Concept in Definition ABC

The two words that make up this term are self-explanatory. Thus, the radio drama (also called radio drama or theater radio) is the fusion of theater and radio as media. In other words, it is the adaptation of the gender theatrical to the radio. For the adaptation to be valid, the theater renounces the visual aspects of the scene and replaces them with sound elements: sound effects to set the mood narration of the scenes or the dialogue among the actors, a music background that serves as an atmosphere and a greater emphasis on voice by the actors.

The different elements of the radio drama have one purpose: that the listener activates her imagination to get into the story.

At present the radio drama is a minority genre and there are some projects that try to rescue it from oblivion.

Brief historical tour

At the end of the 19th century the Italian Guilermo Marconi made the first radio broadcasts. From 1920 the radio became a means of communication mass and in a form of entertainment that incorporated music and information. At that time, the radio serial became fashionable and plays of very diverse genres were released through radio devices, preferably drama. This phenomenon was very popular in Spain and in all Latin American countries.

Its great popularity had an explanation: the theater is an entertainment that is not available to everyone and by adapting it to the radio this problem disappeared.

Some serials were broadcast for decades, but from the appearance of television, the radio drama was losing prominence. In this sense, television soap operas replaced radio serials. In the 1980s the theater on the radio had practically disappeared. In sixty years he had gone from fame to oblivion.

Radio theater on the web

It seemed that the radio drama was on the way to extinction, but with Internet this situation has taken a turn. The fusion between theater and radio has incorporated another element, the podcast. In this way, by downloading a podcast it is possible to rescue the magic of the radio stories of the old serials.

Although the word does not exist, a new one is proposed to mention this phenomenon that combines the network, radio and theater: redioteatro.