Night Radio was one of my first podcasts, written in 2013 with a very young female and a deep, mature male voice in mind, none of which described my voice.
But I was really keen on telling the story of 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, which, in the darkness of the little room, evoked incredible worlds and strong feelings in the girl's mind.
Back then I lived in Melbourne, and I was still trying to find my community of podcasters. The only place where I felt at home was while browsing on Soundcloud, 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 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 perfectly the euphoria of listening to the voices of the dozens of people who participated, and I must say that when I heard the voices of Bailey Castle and Darren Kleven, I immediately understood that they were perfect for what I had in mind.
Those were pretty anything-goes times for the podcast, 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, I thought that it was too good to stay private. Since I now spend half a fortune anyway to have the copyright of the music I use, I replaced the initial music but I left everything else as it was: raw, unpolished (it created using Audacity), 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 a different ending. Write me in private if you want the details).