No Junk, All Joy*

We are comedy writers who write and love old school radio comedy of the kind that Radio 4 still makes, but not as much as it once did. Every couple of months, we do a try out night called Tall Tales. Plenty of that material has been broadcast but there is also plenty which we think is every bit as good that has not, either because it was a weird length, or weird format, or because it didn’t quite fit the eye of the commissioner that year. We would love people to hear it.

Listen & Often is our plan to do so. It’s for people who love the shows our writers write and want more of them. By joining us, they help put more of what they love into the world. Is that a virtuous circle?** If it isn’t, then I don’t want to know what is.

Why are you going for subscribers instead of distributing it for free and paying for it using adverts?

A podcast based on scripted material by multiple writers and performers simply doesn’t work with an ad-based model. Or, to be more accurate, it only works on a massive scale.

But subscription is incredibly powerful. We don’t need millions of people. A relatively small community which loves something and realises that it costs money to make put more of what they love into the world.

*We looked up successful online advertising slogans and this was the top one. It was for baby food.

**Audio comedy has been a great British training ground for writing and acting talent. Writers, especially, are increasingly having to learn their trade without being paid. That excludes many people from the industry’s ground-floor. All writers in our collective are paid the same. We don’t take a big slice of profit. All income goes into paying people and making L&O shows.