Earplay

The longest-running of the formal series of radio drama anthologies on National Public Radio in the U.S., Earplay for more than a decade in one form or another provided a showcase for original and adapted work; eventually, the less-sustained successor series NPR Playhouse drew episodes from the Earplay run. Often presented by NPR member stations on a weekly basis, Earplay episodes were often both praised and condemned for their attention to recording technique and sound-effects; one notable example of this was their adaptation of Stephen King's novella "The Mist," later offered commercially as a stand-alone "audiobook" version on cassette, in "3-D Sound." Along with the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, The Sears Radio Theater, The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater, Christian radio's Unshackled, and public radio's The National Radio Theater of Chicago, Earplay was among the most ambitious nationwide projects in the medium in the U.S. in the 1970s and '80s.