Audio as a literary art form is what we practice here - voices, music, sounds and drama crafted to engage, entertain and stimulate thought. We use audio to present amazing ideas and nontraditional thinking in the context of storytelling. Do not confuse Growler programs with audiobooks. No narrator reading a book can create the virtual experience of well produced audiodrama. Aural literature is created for listening, not reading. Sadly, this niche art form has very few practitioners at this time, and virtually no one creating innovative listening experiences for children.

The ideal place to develop and nurture audiodrama is on the radio, where it once flourished. And more and more radio programming is being developed to include this form. Anyone who listens to public radio has probably noticed the recent appearance of audiodrama within the content of many of the new crop of programs. And more will be coming. But where are the kids' programs? Radio has existed in the US for over 60 years. Why is there not at least one well known, national radio program for children? The answer is as ugly as it is obvious: money. No one is putting the effort into the development of children's radio programs because they cannot make enough money doing so. Even on public radio stations, only programs drawing listener sponsorship survive, and so children's programming is fast disappearing, since the kids are not in a position to pledge station support. So without a public mandate, there will be no radio for kids.

From a quality point of view, most children's audio is created with extremely limited budgets, and it shows. Unfortunately, in our mass market culture, the need to make a profit often necessitates a lowering of quality expectations. These market forces not only limit our choices, but also cause more money to spent on the ad budget than on the development of the product. If you can make it cheap and sell it, why do it any other way? In this environment, the packaging is more important than the content.

Anyone who has browsed the shelves, the catalogs, or the web looking for children's audio (other than music) knows there is very limited availability of quality product. In spite of incredible advances in the recording technologies, truly innovative audio programs for kids are not generally available.  The major labels and publishers do not support audio products except to further exploit existing properties, so kids get a lot of audiobooks, clumsy read-alongs, licensed characters, and celebrities reading folk tales.

In short, children's audio is currently in bad shape. Children's radio is on the endangered list. Aside from audiobooks, there are no new releases to speak of. While there are some cool storytellers, and at least one decent audio magazine for kids, there's also a lot of inferior product and not much innovation. But we think the future is bright. In time, the new and more accessible recording technologies will enable the audio art form to flourish in ways never before possible. Perhaps even take it out of the hands of the mass marketers and into the hands of the creators.

One reason we are positive concerning the future is that our recordings are an example of this new creative independence. Growler programs represent real exceptions to mass market products in quality, price, and philosophy.  Control of the content is more important to us than how much distribution we achieve. Our goal is not financial, but creative. Flying in the face of the advice of mass marketers, we refuse to create depictions of our characters for licensing purposes, because we want the listener's mind to do this. Exceptional retail prices are the ultimate proof that we do not answer to market demands. Growler stories are created and produced specifically for audio, with outrageous attention to detail.  A typical program involves hundreds of sound elements, many created especially for that episode.  Growler recordings are rich with original sounds, original scoring, real kids, unusual voices, and exciting, intelligent story concepts that always challenge the listener to go far beyond what seems obvious.

Experience the storytelling power of sound.