Photos by Graeme Braidwood (thanks Graeme)

So, Tuning Out With Radio Z performances numbers 4 – 8 have been completed and we have learnt an enormous amount in this short time. The running time is confirmed as 3 hours, it is a length people can consider sitting through without a break and many do, the show seems to work better this way. There are only four sleepers – the spare bed is useful. A new button is on the show News page which allows contributors to adopt a range of pseudonyms and encourages writing as characters. More emphasis is placed on communicating with the audience via the screen, so at the start of the show they are told what theme has been decided upon and they can write material to match the theme.

These changes have come about in a range of ways. The running length was requested by ArtsDepot and we decided we liked it. We were one sleeper down in ArtsDepot and made good use of the spare bed. We didn’t like the SMS messages appearing on the News Page under the log-in name of the person typing them up and Jon spotted the AKA opportunity. We had a rough show on Thursday night and that, combined with a sense that the show should be influenced more by the audience and that they should be more aware of the extent that it already was following their suggestions, led to the change of emphasis in screen use.

There are two weeks now before the show re-emerges in Bristol. At some point we are going to have to decide on themes for this next batch of shows. Themes used so far have been: Lost, Flood and Shooting (Birmingham); Escape and Cure (London); Revolution, Electricity and Fall.