Episode 9750: Columbia Workshop - A Story In Dogtown Commons (12-14-39)STERE0

This was drama with a difference. Columbia Workshop was not everybody’s cup of tea and in terms of audience popularity it was always noted that it was never a strong contender for the title “Radios Top Rated Drama Series” and yet it was always considered to be the drama program that led the way in radio standards. Columbia was the first to experiment with what radio drama was all about, introducing new techniques never before used in over the airwaves drama and because it received little encouragement from established writers, actors, etc., it was only by breaking new ground with new ideas and new techniques from writers who were not versed in the old ways that it was going to survive.  Unlike theater drama which required scenery to stage the settings of a play. Radio drama relied only on the imagination of the listener to interpret the scene. But without the right kind of writer the whole thing could fall flat on it’s face.

THIS EPISODE:

December 14, 1939. CBS network. "Story In Dogtown Common". Sustaining. The first radio drama by Julian Liss. A tale of the sea and witchcraft told in blank verse. Joseph Liss (author). 1/2 hour. Episode Notes From The Radio ++Gold Index.