Even though audio drama isn’t broadcast on the radio very often these days, it’s still being made.
“July 25th, 1895. My dearest Vick, I should catch you up on the events after my last letter here shortly, but know that I am happy to report that the pullman strike has finally broken, and I am rail bound for Northern California with the last few dollars that the financial crisis hasn’t taken from me deep in my pockets.”
This is a scene from Devin Steffens’ audio drama Dead West. It follows Conrad Ward as he travels to Blackwater, California, a small town where things aren’t quite right. He makes his living as a sin eater, getting paid to absorb the sins of people who have died.
Oh, and he can see ghosts.
“Dead West is a gothic western that explores the darker edges of the Ward family,” Steffens said.
The story mixes the classic Western genre with gothic horror, a literary aesthetic that deals with themes like being haunted by the past. It’s not your typical horror story, but there is a creeping dread throughout.
Dead West isn’t Steffens’ first foray into audio drama. Although he’s been working on the show for two years, he’s also started a few other projects, and he regularly works as a voice actor for other shows.
Some of Steffens’ inspiration for Dead West comes from growing up in Northern Nevada.
“As a resident in Northern Nevada, it is almost a given that you will go on one of two field trips, if not both, one of which is Virginia City,” he said. “If you don't go to Virginia City, you head up to Donner Lake.”
As a kid, this local mythology was fascinating to him, especially the greed and corruption that was so common in Western mining towns, he said.
As he got older, he became even more interested in the history behind these sites. And he’s using that history — including some of its darker elements — to build the world of Dead West.
While Steffens dabbles in other kinds of storytelling, he finds audio especially compelling. He said it’s like a movie for your ears.
“I do believe that audio drama is the best form of storytelling, in that we, as a species, have always had oral dictation as part of our whole thing, our mythos,” he said.
And it used to be far more popular than it is now. Back before television, radio drama was what drove many listeners to flip their radio on, wanting to catch the latest episode of Gunsmoke or Dragnet.
Radio drama in the US was largely funded by advertising, said Leslie McMurtry, a lecturer in radio studies at the University of Salford in the UK. But when television came along, it completely changed the playing field.
“People did get quite swept up in the novelty of television, and where the audience went, the advertisers went, and when there's no advertising to fund drama as a particular genre on radio, that's when it started to … ‘die,’” she said.
With a few exceptions, you don’t really hear drama on the radio in the US anymore.
But with the advent of podcasts and modern editing programs, audio storytelling became far more accessible.
Since the early 2000s, there’s been a growing number of people, like Steffens, making and listening to audio drama.
But unlike the dramas of decades past, today’s creators make very little, if any, money from their shows.
This has led to a space filled with people who just love telling stories.
But in order to find others who enjoy the medium, most people have to turn to the internet. The community is overwhelmingly online, with people chatting on platforms like Discord.
Tal Minear, a mechanical engineer from Longmont, Colorado, has worked on a lot of audio drama, including Re: Dracula and Sidequesting. And they love the community.
“Overall, audio drama listeners and creators are so nice and chill and interesting,” they said. “People are really excited about the medium. … There's just so much joy in audio drama, and it warms my heart, and it makes me really happy.”
The internet enables creators to collaborate with people on the other side of the world, and fans to have more people to talk to about their favorite shows. But some people wish it was easier to hang out with other audio drama people in a physical space.
Minear has attended a lot of podcasting events, most of which were dominated by people who make talk podcasts. And they wished that there was an event specifically for audio drama. So they decided to make it happen.
The first Audio Fiction Convention (TAFCON) took place in Boulder in June. Although it was a small, one-day event, it drew about 150 people from across the country, and some from abroad.
Minear was blown away by how excited people were.
“I think part of it is people are so starved for community, like online is really great, but there's definitely a different feeling to the group chat in your phone versus getting all the homies together in Boulder,” they said.
Minear plans to hold TAFCON again next year, hopefully in a larger venue so even more people can meet friends in person, and make new ones.
Steffens wasn't able to make it to TAFCON this year, but he's hopeful he can make it to the next one. He said that it would be a fantastic opportunity to connect with other like minded people.
But whether online or in person, the sense of community in audio drama spaces is one of the big reasons he sticks with the hobby, despite the cost and time that goes into it.
“Audio drama, at the end of the day, is very community,” he said. “I'm working on an episode, I'm talking to my voice actors, I'm talking to my music, I'm talking to, you know, just friends of the show, I'm talking to the community.”
If you want to follow Conrad Ward on his adventures, you can find Dead West wherever you get your podcasts.
