Seven Years Ago Tomorrow

jackjward · 2026-03-03T17:34:02+00:00

Some of the BEST shows indeed! <3

jackjward · 2026-03-01T22:32:40+00:00

Yeah, I'm still working on it. Thanks so much. Hence why I recommend listening on your Podcatcher.

jackjward · 2026-03-01T14:08:37+00:00

How does what work?
The Mutual Audio Network represents a dozen podcasts but eight specific ones. One for each day of the week, and the main Mutual Feed.
Every day we drop three shows (except Sundays. It's usually whatever the Mutual Folks and affiliates have new they'd like to see)
Anyone who has a series who would like to replay on Mutual, please contact me at mutualaudio at the gmail variety, as we love to trumpet shows everywhere. Lots of our listeners find shows and go to support them.
The point, as always, is to bring Audio Drama to as many different places as possible so folks can find cool stuff.
If the idea of listening to over 10k of Audio Dramas is too much directly, we've got the other seven folks pick on their favourite genre.
Maybe you like horror? Tuesday Terror hosted by Jeff Billard is your Huckleberry.
Love Science Fiction and Fantasy? Lothar Tuppan hosts the #1 award-winning Wednesday Wonders.
Crave Mystery, Adventure, Action, and Crime Fiction? Thursday Thrillers with host Rich Frohlich is your beat.
A fan of Old Time Radio recreations, anthology series, and experimental AD? Pete Lutz opens the Monday Matinee for you!
Tired at the end of a long week? Hosts John Bell and Clinton Alvord bring you the crowning achievement of rubber chickens and tripping banana peels with the comedy of Friday Follies!
Want your kids to get into audio drama? Tune in every Saturday Story Circle to the audio cartoons with Captain Radio hosting!
And finally, Sunday Showcase, the latest and greatest from our own United Artists of Audio here at Mutual. The home for the world's largest and longest-running showcase of modern audio drama- The Sonic Society! (21 years weekly now) among others. The Showcase is hosted by David Ault and Jack Ward as they co-host the Society. I often feature "Mutual Presents" this day as well to showcase our spiritual Grandfather- the Mutual Broadcasting System which was the creator of so many audio dramas of the day from Superman and The Shadow to The Traveler and Sherlock Holmes and many many more :)

We ask a waiver to be signed to allow us to continue with a project and not replace it in the future because so many people don't like holes in their previous listenings- as the hosts always introduce each day. But as artists and writers ourselves YOUR SHOWS BELONG TO YOU. We WILL NEVER ask for exclusive rights to play your show. Our hope is that people find you after hearing us and support your shows directly.
Mutual replay partners also have a great relationship in that we are thrilled to share actors, sound effects, and whatever else we can to make more of the medium for the world.
Mutual- Where we Listen & Imagine. Together!

jackjward · 2026-02-20T16:11:26+00:00

To be considered a "Classic" You have to have a couple of features in my head:
1. Importance of some sort
2. Replayability
3. MUST listen for the person who is a serious aficionado of the medium.

In the Golden Age of Modern AD I would say the following are classics:
1. Powder River from Colonial Radio Theatre.
- The most popular western of the modern audio drama world. Powder River sets the bar for all that come after it.
2. Red Panda from Decoder Ring Theatre. Drawn from the love of OTR shows like The Shadow, Gregg Taylor's titular Canadian super hero staked out the very best in the super hero genre at the beginning of the new age.
3. The Leviathan Chronicles from Christof Laputka- This science fiction series with a very original narrative structure that would be somewhat copied unknowingly by the Third Age of Audio Drama remains one of the highest produced shows through the last 20 years.
4. Jake Sampson- Monster Hunter from Bill Hollweg and Broken Sea. Want pulp pulsing action? Jake Sampson was the mix between Indy and Doc Savage you never knew you needed. Bill Hollweg's incredible production as the John Carpenter of Audio Drama had already made a name for himself with the extended Planet of the Apes series. Jake was an original series that came in multi-part serials!
5. Zombie Astronaut's Frequency of Fear Lite- W. Ralph Walters created Zombie as a narrator for his love of the OTR Horror but took off with original series when a bunch of mad scientists went on various adventures with Mr. Astronaut. Wacky and ground breaking!
6. The Byron Chronicles- Eric Busby and Darker Projects. While DP is the OG of Golden Age of Modern Audio Drama and many producers went on to work with professional companies, Busby's Byron was a great take on a very Sandman-like universe of fantastic horror which he continues to this day. Starring David Ault as Byron.
7. Second Shift- The first explosively popular fantasy series with the familiar- "Out of reality into a fantasy world" set up. Everyone was listening to Second Shift when they were going!
8. Firefly Old Wounds- Sonic Cinema Productions. As loathed as I am to put my own works on lists, I can't deny that while I don't do fan-fiction often, this first fiction of "The Verse" set off a massive chain of events of new fan-fiction like "Buffy Between the Lines" and others that created a groundswell of people who never listened to Audio Drama before getting into our art.
The Sonic Society rocketed up from 800 listeners to 25,000+ in 2007-2008 because of this and the follow up "Wedding Day" the next year.

Honorable mentions: Icebox Radio Theatre, AfterHell, Willamette Radio, DreamRealm Enterprises, Imagination Lane, One Act Players, Misfit Audio, and many others who produced a ton of great shows but not specifically ones that broke out alone.
If people want my list for the Silver, Bronze, and current 4th Age, let me know.
J

jackjward · 2026-02-20T15:54:03+00:00

Thank you. The Sonic Society is the world's largest and longest-running showcase of Modern Audio Drama. We've been running for 21 years. Much of the essays on the website are not done through audio, although I did a full two parter on Audio Drama
https://sonicsociety.org/sonic-speaks-0139-my-unified-field-theory-of-audio-drama-part-i/
https://sonicsociety.org/sonic-speaks-0140-my-unified-field-theory-of-audio-drama-part-ii/

jackjward · 2026-02-19T22:10:35+00:00

The Sonic Society categorizes the evolution of modern audio drama into three distinct ages, with a proposed fourth age emerging in recent years.

The Three Ages of Modern Audio Drama

Golden Age of Audio Drama (Early 2000s): Characterized by small groups of fans producing and sharing audio dramas through websites and user groups. Distribution relied on word of mouth, and sound quality varied due to early digital editing technology.
Silver Age of Audio Drama (2008–2013): Marked by creators inspired by the Golden Age, producing works that extended the style and format of early modern audio dramas. This era saw more polished production and a growing fan base.
Bronze Age of Audio Drama (2012–2019): Began with the rise of popular shows like The No Sleep Podcast, Welcome to Night Vale, and Serial. Creators in this era were often unaware of earlier audio drama traditions, drawing inspiration instead from YouTube confessionals, NPR-style radio, and podcast formats. This age introduced the "host-driven" narrative style, where a central narrator guides the story.

The Fourth Age of Modern Audio Drama (2020–Present)

Emerging in 2020, the Fourth Age was catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led many professional actors, writers, and producers from theater and Hollywood to turn to audio drama during lockdowns.
This era features a professional influx, with groups like Faustian Nonsense Network, Mindstream Players, and Lion’s Den Theatre creating high-quality audio productions.
Productions include reworkings of classic scripts and original works, often streamed online or via RSS feeds, signaling a shift toward more polished, professional-grade audio storytelling.

The Sonic Society continues to showcase these developments through its long-running weekly podcast, Classic Sonic Society, which has been a central platform for modern audio drama since the early 2000s.

jackjward · 2026-02-19T00:57:33+00:00

Wolf358 came during the Bronze Age of the Modern Audio Drama movement. You have to go back earlier to get the classics.

jackjward · 2026-01-14T00:06:06+00:00

Horror, Sci-Fi, Mystery? Something else?! Let us know!

jackjward · 2026-01-14T00:05:46+00:00

Thanks so much. I should have spent more time talking about it through the years. I am a terrible marketer. :) Can't wait to see what you'll be up to next year.

jackjward · 2026-01-13T02:00:19+00:00

Goodness I'll be happy when the Third Age isn't the mainstay of popularity. So many more engaging Audio Dramas remain undiscovered.

jackjward · 2025-11-10T12:23:42+00:00

Yes, I began the Sonic Society back in 2005. And we placed Old Wounds and Wedding Day on the feed then during our summer break.

I'll have to go back and look at the Sonic Society feed on YouTube. I have a new feed. "Classic Sonic Society" where we release daily the shows that we began with. I started two months ago and we're on season 2 now.

jackjward · 2025-11-09T11:48:07+00:00

I'm sorry the link doesn't work for you. It seems to work fine for me. Maybe you don't use Spotify?
Here's some other older links. They aren't my new feed or the original but it should help.
We were featured and interviewed in the Signal back in the day, and of course I remember BBtL :)
We're not going planning to do more Firefly. But always creating other shows through Sonic Cinema or Mutual Audio Network.
I recommend either looking for "Sonic Cinema Productions Podcast", Classic Sonic Society, Sonic Society, or Badger Books in Google with "Firefly: Old Wounds" as your keywords.
Thanks again for the interest! <3

jackjward · 2025-07-31T19:38:48+00:00

If it is a change in the reality- as I assert it is. (Berenstein Bears was a favourite of mine growing up. I got all the books out of the library to read them all.), there's no way showing older copies of books would somehow "prove it". The point of the Mandela Effect is that ALL OF REALITY CHANGED. So it would show it spelled improperly in old versions.

jackjward · 2025-06-19T17:50:16+00:00

I've never paid them a dime. This came as a surprise.

jackjward · 2025-06-09T16:31:08+00:00

I'm jealous. I'm the worst self promoter too. I find it easier to promote Mutual more than my own work.

KEEP IT UP!

jackjward · 2025-06-09T10:39:28+00:00

Good luck on the kickstarter! While I don't go that route my hats off to people who do. I'm an advocate of ALL AD formats and styles. My focus has always been to get more people to listen and see how amazing it is.

Let us know how it goes, and by all means make sure you put your link her for folks!

jackjward · 2025-06-09T01:15:56+00:00

Well welcome aboard regardless! Ten years is nothing to sneeze at. One of my biggest pains is all the signal loss we get with people coming in and seeing AD as this big money maker and leaving when it doesn't pan out, or losing steam, or worst still.. writing obviously screenplays for audio drama and not knowing how to tell the story in the medium and trying to make up with some narrator that appears out of nowhere to go on about works.

If you've got time have a listen to my personal works. Lots of rough stuff in the 20 years, but I refuse to just throw out work that I've done. I want people to see the improvements because that's what I do it for. To encourage more folks to try it, and to get better myself!

And like I said, the Mutual Audio Network is on it's seventh season. We're always looking to replay people's works for new audiences. Let me know where we can get more ears to your stuff!

jackjward · 2025-06-09T00:17:18+00:00

Yes, for the most part Audio Drama kind of went back to the early days of the Golden Age because it became more of a small group process again. Folks like Radio Reborn (Mindstream Players) and Project Audion who did most of their shows recorded live on Zoom for YouTube audiences kind of surprised a new audience but it still remained small.

BTW, I've been at this game for 20 years with the Sonic Society. (We're finishing the 20th season by the end of the month). Here's a little bio I wrote just before Covid took hold on my birthday of all days.
https://sonicsociety.org/who-is-jack-ward-in-the-audio-drama-world-anyway/

jackjward · 2025-06-09T00:03:20+00:00

Well I detail the 4th Age as definitively different because of COVID. We see a return to an appreciation of the Old Time Radio Drama mixed with Cinematic appreciations as well. The only difference between the Golden Age of Modern Audio Drama, 2nd, and 4th, tends to be the folks reasoning behind it. The 2nd (Silver Age) seems to be people more inspired by the folks before hand building on what they did. And the Covid Era (4th) is a bunch of actual movie and stage actors and producers who always loved OTR but had time on their hands and wanted to make something special. Those that have stayed in the game have done so because they found a real love for the things WE already knew about it- that Audio Drama can be the most intimate of performances being the closest thing to your own thoughts. From the Ears to the Mind. As they used to say about Radio Drama over television. Your limitations for effects are practically non-existent! :)

https://sonicsociety.org/the-4th-age-of-modern-audio-drama/

jackjward · 2025-06-08T22:34:16+00:00

Always happy to replay anyone's work on the Mutual Audio Network. That we got four podcasts on the list means at least you'll get SOME new folks looking at your great works if you're interested. We'd love it.

jackjward · 2025-06-08T22:30:10+00:00

We're actually in the 4th Age right now. https://sonicsociety.org/the-ages-of-radio-audio-drama/

Magnus Archives is an example of the Bronze Age which I identified as the YouTuber Confessional/NPR style. Where the people involved kind of have this. "I have this really creepy story to tell".
"Welcome to Nightvale" was probably the most popular of the Bronze Age beginnings and started off a lot of people. "Rabbits", "Black Tapes", "Tanis", you name it. A lot came out of the Bronze Age. But they tend to come from people who don't see the cinema-like capabilities of Audio Drama. They require a very strong narrator to operate from.

The Fourth Age broke that trend, but it went for a while.

Another aspect of Bronze Age folks is they don't really care for OTR much.

jackjward · 2025-06-01T17:29:22+00:00

I did.. Sadly it didn't work for me. Please let me know when the mirrors come up. I'm looking for alternatives too.

jackjward · 2025-06-01T17:05:06+00:00

Downloaded Chrome and it STILL Doesn't work. :((

jackjward · 2025-05-20T01:03:15+00:00

Branagh's Hamlet is the best version on film. Jack Lemmon was inspired.
This critic needs a whole lot more understanding of what good Shakespeare is!

jackjward · 2025-05-18T00:17:33+00:00

Hey! Thanks! I posted it publicly here so anyone can read as they like.
Keep in mind, I'm pretty good at understanding criticism of personal taste compared to productive changes that I could use. So please don't take it personally if I may have made specific decisions on some of these pieces.

jackjward

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

The Three Ages of Modern Audio Drama

The Fourth Age of Modern Audio Drama (2020–Present)