chapter 156 part 1
Chapter 156: The Birth of the Villain Association
"Mr. Collin Roper, CBS is confident that we can turn 'Superman' into an excellent series..."
Inside the Messenger Newspaper office, seeing Colin fall silent, the CBS representative immediately spoke up, offering his assurance.
In this era, radio dramas were still a relatively new form of entertainment.
In January 1924, the London Broadcasting Station aired a 20-minute radio play titled Danger. It was the world's first radio drama, with a script written specifically for the station by Richard Hughes.
In America, the development of radio dramas was tied to coffee advertisements.
Due to the impact of the Great Depression, a large number of unemployed people stayed at home, and the main form of entertainment at the time was listening to the radio.
Of course, the low literacy rate was another reason for the radio's popularity. At the time, one in every twenty people in America was illiterate. They couldn't read newspapers or books, but they could understand what was being said on the radio.
In other words, the radio could reach housewives, the unemployed, the illiterate, and children.
A coffee merchant noticed this business opportunity and produced a radio drama called The Maxwell Theater Boat, which incorporated Southern Jazz, realistic sounds of paddles, bells, and whistles. They also inserted coffee commercials into the radio drama. The creative team added the sounds of coffee being poured and cups being stirred, along with appreciative sipping sounds, integrating the delightful experience of Maxwell coffee into the script.
Limited by the unique broadcast format of radio dramas, listeners in front of their radios at the time had no choice. If they wanted to listen to a program in its entirety, they had to listen to the commercials as well.
This led to an 85% increase in Maxwell coffee sales by the end of the year The Maxwell Theater Boat was broadcast.
Influenced by The Maxwell Theater Boat, more and more radio dramas began to intersperse advertisements.
Among them, the most noteworthy was a radio program called Major Bowes' Amateur Hour, considered the American dream show of the radio era.
The program toured various cities, showcasing each city's unique local performance styles. The production team had listeners vote to decide the winner and inserted timely commercials, encouraging people to buy more Chase & Sanborn coffee so that more contestants could take the stage and become the stars of tomorrow.
"The fate of the contestants is in your hands!"
"Buying Chase & Sanborn coffee with the production date printed on it is helping young Americans become famous and rich."
These were advertising slogans once broadcast on Major Bowes' Amateur Hour.
Of course, besides the influence of coffee merchants on radio dramas, soap advertisements were another factor in their popularity. The origin of the soap opera genre even stems from this.
...
Colin was not against producing a radio drama for Superman.
The terms proposed by CBS were also very generous, a stark contrast to the previous offer from the World Daily News.
Clearly, they genuinely wanted to cooperate with his Messenger Newspaper. They weren't like the World Daily News, which was purely after the copyright for Superman.
"I can agree to CBS producing the radio drama."
Therefore, after a moment of thought, Colin agreed.
"I promise you, Mr. Collin Roper, we will absolutely create a work that will satisfy you."
Hearing Colin's reply, the CBS representative couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
CBS placed great importance on this collaboration. Before coming, he had been repeatedly instructed to secure the adaptation rights for Superman at all costs.
"However..."
But before he could relax for long, Colin spoke again, presenting his own conditions.
"As a condition, I need to be involved in the production of the radio drama to ensure that the Superman drama produced by the radio station adheres to the comic's established setting."
Colin's reason for participating in the production, aside from ensuring the content didn't deviate from the story's setting, was also partly driven by the intention of obtaining [Faith] through the radio drama.
Since the comic could collect [Faith], there was no reason the radio couldn't.
Furthermore, unlike the comic, a radio drama had a much wider audience, reaching even illiterate people who couldn't read the newspaper but could understand the content of a radio broadcast.
This also indirectly helped Colin introduce Superman to groups that were previously unreachable.
"Of course, no problem!"
Initially, when he heard Colin present his conditions, the CBS representative had been worried about how to respond if the demands were too harsh.
But upon hearing that Colin's condition was simply to participate in the production of the radio drama, the CBS representative agreed without a second thought.
Having Colin, the creator of Superman, involved was an unequivocally good thing for the upcoming radio drama CBS was about to produce. There was absolutely no reason for CBS to refuse.
...
After finalizing the adaptation of the Superman radio drama, the CBS representative bid farewell to Colin and left the Messenger Newspaper office.
The subsequent arrangements would be handled by CBS's professional lawyers, who would prepare the formal contract and related clauses.
At the same time, CBS also needed to assemble a professional radio drama crew to prepare for the upcoming Superman adaptation.
Unlike a comic, a radio drama is a performance composed entirely of sound, relying heavily on the actors' voice acting and live music to create a sense of presence.
Therefore, the quality of the voice actors became a key factor in the success or failure of a radio drama.
Of course, all these preparations were CBS's responsibility. Colin did not need to intervene.
At the Messenger Newspaper office, following the departure of the CBS representative, Harry, who had been overseeing the printing plant, arrived at the office.
He was here to get the comic from Colin.
The printing date for the Superman quarterly had been set; they were just waiting for the two-page origin story.
"Here is the comic manuscript for Superman."