a little update

Working on THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES script this weekend. Need to get it to Ray for approval in July, and then hopefully we can record in August and have it out on time. MJ has finished editing on THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, which now awaits music. Jim and Seth continue editing on BUCK ALICE AND THE ACTOR-ROBOT, and we are getting close to completion. Lots of other projects in the works that we can't announce yet; but we will be announcing a big one within a couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

A Thursday Update!

Had a good meeting with Brilliance yesterday, mapping out how to go about digging into our catalog of 300 plus titles :) 300! No wonder I have dark circles under my eyes!
Today I have a 3:30pm recording session for LORENZO AND THE PIRATE, and then working on a Powder River script.
Some amazing things on the horizon that I can't wait to tell you about! A new 36 episode series is barreling down the pike right at ya, and it's like nothing we have ever done before! We start recording on July 24th and have a air date premier of Nov.6th on Sirius/XM (yep, the show will be broadcast on weekends, outside our normal time slot).
Exciting!

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

Saw the schedule for the CAPE COD MELODY TENT in Hyannis. I must be getting old because I only knew about four of the "stars" playing there this summer. The days of Liberace, Bob Hope, Robert Goulet, Rosemary Clooney, Martha Ray, Angela Lansbury, Victor Borge performing on that stage are long gone; behold the era of foul mouthed stand up.

JAWS is still an amazing movie to behold. Can't wait till it's on Blu-Ray. Is it??

The MGM lion at the start of a movie still has the most class of any movie logo, but the triumphant trumpets of 20th Century Fox really get the blood going and screams out HOLLYWOOD!

I think Colonial Radio needs to do the 6th L.Frank Baum OZ book as a radio drama.

Am I the only person who did not like AVATAR?

JARREM LEE and such

We had a GREAT recording session on Monday for JARREM LEE - GHOST HUNTER, completing two new episodes. There will be 24 episodes in all. Joe Caliendo Jr. has taken on the role of Arthur Bennett, due to Jeremy Benson who needed to bow out since he will be playing the title role in the Scottish Play! Joe first recorded with CRT back in 1997 with THE STORM BREEDER, followed quickly by our Dickens Holiday offering for that year, THE SEVEN POOR TRAVELLERS. Nice to have Joe back behind the CRT microphones. We have aired the first 12 episodes on our show, and we're recording / editing the final batch now. Bryan Rothrock is doing a fantastic job on this series.

MJ continues to edit on THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, which will be broadcast as a special on Sirius/XM Radio on Thanksgiving Day. I think the CD release will be in the spring of 2011. So far 75 minutes has been edited; I'm taking a guess and predicting a final cut of 100min. Let's see if I'm right!

OH - and a note on the posters on this site; these are temporary ones that I create just to get the buzz going. Our publishers art department will produce the actual cover art for the CD's - so don't worry, they will look a bit more slick in the end :)

That's all for now,
cheers from Boston.

NEW PODCAST

New COLONIAL RADIO TALK podcast, with Deniz Cordell. Deniz plays Clay Tucker in the POWDER RIVER series, and also starred in CRT's 2005 production KIDNAPPED. He is currently writing a new series which will premier this fall, and is composing the score to THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, scheduled for broadcast on Thanksgiving Day.

NEW PODCAST

Check out the newest CRT TALK podcast, with guest Anastas Varinos (Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Halloween Tree, The Prince and the Pauper, Treasure Island).

OUR NEW PUBLISHER

We are THRILLED to announce that we have a NEW PUBLISHER! CRT has signed with BRILLIANCE AUDIO, the largest audio book publisher in the United States! We have a great line-up of releases coming up - it's all very exciting!

BUCK ALICE ZOOMING ALONG

Walter Koenig's BUCK ALICE AND THE ACTOR ROBOT. Although this show has been a long time in the making, I think it will be worth waiting for. It's a fun production: theater of the absurd, black comedy, and some great writing. After a long delay we are finally on track and have two editors on the project, Seth Adam Sher and Jim Hamilton, and Walter Koenig is very much involved with the editing and pacing of the show.

This is not the typical CRT show, and already I found a "critic" who wrote about it, pretty much blasting it before hearing it - which is amazing to me. Judging it before it is even released. Then again, we have come to expect that sort of thing these days. People hear what they want to hear. I remember a review we got when we released THE ALAMO back in 1999. A critic mentioned how he "rolled his eyes when Travis drew a line in the dirt for the defenders to cross." Well, the amazing thing is, that never happens in our production! It wasn't even in the script because I knew it was legend and not fact - and yet - here was this guy accusing us of having it in our show. Incredible. You can still see the review online where it has been misleading potential listeners for 11 years.
BUCK ALICE is one-fun-show. I am loving what I am hearing so far! Walters fans will really enjoy this one.

Last week we recorded THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER with a great script by MJ Elliott (Father Brown Mysteries, Perry Mason Radio Dramas) and a wonderful cast headed by CRT teen stars Anastas Varinos and Isaac Bean. We hope to have this one ready for a Thanksgiving Day Broadcast on Sirius/XM.

The world of contracts and negotiations have been dominating the CRT agenda for a few months and I am hoping that we are just about set and ready to make some exciting announcements. Yes, I have been talking about a new publisher since last October, and yes, it has taken this long to get biz done and ready for the dotted line. It will be well worth it though, and we are excited about it.

May will be a quiet recording month as we focus on getting BUCK ALICE ready for release. In fact, I'm not sure I will be recording at all until June. Gives me some time to catch up on my scripts which have taken a slow turn these past few weeks.

Not a week goes by that I do not get emails about Powder River Season 5. We will start recording new episodes this summer! These will be our final episodes in the series, and when completed (and assuming I get all the episodes done I want for the final season) we should have a grand total of 75 half hour episodes and 2 feature length productions. I'd love to hit 105 episodes, but someone else would have to write the 30 scripts to get there. Still, 75 is not a bad run at all. :)

Onward!

April already?

Well, I have been out of touch lately - both here and in the "real world" as things at CRT are incredibly busy. Two of our editors are working on getting BUCK ALICE completed, while MJ and Bryan work on FATHER BROWN and JARREM LEE.

We are ramping up with our new publisher (who we will announce soon) and are in talks for some heavy duty titles that will surprise just about all of our fans (again, announcement to come). I HATE not being able to spill the beans, but until the deals are set, we can't talk about it.

Add to this my trying to get some scripts done, and not having taken a break in about 9 years, I'm a little out of steam. So, I need to get off facebook, and blogger, and just take it easy for a while - because when the new publisher launches our titles, there won't be a moment of peace around here. Only one recording session is planned this month, for THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, and after that, I most likely will not turn the CRT mics on again until June.

Lots of amazing things about to happen. Just wait and see :)
cheers
~J

Busy times

Is this the longest I've gone without posting? I think so. It's been a busy month with CRT and life in general. We are trying to get some productions wrapped up and ready for release, and planning new ones. We have a few sessions being scheduled for April, and most of these productions will air in the fall.
This week we should be releasing two new programs; a new FATHER BROWN MYSTERY called The Eye of Apollo, and episode 10 of JARREM LEE - GHOST HUNTER.

Our new audio book sideline has been very busy as well. We have one book in release, THE BOOK OF NONSENSE; and two more have been completed and will be out soon; KICHI IN JUMGLE JEOPARDY and also Earl Murray's MOUNTAIN SHERIFF (the first in a series of four). We have a lot of books in line for recording - a lot.

thats all for now. More later :) cheers

NEW RELEASE! SHAKESPEARE'S GHOST

The Bard himself has returned to comment on his life, his works, and how the centuries have treated him. J.T. Turner brings Shakespeare to life, and this audio presentation (based on his stage play) is filled with stories about Shakespeare, his works, productions through the ages, and passages from many of the Bard's best works. Created and Written by J.T. TURNER, this is the first production from our newest producer at CRT, Jim Hamilton. The show is now on Lulu.Com, and will be coming soon to Spoken Network, Amazon, Audible and i-Tunes.
SHAKESPEARE'S GHOST

TICONDEROGA COMPLETED

We started recording on Nov. 10th 2008 and finished taping in February of 2009, and now, on Feb. 28th a year after, the entire TICONDEROGA production has been completed! Bagpipes, fifes and drums, a few thousand muskets and Highlanders, and we're good to go! CRT's first historical program in almost 10 years.All 24 episodes are now at the CRT store on LULU.COM and the CD release will be this summer. If you don't like single episodes, we will soon have a continuous version available.

COLONIAL RADIO TALK seems to be catching on. We have had quite a few downloads to the podcast, and MJ Cogburn has set us up as a RSS feed; you can download the show from various podcast sites, or have it delivered to you each week via your email. All the info is at CRT PODCAST

Monday, so we're recording tonight. Three more episodes of SOLUTIONS, INC. We will wrap the series on the 15th of this month.

More later!
cheers