Quick comments

This weekend we're recording the first three shorts starring THE COLONIAL RADIO KIDS! We have a number of kids who record with us, and there just are not enough roles for them. So, I thought it would be fun to do some short 8min comedies with an all kids cast! We're taping FREAKY FAIRY TALES this weekend.

TUESDAY we're taping the first few episodes of a new series called SOLUTIONS, INC., written by Mike Murphy. More on this later, as we will not be broadcasting them until next September.

Editing is going great on our productions of TICONDEROGA and Walter Koenig's BUCK ALICE AND THE ACTOR ROBOT. Both are due in early 2010, although TICONDEROGA begins a Sirius/XM run starting Dec. 4th.

The first week in November we wrap up our series JARREM LEE - GHOST HUNTER, which we started taping last April. The first 6 episodes begin airing next Friday, and the second set of 6 episodes will air right after the run of Ticonderoga, in the spring.

And also at the end of October, we will record our final two episodes in our FATHER BROWN MYSTERIES series, giving us a total of 16 episodes.

There are a few awesome things cooking here that I just can't spill the beans on - but they're REALLY cool and think our listeners are gonna like them.

Thats all for now ~cheers

PRODUCTION NOTES - HALLOWEEN

In 14 years we have produced about 20 programs that are perfect for the fall season - especially Halloween! Of that 20, some are episodes from a series (most notably Jarrem Lee, Dibble, and Jerry and the Pirates). And every October for the past 5 years we have been very lucky to see radio stations around the country broadcast our award winning production of Washington Irving's THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW - this year being no exception.

Our first "spooky" productions were in 1996 with our "Candlelight Tales" series (well, we only did four shows). The first was about a haunted light house in Boston Harbor (Minot's Light) and the second about the alleged ghost at Fort Warren (The Lady In Black). It's worthy to note that these two productions are the only two still in circulation that were recorded on 4 track tape! We went digital in 1997, and re-recorded all our previous titles - except for these two. It wasn't that they were not worthy, but the sales were not sterling and it would have taken too much time to re-record the extensive music scores they both had. Looking back on it - I wish I had re-made them.

THE STORM BREEDER came next, in 1997. Based on a New England legend, we recorded the show sometime in January or February as I recall. This was one of our first all-digital shows (the first being THE SEVEN POOR TRAVELLERS). With a very odd running time of 40 minutes, it will air for the very first time on our Sirius?XM show this month (cut to 27 minutes, and better this way I might add)

Next came THE DEVIL'S BARGAIN, a tale that is very close to that of "The Devil and Daniel Webster." Not a bad one, but suffers from some hammy acting that in hindsight I should have recognized at the time and re-cast. Still, kids like it and it's a fun show.

This was the end of our CANDLELIGHT TALES series. I lost interest, and I don't enjoy writing ghost stories because I am just not good at it.

Mark (my business partner) and I had always loved Washington Irving's THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, and had talked about doing it as a radio play as far back as our first production, BATTLE ROAD in 1995. Well, the book is not an easy one to adapt as a play (by that I mean, to stick right with the story with as much of the authors actual words, which is what CRT always tries to do). In 2003, I was getting antsy to do it, but the script still worried me.

I decided to take a stab at it to test the waters by working it into a Dibble Show. We were doing a 1 hour special, and I decided to have Dibble and the Gang do SLEEPY HOLLOW. This way, I could test out the script and the "visuals" to see if they would work, and they did! So, in October of 2004 I went to Tarrytown, NY (Sleepy Hollow) and did some research. The names and dates you hear the ghosts droning about in the opening are all actual names from the gravestones in the cemetery.

In Feb. of 2005 we recorded the show (in about 8 sessions), and it was released in October of 2005 with great results, and has remained a popular title ever since.

In 2006 we worked with the great Ray Bradbury on his DANDELION WINE, and when he heard the final result, he asked me if I would be interested in producing his SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES.

Would I!??

He sent me script and one month later, August of 2006, we were before the CRT mics recording his incredible story. We had so many boys audition for the two leads that I asked Ray what would the possibilities be of making a radio play from his book THE HALLOWEEN TREE. He gave me permission, I wrote the script (directly from his book - all the words in our show are Rays - including the lyrics to the songs) - and in December of 2006 we recorded the show.

Our publisher in their infinite wisdom did not release SWTWC until many months after it's completion, in November of 2007. Yes, that is a good time to release a Halloween show - the day after Halloween. Needless to say biz wasn't booming. However, it did well in 2008 and is doing well now for this Halloween as well.

THE HALLOWEEN TREE was released in October of 2008, and I think it's one of our very best. Chris Snyder outdid himself with this one.

In 2007 Gareth Tilley, a writer in England, asked if we would be interested in producing a series he had called JARREM LEE. Set in England, in 1900, it concerns a Sherlock Holmes type character who deals with the paranormal. I wasn't ready to do a series at that time, as family matters were dominating my life, however in 2008 we rolled on the show and have completed 12 episodes. They begin airing Oct. 23, and will be released as downloads once they air.

We did another Dibble episode (Dibbles Halloween, in 2005), and a Halloween episode in our series JERRY AND THE PIRATES (2008). So all in all, I think we covered the holiday! Will we do another? Most likely. Just need a good story and a good script.

Twitter

Thought I would give it a try. I am @JerryCRT if anyone is twitting around out there. I'm still not sure how it all works, or if anyone can see what I am twitting about, but I'm out there somewhere I hope.

MEET THE NEW CRT LOGO!

After a 15 year run, we are retiring our original logo of the old radio surrounded by our name. That design was by Marks dad, Herman Vanderberg and served us well for many years. For the next 15 years or so, we have had a new logo created by Roger Knox Design in Austin, Texas. Here it is!

New programs

I haven't really been neglecting my blog these last few weeks; but I haven't been feeling all that well, so the time spent on the computer has been for reviewing new scenes and sending out notes; some writing, and general back and forth biz emails.

We have just two more JARREM LEE's to record before finishing the series; those will be in early November. I'm trying to secure a recording date for three shorts we are producing, called FREAKY FAIRY TALES, and they are written by our own Anastas Varinos, who, at 16 years of age, pens a very funny script! All the actors will be played by the CRT Radio kids, so these should be a lot of fun. They will be used as fillers on our on-air radio show, and will also be available as downloads.

We will soon have some very exciting release information on our production of ZORRO AND THE PIRATE RAIDERS, which, up until now has only been available at our Lulu.Com store, but just wait!! We have some great PERRY MASON and ZORRO news coming very soon!

And it's October - my favorite month of the year. I think the story that best depicts the autumn season in New England is Washington Irving's THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. More of a homage to the season than a horror tale, we produced the story in 2005, won the Gold Ogle Award for it, and happily is broadcast somewhere every Halloween season. This will be it's 5th Halloween, and will be aired on several stations, as well as Sirius/XM. I'll let you know the schedule here as soon as I know it myself.

We have a few other titles suited for the Halloween season, and maybe you'll check some of them out (And remember, many of our titles are in your local libraries as digital download books from your libraries website - check with your library!); also at this time of year, you may want to try two programs we did with the great Ray Bradbury - SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES and THE HALLOWEEN TREE - both award winners, and SWTWC has a script written by Mr. B. himself!

JARREM LEE makes his bow in just a couple of weeks when the series premiers on Sirius/XM. We'll also be releasing episodes on Lulu once it airs.

That's all for now. More later I am sure. Hope you keep listening!
cheers

RAY BRADBURY on COLONIAL RADIO THEATER

Looking for some cool Halloween Listening? Check out these spooky Award Winning Colonial Radio titles on Amazon!

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow


Ray Bradbury's THE HALLOWEEN TREE

Ray Bradbury's SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

Updates

What a crazy month it has been. There are lots of things going on at CRT that we STILL cannot mention - but soon! Very soon. Our Sirius/XM show is doing great! We started our 5th Season September 11th, and we are running new episodes every Friday from now till next June! The Mon-Thur. slot will be filled with encores and there are more specials coming as well.
Starting October 23rd, our new series JARREM LEE - GHOST HUNTER will have it's world premier. A mixture of Sherlock Holmes and monsters, it's a fun series created by Gareth Tilley in England. We are producing 12 episodes. The first six play Fridays thru Nov. 27th, and will be released as downloads after they air.

Also "new" in October, will be our 1997 production THE STORM BREEDER. This was produced as part of our "Candlelight Tales" from our early days. I don't think this has been broadcast before; but here is a newly edited version that I think listeners will like. This will air Oct. 27th.

Airing Oct. 28th will be DIBBLE'S SLEEPY HOLLOW. This was cut from our 2003 special "Dibble's Halloween Spooktacular." We have made a half hour show from Dibble's skit "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," which was the focal point of the special.

Some updates

Busy as usual around here. Our 24 episode series TICONDEROGA is back in full swing. We have wrapped up the first six episodes of another new series, JARREM LEE - GHOST HUNTER, which will start a Sirius/XM run on Friday Oct. 24th and run for six consecutive weeks. The final 6 episodes will air late spring after TICONDEROGA completes it's first run.

Speaking of TICONDEROGA, we are hoping to have the CD Release premier at the actual Fort as a fundraiser. Most of the lead cast will attend. More on this as things develope.

BUCK ALICE AND THE ACTOR ROBOT, our production based on the novel by, and starring Walter Koenig of Star Trek fame is also in full swing and sounding great! This is going to be a fun show and I think Walters fans will love it. In the hands of MJ Cogburn, we plan on having it ready to go in early 2010, to coincide with the re-release of the novel.

THE PERRY MASON RADIO DRAMAS are proving popular and we are looking forward to continuing the series through 2010. M.J. Elliott is doing a wonderful job dramatizing the original books into feature length radio plays!

We are also going to be having a new look, as we are designing a new logo for CRT. Our original logo has served us well all these years, but as we begin our 15th year in 2010, we thought it was time for a new look and time to retire the old cathedral radio.

Finally, POWDER RIVER will begin a weekly run on a new internet radio station called Twilight Audio Theater. I think it starts this week (possibly today), but not certain. Two episodes will play back to back, and it all starts with Season 1 from 2004 and "The Preacher" and "A Tangled Rope." Here's the link in case you wish to tune in; I am sure the show times will be listed soon.

LIVE - 365

That's all for now! ~JR

ZORRO AND THE PIRATE RAIDERS RELEASE ON LULU

We have released ZORRO AND THE PIRATE RAIDERS for downloads on Lulu.Com. The show will eventually be available on CD's and also on Audible.Com, but this is where CRT likes to launch new titles as special "sneak previews" before they are released on a larger scale. Here is a link: ZORRO AND THE PIRATE RAIDERS

(Photo courtesy of ZPI, Inc.)