Earplay was the longest-running of the formal series of radio drama anthologies on National Public Radio, produced by WHA in Madison, Wisconsin and heard from 1972 into the 1990s. It approached radio drama as an art form with scripts written by such leading playwrights as Edward Albee, Arthur Kopit, Archibald MacLeish and David Mamet.
Airing in stereo, Earplay provided a showcase for original and adapted work. Eventually, the less-sustained successor series NPR Playhouse drew episodes from the Earplay run. Often presented by NPR member stations on a weekly basis, Earplay episodes were produced with much attention to recording technique and sound-effects.
In 1975, it scored a triumph with Listening, an original play written by Edward Albee for stereo radio, employing one speaker for one character and another speaker for another character. Since both characters are seated in a room, the illusion is created that they are in the same room as the listener. After its premiere on radio, Listening was later performed on stage.
Along with the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Sears Radio Theater, The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater, Christian radio's Unshackled and Public Radio's The National Radio Theater of Chicago, Earplay was among the most ambitious nationwide projects in the medium in the U.S. during the 1970s and 1980s.
Beginnings
With a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, Earplay began in 1972 directed by Karl Schmidt, legendary producer and radio executive at WHA Madison, Wisconsin. Karl was determined to bring a new and invigorating approach to radio drama. He faced major obstacles from other public radio broadcasters and had to prove the new approach would gain listeners. He enlisted the help of Tom Voegeli, a newcomer to the field of audio, but as the son of Don Voegeli (composer of NPR's All Things Considered theme music), he had the innate knowledge and enthusiasm that Karl wanted. (Tom has had a distinguished career in public broadcasting spanning 40 years since). Another contributor was Martha Van Cleef fresh from her PhD at the UW and eager to enlist writers into this forgotten medium.
It was she who convinced both Edward Albee and Archibald MacLeish to write original dramas for Earplay. It was this that brought the program to the attention of BBC producers. Karl enlisted the aid of John Tydemann an experienced BBC producer to oversee Albee’s play, Listening. The three on them spent three days in a studio working with such stars as Irene Worth. MacLeish’s play JB was adapted by Earplay.
New radio drama
As a result, in 1975 Earplay sent its new executive producer, Howard Gelman to the BBC for secondment. He worked in the script department alongside another newcomer to audio, John Madden and under the direction of Martin Esslin, BBC head of drama, and Richard Imison, BBC head of scripts. John and Howard returned to Earplay in 1976 to bring a new approach to radio drama, one that did not rely on real time production, that is, recording dramas in real time with sound effects and music. Their idea was to produce radio as if it were film, that is, in segments in several takes without additions such as effects and music. This meant that they could be totally portable and fast, They could record voices in a day in a Los Angeles studio or a New York studio, wherever the best talent could be convinced to work on new and vibrant dramas written and acted by the best new talent anywhere in the country. Then they took the raw tapes back to Madison for post production. Given the technology at the time, they worked with multi tracking 2-inch tapes on a 24-track control board. They transferred the finished dramas onto long playing records and later switched to cassette tapes for distribution to the public broadcasting network throughout the country. Now Earplay was a full NPR distributed national program.