relies on dialogue, sound effects and music alone to aid the listener to imagine the visuals in there own minds. 

Radio drama gained a huge popularity since it's first stages of development in the 1920s. In the 1940s, It was a leading player in the international entertainment industry until the release of television in the 1950s. Since then radio drama started to loose popularity and in some countries has never regained a large audience since. Some older radio broadcasts are still available to listen to via online download, archives or museums.

Today radio drama has a very little existence in the United States of America. However the United Kingdom still have largely popular radio drama shows such as Little Britain and The Archers. The BBC produces and broadcasts hundreds of new recordings each year on Radio 3, Radio 4 and BBC Radio 7. Radio 4 in particular broadcasts drama broadcasts in the afternoon in forms of dramatical plays and also a one off Friday evening play. BBC Radio 3 broadcast dramas on Sunday evenings and also reserve a slot for experimental drama called The Wire. Radio 7 usually broadcasts older archived programs however sometimes broadcast dramas in the categories of Thriller, Comedy and Science Fiction. 

The first recorded english spoken radio drama was titled "A Rural Line on Education" which was broadcast on the american radio station "KDKA" in Pittsburgh in the year 1921. One of the first drama broadcasts in the United Kingdom was the BBC's "Danger" by Richard Hughes in 1924 which was about a group of people who become trapped in a coal mine in wales. The first most influential radio broadcasts was the French "Marémoto" also known as "Seaquake" which was about a ship sinking before finally revealing that the characters were actually actors. This broadcast was later translated for both German and English broadcast by 1925. It was set to be aired on Radio-Paris on October 23, 1924 but was banned from being broadcast on french radio until 1937 due to the government believing that the SOS messages would be mistaken by coast guards as real distress signals. 

Americas most famous radio drama to be broadcast was the Orson Wells's "The War of the Words," in 1938 which was a recording of the H. G. Wells novel, This broadcast amazingly convinced many listeners that aliens from mars were actually attacking earth in several parts. The broadcast in total was 60 minuets long and consisted of simulated news bulletins which scared listeners into belief that martians had landed on earth. The broadcast was made more believable by cutting out all advertising breaks during its runtime. After the broadcast  there was alot of negative response and widespread anger as it was described as being cruel and deceptive. In the history of radio drama this piece could be considered to be one of the most famous pieces of all time. 


Another famous science fiction radio drama broadcasted a while after "The war of the Worlds" was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which first broadcast on the 8th of March 1978 until the 25th of June 2005 and is still broadcasted sometimes today. It broadcast a total of 26 episodes and was created by "Douglas Adams" who was an English writer from Cambridge. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a Science Fiction-Comedy which was broadcast in both England and eventually America, The show won several awards including The Sony Award in 1979. 


Followed by "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy came The Twilight Zone which was an adaptation of the classic television series, It's first broadcast was in October 2002. The Twilight Zone was broadcast first in america and can be listened to online. Many of the stories are based on the same scripts Rod Serling had written for the original Twilight Zone series that aired on the television in the 1960's 

 

Since the 1st of January 1951 until present "The Archers" has been broadcasted on the radio with over 16,000 episodes, created by Godfrey Baseley "The Archers" is a 12 - 15 minute Soap Opera based in the United Kingdom, It was first broadcast on the BBC Light Program followed by the BBC Home Service and now BBC Radio 4. The Arches is now one of the world's longest running radio soaps, about people living the country life in England. 
Set in Ambridge in a fictional county called "Borsetshire" where the middle-class "Archers" family own "Brookfield Farm." The show is a story of the Archers life and daily dealings. 


My final radio drama to note was titles "Mrs Dale's Diary"  which is known as the first significant BBC radio drama. It was first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on the 5th of January 1948 and later moved over to Radio 2 in 1967, It came to it's finale in 1967 on April the 25th.  A different episode was broadcast every weekday afternoon with a repeat the next day. 


Mrs Dale was a doctor's wife, who wrote a diary of her day to day middle-class life, They lived in a fictional suburb called "Parkwood Hill." The program was considered to be the first British radio drama to include a homosexual character acceptably with a leading part. It was very bizarre to have a gay character in Mrs Dale's diary as at the time of broadcast, homosexuality was still illegal in the United Kingdom.

Here is a short audio clip I have found on Youtube of Mrs Dale's Diary.