Website
The website for Texas Radio at first glance appears to be formal and contains the basic information. When trying to navigate however it leaves more questions than it answers. Who are the people in Texas Radio? The Contact Us page has no name attached, only a form to fill out or a mailing address for the company. Rich Frohlich can be found on the Our History page with a nice detail as to the background of the company. There is a page for Donations but that frustrates the reader more simply because there are NO scheduled shows!
The Home page explains that "In May and August we recorded 'The Time Machine' and 'Syndrome Johnny', our latest productions. Both of them will soon be available on our podcast." - neither of which have ever materialized on the podcast feed. The News page goes back to March 19th, 2009! And if you travel through the online calendar there appears to be no productions even on the horizon for the next three months.
So my question is, why would anyone donate to an abandoned series? Give us something to hope for. Give us a reason to donate. Please update your page! I don't mind if a page news lapses even a month, but almost a year turns your listeners away.
Rating: 3/5 (For out of date material)
Audio Drama Theater Type- OTR Knock Offs/Theater Shows
Texas Radio seems to present recreations of old time radio, parodies of old time radio and new audio shows all in the live format. Shows tend to fit the format of a half hour, hour, or two hour long play. Audience participation is certainly part of "the flavor" of the show much like the live performances by Icebox Radio.
Acting Types- Amateur
Most of the acting in TRT is done by what sounds to be "Little Theater" or rather small town part-time amateur actors. The acting varies a great deal depending upon the years and who is available. Some shows have some incredibly good acting "The Bride Comes to Yellowsky". Some are uninteresting, and some characters you want to never hear again like the robot in the early "Cliff Proton" shows who sounds like Marvin the Robot but instead of bored circuits he has been outfitted with whiny and annoying. Some of the best acting have been by the supporting characters, although "The Shots" series with Annie Oakley had decent acting from all around.
It's more difficult trying to compare stage acting audio drama with studio acting. Live Audio Theater tends to struggle with itself for relevance. Audio Drama is perhaps the most intimate of forms and Stage is far less so. Distance is the killer. The moment the microphones are placed by the audience, the distance is heard in the audio drama and listeners are well aware that they are no longer involved in an experience, but rather watching a play. Actors play larger on stage than needed in studio, and if the show is too intimate this can make characters come across too "over the top".
Despite all these challenges, the emotions are felt in most of the shows, and the actors do carry the stories well by hitting their marks in the live performance.
Rating: 3.5/5
Production Type: Live
Live audio production must be a nightmare to coordinate. In studio panning, subtle sound effects, and even the loud blaring variety can be carefully measured to affect the power of the performance. Even actors being properly covered with a microphone could be a logistic nightmare especially if the director requires blocking and movement on the stage. Good live performances make their actors work harder, and try to take the pressure off the live sound effects foley artist.
Here TRT does alright. Some sound effects feel artificial, but that's the nature of the live production. Some will work better than others, and what becomes more important is timing. Timing is key. Play a footstep out of sinc or get the wrong timing for a knock on the door and the entire performance has just lost credibility with the audience. Anything less than perfect can spell a disaster.
TRT does a fairly good job, which means they are working extremely hard to get these right. I've heard more actor messes on stage than production errors and that says a lot. There are times when actor voices fade somewhat and are not properly miked, but again that is the danger of the live show.
Rating: 4/5 (For relative difficulty in a live performance)
Writing
The writing in Texas Radio Theatre is understandably uneven. Works by the creator Rich Frolich have a hit and miss quality. Works by guest writers tend to be more solid, but that's presumably because they have been vetted before being chosen. Cliff Proton makes my teeth ache more often than not because I usually do not like parodies. A parody is usually a cheap shot at an original production, even if its done with restraint, and I'd much rather see an original story with in tribute than a parody. Cliff Proton is a thinly veiled Buck Rogers tale including the cheesy commercials, and nonsensical plots. The biggest problem between a parody of Cliff Proton and the original Buck is that Buck took itself seriously. All of Cliff''s stories tend to be shown as a "wink" to the audience with the understanding "isn't this all just silly stuff?" That kills investment of the audience. It may play for good laughs, but it does not honor the old, but rather tries to make it seem all buffoonery. Where this does work at timnes is in their production of Schlock Audio Theater. Once again, the key is whether the writers take the parody seriously, or are simply along for the ride.
Rating: 2.5/5
Additional Notes
This bears repeating. There needs to be more information in the web site about new shows. There needs to be more information about the continuing shows like Cliff Proton. A company with the long history of Texas Radio Theatre needs to spend more time promoting their shows, explaining plots, and pointing to specific episodes in the feed. Yes there's good detail in the feed, but its really not easy to find there either. Set up a Flash Gordon page. Set up a Mystery section. A drama section. Take some lessons from Wireless Radio Theatre Company and give us even a couple of lines for each available episode. I would much rather find something on the main page than go searching for anything on the libsyn feed.
Over All
As you can tell my main frustration is how Texas Radio has let their online presence lapse. Perhaps they are going like gangbusters off the Internet, but its hard to gather strong fans, of which I call myself, if they do not try to maintain any kind of communication. Texas Radio is a leader in live production of Audio Drama. Of that, there is no question. Whether they want to build the live shows into a loyal group of fans or not, is entirely in their hands. Leaving us in the dark for almost a year, is not the way to do it.
Please give us more work to enjoy!
Rating: 2.5/5
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