''The Cabinet of Dr. Fritz'' was a 1984 binaural

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

series produced by

Thomas Lopez Thomas Lopez, aka Meatball Fulton (born 1935), is president of the ZBS Foundation and one of the foundation's founders. He writes and produces the ZBS Foundation's audio drama productions. When he was working in radio in the 1960s, Lopez took " ...

and the

ZBS Foundation ZBS Foundation, a small non-profit audio production company, was founded by Thomas Lopez (aka "Meatball Fulton") in 1970 with a grant from Robert E. Durand as a working commune, located on a donated farm in Upstate New York. ZBS stands for "Zero Bu ...

for

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

. At the beginning of each show, it was suggested that listeners wear headphones.

Production

“Fritz” was the nickname Lopez gave to the human head-shaped microphone he and his team used to record their three-dimensional productions, but its official name was the Neumann Ku81 Dummy Head. A solid rubber head with microphones set inside the ear chambers, it was designed to record sounds the way a human being would hear them. While the ZBS Foundation had been working with 3D sound since its founding in 1970, ''The Cabinet of Dr. Fritz'' series grew out of ZBS’ adaptation of ''Sticks'', a

Karl Edward Wagner Karl Edward Wagner (12 December 1945 – 14 October 1994) was an American writer, poet, editor, and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. He ...

short horror story set inside an abandoned house. Lopez recorded the drama on location, with actors performing for the dummy head microphone in an actual abandoned house across the Hudson River from where he lived. The binaural sound was such a great fit for the

horror genre Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian ...

that Lopez set out to create an entire series of creepy stories recorded in 3D sound.The Cabinet of Doctor Frit
ZBS Promotional Booklet
/ref> The series was produced with funds provided by the

New York State Council on the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell (1905–1996 ...

, the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

and the

Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...

through National Public Radio Satellite Program Development Fund.

Reception

Reviews were generally favorable. In ''

Stereophile ''Stereophile'' is a monthly American audiophile magazine which reviews high-end audio equipment, such as loudspeakers and amplifiers, and audio-related news. History Founded in 1962 by J. Gordon Holt. ''Stereophile'' is the highest-circulation ...

'', Thomas J. Norton wrote of ''Sticks'': John Sunier's review in ''Audio'':

Episodes

Below is a complete list of the show's 13-episode run.

References

External links

"Binaural in Depth" by John SunierZBS Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cabinet of Dr. Fritz, The American radio dramas ZBS Foundation 1980s American radio programs Binaural recordings NPR programs 1984 radio programme debuts 1984 radio programme endings