Night Radio was one of my first podcasts. Unfortunately it required the voice talent of a young girl and of a mature man with a profound voice, and I had no one to ask.
But I was really keen on telling the story: a young, impressionable girl who spent her sleepless nights listening to a mature man who covered the graveyard shift on the local radio, philosophising about the world with his beautiful, deep voice, a voice that in the darkness, evoked incredible worlds and strong feelings in the girl's mind.
The year was 2013, I lived in Melbourne, and I was still trying to find my community of podcasters. The only place where I felt at home was SoundCloud, which, back then, was a cool boutique platform based in Berlin (oh! how have things changed since!), and that's where I reached out.
Actually, it was the other way around: one morning I woke up to find that the views on my SoundCloud channel had skyrocketed (several thousand compared to the usual few dozen): I had been named Soundclouder of the Day.
That's how I started exchanging messages with SoundCloud's extraordinaire community leader, Luke Leighfield, and with his help, I put out a call to audition for the two voices I needed to tell my story.
I remember very well the euphoria of listening to the voices of the dozens of people who auditioned, and I must say that when I heard the voices of Bailey Castle and Darren Kleven, I immediately knew that they were perfect for what I had in mind.
Those were pretty anything-goes times for podcasts, and in fact, I decided to use Stairway to Heaven at the beginning of my piece—which was the theme song of the night program that I had fallen madly in love with as a girl (it won't surprise anyone to know that the story is autobiographical).
Listening to Night Radio again lately, I thought that it was too good to stay private, so I replaced the initial music (with something legit) but left everything else as it was: raw, unpolished (I created it using Audacity, go figure!), naive, and yet, thanks to the fantastic interpretations of Bailey and Darren, it retains its nocturnal magic.
Dedicated to all those who have fallen in love with a voice on the radio.
(If anyone is curious to know what happened with my radio crush, I can only say that it had quite a different ending. Write me in private if you want the details).
Voices: Bailey Castle and Darren KlevenWords & Production: M. Cristina Marras
Photo by Chandan Chaurasia on Unsplash