Hello Mutualites!
Here's the latest news from the Mutual Audio Network for September 2026.
Behind the Scenes: Taking The Road to Morocco Again!
09/28/2026
How do you bring Hope and Crosby back to the airwaves? The Mutual Audio Network goes behind the scenes of its hour-long recreation of the classic Lux Radio Theatre production of The Road to Morocco.
How do you get back on The Road to Morocco more than eighty years later?
Very carefully — and with a cast that's willing to have an enormous amount of fun along the way!
One of the biggest productions of the 17th season of Sonic Summerstock Playhouse was our recreation of the classic Lux Radio Theatre presentation of The Road to Morocco, bringing the wonderful light comedy of the Hope and Crosby partnership back to the audio stage for a new generation of listeners.
And recreating an hour-long classic radio comedy takes a little more than handing everyone a microphone and an old script.
The process began with script development, taking the original radio presentation and preparing it for a modern audio cast while preserving the timing, rhythm and wonderfully silly interplay that made the Hope and Crosby partnership work. The goal wasn't to imitate every inflection of the original performers, but to rediscover the fun of the material and let a new cast play with it.
Then there was the music.
Music was an essential part of classic radio variety and comedy, so finding and developing appropriate accompaniment became another important piece of rebuilding the show. The songs weren't simply extras to be discarded on the way to the dialogue. They were part of the experience, and we wanted our recreation to feel like a complete radio production rather than an edited-down version of one.
At the centre of it all were John Bell and Jack Ward, taking on the Hope and Crosby roles, with Patte Rosebank joining them in the principal cast.
Around them, Mel Rose, Larry Groebe and Pete Lutz became something of a miniature repertory company, with supporting performers jumping from character to character and sometimes taking on a surprising variety of roles over the course of the production.
That became part of the fun.
Recorded together over Zoom, the sessions had plenty of laughter between takes as the cast played off one another, experimented with performances and discovered just how well the comedy could still work when performers were allowed to bounce the lines back and forth.
That's one of the pleasures of recreating classic radio for Sonic Summerstock. These aren't museum pieces. Put the scripts back into the hands of actors, add voices, music and sound, and suddenly they become performances again.
The result is nearly an hour of Hope-and-Crosby-style comedy that hasn't been performed quite this way since the original Lux Radio Theatre broadcast.
For the cast, it was an opportunity to spend an evening playing radio.
For listeners, it's another chance to take The Road to Morocco.
And really, who could ask for a better summer trip?
****************************
Call for Submissions: Board the Transcontinental Terror Train!
09/24/2026
The Transcontinental Terror Train is preparing to leave the station for another October of horror on the Mutual Audio Network, and we're looking for audio drama producers with terrifying tales to join us for the journey!
Calling all audio drama producers!
The whistle is blowing, Captain Radio is checking the passenger list, and the Transcontinental Terror Train is preparing to pull out of the station for its annual journey through the darkest corners of the Audioverse.
But there's still room aboard!
Every October, the Mutual Audio Network celebrates Fright Month by showcasing horror audio drama from creators around the world. The Transcontinental Terror has become our annual opportunity to introduce Mutual listeners to new productions while welcoming back some familiar voices from years past.
So we're putting out the call.
Do you have a horror audio drama you'd like us to hear?
We're looking for completed audio drama productions suitable for inclusion in our October programming. Ghost stories, monsters, supernatural mysteries, science-fiction horror, psychological terror, Gothic tales, dark comedy and other things that really shouldn't be making that scratching noise outside your window are all welcome.
Independent producers and established companies alike are invited to get in touch. Tell us about your production, where we can hear it, and how we can contact you.
You can reach the Mutual Audio Network through:
Email: mutualaudio@gmail.com
X: AudioMutual
Bluesky: @mutualaudionetwork
Mastodon: @Mutual
Facebook: Transcontinental Terror Facebook Page
If you've been waiting for an opportunity to introduce your horror audio drama to Mutual listeners, this is your stop.
The conductor is calling.
The doors are closing.
And somewhere farther down the track, something is screaming.
Submit your production and climb aboard the Transcontinental Terror Train for 2026! ****************************
The Mutual Audio Network Feed Is Back!
09/23/2026 14:19:53
After months without a single combined Mutual Audio Network feed, the MAN website once again brings Monday Matinee through Sunday Showcase together into one chronological listening experience.
The Mutual Audio Network has restored one of its most-requested features: the ability to listen across all seven daily network feeds as one continuous Mutual broadcast.
When MAN moved its daily programming from Megaphone to Transistor, the original Mutual Audio Network master feed could no longer be maintained as a single duplicated podcast feed. While Monday Matinee, Tuesday Terror, Wednesday Wonders, Thursday Thrillers, Friday Follies, Saturday Story Circle, and Sunday Showcase all continued independently, listeners lost the convenient option of browsing the entire network in one place.
That has now changed.
The new MAN player dynamically gathers the seven daily feeds, combines their episodes, and sorts them by publication date to rebuild the Mutual Audio Network listening experience directly on the website.
That means listeners can once again visit Listen Now, choose Mutual Audio, and explore the network as a single continuously updated collection — while still retaining the option to listen to any individual day feed separately.
The same technology is also being incorporated into MAN’s Webpages system, allowing show pages to search across the combined network when appropriate.
It is not simply the return of the old feed. It is a new way of rebuilding it.
The Mutual Audio Network broadcast is back.
Turn it on. Tune in. Listen now.
****************************
All Aboard! The Transcontinental Terror Train Returns for 2026!
09/21/2026
Captain Radio is heading back to the station as the Mutual Audio Network prepares for the return of the Transcontinental Terror Train and a full October of horror, chills and terrifying tales from across the Audioverse.
It's that time of year again!
Our own Captain Radio of Saturday Story Circle is heading down to the station, checking his watch and listening for a familiar whistle in the distance.
Because somewhere out there in the darkness, the Transcontinental Terror Train is making its way back to the Mutual Audio Network!
Every October, Mutual celebrates Fright Month, turning our attention to some of the great horror audio drama being produced throughout the Audioverse. From supernatural chills and creatures in the darkness to science fiction nightmares and good old-fashioned terror tales, October gives us an opportunity to showcase just how wonderfully varied horror in audio can be.
Audio drama and October have always made a particularly good pairing. The month may forever be associated with one especially famous radio invasion from Mars, but generations of writers, actors and producers have since created hundreds upon hundreds of terrifying audio tales of their own.
And we want to hear them!
Throughout October, expect the Transcontinental Terror Train to make stops across the Mutual Audio Network, while Sunday Showcase opens its doors to some special horrors of its own.
There are new destinations ahead, new passengers waiting on the platform, and plenty of things going bump in the night.
So pack your bags, keep your ticket handy and whatever you do...
Don't miss the train.
Transcontinental Terror 2026 is coming this October to the Mutual Audio Network!
****************************
Classic Sonic Society Reaches Season 8 — And a Partnership Begins!
09/18/2026
After a full year of daily Classic Sonic Society releases, the 22-year archive reaches Season 8 and the beginning of the partnership between longtime host Jack Ward and David Ault, launching a new era of adventures across the Audioverse.
Following close on the heels of the end of another Sonic Summerstock Playhouse season in August, our daily journey through 22 years of The Sonic Society continues — and we've reached a very special milestone.
Welcome to Season 8!
It's now been a full year since the Mutual Audio Network began releasing classic episodes of The Sonic Society every day, giving new listeners the opportunity to experience the history of the world's longest-running showcase of modern audio drama from the beginning.
Over those early seasons, Jack Ward had already shared the microphone with two different co-hosts and even spent two seasons hosting the Society by himself.
But with Season 8, something changes.
Enter David Ault.
David was certainly no stranger to audio drama, The Sonic Society, or Sonic Cinema. The star of the award-winning Soul Survivor, David had already appeared in numerous productions, including Wavefront shorts and Deadline Anthology episodes. And Summerstock listeners, of course, know him as the longtime host of Sonic Summerstock Playhouse.
But in Season 8, David doesn't simply drop by as a guest host.
Jack and David begin a partnership.
And with that partnership, The Sonic Society itself begins to change.
Before long, the two find themselves travelling through the strange and wonderful Audioverse, accompanied by the PPC — better known as the Audie — journeying from realm to realm, discovering new worlds, meeting extraordinary characters and, naturally, getting themselves into an astonishing amount of trouble along the way.
Listeners who know Jack and David as the team behind the modern Sonic Society can now go back and hear where that chemistry — and those adventures — really began.
And if you've never travelled through the Audioverse before, there's never been a better time to climb aboard.
Season 8 of Classic Sonic Society begins now, with another classic episode released every day on the Mutual Audio Network.
****************************
Temple of Vampires Reaches the Halfway Mark!
09/16/2026
This Thursday, Temple of Vampires reaches a major milestone as the Mutual Audio Network releases Episode 10 of its twenty-episode full-cast recreation of Carlton E. Morse’s classic adventure serial.
This Thursday, September 17th, the Mutual Audio Network’s full recreation of Carlton E. Morse’s Temple of Vampires reaches a major milestone as the Amigos Collective and Sonic Cinema Productions release the tenth episode of this twenty-episode feature series on Thursday Thrillers!
Starring the Amigos — Lothar Tuppan, Jeffrey Billard and Jack Ward — alongside Angela Young, John Bell, Jan Didur and Austin Mosher, Temple of Vampires takes listeners deep into the South American jungle for a sprawling tale of mystery, adventure and, of course, some particularly nasty bloodsuckers.
The production is also a labour of love dedicated to two much-missed members of the audio drama community: Bill Hollweg, who adored Temple of Vampires, and Mark Kalita, whose own Jake Sampson adventures were inspired in part by the classic serial. Mark had been working toward joining the cast of this production before his unexpected passing.
Behind the microphones, Mike Messner, well known for In the President’s Service, has been working hard on the production side, while Jack Ward handles script development and direction.
An important part of recreating the atmosphere of the original serial has been its music, lovingly recreated for this new production by the enormously talented Sharon Bee.
With Episode 10, we’ve reached the halfway point — but there are still ten chapters to go.
Prepare yourself for the second half of Temple of Vampires, every week on Thursday Thrillers from the Mutual Audio Network.
The jungle is getting darker... and the vampires are getting closer!
****************************
Mutual Stage Returning? The Gift of Venice Is Coming!
09/16/2026 16:41:20
Nearly twenty years after an entire Shakespearean comedy seemed to appear during three steps between classes, Jack J. Ward is working with actor and producer Ryan Sadler to bring The Gift of Venice or On Coming Out first to the Mutual Stage, with a Halifax stage production planned for 2028.
Is Mutual Stage preparing to raise the curtain again?
Almost two decades ago, Jack J. Ward got up from his desk between classes while teaching Shakespeare.
By the time he'd taken three steps, something extraordinary had happened.
An entire Shakespearean comedy had burst into his mind.
The characters were there. The three intertwining plots were there. The five-act structure was there. Somehow, even the shape of roughly three hours of theatrical entertainment had arrived almost at once.
Jack was both shocked and exhilarated.
Suddenly, The Gift of Venice or On Coming Out was born.
For years, the play remained in notes while teaching, audio drama, writing and the rest of life continued around it. But after retiring from the classroom, Jack returned to those original ideas and began the much larger task of getting the words down on paper and developing his own approach to Shakespearean prose.
After all, imagining a Shakespearean comedy in three steps is one thing.
Writing one is quite another.
Now, with the help of actor, producer and longtime friend Ryan Sadler, The Gift of Venice is moving toward becoming a performance.
The first destination is particularly appropriate: Mutual Stage, the Mutual Audio Network's home for bringing theatrical works to the audio stage.
But that's only Act One.
Jack and Ryan are also working toward taking The Gift of Venice from the microphones to a Halifax stage by 2028, finally turning an idea born between Shakespeare classes nearly twenty years earlier into a live theatrical production.
Characters scheming. Lovers misunderstanding. Plots colliding. Five acts of Shakespearean-inspired comedy.
And perhaps the return of Mutual Stage along the way.
After all...
For all the World's an Audio Stage, and we are all merely webplayers!
****************************
Sonic Summerstock Playhouse Celebrates a Spectacular 17th Season!
08/31/2026
Sonic Summerstock Playhouse celebrates its 17th season with classic recreations, original adaptations, comedy, suspense, superheroes, Madison on the Air, and a grand finale aboard The Road to Morocco.
Meta Tags:
Sonic Summerstock Playhouse, Sonic Summerstock, Mutual Audio Network, audio drama, audio theatre, old time radio, David Ault, Jeffrey Billard, X Minus One, A Wind Is Rising, Northside Southside Players, Temple of Vampires, Sonic Cinema, Amigo Collective, Pete Lutz, Narada Radio Company, Ray Bradbury, Rocket Skin, John Bell, Doom Machine, Suspense, Larry Groebe, Summertime Superheroes, Doctor Who, Lone Ranger, Madison on the Air, Chrisi Talyn Saje, Dick Tracy, Road to Morocco, Jack Ward, Patte Rosebank, Mel Rose,
The curtain has come down on another incredible summer at the Sonic Summerstock Playhouse, and Season 17 proved to be one of our most jam-packed seasons yet!
As always, the incomparable David Ault welcomed audiences to the stage of the Summerstock Playhouse in sunny Halifax, Nova Scotia, for another summer celebrating the grand tradition of audio theatre: classic recreations, new adaptations, original productions, comedy, suspense, superheroes and more.
We opened the season with Jeffrey Billard’s recreation of the classic X Minus One tale “A Wind Is Rising,” starring the Amigos — Jeffrey Billard, Lothar Tuppan and Jack Ward — in the principal roles.
From there, the Summerstock stage barely had time to cool down!
The Northside/Southside Players brought us a pair of comedies, while Sonic Cinema and the Amigo Collective offered listeners two special preview outings from the ongoing Temple of Vampires serial.
Pete Lutz and the Narada Radio Company returned with Rocket Skin, an original adaptation of a Ray Bradbury story, while John Bell delivered a remarkable one-man recreation of the Suspense episode Doom Machine. Decades after the original story was written, its warnings about the dangers of unchecked artificial intelligence sounded remarkably at home in 2026.
Larry Groebe returned to Summerstock with a live presentation of The Audio Adventures of the Summertime Superheroes, featuring both a lost Doctor Who pilot and a classic recreation of The Lone Ranger.
And what would Summerstock be without Madison on the Air? Madison — played by creator Chrisi Talyn Saje — returned with her own wonderfully distinctive recreation and reimagining of Dick Tracy: The Case of the Firebug Murders.
Finally, we closed out Season 17 in grand old-time-radio style with “The Road to Morocco,” recreating the legendary Hope and Crosby comedy from Lux Radio Theatre. John Bell and Jack Ward stepped into the Hope and Crosby roles, joined by Patte Rosebank, Mel Rose, Larry Groebe and Pete Lutz, with the songs intact and plenty of classic radio comedy along the way.
Seventeen seasons in, Sonic Summerstock Playhouse continues to bring together audio dramatists from across the community for one simple purpose: to spend the summer putting on a show.
Our enormous thanks to every writer, producer, director, performer and company who joined us this year — and especially to our perennial host, David Ault.
The theatre may be going dark for another season, but don't wander too far. Summerstock will return!
****************************
Thanks for subscribing to the Mutual Audio Network.
Where We Listen & Imagine ~ Together