Cats of Madison on the Air

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We’re celebrating our The Shadow episode, “The Cat that Killed”
by featuring our Cats of Madison on the Air!

It’s always fun to envision which of the Old Time Radio dramas Madison will venture into next. I spend a lot of time on OTR FB pages, and the posts about “The Shadow” clearly show that it is one of the most favored programs of the genre. Plus, “The Shadow” clearly had had an impact on my mom when she was young, because I still vividly remember in my childhood her randomly lowering her voice and doing her best “The Shadow knows!!!!” And as I child, I had zero idea what that woman was talking about. Then, when I first started listening to OTR in the late 90s, I sunk my teeth into the detective and noir, but had ignored “The Shadow” because I assumed it was a kiddie show. Now I know!

When I started putting the episodes together in October of 2020, I was drawing from what I soon discovered is THE goto online resource for OTR scripts, Generic Radio. There are many acting troupes or just fans of the genre who, prior to COVID, would give live performances of these scripts, replicating the live radio recordings of the past. This website does not have an exhaustive collection by any means. But it’s where I started when this whole idea of Madison came around. There are a few “Shadow” scripts on the site, but nothing that was clicking with me. So I started listening to the episodes.

Side note: I am an insomniac. For the last 15 years I have been going to bed listening to OTR to allow my mind to focus on something other than all of my daily stresses. I like that I can turn off the light, get cozy in the blankets, and let the stories unfold in my mind. And it works! So, I started filling my nights with “Shadow” episodes, and when I heard “The Cat that Killed,” it was exactly what I wanted! BUT that meant I had to transcribe the episode myself. I don’t have any transcription software, and online services are $$, so I painstakingly did it myself and the rest is Madison history. (check out free online streaming of “The Shadow”)

I hope you enjoy our gallery of the Cats of Madison on the Air. Whenever I sit down to edit, inevitably the actors with cats in their homes will have at least one take with a distant “meow” or a pause on their track as I hear them shoo their kitty out of the room. Jeremy and I have three cats of our own, and luck usually has it that even though we shut the door to record, ONE of those sneaky cats will have hidden somewhere and suddenly a “hey, you locked me inside!” meow interrupts our recording.

-Chrisi (aka Madison)