What is Radio Drama?

So in the past there was a certain type of Radio broadcast that differed from those we normally associate with radio, not a morning radio show, or a sports broadcast or even a music channel. Unlike most Radio Broadcast, radio drama is all fiction. A radio Drama is usually based off a book and is staged as a play, but obviously it was viewed/heard via radio. Radio Drama was, in many ways, the precursor to the modern method of structuring movies and television. However, as television drama and t.v. itself became commercially available Radio Drama began to die out, a sad fate for such an innovative medium. Today radio drama is virtually non-exsistant. However, recently more and more drama podcasts have begun to emerge, one in particular Welcome to Nightvale which has recently hit the podcast charts rocketing to number one.

This is a really interesting development bringing back the old days of radio drama catering to the affordances of radio, using the specific theme and technical abilities of the medium. This development may not exactly hail the revival of the radio drama but it defiantly indicates a reworking, from radio to podcast, hopefully we will see future developments into the radio drama tradition.