Hello fellow fans and supporters of Radio Theatre! :D
I cant thank you enough for your continued support. As of this date we have over 1,700 supporters for the revival of Radio Theatre.
From my many email correspondences to the Focus on the Family staff, I have learned that although the audio department would love to make more Radio Theatre, the bottom line is convincing the upper Focus leadership team that it is worth re-investing in this program as production costs for this series was great to produce them . They feel that in this day and age there is not the same desire for Radio Theatre and that this present culture would best be served with other media initiatives. The audio team would love to produce more and have many ideas to pursue but without the leadership teams blessing Radio Theatre will not be put back into production.
I will attach an email I received from a Focus representative some time ago. I am attaching it to show you supporters that it all comes down to you. If you would like Radio Theatre to return to airwaves then you need to reach out to Focus directly. It can be as easy as calling their 1-800 number. writing letters to their COO, or sending them an email, and then continue to follow up with them. Show them that this present culture still appreciates audio dramas and would support a revival of this series. It all comes down to you supporters to make this a reality. Please consider reaching out to Focus and while your at it purchase their previous adaptations from their online store, it will also show them the strong support for this particular ministry. The state of a Radio Theatre revival is completely in your hands. Please reach out to them.
Phone Number: 1-800-A-FAMILY (232-6459)
Email: help@focusonthefamily.com
Letter/Postcards:
Mr. Ken Windebank, Chief Operating Officer, Focus on the Family, 8605 Explorer Drive.
Colorado Springs, CO 80920-1051.
Dear Thaddaeus,
Thank you for writing to Focus on the Family. Your interest in our ministry is appreciated and we’re pleased to have this opportunity to serve you by responding to your inquiry.
As you’re apparently already aware, having corresponded with Paul McCusker on the subject, Focus on the Family Radio Theatre is no longer in production. As Paul has also informed you, there were in fact many discussions in the past about doing a RT production of Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, all of which came to an unfortunate end when the program was discontinued a long time ago. It is, in fact, about ten years since we last did anything with Radio Theatre. We’ve had many discussions about the possibility of reviving it, and the idea has met with equal parts enthusiasm and concern. Creatively, we’d love to relaunch the show, but some of our team members have a feeling that we haven’t yet distributed our current titles widely enough to justify investing in any new productions at the present time. We have a number of ideas we’d like to pursue, including Bunyan’s classic allegory of the Christian life. But until we have enough funding and the blessing of Focus leadership to pursue them, we can do nothing but wait. In any case, you may rest assured that your expression of interest in Radio Theatre will be passed along to our audio drama crew for their consideration.
In the meantime, there is something you might be able to do to help us in this regard. We’d like to encourage you respectfully to submit letters to the leadership team of Focus on the Family requesting that the ministry consider reviving the Radio Theatre brand. Upper management makes the difficult decisions as to which of the many possible ministry initiatives under consideration at any given time should be given priority. So far, that doesn’t include Radio Theatre. But our Audio Drama team has been asked to create a list of potential titles in the event that it is resurrected. Pilgrim’s Progress is actually on that list.
Thanks again for caring enough to contact us. We hope this reply has been helpful. Grace, peace, and God’s richest blessings to you.
Timothy Masters
Focus on the Family