''Shockwave Radio Theater'' was broadcast for 28 years on Fresh Air Radio, the community radio station

KFAI KFAI (90.3 FM Minneapolis) is a community radio station in Minnesota. The station broadcasts a wide variety of music, and also airs programming catering to many of the diverse ethnic groups of the region. KFAI has frequently been honored by lo ...

, 90.3FM

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, 106.7FM

St. Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

from 1979 to 2007. Much of Shockwave Radio is archived on archive.org or on the audio page of Dave Romm's portal.

Podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

s of some shows are available. The name of the program was ''Shockwave''. To distinguish the broadcasts from the

Macromedia Macromedia, Inc., was an American graphics, multimedia, and web development software company (1992–2005) headquartered in San Francisco, California, that made products such as Flash and Dreamweaver. It was purchased by its rival Adobe Systems ...

software (which came much later), it is often referred to as ''Shockwave Radio''. To expand further and to emphasize original productions, the full name of the program was used: ''Shockwave Radio Theater''. ''Shockwave Radio Theater'' specialized in science fiction humor, but diverged into science fact, strange music of any genre and just general weirdness. Baron Dave declared that "Politics is a subset of science fiction humor." The program occasionally interviewed politicians including then-Governor

Jesse Ventura Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos; July 15, 1951) is an American politician, actor, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), he served as the 38th governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2 ...

and the station's Congressman

Keith Ellison Keith Maurice Ellison (born August 4, 1963) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 30th attorney general of Minnesota. A member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Ellison was the U.S. representative for from 2007 to ...

. Political commentary on a progressive slant was common. Quite often the show would share time with Jerry Stearns' ''Sound Affects: A Radio Playground'' to present hour-long science fiction radio theater programs.

Origins

In the summer of 1979, three broadcasters on a new station wanted a program to showcase

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

music. They named it after John Brunner's novel ''Shockwave Rider''. Everett Forte, Chris Dronen and Charles E. Hamilton III volunteered on Fresh Air Radio. Within a few weeks, Charles had left for greener pastures. Everett and Chris went to a local science fiction convention and asked if anyone wanted to help. The next show, September 19, 1979,{{cite web, title=The First Show, url=https://archive.org/details/SRT19790919, publisher=The Internet Archive, accessdate=2006-10-06 five science fiction fans showed up at the station and were interviewed by Chris. This is the date used for anniversary. Dave Romm (later known as Baron Dave) was one of the people on the first show, and was later the main producer and host of the program. Many people contributed their talents as writers/performers over the years, and many more have been interviewed or have been part of a ''Shockwave'' program in some way. Everyone associated with the program, either as a broadcaster or a listener, is known as a ''Shockwave'' Rider. The show went off the air in 2007 due to a reshuffling of KFAI's schedule. Romm recorded some podcasts during the summer of 2008 on his site.

An incomplete history of ''Shockwave'' live stage shows

''Shockwave'' performed a live radio program at

Minicon Minicon is a science fiction and fantasy convention in Minneapolis usually held on Easter weekend. Started in 1968 and running approximately annually since then, it is one of the oldest science fiction conventions in the midwest United States. ...

from 1981–1999. The first Live Stage Show was at Not-Anokon I in 1980, the most recent was at MarsCon in 2004. Opening Ceremonies/Middle Ceremonies/Closing Ceremonoies at

LACon Lacon can refer to: ;People: * Demetrius Lacon (late 2nd century BC), Greek philosopher * Lacon family, a Sardinian dynasty * Lacon baronets, of the English baronetcy * William Lacon (ca. 1540–1609), English politician * Roland Lacon (ca. 1537� ...

III in 1996 was written by Baron Dave but was not technically a Shockwave Radio Theater Production.

Notable ''Shockwave'' riders

Included here are notable people who wrote for or performed in productions. #

Kara Dalkey Kara Mia Dalkey (born 1953) is an American author of young adult fiction and historical fantasy. Personal life She was born in Los Angeles and has lived in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Colorado, and Seattle. Much of her fiction is set in the He ...

Emma Bull Emma Bull (born December 13, 1954) is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Her novels include the Hugo- and Nebula-nominated '' Bone Dance'' and the urban fantasy '' War for the Oaks''. She is also known for a series of anthologies ...

Kate Worley Kathleen Louise Worley (March 16, 1958 – June 6, 2004) was an American comic book writer, best known for her work on '' Omaha the Cat Dancer'', a sexually explicit anthropomorphic animal comic book series about a female stripper. Worley was a ...

# Steven Brust #

John M. Ford John Milo "Mike" Ford (April 10, 1957 – September 25, 2006) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, game designer, and poet. A contributor to several online discussions, Ford composed poems, often improvised, in both complicated ...

Jane Yolen Jane Hyatt Yolen (born February 11, 1939) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She is the author or editor of more than 350 books, of which the best known is '' The Devil's Arithmetic'', a Holocaust novella. H ...

Allen Varney Allen Varney (born 1958) is an American writer and game designer. Varney has produced numerous books, role-playing game supplements, technical manuals, articles, reviews, columns, and stories, as well as the fantasy novel ''Cast of Fate'' ( TSR, ...

David Ossman David Ossman (born December 6, 1936 in Santa Monica) is an American writer and comedian, best known as a member of the Firesign Theatre and screenwriter of such films as '' Zachariah''. Early life Ossman attended Pomona College, where he starr ...

Phil Proctor Philip Proctor (born 1940) is an American actor, comedian and a member of the Firesign Theatre. He has performed voice-over work for video games, films and television series. Career Of the four members of Firesign Theatre, Proctor has had t ...

# Barry B. Longyear #

Luke Ski Luke Collis Sienkowski (born January 14, 1974), better known as the great Luke Ski or simply as Luke Ski, is an American parody, filk, and rap artist, who writes, records and performs comedy music. The decapitalization of "the great" in Sienko ...

References

American science fiction radio programs