Louisville Public Media and 89.3 WFPL, Louisville's NPR radio station, announce the creation of a new radio show highlighting short fiction, Unbound. Slated to launch this summer, Unbound will present a series of ten episodes of short fiction works read by their authors and inspired by a common theme.
Unbound aims to give fiction fans and writers a space to connect through public radio. The communal aspect of a public radio show brings reading outside of living rooms and university classes and into the public space, encouraging community-wide discourse on the importance of literature in our daily lives.
One ten-episode season will cost approximately $9,000 in production expenses, contributor payments, and promotional costs. Louisville Public Media has secured a sponsor for the show to cover more than half of these costs and is seeking $4,000 from Kickstarter contributors to ensure the remainder of the funding. The Kickstarter campaign can be found at kickstarter.com/profile/unbound.
"Radio is a great medium for fiction, but there are few outlets for high-quality short stories on air. We want Unbound to provide a new outlet for listeners to hear great stories and discover new writers," said Gabe Bullard, WFPL Director of News and Editorial Strategy. "We want to create new shows and programs at WFPL, and we want those shows to fit our audience's lifestyle. Unbound will go on the air, but you can also download the episodes as a podcast and listen on your own time, whether you want to take them in each week at the gym or binge on a long road trip."
The show will be produced for broadcast in the WFPL listening area, available online via podcast and offered for syndication to other public radio stations.
Unbound is made possible in part by the Bachelors and Masters Writing Programs at Spalding University.