Hello Friends,

Better Radio, the world’s least-helpfully named sketch comedy podcast, is telling everyone it’s going to have an all-new series in 2013!

It’s going to have old characters, new characters, and stuff about outer space! There will be thrills and chills, but only if you write them!

Here’s what we need:

By or before April 1st, 2013, in Final Draft, PDF, or text format:

Comedy sketches. Since this is a radio program, the sketches need to work in audio-only. That’s not the same as a scene with no visual component - this could also be your chance to use things that you’ll never be able to afford to show in a live-action sketch.

The premise of the show is that an archeo-astronomer in the distant future is listening to transmissions broadcast from Earth. His job is to travel around in deep space picking up different broadcasts. So transmissions (re: sketches) need to be set after 1935 or so. Anything that takes place earlier needs to have some kind of framing device, because there were no recording devices present in the dark ages. Contemporary conversations can be assumed to be recorded by the shadow government that listens to everything via our cell phones, or to be excerpts from other fictional programs.

We strongly prefer conceptual scenes over topical humor. Not only are we not a timely publication, the show is set in the distant future. It’s weird if all the scenes are about the news of 2013. On the other hand, we really like scenes that just happen to be set in other decades for flavor, whether it’s important to the story or not. Self-contained ideas heightened to logical or absurd extremes are preferred over reference-heavy scenes.

The arc of the season this year does allow for serialized segments, but previously we’ve avoided recurring characters, so it’d have to be pretty good.

Also, this is not an old-time radio program. We’ve done scenes set in film noir, fake commercials, radio call-in shows, game shows, press conferences, and indeed, an old-time radio drama. We’d probably do any of those again some time, but we also have all of audio-visual recording history available as a playground. Feel free to go beyond the stock 5 settings for an SNL scene.

We also like character monologues that we can build into scenes with interesting sound design. 

We may work with writers to coach scenes into what we’re looking for, and/or reserve the right to make edits to scenes. For instance, we try to create the impression between episodes that all the sketches take place in the same world, and sometimes adjust references and (fake) brand names to help that goal.

This is open to individuals and groups. We’ll take a sketch you or your group has already written for something else if it fits our format well. We’d also be excited about a ‘crossover’ segment set in the world of a character or show that you already do, even though every attempt at such a collaboration so far has been a mysterious failure. 

This is a chance to hear your script produced - well, not professionally, since there’s no money in it, but on a professional level of quality. If you have a completed audio piece, or would like to be considered for voice acting, please go ahead and mention that too. Even better if you happen to have a range of voices or characters. But right now we’re looking for writing.

To hear what we’ve done before, please visit the show at http://betterradio.tumblr.com/ or grab episodes from iTunes athttp://tinyurl.com/betterradio

Please direct your submissions to BetterRadio@notArt.org, and your writerly friends to this event!

For the first time ever, Better Radio is staging a LIVE performance and taping!

Featuring a mix of favorite scenes and all-new material, The Jeff (G. Maximilian Zarou) and Sheldon (Rob Schultz) are joined by pals Diana Wright, Asterios Kokkinos, and TIM GREER, as well as the robotic machinations of Russell August Anderson and his pre-recorded cast of souls, including Nicola Clarke, Nick Mandernach, Kenny Beck, and Z-Rob himself!

Join us at Dangerfield’s II, 
2860 Glenview Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90039
at 9pm, October 24th, 2011

Admission is free FREE FREE and all proceeds will be stared at incredulously.

Better Radio guests Gabe Diani & Etta Devine are a duo on a mission to restore cultural relevance to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn while removing the uncomfortable references to black people by inserting uncomfortable references to robots!  

Diani & Devine were featured in episodes 2 and 3 of Better Radio, and return this month with a scene they wrote and performed!