The new Suspense started airing on Sirius XM in November of 2012, and today is on nearly 150 radio stations in the U.S., Canada and abroad. As a result, it’s become not just America’s #1 radio drama (surpassing the long-running Twilight Zone Radio Dramas), but one of the world’s most widely-available anthology shows.
“We’ve tried to create a show that is faithful to the spirit of the original, but without being a copy,” says Dana Perry-Hayes of Blue Hours Productions. “Our episodes are a mix of original scripts and adaptations of classic horror & mystery stories, most of which are from the pulp magazines of the first half of the 20th Century.” “Like the show itself, the adaptations are faithful to the source material while still forging their own identity,” adds John C. Alsedek of Blue Hours Productions. “Take our version of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cool Air, for example…we kept all the horror of the original, but also added an emotional element-which, to my mind at least, makes the ending all the more horrific because we actually care what happens to the characters.”
Each episode of Suspense is done as a full-blown radio drama, not just a reading. The show is recorded in a state-of-the art studio in Hollywood, allowing Alsedek and Perry-Hayes “to create a show that sounds like what Orson Welles or Arch Oboler would have produced if they’d have had access to current technology.” The production process is abetted by an experienced and talented group of voice talent, including Adrienne Wilkinson (Xena, The Clone Wars), Daamen Krall (The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari), Elizabeth Gracen (Highlander), and Tucker Smallwood (Star Trek: Enterprise). The end result is a program that has been described by listeners as “one of the best radio dramas available today” and “a throwback to a different time- truly unique.”