Radio Theatre For the Masses

Radio Theatre for the Masses
The long-lost last cassette tape of RTM Episode 1 surrounded by contemporary crap that I found in my storage unit such as 1.44 MB floppy disks and headphones the size of hockey pucks. Not pictured: lots of flannel and Duck Boots.

Being cooped up during a pandemic can make you do crazy things. Things like sort through your old storage unit boxes to find the last extant analog copy of an embarrassing old radio show you did 25 years ago, and then digitizing it and uploading to the Internet. Because, reasons. Also because the Internet.

Radio Theatre For the Masses was… a… thing. That happened. It was aired on the University of Richmond’s college radio station WDCE, but in retrospect I can’t remember if someone at WDCE actually asked us to do it or if we just did it and put it on the radio because we could. Possibly just because the on-air booth was never locked and the DJs were frequently absent on smoke breaks. That latter scenario would not surprise me in any way.

I don’t even remember what year we did this. 1994, maybe? 1995? Many of the UR Theatre folks at the time were involved so I can only assume that some form of intimidation or blackmail was employed. I could tell that Robert Zehner was involved when I listened to it again because he had a Macintosh Quadra AV that was the only personal computer that could do actual digital sound editing. I was absurdly jealous because I had a black and white Mac Classic II that had virtual coughing fits trying to run the “Flying Toasters” screensaver from After Dark.

I think it was part of the plan Paul Caputo and I had to somehow get rich and famous by saturating the marginal media outlets of Richmond, Virginia with comedy and somehow assuming that talent bookers for Saturday Night Live were searching the hinterlands like minor league baseball scouts. They were not.

I… I don’t remember why we did this. If you’re reading this, I can only assume that you were sent a link or you have been terribly rickrolled by someone. If you listen to it and recognize your voice, I’m sorry to have involved you. If you listen to this and were not involved, then 1.) I’m sorry you had to listen to it and 2.) I’m still sorry in general. I do still think that “Bryn MacMuffin” and exploding cats were funny, though.

Click below to listen or scroll down for more information about the guilty parties responsible:

Radio Theatre For the Masses, Episode #1, 1994-1995 or whenever?

Contents

  1. Intro
  2. Genital Hospital
  3. Drake Croneweather
  4. Celebrity Advice Columnist
  5. Word From Our Sponsor
  6. Artsy-Bohemian Hospital
  7. Painting Made Easy
  8. Mysterious Theatre
  9. RTM Sports Center
  10. Restaurant Sketch
  11. Return to DCE
  12. Philbert Roberts Tobacco
  13. Wacko Mulligan
  14. Conclusion

“Credits” in Alphabetical Order

Julie Amos

Jeffrey Carl

Dan Culbertson

Paul Caputo

Jeff Eastman

Bill Knight

Katie Massa

Bill Rohan

Branden Waugh

Robert Zehner

BLAB TV News

BLAB TV News
The Richmond State + BLAB TV: a deep, rich vein of pure comedy gold.

In the summer of 1996, Paul Caputo and I decided to use our runaway lack of success at The Richmond State to conquer the next rung up the ladder of comedy fame: local access television.

As a courtesy to our millennial viewers I should explain that local access television was how crazy people distributed videos before YouTube, except that it could only be seen by insomniacs and chemically impaired people tuned to a specific unpopular TV channel late at night.

We rounded up our friends Branden Waugh and Julie Amos to co-star, and somehow ended up with a collection of hyper-topical comedy skits that have aged very poorly and a musical number that somehow came out even worse. I am still pretty proud of the opening credits song, however. We assigned Branden to be the salesperson who would enlist local sponsors and I don’t remember how that all turned out except that it somehow involved “Myrna’s Bits ‘n’ Boots” and we only lasted one episode.

If someone at YouTube reviewed this video for objectionable content it will have doubled the BLAB TV lifetime viewing audience.

Cast and Crew

Julie McCabe Amos

Paul Caputo

Jeffrey Carl

Branden Waugh