Initial commit: HPR Knowledge Base MCP Server

- MCP server with stdio transport for local use
- Search episodes, transcripts, hosts, and series
- 4,511 episodes with metadata and transcripts
- Data loader with in-memory JSON storage

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

hpr_transcripts/hpr1198.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,385 @@
+Episode: 1198
+Title: HPR1198: THEATER OF THE IMAGINATION: 05
+Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1198/hpr1198.mp3
+Transcribed: 2025-10-17 21:28:33
+
+---
+
+you
+Hello, this is Lost in Bronx, and this is Theater of the Imagination, Part 5.
+I know, I know, it's been a long time since my last installment, but I'm here now, so
+quit your crabbing.
+If you're new to this series on HPR, basically this is my take on dramatic audio media in various
+forms past and present, upon my own exploration of this art form, and most importantly, how
+and why you might want to explore it yourself.
+This series is not exhaustive, it's not encyclopedic, these are just my opinions.
+I'm a writer, actor, and producer of dramatic audio, so naturally I have some specific views
+on the topic, and this is what I cover.
+You can find out all the facts you'll ever want without my help.
+Just do a web search for old-time radio, or audio drama, or audio theater.
+The term has been gaining some traction lately, you'll get more information than you
+could digest in a lifetime.
+So anyway, there is a bit of a format to this show.
+First off, I talk about my equipment, and how I'm using it.
+Last time I covered my microphone.
+This time, I want to go over the external USB sound card that I have.
+It's a cheap little thing called a FastTrack USB by the brand M Audio, who make a wide range
+of products.
+This particular device is discontinued, but you can still find them on eBay and such,
+and if someone is asking more than 15 or 20 bucks US for it, they're shafting you.
+Brand new, it cost me 40, and that's when they were still making them.
+There'll be a link in the show notes for details on this exact model, in case you really
+want to know about it, but there are new products out by M Audio to apparently replace it.
+For instance, the M Audio FastTrack USB 2.
+That's right, don't be confused.
+It's the new, improved, much more expensive one.
+It's probably better.
+The price tag promises that much.
+Well, that's not what I have, and for the purpose of this series, when I refer to the
+FastTrack in this episode or any others, I'm talking specifically about mine.
+Now, what was my advantage in using a USB sound card or sound device or whatever marketing
+terms they used to describe this thing as opposed to just using the internal onboard
+sound chip of my main machine?
+Well, first off, if you happen to have a dedicated sound card for your computer with all the
+cool advantages and powers that come with that, then odds are you put it in yourself
+and you already know the advantages of having it.
+The uses are many and technical, and I don't have one of those myself, so I'm not going
+to pursue that topic.
+Instead, I can tell you the one major advantage of the FastTrack.
+It has an XLR mic input on the back.
+This is important since I use an XLR mic to record my audio projects.
+This is the FastTrack USB, remember, so that means the mic hooks into an XLR cable.
+The cable runs to a phantom power supply for the mic, and then on to the FastTrack, which
+hooks into my computer through the USB connection.
+Now I bought the FastTrack specifically to be used in that fashion.
+I don't use it that way anymore for reasons I'll get into another time, but I do still
+use it as a dedicated sound card just for our door, a Linux native digital audio workstation
+that is a major player in my current audio process.
+My first dramatic audio project was a science fiction story called Blue Heaven, and I used
+the nice mic to the FastTrack to the computer setup I just described, but not to my desktop
+machine.
+My desktop is wowed!
+Noise from its motherboard is really bad to any mic plugged directly into it, but that
+noise is dwarfed by the power supply fan, which sounds like a jet engine taking off
+at all times.
+It's simply too loud to use for audio projects that demand a certain level of polish.
+So instead, I used my 2GIG Triple EPC 701 Surf.
+You know the ones, first netbooks to market, and all that, with those old Celeron processors.
+Well, mine was running puppy Linux, which loaded into RAM for the sake of speed, and I
+hooked my nice mic into it through the FastTrack.
+Following this, there's going to be a quiz.
+Now I recorded my primary voice work on Blue Heaven that way.
+It wasn't easy, and I had to flush the RAM every three or four minutes so the machine
+would fill up and crash, but it worked.
+I won't ever do it that way again, but it was a learning experience.
+But understand that in this context, learning experience is my euphemism for almost more
+trouble than it was worth.
+The FastTrack can also take a quarter inch audio jack and has settings dedicated to electric
+guitars, but that's not something I need.
+I'm not a musician, so half of this thing's functionality is lost on me.
+If you do play guitar though, and maybe saying or whatever, then you might want to get
+something small and cheap and useful.
+Make the M audio FastTrack USB.
+It's not fancy, but what it does, it does well.
+The Vickersons have retired.
+Mrs. Vickersons lies rigid but awake in the darkness, as poor husband John, victim of an obscure
+type of insomnia that prevents other people from sleeping, exhibits the telltale symptoms
+of his dread affliction.
+In 1946, on the NBC Radio Network in the United States, a comedy sketch slash sitcom series
+began that ranged over quite a few variety shows, such as The Old Gold Show, The Chase and
+Sandborne Hour, and Dream Time, D-R-E-N-E.
+Dream was a shampoo back then made by Procter and Gamble, who were the sponsors of the
+show.
+The sketch series that I'm referring to was called The Vickersons.
+This is easily one of the funniest, best written, and most widely influential shows in American
+comedy history.
+Now I do an audio sitcom of my own called Eddie K, and if you listen to it, you will
+no doubt spot the influence of The Vickersons, just as you will with The Honeymooners, The
+Flintstones, same show really, all in the family, Rosanne, The King of Queens, everybody
+loves Raymond, Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and many, many more.
+You may or may not like any of those shows, and none of them is an out and out copy of
+The Vickersons, but I'm not sure that any of them would have been made without it, including
+my own.
+The show followed an extremely simple formula, and most installments consisted of the two
+main characters, married couple John and Blanche, having the most uproarious and obtuse
+conversations imaginable, in bed, at two in the morning.
+Honestly, that's all that happens on most episodes, yet it's brilliant.
+I'll have a link in the show notes to a good page on archive.org with lots of episodes,
+with lightning fast, combative wordplay, and the superlative acting talents of Donna
+Michi and Frances Langford.
+The Vickersons, which went on in various forms for a bunch of years, including a short
+stint on early television, is the gold standard that all of us doing this kind of comedy
+measure the process by.
+It literally does not get better than this.
+Will you like it?
+I couldn't say, because comedy is the most personal of all art forms.
+Nothing is more subjective, nothing is more mysterious, and nothing, not a single thing
+in the arts is harder to do well.
+Nearly 70 years ago, they pulled it off very well indeed, with the Vickersons.
+Tell the truth, John, if anything happened to me, would you marry again?
+Never, never again.
+Tell me your name, and tell me who you were in your life.
+My name was Ludlov, and I was a witch hunter.
+The witch hunter Chronicles is a completed nine-episode epic fantasy audio drama from the
+appropriately named production house, Audioepics, written by Domian de Groot, or de Groot, or
+something like that, directed by Eline Hoskins, and set in a dark world of magic, horror,
+and religious tyranny.
+Witch hunter follows the story of the heroic traitor Ludlov, recently expired, as he
+explains to death himself how exactly he got to be that way.
+You'll want to wear your headphones for this one, because it is a sterling example of
+immersive audio.
+If you listen with your eyes closed, guaranteed you will see a world form in your mind, a frightening
+place of great deeds and greater secrets, of grand villainy, and simple kindness, of
+witches, and those who hunt them down.
+With a sweeping original score, marvelous voice acting, and audio engineering to rival
+the best, this self-contained series is not to be missed.
+If you're sitting there, as I know some of you are, saying to yourself, well, I might
+be good but who cares, I don't like audiobooks, then hear these words.
+You don't know what you're talking about.
+You think you do, but you do not.
+www.audioepics.com.
+Shut this HPR episode off right now, because nothing I'm going to say here is even a fraction
+as cool as the fascinating world of the witch hunter chronicles.
+I don't know what you expect.
+What?
+Pace, look, tell me!
+There really isn't much time, Simina, that God outside could wake up at any moment.
+Pace, look, look!
+What's going on?
+The Grand General has approved the MagiSide Act.
+In short, it means that all possible magic users will be killed outrights.
+And now for a short bit of feedback.
+Hey, Lost in Bronx, it's Deepheek from the Talk Geek To Me newscast.
+www.TalkGeekToMe.us Want to tell you how much I hope to hear more?
+You talk about old-time radio.
+I know you primarily discuss radio plays.
+However, I have been listening lately to the old Bing Crosby NBC program, so if I walk
+out of that org.
+I was wondering if you could touch on this form of old-time radio.
+And I'm curious as to what you think, or I should say, if you think that this is just
+a nostalgia kick that will only apply to certain generations.
+In other words, to relate to something else, this classical music, and people will listen
+to say a revolved concerto for, you know, it's a part of a canon of classic music that
+will always be listable to by certain people who have that interest.
+It's always going to be done.
+I was wondering if you thought that there's such a thing as a classic radio that will transcend
+generations of people and interest people in centuries to come instead of mere decades.
+Thanks for entertaining the question, and I'll be seeing you around the webs.
+First off, thanks Deep Geek for sending that in.
+It's only been about a year since you've done it, and I'm sure you've already forgotten
+that you did.
+But that's all right, we don't mind, do we?
+Everything is immortal on the internet.
+And speaking of immortal, some forms of entertainment and art are indeed immortal, and they transcend
+time quite easily.
+Other things are a harder sell as time goes on because they get pulled out of the context
+of their time, and the social and more relevant elements that make up for the humor or the
+entertainment value of the day get lost as the generations pass.
+Some shows and some entertainers were a lot better at pulling that sort of thing off.
+That being said, if, you know, somebody like Bing Crosby who was a big enough star for
+a long enough time that he'll have fans forever, there's always going to be somebody who likes
+Bing Crosby.
+There's always going to be somebody that enjoys his sort of music.
+And you know, he more or less had guests and musicians and such on a show of his that are
+going to be more or less in his class, you know, I guess my point is that no, I don't
+think it's show like that has eternal value to most people.
+It will always have historical value, and for people that can appreciate it, I think that
+it will live forever, but the average listener doesn't listen to it now, and I don't think
+that's going to change in time.
+I think that in time, even fewer people will be listening to that sort of show.
+Because that mean that sort of show is devoid of value by no means, by no means, but there's
+a difference between eternal universal humor, eternal universal enjoyment of a particular
+art form and topical humor or a pop sense of music, right?
+Then like pop music of a particular era, unless we're talking about a nostalgic kick, only
+people who are like musical historians are going to have any interest in that sort of thing.
+Only people that have a true appreciation for that era are going to really enjoy it.
+You know, a hundred years from now, very, very few people will have listened to the shows
+you're listening to now, and it's just a natural progression.
+I don't know.
+People are going to enjoy older stuff, only if they study it, you know, you're enjoying
+Bing Crosby.
+Well, you know, you grew up in an era, and you remember seeing him on television, you
+know, when the guy was still alive, and you do have some sense of Bing Crosby, but younger
+generations will have to do real investigative work to appreciate this guy and his voice,
+right?
+And he did have a tremendous voice.
+I didn't always enjoy his choice of music because he did a lot of poppy stuff and he
+did a lot of schmaltzy stuff, but that doesn't take away from the value he had as an entertainer
+because there were a lot of people that really, really enjoyed him.
+I have, you know, as I outlined today, I have a real appreciation for some of the older
+comedy forms.
+He wasn't the funniest guy in the world.
+You know, he did do a little bit of comedy, you know, he's mostly known as a singer and
+movie star, but someone like, say, Jack Benny.
+I think Jack Benny's humor is very universal.
+You can laugh at most of what he does on his old Jack Benny radio shows without knowing
+a great deal about the era.
+That has a lot of universal appeal to me.
+The music of that period is something I like as well, but not everyone does.
+And if you don't, a variety show that's devoid of that anchor that people can hook onto.
+If you don't like that music, you're not going to enjoy sitting through a show that has
+it.
+So I don't know how much universal appeal these things have because don't forget this
+was pop music.
+Some of it, some of it lives forever.
+Some of it we remember as famous songs that, you know, get reused as the generations
+go by, but a lot of it gets lost and a lot of it is not going to have the appeal of a
+particular person's generation.
+And in my opinion, you need to study this stuff to get a great appreciation of it.
+You know, the older and further back you go.
+And that's not a bad thing, but it's not a free thing.
+It doesn't happen automatically.
+You have to make the effort.
+Like anything, the more you learn, the more you can appreciate it.
+And the more discerning you can become because, you know, like any other era, most of what
+they produced was crap and we only remember the good stuff.
+That's true today, the vast majority of what's on television or in the movies is garbage.
+And yet there are a few things that people are going to remember as time goes on.
+So to make this more succinct, I would say, no, I don't think all of that has universal
+or eternal appeal.
+I think some of it does the best of it and the rest of it is going to be an acquired or
+learned taste.
+I'm glad you're enjoying it and I enjoy that sort of thing too.
+But I think a lot of people need it to be interpreted for their generation.
+It's simply because the rest of it is so much labor to understand what they're talking
+about, to understand the context and to appreciate the art forms that were prevalent in that
+time period.
+So enjoy your old stuff and I will enjoy mine and people that appreciate it will enjoy
+theirs.
+And I hope a little bit of what I'm saying here will inspire someone to investigate
+these things because they're worth it.
+But it isn't always easy to find the good stuff and it isn't always easy to understand
+what's good when every frame of reference has been worn away by time.
+So that's my opinion.
+Now this is the soapbox portion of the show and this time around I want to talk about
+starting and finishing projects.
+What motivates me to begin an artistic endeavor and when do I know it's done?
+Well some people can't seem to ever get started on a thing.
+I'm one of them.
+I've done some stuff recently but I've also done an awful lot of nothing for an awful
+long time.
+Always intending to start that great idea I have tomorrow.
+But every tomorrow is also a yesterday and what matters more.
+It's also a right now and right now is the only place we live.
+So waiting for another day if you don't have to is pointless.
+I don't have to tell you any of this.
+There's a whole industry of motivational books, speakers, courses, software, you name it.
+Something in your life or your research will resonate with you or it won't.
+But either way you need to start a thing in order to finish it.
+Now, I'm not sure of ideas.
+Neither are you.
+Being solely of audio drama, if you can't think of something that interests you, if you
+can't think of a good story to tell, well then you're either overthinking it or you're
+dismissing it out of hand.
+Both of those do you know good.
+It doesn't matter if your idea has been done before.
+They've all been done before.
+And it doesn't matter if you don't know where to begin because you begin by doing.
+You begin by listening to other shows, to get a sense of what works and what doesn't.
+You begin with writing and you create your story and your script.
+Forget the hardware, forget questions of talent or skill, hardware can be acquired.
+It's just stuff.
+Talent is largely illusory, certainly overrated and completely out of anyone's control.
+It's not worth a single thought or fret.
+That just leaves skill and skill like hardware can be acquired.
+So you've listened to old-time radio.
+You've listened to the newer stuff.
+You found some shows you like and you found a whole lot of them that you don't.
+By now you've likely come across a show or two for which you really wish there were more
+episodes available.
+Something about the show shines for you.
+Maybe it's the concept, the genre, the acting, the music, whatever it is.
+Well, there's your idea, right there.
+I like space opera, ray guns and rockets, daring do.
+It's not the only thing I like, but it's a personal favorite.
+My latest audio project, the Star Drifter series, reflects that.
+I want to hear more stories like this.
+I want to pretend I'm a space man on a spaceship.
+I want to zap the bad guys and fly between stars.
+If I could do it in real life, I would.
+So I've come up with a storyline that lets me do it in my head.
+Do you like fantasy, horror, mystery, drama, romance, combinations thereof?
+Something that mixes your worldview perhaps with your hobby.
+If you find them compelling in real life, then you have your story.
+Scott Sigler, who needs no introduction from me, has a successful book and audio book
+series revolving around something called the Galactic Football League.
+And style football in the future in outer space with aliens.
+Now that's an idea fueled by personal passion if I ever heard one.
+Sigler loves science fiction and he loves football.
+And so do a lot of other people apparently because the books sell really well.
+An audio drama based on those stories would be loved by a lot of people.
+Personal interests, personal passion, that's your story.
+And you've got one because you're alive.
+You spend your time on earth doing things, occasionally things you enjoy.
+So let your story flow from there.
+Okay, so you've jumped that hurdle and you've begun.
+All the stuff that happens in the middle now is work.
+It can be fun too but it is time and labor and you have to take it seriously because no
+one else will.
+I'll go over my own methods of writing, recording and producing audio drama in future
+installments but that really doesn't matter.
+You can only learn by immersing yourself in your art form and by practicing it.
+Listen to shows, then write one.
+Get some friends together and record it.
+You can turn it into a party if it helps you or them get over yourselves.
+No one else has to hear it at all if you think it sucks.
+But you decide that it doesn't and you press on.
+You produce it and add sound effects and music, you're done!
+Or are you?
+How do you know when you're done?
+How do you know when your art piece is completed?
+Well, when you run out of jobs to do and you find yourself tweaking and tweaking and tweaking.
+That's when you're done.
+Needlessly fine-tuning and already well-tuned machine is compulsive and unproductive.
+Some artists can't get past that point.
+Maybe for them the art is in the doing not in the having done.
+If so, then they don't need to worry about finishing up.
+The rest of us have a project we want to present at some point though so we need to know
+when to step away.
+Deadlines help.
+They can also hinder.
+They can make you nervous or feel guilty.
+A soft deadline, a coma line will call it.
+That can be of real use in an art project.
+When the major tasks are done, you set a date.
+A date you can revise if a big problem or show stopper, pun intended, comes up, but one
+that remains firm otherwise.
+The tweaking has a coma line beyond which you will no longer engage in it.
+So the date has arrived.
+Boom!
+Done.
+You are done.
+Because you stopped.
+You called it quits.
+Now good enough isn't good enough not for your art, but pretty good is pretty good.
+And that's what you've got now.
+Something that by your own efforts and by your own standards is pretty good.
+And guess what?
+With what you've learned this time, your next project will be even better.
+If you push your skills to match your vision, your art comes out the winner every time.
+That's it for this episode.
+I'll really try to get another one out soon.
+But in the meantime, you shouldn't believe me because I lie a lot.
+I'm an actor.
+It's what I do.
+You can contact me at Lost in Bronx at gmail.com, that's L-O-S-T-N-B-R-O-N-X at Gmail.
+Feel free to check out my site and my own artistic projects at cavalcadeaudio.com.
+And please, please consider contributing your own episode to Hacker Public Radio.
+Remember what I said, you've got ideas.
+Now let's hear them.
+This has been Lost in Bronx.
+Thank you for listening.
+Take care.
+You have been listening to Hacker Public Radio at Hacker Public Radio.
+We are a community podcast network that releases shows every weekday on their free Friday.
+Today's show, like all our shows, was contributed by a HPR listener like yourself.
+If you ever consider recording a podcast, then visit our website to find out how easy
+it really is.
+Hacker Public Radio was founded by the digital dog pound and the infonomicum computer
+club.
+HPR is funded by the binary revolution at binref.com.
+All binref projects are proudly sponsored by Linner Pages.
+From shared hosting to custom private clouds, go to LinnerPages.com for all your hosting
+needs.
+Unless otherwise stasis, today's show is released on the creative commons, attribution, share
+a life, free dose of license.