OUR 13TH SEASON IS UNDERWAY!

Last night we started production on KING SOLOMON'S MINES and also recorded episode 9 of FATHER BROWN MYSTERIES. Lots of fun and a great cast! Shane Clarke was in both episodes (Shane has been with CRT for all 13 years), and Hugh Metzler, J.T. Turner, Amy Sheridan and Brian Rust. Everyone delivered some great stuff and I can't wait to get the dialog into editing and post. KSM's is on the fast track and I hope to have it released in March.

We are expecting to see FATHER BROWN MYSTERIES, VOL. 1 released to CD very soon; the masters were sent to Blackstone a week or so ago. We will continue to release individual episodes for download to Spoken Network as they are completed.

Also, we are in negotiations to produce our first true Science Fiction production! This is a genre we have not dabbled in, but we are hoping to roll on this one in the summer - and it's gonna be a big one, folks! We are talking with the author of the book, and hopefully we will be able to announce this soon.

thats all for now.

Recording tonight

Kevin McLeod has joined the production team for KING SOLOMON'S MINES which starts recording tonight. Kevin did the music for our FATHER BROWN series, and I'm very happy that he will do the honors for KSM! Eric Busby will produce the show, and along with myself the cast includes J.T. Turner and Hugh Metzler. We also have two new actors joining CRT tonight, so I am looking forward to a good time.

Long nights lately as I rush to finish the script for ZORRO AND THE PIRATE RAIDERS, pulling two all-nighters (after all dayers) that ended around six in the morning. I'll finish this script tonight after we record, and then it's done and we can move onto the next phase of production!

Pretty soon I hope to be able to tell you news about our TV series! How cool is that!?

Now it's time for an equipment check for tonight.

CRT GOING TO DARKEST AFRICA

I am very happy to welcome a new producer to CRT - Eric Busby. Eric comes to us from Darker Projects (Don't worry DP fans, he's not leaving you), where he has produced some amazing work, one of which is THE BYRON CHRONICLES, which CRT will be presenting on our XM Radio Show very soon.

His first assignment will be our production of KING SOLOMON'S MINES by H. Rider Haggard. We will start recording later this month, we hope to release it in March or April. We are hoping to get Kevin McLeod to score the program, and the script was written by J.T. Turner. This has always been one of my favorite stories, and I am very excited to be bringing it to life in sound!

Last summer we announced our up-coming production of MOONFLEET, by J. Meade Falkner. I finished one script and part of another, but then got caught up with family issues and the project went on the shelf - although I thought that someday it would make a great show. I am happy to tell you that Deniz Cordell is taking over the script for this one, and we hope to record this in March or April. MOONFLEET is not about spaceships - it is a smuggling tale set in 18th Century England.

that's the update on this freezing cold January night!

on the shelf - even the download shelf

Some libraries around the country have added some CRT shows to their catalog! We are in quite a few libraries - and if we're not in yours, then tell the librarian to order some from Blackstone, or the download versions from Overdive Content Reserve! Here are some of the new libraries we are now available at;

Iowa City Public Library

The Wizard of Oz, Teasure Island, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

East Baton Rouge Parish (LA)

Too many to list

Kitchner Public Library, ON.

Jack and the Beanstalk

Chautauqua Library System

Advance and Retreat

Books On Board, LLC (TX)

Advance and Retreat

I always get excited and happy when a library carries our stuff. Being in a library catalog makes me feel like I have accomplished something.

That's the Iowa Library in the pic.

back before the mics

It's hard to imagine that it has been 7 months since I recorded a CRT show! That is the longest shut down time in our 13 years; considering that for a year or two we were release 30 to 40 shows a year. The dry spell ends on Jan. 21st when I start up production on the second batch of FATHER BROWN MYSTERIES, penned by M.J. Elliott in the UK. I'm reading the first script now and thinking of casting. We will do another eight, and this time it will NOT take a year and a half to complete; those days are over. We will be starting on ZORRO soon, most likely in January or Feb. but no official start time on that yet - but soon.

NEW RELEASE

POWDER RIVER AND THE MOUNTAIN OF GOLD is now available from SPOKEN NETWORK!

This is CRT's 220th release!

REX TRAILER and SGT. BILLY - TOGETHER AGAIN!

FINALLY after a long delay, I am VERY happy that this week we are releasing our 62nd POWDER RIVER production called POWDER RIVER and the MOUNTAIN OF GOLD. Starring in this 77 min feature length program is Boston TV Icon REX TRAILER and his side-kick of many years SGT. BILLY O'BRIEN! I used to watch Rex and Billy every Saturday and Sunday morning on BOOMTOWN, which Rex starred in for 25 years on WBZ TV. My thanks to Sam Donato for making it all happen. Sam (Who was also a featured regular on BOOMTOWN) has been with CRT for six years now, and worked out the details to re-unite Rex and Billy for a guest spot on our western series. We taped this back in June, and it was meant to be the first three episodes of Season 5, however when I decided to delay a season 5 for other projects, the three episodes were edited into a stand alone feature.

I have previewed this episode for some friends, and they all loved it (It is much lighter than most of the PR episodes) and all said it was one of their "new favorite episodes." Well, everyone is different of course, but I am hoping that the majority of our listeners agree with them. Also in this production are Lincoln Clark, J.T. Turner, and Jeffrey Gage. It was produced by Chris Snyder, who once again outdoes himself.

I have loaded the show into the SPOKEN NETWORK files for download, but it is still in the "pending" category. It should go "live" in another day or so. I will post the link here.

Merry Christmas

Hi All: I just wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

On Christmas Eve I took my 10 year old cousin Samantha to Symphony Hall to see the Boston Pops Christmas Concert. What an amazing time that was. I can't even decscribe how beautiful Symphony Hall looked all decked out with incredible decorations; and the concert was breathtaking. This was Samantha's first time to see an orchestra, so it was fitting she saw one of the best in the world!

We had a table close to the stage, and you could feel the floor vibrate from the 100 plus company. This Christmas is on the melancholy side for me, with the recent loss of my Dad, but seeing Sam with a huge smile on her face, all dressed up in her Christmas best, helped a lot ... and was a quiet reminder that life goes on.

Samantha made her CRT debute in A CHRISTMAS CAROL when she was a year and ahalf old. (she is the youngest Cratchit who says "HI" as Bob Cratchit enters his home), So, tonight she is home, waiting for Santa, and she showed me for the first time this year, the true magic of the Christmas Season. Merry Christmas to all of you, and the best of the holiday season.

Cheers- Jerry

COLONIAL CHRISTMAS

Colonial has produced a few Christmas shows between 1997 and 2004. Some of them are on the air next week! I hope you can tune them in.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2004)
Airing
XM Radio, Ch. 163, Mon. Dec. 24 at 5am, 6:30pm

WAMU 88.5FM Washington DC (with Internet stream) Mon. Dec. 24 at 7:00pm

KGOU Central Oklahoma. (With Internet stream - I'll post the air time on the CRT blog when it is announced)

CRICKET ON THE HEARTH (2000)
Airing on XM Radio, Ch. 163
Mon. Dec.24th at 12pm, 8am, and then in three parts, Wed.-Fri. at 4am, 12pm, 6:30pm

THE SEVEN POOR TRAVELLERS (1997)
Airing on XM Radio
Dec.24th at 4pm, Dec. 25th at 5:30am, 1:30pm

DIBBLE'S CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (2003)
Airing on XM Radio
Dec.24th at 2am, Dec. 25 at 7am, 3pm.

DIBBLE ON THE AIR and DROOD IN BOSTON with a couple of CRT Players

This TUESDAY, DEC. 18TH, John Lovering will air a Dibble episode from 2003 called THE PERFECT TREE on his RADIO THEATRE program. Originating out of Portsmouth NH, you can listen to the show on a live Internet stream.

Last night I was at the Speakeasy Stage Company in Boston to see THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. One of our CRT Players, Andrew Glynn, had a role in it, so I wanted to check it out. He did a fantastic job, and I am looking forward to working with him in upcoming projects. That's him on the left in the picture. On the right in the same picture is David Krinitt, who played "The Cowardly Lion" in our WIZARD OF OZ series about seven years back! I didn't get to see David after the show, but I wish I had. He was great, and this was the first time I saw him on stage - before this is was always at the microphones. His performances was a
hi light. The show plays thru Dec. 30th and is well worth a visit if you are in Boston over the Christmas Season.

Speaking of upcoming projects, I am just about finished with my script for ZORRO AND THE PIRATE RAIDERS! I am hoping to get this project going in January. I haven't taped a show since GUNS OF POWDER RIVER in May!

Has everyone finished their Christmas Shopping yet? This is the first time I have done most of it by Internet.

I got my tree up though - and it's all decorated. This is the first time in seven years that I have had a tree. With the recent loss of my Dad, and my Mom gone since 2001, the holiday season is not very merry, but I am trying to just forge on and stay above water.

Other news - lets see ... I fell on some icy steps this past week; bruised my back, twisted an ankle, gashed my right arm and cut the back of my leg. Then we had that ridiculous snowstorm where everyone hit the panic button and clogged the roads so the plows couldn't get through, and it took me five and half hours to get home in a trip that normally takes 75 minutes. What did I do when I got home??

I STARTED TO LOOK AT PROPERTY IN FLORIDA!

We'll see about that!

Father Brown Coast to Coast!

Today our FATHER BROWN series begins a five day run on XM Radio! J.T. Turner is fantastic in the lead role, and I am very happy with the way this series has turned out. My thanks to writer M.J. Elliott for adapting the stories for radio, M.J. Cogburn and Matt Maclaren for editing, and Kevin McLeod for the music. Check it out!