So, you want to write for
Chicago Radio Theater?
First thing to know:
It is Chicago Radio Theater's policy not to
accept or consider creative ideas, suggestions, or materials apart from
submission by an entertainment attorney or a recognized (by us) literary
agent. We hope you will understand that it is the intent of this
policy to avoid the possibility of any future misunderstandings if your
ideas are similar to those we or our associates have in development now, or
have developed independently. You may be surprised how often this can
happen! Therefore, we must regretfully request that you do not send us
any creative materials such as stories, character ideas, treatments,
screenplays, books or original artwork ("Unsolicited Submissions"). Your
entertainment attorney or literary agent may, however, contact us by email
or by telephone to discuss possible submissions. We will not take phone
calls or answer emails from writers directly if we have no formal or
contractual relationship with the writer. This means we won't talk to
writers we don't know; we will only talk to their attorney or agent.
Further:
|
Click to download a Chicago
Radio Theater brochure. |
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If you submit any Unsolicited Submissions to Chicago
Radio Theater of any kind via email, facsimile, mail or otherwise, they will
be treated as non-confidential and shall be deemed, and shall remain, the
property of Chicago Radio Theater. So... don't send us any Unsolicited
Submissions.
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Without limitation of the foregoing, Chicago Radio
Theater shall exclusively own all now known or hereafter existing rights to
the Unsolicited Submissions of every kind and nature, in perpetuity,
throughout the universe and Chicago Radio Theater shall be entitled to
unrestricted use of the Unsolicited Submissions for any purpose whatsoever,
commercial or otherwise, without compensation, credit or any other rights to
the provider of the Unsolicited Submissions.
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If applicable law restricts or limits the foregoing
provisions of this paragraph, you agree, without limitation of the
foregoing, that in no event shall Chicago Radio Theater's liability with
respect to the Unsolicited Submissions exceed the minimum amount payable for
the writing of equivalent material under the Writers Guild of America
Minimum Basic Agreement then in effect.
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Any controversy or claim arising out of our receipt of
Unsolicited Submissions will be settled by arbitration in Los Angeles,
California, or New York, New York, before a single arbitrator appointed by
the American Arbitration Association. The prevailing party in any such
arbitration has the right to recover its reasonable attorneys' fees and
costs from the other party.
Second thing to know: If
you are hired to write for the Chicago Radio Theater, or if your
entertainment attorney or literary agent is approved by us to submit your
material (following points 1-4, above), you must follow our templates and
formatting guidelines. To make your job of writing for the Chicago Radio Theater
easier, we have a free Chicago
Radio Theater script template for you. All scripts
must, without exception, be prepared and submitted using our template. If
you won't bother to create or submit your script in our template, please
don't bother to submit it. It will not be read, even if your submission has
been approved in advance. Clear enough?
Third thing to know:
don't bother to spend the money to
purchase a professional writing program like Final Draft or Screenwriter for
preparing a script for the Chicago Radio Theater,
even though these programs are very good at what they do. Our Executive Producer is
a working screenwriter, and although he uses Screenwriter to prepare his
screenplays, he doesn't use it to prepare his radio scripts. That's because
we at Chicago Radio Theater want to encourage new talent to write for radio, and new talent usually
cannot afford to pay for any fancy writing software. We recommend plain old
Microsoft Word. If you are using MS Word from Office 2007, be sure to save
it in the MS Word 1997 or 2003 format (*.doc), and not in the
Microsoft Word 2007 formats (*.docm, *.docx, etc.)
If you want to see an actual
Chicago Radio Theater script and not just a blank template (the pilot for
the Ellery Queen series on the Chicago Radio Theater), then
click here for the MS Word file or
click here for the PDF file. If
you want to see any of the other scripts in DOC format, call us toll-free at
1-866-781-2800 and we'll talk about what you need, why you need it, script
placement availabilities, etc. Before You Write... Contact Us
Most of our scripts are prepared months before
production, with the entire story line planned out weeks in advance. If you
write your script without talking to us first, that's called a "spec"
script, and we seldom purchase spec scripts. There are a number of reasons
for that: One, we intend to honor
Writers Guild (WGA) rules which prohibit soliciting spec scripts from
WGA writers; and two, a spec writer usually doesn't know where we've taken
the story line for our programs. How can s/he possibly know where we're
going with our characters and stories merely by listening to our programs?
By the time the program has aired, the story line is moving on to someplace
else. But if you insist on writing a spec script (not
recommended, unless you are trying to show us that you've got what it takes
to write a radio drama), then when you are ready to submit your writing
sample, have your entertainment attorney or your literary agent attach it to an email sent to
our submissions email address (don't you send it to us yourself):
submissions@ChicagoRadioTheater.com. By submitting a spec script or
any other story ideas or program ideas without our prior written consent,
you are acknowledging that we may have a similar idea in development and
that you have waived all rights to future compensation by us for your
material, per our policy set forth above. Do not, ever, submit material
to the Chicago Radio Theater without having your entertainment attorney or
your literary agent contact us first. Dare we repeat this: You must have
your story ideas and scripts submitted by a literary agent or an entertainment
attorney. We always return agent and attorney calls about new materials
submissions promptly, usually the same day and sometimes within an hour or
two of getting the call. Materials sent to us apart from an attorney or
agent can take
weeks for us to get to and will be dealt with according to our policy as set
forth above, so... if you want to seriously be considered as a writer for
the Chicago Radio Theater, then use an agent or an
entertainment attorney. If you do not have a literary agent,
you might
find one here. Sample Scripts
You can download a sample Chicago Radio Theater script in
MS Word format
here and in PDF format
here. |
