I’m on vacation Mon-Wed next week. Tom King will cover my newscasts on the WSAU Wisconsin Morning News.

NEWS BLOG (WSAU) Television changed everything. The post-TV generation thinks and processes information fundamentally differently than pre-TV’ers. Soon this point will be completely lost, as the pre-TV generation dies off completely.

If you need proof, make a young person listen to a radio drama – a play where you hear only the words, not the pictures. A person who uses video stimuli for entertainment will have trouble following the story in a ‘The Lone Ranger’ or ‘The Avengers’ radio drama.
You can conduct your own demonstration in person as Central Wisconsin Area Community Theater of Stevens Point enacts the radio drama of ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’. Take your kids. They’ll be using their mind in a way they usually don’t, since you have to imagine everything. Adults know the story almost line-by-line. But it will be new for most kids, and the drama will unfold in their mind’s eye and not right in front of them.

Seeing a radio drama produced in-person is fascinating. A small cast of actors usually play multiple parts. They sometimes were basic props – a hat, a coat – as a reminder to other cast members about while role they’re playing at various times. Live-acted sound effects are usually very funny to watch in person. A good radio drama also includes live commercials and audience participation for applause and a life laugh track.

This is a unique theater experience, and should be a lot of fun.

You’ll also reflect on this: the same changes on how we intake and process information is happening again with the internet, which also changed everything. We expect a more on-demand, more interactive, faster experience. There will be a day when we’ll watch just TV with our grandkids. And they’ll think “how old fashioned.”

Chris Conley
12.14.12 

Performance: Dec 21 7p at Ben Franklin Jr High School in Stevens Point
http://www.cwact.org/