If radio stations began running radio drama would you listen??what type of shows would you like to hear??
… do you mean podcasts?
I believe that in a recent thread here people touched upon the distinction between radio drama and podcasts. I’m not sure there are many podcasts that are actual radio drama (as opposed to book readings, which is really different).
There are plenty of podcasts that are more or less radio dramas. Check out Welcome to Night Vale for starters, or one of the 37-kajillion RPG ‘real play’ podcasts (which are a mixture of game-playing and improv storytelling) if that piques your interest.
The great advantage of radio programming is you needn’t pop hundreds of dollars for a computer. You also don’t need an Internet connection to use a radio.
I like listening to AM radio, especially during long-distance drives late at night. You can pull in stations from clear across the continent.
Driving from Wisconsin to Vermont in '88 or '89, I listened to the CBS Radio Theater (I think it was). I remember they had a dramatization of the original Arena by Fredric Brown. I also loved listening to Steve Allen’s evening talk show around the same time while I was delivering pizzas for a living.
There’s definitely an audience for live-action programming, be it drama or comedy. In the '90s, I was co-host of an evening show (FM, rather than AM) with both music and regular features, and every night was like a big party.
Some NPR affiliates, especially if they’re allied with community radio, carry this. As can be expected, quality can vary widely.
Sure, I loved those. I listen to audiobooks in the car, but an actual play with all the sound effects would be great. Especially since TV is dead as a dodo.
Search for audiobooks labeled “Full Cast” or “Ensemble”. Just finished a Dick Francis book, and a classic P.G. Wodehouse (Jeeves: Joy in the Morning). The only downside is that both were abridged, but for once I didn’t mind, because they were so entertaining.
I love old radio dramas (grew up listening to The Shadow on my grandma’s huge tube radio). I’d listen to any radio drama… or comedy.
Are there other podcasts of the quality of Welcome to Night Vale? That are good enough to count as a radio drama?
Thanks for the tip, I’ll have a look next time I’m up at the library. Right now. Have to take some stuff back… 
Sirius/XM satellite radio has a channel that only plays old radio shows, even the commercials. All kinds, drama, comedy, police, etc. It’s pretty interesting.
It never died over here, as adaptations of stage drama or novels, or as original drama or soap opera, as well as book readings. The Archers has been going as a daily drama since 1951, I’ve listened to performances of The History Boys (with the original stage cast) and an adaptation of Vassily Grossman’s Life and Fate with Kenneth Branagh.
Anything you can do on TV, you can do on the radio. As someone once said, the pictures are better.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/categories/drama
In Germany, it was (and for all I know still is) considered an art form in its own right.
https://www.goethe.de/en/m/kul/med/20746648.html
Big Finish do nothing but downloadable audio dramas, which are pretty much radio plays: they’re best known for their original - and excellent - Doctor Who stories, which use the actual actors from the show, but they also cover everything from Judge Dredd to Dan Dare.
I used to listen to Riders Radio Theatre every weekend on NPR. They had an action melodrama serial. I’ll never forget their catch phase “Sure, we could do it that way. That would be the easy way, but it wouldn’t be The Cowboy Way!”
I’ve been listening to episodes of “Fibber McGee and Molly” lately (I’m up to spring 1942 now), so I certainly have an interest in radio comedy.
I would listen to CBS Radio Mystery Theater as a young’n (around 13 or 14 years old) from our local station while lying in bed, trying to get to sleep. I think it was on from 9 PM to 10 PM. Great stuff.
I’ve wondered if the Doctor Who trope of “enemies repeating a catch-phrase over and over as they pursue you” is a hold-over from radio drama sensibilities, like signaling to the audience that the chase is happening.
Could well be; but the radio “ancestors” like Dick Barton and Journey into Space used music as well or instead.
I like the mystery/crime dramas (old Dragnet episodes and I Was A Communist For The F.B.I. are a hoot).
As for the variety shows, comedies and semi-soaps on the classic radio channel, blurgh.
I had a better look on the library’s site, they do have a lot of BBC productions as digital downloads. I usually just get cds and they don’t have as many full productions as cds. They seem to have a lot of Agatha Christie. I suppose that makes sense, they are very popular and would lend themselves to the format pretty well. Lots of interesting characters and events.