War of the Roses

In his article Only half the story: Radio drama, online audio and transmedia storytelling, Lance Dann analyzes the potentials of audio drama in all its different forms. One of the most popular forms of audio drama is radio drama. Radio drama serves as a way for radio stations to broadcast information to a large population of listeners at the same time. There are many types of radio shows ranging from news to entertainment, and everything in between.

A popular radio entertainment show that I am familiar with is called “War of the Roses”. This radio show is broadcasted in multiple states, however being from Houston I know it as “Roula & Ryan’s Roses”. What happens on this radio show is the host calls a man offering him a dozen free roses, and asks who he wants to send them to. Meanwhile, he doesn’t know his wife is on the line listening to their conversation. The host will also ask the man to say a personal message to go with the roses. The point of this radio show is to uncover whether the man is cheating on his wife.  If he sends them to his wife, then she knows he is not cheating on her. But, if he sends them to another woman, then he gets caught and finds out his wife was on the other line the whole time.

On the other end of the spectrum, radio shows about politics are arguably the most listened to. Although these radio shows do not fall under the same category of audio drama as Roula & Ryan’s Roses, they still contain plenty of drama, especially right now. After doing some research on popular political radio shows, it seems that some of the most popular are “The Rush LimbaughShow” and “The Sean Hannity Show”, both formatted around conservative talk.  Pulling in around 13 million weekly listeners, these radio shows discuss conservative viewpoints on current issues facing our country.

In his article, Lance Dann explains that “Broadcasters create a schedule in response to the patterns of their audience’s listening” (143). Roula & Ryan’s Roses is broadcasted every Thursday at 7:00am. This time is appropriate because at 7:00am many people are in their cars on the way to work or school. Pertaining to conservative talk, “The Rush Limbaugh Show” is broadcasted Monday-Friday from 11am-2pm, while “The Sean Hannity Show” is broadcasted weekdays from 3pm-5pm. These two popular conservative talk shows are broadcasted at appropriate times because they are scheduled around the working persons lunch break and drive home.

Something special about radio drama is that the listener “has the freedom to choose when are where they will be listening” (Dunn 146). In the past, people had to tune in to the station on a handheld radio if they wanted to listen to a radio talk show. However, with new technology today, listeners have the ability to tune in to radio talk shows in their car, through their computer, or even on their phone. Therefore, no matter where they are or what they are doing, listeners can be kept up to date on radio drama and current events.