Episode 41
Broadcast @ Edge Radio, Friday 7 July 2023
Join us for another episode of Media Mothership, where we explore the weird and wonderful world of news and entertainment. In this episode, we cover topics such as:
How maps of the South China Sea and Barbie dolls are connected to the K-pop sensation BlackPink
How talking plant pots can make your plants happier and healthier
How Diablo IV is bringing back the rat loot system and what it means for gamers
How Red Dead Redemption lets you experience the most mundane jobs of the wild west
We also continue our series on classic radio shows and what they can teach us about creating captivating intros. This time, we focus on Gunsmoke, the legendary western drama that hooked millions of listeners with its thrilling stories and characters.
Don’t miss this episode of Media Mothership, where we bring you the best of the past, present, and future of media.
Transcript
This transcript was generated by audio-to-text AI and may not be 100% accurate. If you have questions about any of the information found here, please reach out to us at: mediamothership993fm at gmail.com
Speaker 1
There is nothing wrong with your radio.
Speaker
Dive into new music at Edge Radio.
Speaker 4
Do not attempt to adjust the volume for the next hour. We will control all that you hear.
Speaker 2
He had it coming to her, but she.
Speaker 3
Was too independent.
Speaker 1
You are about to experience the knowledge and insights of the media mothership.
DR CRAIG
All right. Hey everyone, thanks for listening to this great station, Edge Radio, 99.3 FM. As always, this is now media mothership here in Nepal, Luna, Hobart TAS. I'm your host. Doctor Craig, PhD, joined by Lady Gabrielle.
Speaker
I think we decided on.
DR CRAIG
Yeah, I knew you were guest too. Now you are guest.
LADY GABBY
Thank you. Yes, like Lady Gabby, I think it's my official title. Yeah.
Speaker
Lady Gabby.
DR CRAIG
And it's a similar. It's a similar opportunity that Lord Taylor, lest we forget, who's currently improving his mouth. Well, I did mention last week it was wisdom teeth. So those those wisdom teeth are yes, being removed. So who knows what it'll. Sound like no. When he'll come back. But similar to Lord Taylor, Lady Gabby, you also have a plot of of small land in Scotland, right? This is the the wonderful deal.
LADY GABBY
I yes, I have a 30 by 30 centimetre square of land in Scotland somewhere in the. Islands. Not too sure, but yeah, I actually got it as my 16th birthday present from my parents. So good. Yeah. And they are also Lords and ladies, so we've got enough room for a deck chair, a small deck chair.
Speaker 3
Right.
DR CRAIG
Yes. Have you travelled over there, visited it yet?
LADY GABBY
As a family, yeah. Not the not not my plot, but we were over there. 2008 I think, yeah. A long time ago. Yeah. So we did Christmas at Chillingham Castle, which is on the border of Scotland and England. And then we kind of went on and travelled around Europe and all of that and visited the family in Italy and did all of that kind of, you know? Skiing in Switzerland and you know all of that kind of stuff.
DR CRAIG
And were you Lady Gabby at that stage or that that was later that was right?
LADY GABBY
No, no, that was much later. Yeah. So I think my. Are the the people that we kind of went through cause like you go through, there's lots of different. Organisations, businesses or yeah, that do it. But we went through one of the first one of the first ones, so it was actually part of a they wanted to like protect. The land because what was happening at the time was that they were selling someone. Someone was trying to sell the land off and you know, like basically like destroyed the wildlife. So the way of getting around that is that if they actually sold. Plots of land people like it would be legally it would be a lot harder to like to get and sell, sell all the plots.
DR CRAIG
Yes, yes.
LADY GABBY
Yeah. So it's kind of.
Speaker 7
It is.
DR CRAIG
It is. I feel like I mean at that level. Yeah, it kind of gets a tacit kind of like. OK. Yeah, I get it. Now that it's a fundraising pro environment. Comment pitch. I do feel. I wonder if we hear at Edge Radio could offer the global public the opportunity to get the title something like DJ like, yeah, you will be officially getting the title, DJ. Yeah, and. And a a small section of the office like like 10 by 10 centimetres. Will be yours if you ever visit to come and use a 10 by 10 centimetre or or maybe even more abstractly, it could be, you know, cause often sponsorships or bequeathment's can work by getting the name of that person. Linked to a library or something, So what we could offer. Is the opportunity to have have a 5 by 5 centimetre plot of the Edge office with a. Well, it's true. No, no. What we can do is get one of those label makers and we will print out a label of your name on that object in the.
LADY GABBY
Office. Yeah, I'm thinking.
DR CRAIG
And X number of dollars.
LADY GABBY
I'm thinking more office furniture. Uh, we can probably get off. Yeah, yeah.
DR CRAIG
Oh yeah. Oh, devices like we instead of having guest 2 mic. You know, DJ Danny, yeah. Yeah. Sends us this bequeathment, which we then named guess 2M DJ Danny.
LADY GABBY
I mean, yeah.
DR CRAIG
God, the possibilities are endless. I just. I mean, OK, so. Just lady Gabby. Thank you so much for joining the show. We don't need to unpack that, that too much. So OK, so media mothership as always, we explore how media can shape our understanding of the world around us. We're streaming on edgeradio.org dot AU.
Speaker
So good.
DR CRAIG
As well as on. Oh, that's right. Yeah. I've got to put the power into that. Uh, I was gonna say as well as YouTube and Twitch, but my laptop battery has died, so I.
LADY GABBY
Ohh no.
DR CRAIG
Transform was sitting just over there, so I'll go to a a long song at some point and plug it back in. So now it's just edgeradio.org dot AU we're streaming.
LADY GABBY
Excellent, excellent.
DR CRAIG
We've lost part of. The media mothership now it feels like like it's it was flying for a bit. And then, like, the left wing fell off. But we're still up in the air because we're still at edge. Radio.org dot AU as well as on the great FM system, so you can to reach. Out to us now. You're you're you're going to have to SMS us so. Two hours ago, we were. We are now. On it so. Do SMS US and it's wonderful to get messages like that 0488811707 today. As always, we're going to discuss news. And then the second half, we're going to look at what we can learn from old radio show introductions to better introduce myself at parties. I feel right. I mean this kind of technique of creating a good podcast or radio show intro can be applied to all parts of life, including dinners.
LADY GABBY
Oh, OK.
DR CRAIG
Uh, catching up with friends you've not seen for so long and you got to introduce yourself again anyway. All this and more. We're looking at the Gunsmoke 1950s sixties series radio to to do that, so keep listening. To that, in celebration of the UM. Gunsmoke discussion. I have made a selection of Stingers used in the Gunsmoke radio drama series from 1950s to play as art singers for today.
LADY GABBY
Show cool.
DR CRAIG
So this is the the first one. The this is from the second part of the introduction to the gunsmith series. We're going to. Play it to move into our news analysis, so here it is. Eventually, Eric. Ohh. Hold on. No, that's the intro again. I I clicked this button. Ohh Yep. Now here it is. Here it is. All right. And you're listening. Sorry, I cut that. I hadn't faded it. You're listening to media mothership here on edge. Radio 99.3, this is now the news discussion. First piece I want to go over is Vietnam probes, Black pink concert organiser over South China Sea. Uh, black, pink. Uh. Gabby, you know a bit about black pink, right? I mean, I've got you coming up on the second show after media mothership K Pop unlimited because you have a background in K. Pop. What? What? What is black pink?
LADY GABBY
So OK, black pink is a South Korean pop group. There's four members. They kind of shot to fame in South Korea, but also globally. They've done lots of kind of cool labs. I know that they've, like, worked with Selena Gomez. And do a leaper and they kind of support their shows as well, but. Yeah, I don't know. I really like their music. I think they've got a really nice kind of. Sort of dance vibe.
DR CRAIG
Yeah, yeah. And look, yeah, they will. They have featured heavily on Taylor's key pop unlimited. Yeah. I don't know if you've got any teasers for black pop, pop, black, pink. You're you're playing. I know. Set aside you to do the music playlist.
LADY GABBY
No. So yeah, no, no, black, black. Pink is kind of after. It's actually interesting because like black, pink is what got me back into listening to more modern K pop music because I was really into it in high school, which was like 2014. So they've actually got me back into listening to, yeah, Asian music. So not just K pop, but like like Jay Jay Rock and all of the other. All of the acronyms.
DR CRAIG
What's interesting to me about the black pink piece. Is that much like the fiasco that Barbie faced with its map of Vietnam and the? Issue that was raised by Vietnam that it featured chinas's territorial. Claims in this South China Sea area leading to of course, the banning of. Barbie and for black pink. They haven't been banned. They have to come and concert hasn't been banned but. And number of apologies since this morning have been made.
LADY GABBY
Yeah. I think last time I read about it, they were sort of investigating what was happening. So, and I think the CEO. Concert organiser has. Yeah, someone has issued an apology within like the last hour or two.
DR CRAIG
Yeah, it certainly drawn a lot of global attention into this issue, which I guess is useful to to to release it. It is interesting in terms of how what cultural and entertainment impact this is going. Make in terms of Vietnam and other countries, given how sensitive Vietnam is, it's fascinating to me that here we have two stories in the in the space of a week. This story has been rather, you know, like I'd never heard of this issue until now. So it'll be interesting to see, you know, what's the third issue? What's the third? I mean, we've got music so far. Our podcast could be banned. I mean, we could. I mean, I won't. I mean, it would be difficult to to put up a map or audio, but we are all about the theatre of the mind. So it's got movies, music, video games, video. That's the one we're waiting for. So, so the trifecta.
LADY GABBY
Maybe I don't know.
DR CRAIG
Will have to be a video game. Next week will equally stumble into this. What's important about this, of course, is they're stumbling into it. It's not premeditated kind of Pro China politics, although some of this article is pointing out that the. I think the promoter is based within China or the promotional agency linked to the material that's being distributed. So yeah, yeah. Have we has edge radio ever been politically banned? Well, we were. Wasn't there a show that was banned during the? Twitter, whose Facebook kind of news blackout.
LADY GABBY
Ohh, like I don't think. I don't think it was so much as banned like because I think when when. Facebook did the sweep. I think a number of our accounts was like, you know, pending investigation type thing and I think some of that like there was a couple that we got back, but some of the ones that actually reposted like a lot of news and they were like a news kind of. Based accounts science, all of that kind of current stuff that has a lot of reposting. I think that actually got wiped.
DR CRAIG
Yeah. Yeah. So we that's the closest we've come to kind of the man keeping us down kind of institutional censorship of us, which we do rally against. Alright, well, look, I'm not saying we we we should enter the Vietnam free but nevertheless interesting. Second article, I want to go through. Hold on. I'll play a Stinger to cleanse our palate from this. So this is, yeah. Another one from Gunsmoke. Uh, yeah, very. I guess apt there, because we're talking about Red Dead Redemption 2, the video game where you play as a cowboy. Have you? Have you ever played as a cowboy?
LADY GABBY
Ah, no, but it was actually really funny, because a couple of the guys that I do lunch box with, they are big Red Dead Redemption gamers. So they're actually were they were really keen. I think they have played, I don't know. I remember talking about it for about 10 minutes and thinking this is absolutely wild. Yeah, and that. Was it?
Speaker
Well, yeah.
LADY GABBY
I'm not a gamer, as you can probably tell.
DR CRAIG
And then. We are here to provide the every person. Foil to the absurd deep dive we can become prone to and or have friends or parents say. I had no idea what you were talking about last week on the show. So always important to make it understandable. Yeah, Red Dead Redemption. Two, I think it's one of the most praised games of the last four or five years. And yeah, he plays a cowboy late 1800s in America. What's interesting to me about this article and the reason I got it, was not only are we looking at gunsmith gun smoke later on, but then I love it when modders. Aim and make it not at all what it was intended to be. Your Red Dead Redemption two is a kind of, you know, outlaw fantasy game where you get to be an outlaw and rob banks and everything. Yet the mod has basically set it up as a mundane job simulator where you do boring jobs, right? That's the whole idea of the game now. Through this mod is to let me see if I can very like you. You do various like you do postal delivery for people in this village. You if I Scroll down a bit, yeah, you could be a a minor, which sounds kind of got your bartending. At one of the bars you have to clean glasses, prepare tables, deliver goods. Yeah, in the bar. Not many. Outlaw postal delivery dock worker. Yeah. Where you work at the dock. And you basically do a little bit of fishing, but you're mainly parking boats and cleaning the dock area.
LADY GABBY
Yep. And I also see lumberjack in that list. I would totally play that mod.
DR CRAIG
Yeah, just chop wood, yeah.
LADY GABBY
I think it would be so interesting. I wonder if you could put that on like your resume. Like skills I can.
DR CRAIG
Yeah, yeah, I spent, you know, 521 hours working as the lumberjack in the game. Red Dead Redemption 2. Farsi Taz, please employ me. Yeah. So, yeah, again, wonderful little insight there into presentation to mod, which turns it into simply. Yeah, not being an outlaw or anymore or a cowboy. But yeah, delivering mail or cleaning a bar. Very, very cute. Let me now go to the next. Yeah, this thing is a really dusty I. I can feel that kind of 1950s.
LADY GABBY
It's giving me my grandma. My grandma had a a musical tape, a cassette tape in her car. Up until like, probably 2009 or something.
DR CRAIG
Because I type yes in the colon.
LADY GABBY
Yeah. In the car that it worked and everything. And like that. Yeah, that the the Stingers are just giving me flashbacks to listening to all of those songs. Yeah. No, it's crazy.
DR CRAIG
Yeah, yeah, they're very much all the dates. So the next article is another video game one Diablo four players are following rats to find good loot and the reason I'm always drawn to this is, you know, game is doing something which the producers and designers of the game never, ever anticipated it to be the way. So basically this is in the game. Table of four. And within it you can collect gold and various valuables, and on one gamer posted up on Reddit. This discovery he made that one that normally when you want to get loot or various power things, you know, loot drops there. There are specific maps and routes you're meant to take, but he posted up on Reddit, a post titled I Followed The Rats, which basically. Showed how instead of following what the game route wants you to take to get the. Rewards looking at what the weather rats are going and following, the rats will lead you to some of the kind of really successful loot drops you need in this game, which is hilarious right? That that. The game of rats are coded in a way much like being attracted to cheese. Yeah, or something. Instead, they're attracted.
LADY GABBY
To good loops.
DR CRAIG
Dilute. Yeah. Yeah. So following the. Amusingly, yeah. So a post on Reddit about the following the rats theory lays it out as follows. Don't follow the predetermined path in any dungeon. Instead, just follow the rats. The rats smell the cheese exclamation mark. I'm telling you, it's real. And I feel like I'm crazy. But I found multiple legendaries doing this within a span of maybe 10 minutes. The rats will tell you which pack of enemies. Kill and then they wander towards where you need to go. It's really it's real. I'm not crazy. Follow the rats. Sounds like a crazy person. The more you protest your craziness. So I love the kind of real wildness of it. Like, you know, I'm not crazy, really. Like it would be someone like in the office coming and saying, you know, I figured out how to get trainees to come on to do training. And you just follow cats, right? Yeah. You find a cat and the cat will take you to someone that wants to learn how to do radio.
LADY GABBY
Or like something?
DR CRAIG
And they do. That's crazy. I was like, I don't believe you. But yeah, in the. Name is specifying full rights. What's hilarious about the article is that it goes on with more discussions about people that have tried to follow other animals and see what happens there. So someone tried to follow snakes and said I I see a snake and I followed the snake, but the snake was evil. It was a trap I ran into. One way, kind of. Loot. Drop space. I'm sorry to have doubted the mighty rats. It will not happen again. Don't trust snakes so fascinating. To think there's a whole hidden there's a whole hidden mechanic. It's like the matrix, right? You want to have, like, the real world is not the path you're meant to follow to get to. The bus stop. It's actually this other path all along that will get you the real bus to take. So that's a weird metaphor. Similarly to here. Yeah. To get what you want. It's following animals. Yeah. Fascinating. Fascinating.
LADY GABBY
But like.
DR CRAIG
In terms of.
LADY GABBY
Rats can get into like nooks and crannies, and they can like.
DR CRAIG
Have you ever followed an animal in real life? It's like. I mean, that's the story of.
LADY GABBY
I mean, I've chased my dog around Newtown.
DR CRAIG
There you go.
LADY GABBY
So like, that's kind of.
DR CRAIG
Maybe your dog and did your dog lead you to a legendary?
LADY GABBY
No, no.
DR CRAIG
Legendary I'm not sure and do like blue. What legendary but.
LADY GABBY
I mean. We eventually, like he eventually like ran. Home. I don't know if that's yeah. After his little John John Jolly like, run around Newtown. But no, not really. Like I haven't followed.
DR CRAIG
Never done Alice in Wonderland like like, oh, is a rabbit. Ohh for that rabbit into that.
LADY GABBY
No, although there was something like I can't. I can't remember what it is, but there was something where when I was doing outdoor leadership, the guide was like if he ever. Get lost or like if you have to do something, follow like ants and like the ants would. Yeah, like or or go like the opposite way. I don't know. I can't remember. It was like something, but it was like, do this and then you'd be able to find, like, bigger insects. So then you can actually like go fishing or go and do all of this. Yeah. Well, like it started off with ants. And I'm like, OK.
DR CRAIG
Or the ants? Answers perfect. Yeah, I've been generally in life over the next week. People live for your SMS and now on 048881170. 7 Yep, Yep. If you've followed an animal. To reward right. Like if you've ever followed an animal to a reward. Obviously, in fiction there are various cases of that happening. You know you follow the. Rabbit like Alice did into that place. Never. No. Where did she go? Wasn't Neverland Wonderland. Yeah. I'm trying to think of any other popular culture animal.
LADY GABBY
Follow the spiders, Harry Potter.
DR CRAIG
Really. Yeah. When? What was?
LADY GABBY
That well, it wasn't so much a reward like it was like, you know, but they had to, like, follow the spiders to, like, get the next kind of clue.
DR CRAIG
Yes. And in the JFK movie, there's the line that Donald Sutherland, I think gives or maybe it yeah, followed the money. Yeah, which is another form of following a non human object. Follow the light. Go to the light. Being a little. Freeform here. Yeah, so so do think about that. Alright, I'm gonna play the media mothership. Electro Cosmo dance edit for two minutes now so I can hook up my YouTube feed to continue videotaping this for prosperity. But here now is the media mothership. Cosmo Dance said if you have. Heard this? That's fantastic. So take a little tailor made this for the show. Uh, based on the. Ohh gangbusters radio intros that we did 4 episodes ago and this was his take on it which totally destroyed my effort but here it is here. So do dance along at home to the Electro Cosmo dance header of media mothership.
LADY GABBY
OK.
Speaker
Captain, the ship is under attack. 99.3.
LADY GABBY
You just.
Speaker 3
Right.
DR CRAIG
Yeah. And that's the media, Malibu Electric Cosmo dance edit available at all good. Nothing's it's not available anywhere. I'm sorry I'm turning myself off. It is on YouTube. I put it up on my. Channel. Yeah. Yep.
LADY GABBY
It's very cool. Well done, Taylor. 45 years? Ohh, we're on. Hello.
DR CRAIG
Yeah. Yeah. So now back on the YouTube stream and Twitch. For your visual pleasure. When it's 430, yes, halfway through so. Oh yeah, I might skip. So the last story I want to go on is the one about the plants.
LADY GABBY
I'm assessed with this.
DR CRAIG
Yeah, it's really interesting, isn't it? So this was from ABC News and the headline is Francesco Francesco. The talking plant pot. Is helping to bring the invisible lives of plants into focus and they they to describe it. It's like a Game Boy. Yeah. Or something that's glued onto just a normal pot plant, pot, pot plant. But it's it's all connected into the plants itself. I imagine I haven't looked into the technology of it, but there seems to be various types of of electrodes and soil things and so forth that are plugged in to basically let. The human you call them, humans talk to plants right broadly. So this is from the ANU and. Basically it's it's. It's referred to as like a smart. Plant pot. Yeah. So we've got smart TV's. This is a smart plant pot or pot plant.
LADY GABBY
Yeah, I call them pot plants.
DR CRAIG
So now why anyway, so it's got sensors that monitor things like soil moisture, amounts of sunlight and plants, electrical signals, which all sounds very, very normal. But reading through it, I was really intrigued. When there was some speculation around the types of interpretations of a plant's mood in terms of. I like music. And how electric signals could be sent to to to feed it? And what? What? Did you have any thoughts about plants and talking to them through devices like this?
LADY GABBY
Well, I OK. I kind of have like 2, two things have kind of popped up in my brain. The first thing was that on my Insta feed, this is far more sophisticated. But on my insta feed, there was this guy who made. Like a little, he had, like a little green thing with all the all the techie stuff. What what the anyway? And he put that in. I'm so. Non tech person. But he put that into the plant and what would happen is that it would scream. He got, he recorded all of his friends screaming and he.
Speaker 10
Oh wow.
LADY GABBY
Did it so every time his pot plant was like he needed to water his plant, he would hear like this. Screaming throughout his entire house. Wow. Yeah. And it was absolutely hilarious with all the cause, he said to his friends like Scream or yell, as if you were. And it was like, you know, being, you know, poisoned or being hit by a bus or like, you know, gave them all these different scenarios for, like, all the different levels of. Dehydration of the plant. That was really funny. Yeah. So that was kind of very entertaining.
Speaker
Because yeah, the.
DR CRAIG
The article, I guess, goes on to. Say yeah, it's just trying to raise awareness that plants are actually. Living and that we need to consider them as living things and take care of them. Yeah, like I don't know. Plants in my place. Die, yeah. So much, dad.
LADY GABBY
I'm kind of curious cause like when I die I'm going to go into a eco urn. Ohh right. So basically what it is is that it's a pot plant. That has your human ashes in it, and then it grows a plant, but it's all like self watering and everything. So literally someone can like leave it in a corner and you'll be.
DR CRAIG
I know. Mine would be so sad. These things.
LADY GABBY
Well, yeah. Anyway, so I'm kind of curious on like, what would happen if you had this kind of piece of technology and you had like human ashes or whatever mixed in with the soil and the.
DR CRAIG
It's fascinating. Yep, Yep. Oh wow, yeah. And do this whole kind of, you know, we go back to the late 1800s to talk to the dead kind of moment that happens again.
LADY GABBY
Yeah, well, who knows. Wow. Yeah. So that was kind of my second random thought.
DR CRAIG
Blew me away. With that, yeah, that. That, yeah, mixing human ashes with soil and then hooking up the Francesco talking plant pots and seeing where that goes. I like it. It's very posthuman. Fascinating. Well, Gabby, thank you so much. All right. So now let's move.
Speaker 7
Out of news.
DR CRAIG
With a bit of a sting. Alright, so now how do old radio show introductions? Teach us the art of hooking in listeners, and you know, it could be also applied to life in general, you know, going to a party. Don't know anyone. Try these steps, step one as we talked about over the last few weeks, is to hook the listeners attention. So a radio show intro should grab the listeners attention in the 1st 10 seconds or so and make them want to stay tuned for more. So there are four key components. That's the first one. Second key component is that it should include voice, music, sound effects and episode information. Ideally that these elements will use together can strategically and creatively create a vivid and realistic soundscape that appeals to listeners.
LADY GABBY
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
DR CRAIG
Imagination and emotions that should also convey the main theme questions, problems that are going to get explored in the show. It's a lot to do in 10 seconds. With that second step. A third step is to establish genre, tone, setting characters, and conflict in the story. Finally, to create a sense of anticipation and curiosity for what's going to happen next. Right. And I always think that fourth step is like those BuzzFeed articles that end with like, the answers will surprise you. You know, top five. Things that you didn't know lived under your bed. Your answers will surprise you, right? Oh, anticipation and curiosity. So anyway, they're the four classic things we're looking at and what we're doing is going through. The top 10 old show, old radio show intros as set up by Jeff Jorgensen last week. We did escape. And today, we're doing the Cowboy series Gunsmoke. Let's listen first for how Jeff Jorgensen sets it up. On his YouTube page.
Speaker 12
William Conrad, back to back. Gunsmoke was not a cute western for. The kiddies but. Rather an adult drama that dealt with tough issues. The intro billed the show as the story of the violence that moved W with Young America and the story of a man who moved with it. William Conrad is Matt Dillon, United States Marshall personified the nobility and grittiness of the classic Western lawman. And all of that. Is perfectly captured in this intro.
Speaker 10
Brown Dodge City and in the territory on West, there's just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's where the US, Marshall and the smell of guns smoke. Gunsmoke, starring William Conrad. The story of the violence that moved W with Young America and the story of a man who moved with.
Speaker 9
It I'm that man, Matt Dillon, the United States Marshall. The first man they looked for, and the less they want to meet. It's a chancy job. And it makes a man watchful. And a little lonely.
DR CRAIG
Love how sad he ends. So it's gone. Smoke. Wow. So you've never listened to Gunsmoke?
LADY GABBY
Right. How much storytelling and like?
DR CRAIG
They pack it in.
LADY GABBY
Such a short amount of time? That's crazy.
DR CRAIG
I think it was like. A few few seconds over 10. Yeah. OK, so you're perfect. Kind of new listener to that intro, so step one for a good intro is to hook the attention in 10 seconds. What do you remember from the start of the intro? Do you want? Me to play you, uh?
LADY GABBY
It would be good to it.
DR CRAIG
I can play it again. Yeah, I'll play it again.
Speaker 10
Around Dodge City and in the territory on West, there is just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's where the US, Marshall and the smell of guns.
DR CRAIG
Smoke. Sorry.
LADY GABBY
Yeah. No, that's not true.
DR CRAIG
The gun smell of gun. What do you reckon, 10 seconds? That was. That was. How long was that? That was I. Can't say 18 seconds, so a little.
LADY GABBY
Longer. Yeah, it was kind of funny because like. Uh. Kind of like music for me, like uh, triggering memories and things like that is like a really big thing. And it was really weird because the first like when the person starts talking like it automatically like made me think of my grandfather. And it was really weird because he used to have. These like old school. Like VCR of, like, really old TV shows that he used to watch and cuz he was really into computers, so he actually managed to somehow get his old, like the cartoons and stuff that he used to watch as a kid onto DVD and VCR. And it would actually play it.
DR CRAIG
Right.
LADY GABBY
And like we would all like watch them together and everything. And it was just kind of had, like, flashbacks to all of that, like it was so.
DR CRAIG
Ohh yeah yeah look. Yeah, and the radio series was enormously popular, started in 52, went to 61 in 10 years, but it spawned what went on to be the most, the longest running TV show in America. Up until the. Simpsons, which was the Gunsmoke TV series based on the radio drama. Which went from 62 to 75, had 635 episodes and AD for over 20 years, considered to be very much the hard high watermark as well as the the kind of TV show and radio show that kicked off a whole western boom during the 50s and 60s in America. So yeah, I I. Wonder if it was part of your grandfather's collection. It might have been.
LADY GABBY
Possibly. I don't know. It sounded it's kind of funny because it sounded familiar and I think that's. Yeah, that's kind of like for me, like, radio intros and podcast intros like it has to be something that, like, I think the ones that are really for myself, that are actually really successful, are ones that are kind of familiar, something that you kind of recognise.
DR CRAIG
Well, it it hasn't.
LADY GABBY
But it's yeah, but it's also very different or it's not exactly like the something different about it, if that makes it's kind of hard to describe. But yeah, so. Yeah. So the music and the sound effects are stuff that, like, you're all familiar with, but actually pairing it with. Something completely different. It's really interesting. And that's how, like I I'm kind of like.
DR CRAIG
Hooked well, very much. Set the cliches for what became codified in the West. Yeah. Matt Dillon is the main guy. Who's the the.
LADY GABBY
Yeah. Awesome. Very.
DR CRAIG
Marshall and he's, you know, very much a kind of at the time, probably quite progressive male figure in terms of being very level headed, but the intro to that starts off with the horse hoofs galloping and the sound of a. A gunshot in a ricochet, right. Which is very, you know, really immersive in terms of, you know, exactly.
LADY GABBY
Kind of, yeah. With the kind of typical western vibe, yeah.
DR CRAIG
And then that kind of almost John Wayne voice, I mean first we get the announcers voice saying, you know, Gunsmoke, you know, the the US territories and and moving with the violence that was there the the Marshall. But then yeah, the end one, the kind of sad booming John Wayne voice is our Marshall's voice. Interestingly, yeah, the guy that William Conrad, who played the Marshall on the TV show. Did not have the body for the TV for the radio show. He had the voice for the Marshall, for the radio, but not the body for the TV show. So as the cliche would go ahead, a face for radio, yeah.
LADY GABBY
How interesting.
DR CRAIG
So he was replaced by Annette. And UM, yeah, went on to be very, very successful role for him. He's like 6, nearly 7 foot enormously late but yeah. Yeah, his voice, that kind of booming John Wayne voice perfectly cast.
LADY GABBY
Yeah. OK.
DR CRAIG
With that in mind, I did find out that in Australia it turned out in the 1950s. At the same time Gunsmoke became the biggest property in radio drama. We copied it in Australia. Ohh, really? Yeah. It turned out that there's a there was a Gunsmoke series in Australia that lasted for a few years.
LADY GABBY
Oh, OK.
DR CRAIG
I want to play the intro for their version. It's very very similar, but when I listen to it.
LADY GABBY
OK.
DR CRAIG
Yeah, I I I. A little awkward in terms of the.
LADY GABBY
OK.
DR CRAIG
The Australian and American accent. Yeah. OK. Right. Well, I guess American accent, they're going for. Can you hear the Australian accent behind that American?
LADY GABBY
Accent. OK, let's have.
DR CRAIG
A look so this is the Gunsmoke episode thicker than water. And this is the intro.
Speaker 7
Guns Blaze and the action packed drama of Gunsmoke.
Speaker 11
Around Dodge City and in the territory out West is just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with a state Marshall and the smell of guns.
Speaker
So bad.
DR CRAIG
Mean he's trying to do an American accent. Yeah, we do a lot of. Right. He's going to ours. I'll. I'll play you some dialogue.
Speaker 2
Was the usual run of the mill assortment except for one letter. Comes from a fella in the town of Silver Peak. It's about 70 miles South of Dodge. It reads.
Speaker 14
It's turning into an outlaw's paradise here, Marshall. This kind of silver. Once it was a quiet law abiding place, I was starting to talk. Gamblers pop.
DR CRAIG
It's so bad, right? I mean, normally, normally that criticism of doing accents badly is towards Americans trying to do like an Australian accent or a British accent, and they can't pull it off. And typically Australians and and most other countries, English speaking countries are from America, get the American accent, land it really strongly in fact. You know? Or is it there are cases of actors like Christian Bale? Yeah. Who did Batman and? People being so amazed when they listen to an interview of his that he's not American, right? He's got a really thick English accent. Yeah, because he now is an American accent, right? And so much so that you don't think of him as. As not being American yet here in this 1950s Australian radio drama, it is a parody almost of the American accent.
LADY GABBY
Yeah. And it's kind of like it was really like even the beginning. Like, I'm even kind of curious about playing just like like the horse, the horse, you know, galloping and like because it.
DR CRAIG
Yeah, yeah.
LADY GABBY
It even sounded like different hmm, and there was just kind of. I don't know if it's just me here, like not hearing it for like 5 minutes or whatever, but it's kind of like it's the the entire. Intro sounded really different.
DR CRAIG
Let's let's listen to them. I'll play different episodes. So this is episode three of this. Hold on. We'll go back to the America one, so this is. Episode 299, yeah. We'll see what where they've gone from that, yeah.
Speaker 10
Around Dodge City and in. The tower, yeah.
DR CRAIG
So it's very bouncy. Let's, let's now listen to the Australian version.
LADY GABBY
Guns, yeah.
DR CRAIG
Quality is not quite as good with the version I'm playing with Australian one, but it's yeah, it's not as snappy. It doesn't quickly get into it.
LADY GABBY
It it was always kind of like it was very kind of drawn out. Yeah, the Australian version, like it was very kind of. I don't know. It didn't have it. Didn't have as much energy to it and.
DR CRAIG
Sounds, yeah. It's like going to ship loads or the reject shop and seeing like an off brand Star Wars toy.
Speaker
It's like.
DR CRAIG
I know it's trying to be Darth Vader, but it's not. It's just so closely aping the American, but I mean, what would be interesting to me if the Australian.
Speaker 9
And then.
DR CRAIG
Vision basically adapted Gunsmoke and set it in Australia. Yeah, so it was your Bush ranges and it was in old Hobart Town and they weren't putting on American accents. Yeah. And it was like instead of getting out of dodge, let's get out of Hobart. Or poor Arthur. Or whatever other. Yeah, I can think of that would be. There during that time. Yeah. Get out of botany.
LADY GABBY
Bay, I don't know. I was like when I first was first listening to and I think it's on Friday, so I'm not very articulate, but I was getting like a super farmer vibe, not cowboy vibe. And I feel like they're very different energy.
DR CRAIG
Yeah, look, I mean it is interesting cuz it is set in Dodge City. With the Marshall. And then it's it plays out as a kind of ensemble cast where you. Got the dock. Yeah. And you've got the bartender girl. And then an assortment of characters that come in and out, and a moral dilemma gets played out. Yeah. What? What I want to quickly play. Is a little bit. Of theory. So yeah, we got about 10 minutes left and this goes for two minutes. What's interesting about gun smoke is that it was used in the.
LADY GABBY
OK.
DR CRAIG
1960s. But an American philosopher to argue that Gunsmoke provides a way of understanding how America needs to fix itself, that is, the myths of the cowboy.
LADY GABBY
Ah, OK.
DR CRAIG
Now they're in Gunsmoke, and in the 1950s, you know, Gunsmoke was a kind of reaction against the more glamorous sensitised versions like Lone Ranger. Yeah, into a more gritty version of the Western. So you were saying, yeah, that, that. Challenge of having a type of horror character, but in a slightly more gritty real world space provided for Levi Strauss, the theorists. We're going to hear about a way of of America solving problems. Of the 60s. So we'll listen a bit to this. This is from a documentary called The Power of Nightmares. 2 minutes. Talking about the American philosopher Levi Strauss or Leo Strauss, sorry. And how gun smoke could help understand America at that time.
Speaker 7
Of individual freedom LED people to question everything, all values, all moral truths. People were led by their own selfish desires, and this threatened to tear apart the shared values which held society together. But there was. A way to stop this Strauss belief. It was for politicians to assert powerful and inspiring myths. Everyone could believe in. They might not be true, but they were necessary illusions. One of these was religion. The other was the myth of the nation. And in America, that was the idea that the country had a unique destiny to battle against the forces of evil throughout the world. This myth was epitomised, Strauss told his students in his favourite television programme.
Speaker 3
Strauss was a great fan of American television. Gunsmoke was his great favourite, and he would hurry home from the seminar, which would end, you know, at 5:30 or so to have a quick dinner so that he could be at his seat before the television. Set when Gunsmoke went on. And he felt that this was good. This showed this had a salutary effect on the American public. Because it showed the conflict between good and evil. In a way that would be immediately intelligible to. Everyone I see what happens. No, wait. The girl has a white hat. He's faster on the draw than the bad man. The good guy wins, and it's not just that the good guy wins, but that the values are clear. That's America. We're going to triumph over the evils of of that are trying to destroy us, the virtues of the of the Western frontier, good and evil.
Speaker 7
Leo Strauss's other favourite programme was Perry Mason.
DR CRAIG
Sorry, yes, there we go. Yeah. The idea that the western Leo Strauss is arguing here is a way to play out these bigger questions of what it means to be American and what it means for America to be a big global power in the 1950s. And and what's the way to do that? Right. So, yeah, these myths of American exceptionalism, the idea of America's role in the world. And he saw guns smoke as as providing a space for the general public. To get get a get a myth of American nationhood that we are a country of Cowboys and within that cowboy framework are are dilemmas. In each episode, that test kind of a morality question, right? The welfare state system, the. The criminal system right all encapsulated as as you'll have a transgressor, yeah.
LADY GABBY
I kind of think it's really interesting because I think that when you're kind of talking about like, you know, America Cowboys, I can't remember what the express, but there's an expression that's like. Like I remember in a TV show it was like a bunch of Cowboys kind of thing, but like it's kind of it's interesting because it's I feel like. My yeah, I feel like that the wild, Wild West kind of as an idea is just so kind of iconically American that it's kind of hard to picture, you know, Cowboys in Hobart, Cowboys in. You know other locations as well. So I think that there's kind of an interesting, I think that history or. People who are writing like he's like writing stories, right? Creating media, write books, whatever. I think they've there's a kind of really. Kind of romantic. Fantasised. Kind of thing that's kind of been blanketed across. History, and I think I mean we see it in Australia and obviously all over the world would have their own variation. But I think it's kind of interesting just how much of an influence.
DR CRAIG
Well, I think that's.
LADY GABBY
It plays out, so it's kind of umm.
DR CRAIG
The appeal? Yeah, that, that. That as you're saying, that's the appeal of this Western genre, that it's a period of time where you had the conflict between the Wild West narrative, independence, individuality, narratives of of liberty right that that you could go out to the West. And these colonialist narratives of of take and plunder. And become rich. Clashing as the West was then put under law. Yeah, the government, right, the need for laws to be abided by. And the tension between that liberty narrative versus laws and the common good, right. And so I guess the Western provides a melting pot to test those values. Right. We want that America wants to be independent and you have these narratives of of the US as a as a country full of people praising independence and liberty. Yet you also have another narrative of the US being a a moral leader, right? That there's a as a collective good. There's a set of laws we have to abide by. There's a welfare that we need to show others. That it can't just be liberty, it must be balanced by laws and. Yeah, frameworks.
LADY GABBY
And I think one of the like interesting things, I guess I'm as as I've been studying media in particular kind of getting a little bit more picky about what I watch and things like that as well because like also the production of anything. TV, podcasts, radio dramas and I think I think that like music, creating the atmosphere sends a lot of messaging to the listener as well. So I think that with the idea of. You know romanticising, you know, very easy to see it in. Like, you know, the romantic kind of music in the background. Or you're like like there's.
DR CRAIG
Yes, there's kind of guitar and orchestral sweeping music.
LADY GABBY
Yeah. And I think that there's a lot of. I'm I'm not a I have to been. I'm not a huge fan of the cowboy or the Wild West, but I think that it would be. I would. I'd be really curious to see. Like compare it to like a radio drama like, You Know, Gunsmoke or whatever to a documentary made, you know, recently about the same kind of content and just seeing.
DR CRAIG
Yeah. It's so interesting. Yeah. Cuz what?
LADY GABBY
What's similar and what's different cause I feel like a lot of like radio dramas and documentaries is a bit of like the way that it's formatted is quite. Like as as far as like music, storytelling, like the structure of it can actually be. Similar I have no.
DR CRAIG
What's interesting? Yeah, because documentaries you'd see on the surface as being somewhat a more realistic, authentic, truthful space. But yeah, once you start manipulating that by putting music in, by editing, you are constructing and as Leo. Strauss might say you're creating a necessary illusion. That is, you're you're needing to deliver a powerful message, and to do that, you're going to do a little bit of illusion work because you know you're going to have to edit that quote to stop at that point and maybe put it up against another quote, which didn't happen in the real world. But nevertheless, you're putting those two quotes up against each other to create a. Yeah, a story. A conflict. Yeah. Yeah. It's such an interesting point and interesting for it today. Gunsmoke. Listening back to it sounds incredibly cliched and full of tropes, but for its day it was revolutionary in terms of upending the the dominant. Portrayal of the Western as as a much cleaner, more wholesome space. You know, think of Lone Ranger and so forth into a much more gritty, brutal space. So many people praised gunsmith for Gunsmoke. Sorry for being brutal. Well, we're, we're, we're at time at 5:00, so. Thanks for listening everyone. This has been doctor Craig joined by. Lady Gaddy, thank you, Lady Gandy. I'm gonna play us out with media motherships. Version of the Gunsmoke intro. Yeah.
LADY GABBY
Ohh my goodness, that's going to be.
DR CRAIG
Thank you for building that up. So what we've done is kept the flavour of gunsmith smoke. Come smoke and added our own media mothership twist to it. So an accent? No, but it's not my voice.
LADY GABBY
Sounds like.
Speaker
You do it.
LADY GABBY
OK, ohh OK.
DR CRAIG
It's not my. Voice. So. So the AI voice that I used. Is American so.
LADY GABBY
OK.
DR CRAIG
Yeah it does, but I should have done the accent. Yeah, given. That we have the Australian gunsmith. Quick gosh Dang it that we listen to. All right, so thanks for listening coming up next, we have Kpop unlimited with.
Speaker
Us again.
DR CRAIG
So this will be deep dive into gabbie's life.
LADY GABBY
Ohh dear. OK. Oh, here we go.
DR CRAIG
As a KPOP listener. Yeah. So full this is your. Life, but keep Listening Edge Radio 99.3 FM this has been. For your mothership for another week, enjoy the Gunsmoke media mothership intro.
Speaker 8
Around Hobart City and in the territory out West, there's just one way to handle the media and the spoilers, and that's with the radio host and the sound of media mothership.
Speaker 13
Media mothership the story of media power that spread globally with Young Australia the story of a DJ theorist who moved with it. Craig Norris, pH. D.
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