The Electromatic Radio Podcast Begins This Week! (details below!)

WHAT IS ELECTROMATIC RADIO?

In a way, this is..

Or this..

Or this..

Some say that Electromatic Radio is the warm summer breeze that catches your back as you walk through the park. Others say that Electromatic Radio is the morning dew on the lawn that you mowed only the day before. Still others say that Electromatic Radio is the threatening message scrawled across your bathroom mirror in lipstick. All of these answers are correct...

.. if profoundly unhelpful. The following is less so:

WHAT IS ELECTROMATIC RADIO?

Electromatic Radio is a science fiction comedy and music program written, produced, and performed by Aaron Neathery. Each program tells a complete story in three skits with two musical interludes. The ratio of original material to music varies as you can see in the following graphs:

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Somewhere in an alternate America, on the far side of a small town called Drakesville, is the world's first fully-automated atomic radio station. Once the flagship of a coast-to-coast chain of nuclear-powered radiomats, it has long since fallen out of public favor. Inside the musty, labyrinthine Electromatic Building, hallways which once bustled with activity are now quiet and strange things scuttle in the shadows. Rooms which have remained sealed for decades, their contents forgotten, lie silently as if in wait. But the building is far from abandoned. Throughout the complex, a vastly complicated electromechanical network still guides the station's day-to-day activities just as it has without stop for almost eight decades. The station also continues to employ a small crew consisting of an on-air host and a technician in order to keep Electromatic Radio on the air.

THE ELECTROMATIC CREW

Grey Grimwald, host of Electromatic Radio. A bellicose, short-tempered, hard-drinking, middle-aged veteran of the New York radio scene, although in what capacity is unknown as he seems to have little aptitude for announcing or anything else. Grey is a man utterly out of his element, helpless in the face of the bizarre and unexplainable, and emotionally unequipped to cope with the strange behavior of his only human co-worker, Matt Appleyard. But as much as his job and co-worker may drive him up the wall, he knows that he has nowhere to go but down and therefore tries very, very hard to reconcile himself to his new life. He's also a huge Mets fan.

Matt Appleyard, Electromatic technician. Chipper, bright, playful, energetic, and unspeakably irritating, Matt is the heart of Electromatic Radio. His days are spent tinkering with electronics, maintaining the station's supercomputer, munching on Necco wafers, and making his co-worker Grey's life a waking nightmare. What Matt does not do is his primary job of monitoring the broadcast, something he considers redundant as the broadcast is automated. This usually leaves the technically inept Grey in the position of not even knowing if he's on the air. Matt, a lifetime citizen of Drakesville, is several decades Grey's junior and formerly worked at the Sack-N-Carry, a local grocery store.

Evie (ElectroVac I). A huge analog computer designed to edit, compile, and broadcast 24 hours of programming a day. Powered, like the transmitter, by the station's small scale nuclear reactor, Evie is essentially the Electromatic Building's "brain", her "nerves" extending throughout the building in the form of sensors, cameras, and hidden microphones. Extensions of Evie include automated studios, a huge automated record library, and "broadcast control" booths for technicians to monitor her broadcasts. Evie is sentient and has a mercurial, mischievous, and rather insecure personality. Although capable of speaking limited pre-programmed phrases, she communicates with Matt primarily through a series of electronic tonalities which only Matt seems to understand. She absolutely does not like Grey.

Mr. Osborne, owner of Electromatic Radio. Never heard but frequently mentioned, Mr. Osborne is an extremely old man with, like Grey, a taste for the hootch. He has an office in the building but is almost always away.

THE RIVALS

As insignificant as it may be, Electromatic Radio has a rival station, the better-funded and organized Autotronic Radio, with which it competes for its tiny share of the Drakesville radio market. Autotronic's employees are unscrupulous cutthroats who will stop at nothing, even murder, to see Electromatic Radio eliminated. While there may be many more Autotronic employees, we are concerned with only three.

Cyrus Filtch, host of Autotronic Radio. A vicious, weaselly, abusive little Brooklynite with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Newton Dimbleby, Autotronic Radio technician. Cyrus's dimwitted lackey. An oafish stuffed shirt with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Professor Cassius Klatch, head of Autotronic R&D. A former coworker of Matt's from his days at the Sack-N-Carry. Neurotic and crazed, the Professor's deep-seated lust for revenge stems from his being passed over for employment at Electromatic Radio in favor of Matt. Hugely intelligent and deeply unhinged with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

WHAT BROUGHT *THIS* ON?

Electromatic Radio began life in late 2005 as Videomatic Electrovue, an experiment in television deconstruction; an anti-TV show with fictional limitations designed to inspire creative solutions as well as expose the mechanics of a medium that we all tend to take at face value. The visuals were pared down to a test pattern and video effects with audio carrying the bulk of the narrative. On paper, the concept for the program was also to involve a camera, locked in place, with a performance space of no more than a few feet, allowing for nothing more than hands, heads, small props, drawings, and puppets much like the earliest mechanical television experiments of the 1920s. For the audio, I would perform all of the characters and edit the dialog together line by line, saving the need for scheduling, rehearsing and directing a full cast. Two pilots were produced with my friend Lee Wilson as video editor and co-director but, unfortunately, the show turned out to be too complicated to produce on a steady basis and, worse, I couldn't find a venue for it. Left with an established production method for the audio, a concept, characters, and a handful of prepared scripts, I decided to convert the show into a radio program. The groundwork already laid, I quickly recorded three new pilot episodes and paid a visit to KPFT, Houston's Pacifica station, to see if it had a chance to air. Happily, program director Ernesto Aguilar felt it did and Electromatic Radio was added to the lineup of the station's new HD channel with a second station, KRFP in Moscow, ID, beating them to the punch.

WHAT IS THE POINT OF IT ALL, YOU WEIRD MAN?

Electromatic Radio is largely an exploration into a number of things that I find personally compelling; the feeling of wandering the abandoned hallways of your school after hours on the last day before graduating.. The eerie wonder of an abandoned building.. The comfort in the seeming permanence of that neighborhood business that holds its own against the big box stores.. The elegant simplicity of radio itself.. It's about independence, the joy of invention, of stewardship, friendship, paranoia, and dread. Electromatic Radio is about all of these things, but mostly it's about yelling.

WHERE CAN I HEAR IT?

Electromatic Radio episodes are uploaded weekly to mypodcast and radio4all. Further, highlights of the series and rare promos can be heard on Electromatic Radio's YouTube channel. If you're affiliated with a Pacifica station, versions of these episodes featuring copyrighted music can be accessed at www.audioport.org.

A NOTE TO LISTENERS, ASSORTED PROGRAM DIRECTORS AND MEDIA MOGULS WHO MAY BE READING

In my bid for global radio domination, I'm eager to add stations to the Electromatic client list. If you know of a station near you for whom you believe EMR would be a good fit, let them know about EMR or let me know about them. Better yet, if you happen to work in radio, especially for a college, community, or Part 15 station, and you have an interest in adding EMR to your lineup, contact me at electromaticradio@gmail.com. The first person to help me reach my goal of 18 million stations wins an Electromatic Radio T-shirt.

The End is Nigh...

March 2nd, 2009, to be more precise...

Who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?

Contrary to what appears to be the plainly obvious, this blog is not dead. What with The Third Banana occupying most of my spare writing time, aaronneathery.com NEWS has been demoted to its original purpose... and although there are a lot of projects underway, none are far enough along for me to announce them here. There should be (with luck) some good news within the next few months, however. Just keep these words in mind: Jim Belushi, mustard-stained twill suit, and lace curtains.

MUSIC IS HERE!!!

From the antique anarchy of Aliens to the lilting latin strains of Elaine and back again, both Josh Foster and myself agree that Yes, Sonic Ted? is the best Society's End mini-album yet! And so will you! Or else! Listen to it for free, you lucky people, and have a safe and happy Decembermas.

PS: Official aaronneathery.com Cambrian-spokescreature Opie the Opabinia also wishes you glad tidings and good cheer, regardless of faith, race, nationality, or economic status. Can't beat that! For more on opabinias, click here.

Of Mincing Kings and Ghoulish Dolls...

Bill Sherman has posted a review of H. G. Lewis's Santa Visits the Magic Land Of Mother Goose (1967). Despite Santa's token appearance, this film has been on my annual Christmas movie short-list alongside the Mexican Santa Claus, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, and Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny for several years now. I clearly belong to a very select group of individuals; people who have not only sat through SVTMLOMG, but have sat through it dozens of times. Call me sick, but this non-film is one of my favorite movies for reasons even I don't clearly understand. Maybe it's the hilarious Tony Randall-ish Old King Cole, or the Raggedy Ann character that was clearly intended to be cute but ends up being simply terrifying.. or maybe it's the Wicked Witch, played over-the-top even for a Wicked Witch, who is burned to death in a cabinet by Merlin, the magical wizard who speaks only over an off-camera tape recorder. It's right up there with Psyched By the 4-D Witch and The Shaggs in my book as a mind-altering/expanding experience (I like to think that Frank Zappa would have agreed with me on this one). Devoid of any of the signposts of traditional film language or narrative, your brain is forced to fill in the gaps, and suddenly your windows of perception are blown wide open! You may even deduce the very nature of God while watching Santa Visits the Magic Land of Mother Goose, but don't bother writing it down; it'll all just seem like gibberish after the movie is over.

Music Is Coming!

December is always Music Month at aaronneathery.com. 12/1/05 will mark the official debut of Yes, Sonic Ted?, the latest (and hopefully not the last) mini-album from Josh Foster and myself as Society's End. Closer to Christmas, I'll be unveiling I Don't Want to Skate Alone, my traditional annual holiday tune. Why do I do it? WHO KNOWS?? All of this tuneful folderol will appear on my site's music page, my/our Christmas gift to all you lucky, lucky people.

Fiddlesticks and the Colorful Mediocrity of Ub Iwerks

Just happened across Ub Iwerks' 1930 cartoon Fiddlesticks on archive.org this evening. What a mess. Even the worst early sound cartoons usually have something to offer, from the rubbery animation to the hot jazz it seems they were all scored with. But Fiddlesticks is another matter entirely. This is the debut of Iwerks' character Flip the Frog, which he developed in secret during his last few months working for Walt Disney. At the time, it was generally accepted among industry insiders that Ub was the brains behind Disney's success. Despite whatever the Disney Corporation may say, Ub created Mickey Mouse, a not particularly impressive feat considering that the earliest Mickey was a cipher, indistinguishable, save for synchronized sound, from most of the other glorified inkblots that populated late-20s cartoons. Fiddlesticks dispels any notions whatever about Iwerks having been the 'brains' of the Disney Studios. It is so utterly, profoundly awful that I find it nothing short of a miracle that MGM decided to pick it up as a series (they were no doubt so dazzled by Iwerks' reputation that they were blind to the flaws of the thing). Fiddlesticks has no story, few gags, and Flip the Frog does not qualify as a character. What Fiddlesticks does boast are the two elements that Iwerks clearly felt were more important than character, gags, and story; synchronized sound and color. It has plenty of both, but even contemporary audiences, for whom sound alone was still a novelty, must have found it crushingly boring. It is remarkable that Iwerks could have been so myopic about the appeal of cartoons after having worked alongside Disney for so many years, but Fiddlesticks indicates Iwerks was blind to anything but technique, apparently assuming that novelty alone was enough to carry a short. A technical man at heart, Iwerks did develop a number of impressive mechanical innovations while head of his own studio including an early multiplane camera, but as attractive as his cartoons were, they were uniformly devoid of wit and interest (no one made worse in the 1930s). Ultimately, MGM dropped the Flip series (theater managers complained bitterly about the quality of the Iwerks cartoons), and Iwerks chugged along for a few more years, distributing ComiColor one-shot cartoons through Pat Powers' Celebrity Productions. Fiddlesticks is proof positive that, on his own, Iwerks was heading nowhere before he even started.

Tricks, treats, etc..

Sorry for the prolonged silence. Among other things that have kept me away, I've been setting up my new blog, The Third Banana, which debuts today (what a coincidence!). The Third Banana will be devoted to the lesser-known talents of the classic comedy world and I hope that, in time, it'll become to obscure comedy what Cartoon Brew is to animation (or what armadillos are to leprosy). And to help things along, I'm sharing the blog with two extremely talented individuals who are every bit, if not more, obsessed with these matters than I am, Nick Santa Maria and Geoff Collins. Be afraid. Be very afraid. I'm kicking things off with a list of my favorite horror comedies, a vintage Halloween-ish Joe E. Brown comic from the UK weekly Film Fun, a brand new/old Farnsworth and Katz audio clip, and a recipe for tripe and onions. Enjoy!