The end of October marked the 9th commemoration of World Audio Drama Day, held every year on the eve of Halloween, October 30th — and also the start of a centennial celebration, which honors a much longer milestone in entertainment.

“The autumn of 2022 represents a century of series storytelling!” explains Sibby Wieland, who created the Audio Drama Day holiday to celebrate both historic radio drama and modern podcasts during the Halloween season. “This year’s World Audio Drama Day kicks off a century celebration of the WGY Players, whose pioneering 1922 drama series led to thousands of radio, television, podcast, and streaming series.”

Although other dramas may have aired on early radio, historian Elizabeth McLeod pinpointed the summer 1922 radio premiere of “The Wolf” as the primary spark that led to broadcast drama series.

“The Wolf,” a play produced by theater director Edward H. Smith over WGY Radio (Schenectady, NY) received thousands of letters and cards from listeners. In response, that fall Smith and WGY founded a new troupe of actors, producing the first series of dramas in a regular time slot. (WGY Players included in the attached 1922 photo, from left to right, include Rose Cohn, Lola Sommers, Frank Oliver, Edward E. St. Louis, Edward H. Smith).

The popularity of this new series led in December to the first network radio setup, as linked stations in New York City and Washington D.C. simulcast the WGY series – making WGY Players the forefather of not only the golden age of radio drama, but also network television. The WGY Players also featured in the pioneering 1928 television broadcast “The Queen’s Messenger”.

“The innovations of the WGY Players a hundred years ago are a tangible link to serial content made by early podcasters, producers, and streamers today,” explains Wieland, who wrote an online history of audio drama for Acast’s Audio Fiction Week in 2021.

She notes the 11th Hour Audio, a collaborative experiment for making new horror audio each autumn, embodies the initiative and creativity of WGY Players – along with emerging audio work made by students and educators, like Re-Imagined Radio (Washington State University in Vancouver) and Radio Humber (Humber College in Toronto, Canada).

“Meanwhile, sites like the Audio Drama Directory, and organizations like SPERDVAC and National Audio Theater Festivals (each founded in the 1970s), have helped keep the flame alive.”

The first Audio Drama Day was announced at the Parsec Awards in September 2013, in anticipation of the 75th anniversary of Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” broadcast in October 1938. World Audio Drama Day will be celebrated for the 10th time in 2023.

The Houston Area Urban League today announced a transformational gift that will allow the organization to dramatically expand and enhance the reach of its empowerment programs.

Philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott has donated $4.2 Million, the largest single contribution in the Houston Area Urban League’s 54-year history!

“We’re honored and grateful that Ms. Scott and her team have recognized the Urban League’s value and impact to the community,” Judson Robinson, III President & CEO said. “By placing racial equity and social justice at the forefront of her philanthropic mission, Ms. Scott is shining a much-needed spotlight on the nation’s structural and institutional limitations and helping to build a stronger, more resilient society for everyone.”

The Houston Area Urban League will use the gift to ensure the agency’s long term sustainability and support its Strategic Plan to expand program services, outreach, awareness, and service access to more Black and other marginalized people in our community. “We are elated that our work and its outcomes have been recognized and rewarded with this level of support”, said Robinson.

The Houston Area Urban League is one of 25 Urban League affiliates around the nation that received similar donations from Ms. Scott, who in 2019 signed The Giving Pledge, a promise by the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.

About Houston Area Urban League

Since 1968, the Houston Area Urban League has advocated for and provides social services to disadvantaged people of all races, gender, age groups, and/or disabilities. HAUL operates the following six (6) programs targeting residents in economically disadvantaged geographic areas in the Greater Houston area: Education and Youth Development; Workforce and Economic Development; Workforce Training; Housing; Social Justice; and Health and Wellness Initiatives. These programs impact the lives of over 10,000 people each year. For more information please call 713-393-8700 or visit haul.org.

In November, Fine Art Shippers will launch an art shuttle California – Florida to deliver art from the West Coast to the East Coast of the United States. The team of professional art handlers will not only move artworks and antiques between the states but also provide comprehensive art logistics services during the upcoming Miami Art Week, which is scheduled for November 28 – December 4, 2022. This year, it will encompass a number of events and art fairs that have been highly anticipated by both local and international art communities.

Fine Art Shippers has a long-standing experience in providing art fair services. This year, the company took the role of an onsite shipper at the Palm Beach Show on February 17-22, delivered artworks to Dallas Art Fair on April 21-24, and transported fine art to Hamptons Art Fair on July 14-17. The extensive experience allows Fine Art Shippers to provide full assistance to a broad range of clients, including artists, galleries, collectors, art brokers, designers, and other participants and visitors of Miami art shows.

Fine Art Shippers offers a wide range of art services and is able to handle tasks of any type and complexity. In addition to packing and shipping fine art, the team of art handlers can help with the installation and deinstallation of various art pieces, from paintings to sculptures to mixed media. Apart from that, Fine Art Shippers provides art insurance services to ensure that artworks are fully protected against unpleasant occurrences, force majeures, and loss. The combination of all these services can completely satisfy the needs of even the most demanding exhibitors and buyers. The team will start their work in Miami on November 26, but the clients should reach out to the company in advance.

Miami Art Week is a set of events happening in Miami and Miami Beach. The list of fairs includes but is not limited to Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Miami, CONTEXT Art Miami, Aqua Art Miami, Prizm, SCOPE Art Show, Untitled Art, and Spectrum Miami. Hundreds of galleries come to Florida to present cutting-edge projects by both emerging and world-class artists. Given that the fairs attract a lot of visitors from different parts of the world, the demand for high-quality fine art services is incredibly high. That’s what makes Fine Art Shippers’ professional assistance so relevant and timely. To find out more about the schedule of the upcoming shuttle and keep track of the updates, one should follow the official website of the company or request a free shipping quote online.

About Fine Art Shippers

Fine Art Shippers is a professional fine art shipping company headquartered in New York City. Established in 1995, we have grown to provide a wide range of art and antique moving services to meet the needs of the art community and private collectors from around the world. Our expertise includes but is not limited to luxury home moving, art packing and crating, art storage, white glove art courier service, art installation, antique furniture moving, international transportation, and gallery exhibition services. We operate across the United States and worldwide, making Fine Art Shippers the number one choice for many reputable art business professionals and institutions. Find more information about our team of dedicated art shippers on our website.

The Korean promising ag-tech startup, AG-Uni, is starting its first global business in the United States. When people thought that agriculture as only a matter of making a living, AG-Uni looked furthermore. In the future, agriculture could be a cure for cancer, meant for vegetarians, and a very important way to protect the planet’s environment. AG-Uni started the business with the idea to connect the world and humanity closer through agriculture.

AG-Uni wants to “simplify complex supply chains” and realize “system production and custom manufacturing” with the technology and network necessary for high value-added crop production. Plants cultivated by us are largely divided into above ground parts (stems) and rhizomes (roots). The terrestrial part and the root zone are very independent and closely related. The deeper the understanding of crops and soil, the more difficult but important part is in the root zone. The rhizosphere, which must sufficiently absorb nutrients necessary for plant growth, is the most important for plant growth.

AG-Uni’s precision agriculture has three major competitive advantages compared to conventional agriculture. First, the roots were developed without pests and diseases, and the production efficiency, increased dramatically as the growth promoting power increased. Second, it became possible to increase the production of textiles through eco-friendly and vertical agriculture. Finally, due to the introduction of the AG-Uni’s technology, the speed increased by about 1.8 times, the number of copies increased by about 2 times, and the profitability increased by about 15 times. (Based on Angelica and Cynanchum bungei Decne).

AG-Uni examines the fundamental reaction and physical structure of the root zone (soil and roots) and adds a standard mass production system for high value-added agricultural and bio-industrial materials to the technology to promote innovative, disease-free, and stable, high-quality growth. Through this, AG-Uni ultimately innovate the production and research ecosystem of agriculture and bio-industrial materials for safe bio-material research with the green bio-factory system.

AG-Uni, a promising agricultural technology start-up in Korea, analyzed the problems of each customer’s value chain in the Korean agricultural ecosystem and launched a solution suitable for it, GROWIDE (AG-Uni’s own brand independently developed and provides an integrated solution capable of producing high value-added crops. GROWIDE improved the soil structure using pneumatic pressure, the problem of continuous cropping was solved, and by securing uniformity and promoting growth through three-dimensional modular farming, standard production and rotation became possible to meet the increased demands of biomaterial companies and research institutes.

Using this experience as a stepping stone, AG-Uni intends to provide technical solutions suitable for the American agricultural ecosystem and is about to establish an American corporation to pass on the know-how of Korean medicinal crops to the United States. AG-Uni, which is located in the Gyeongbuk Hemp Regulation Free Zone, has secured public credibility as a state-backed company through the duty to notify use, according to the National Narcotics Control Act. It is possible to strategically preempt medical hemp, a star raw material, and it is possible to preempt and secure Korean customers with the supply authority according to the special zone business promotion system without a separate purchase contract.

About Ag-Uni

AG-Uni is an AgTech company that provides vertical farming system and solutions to plan and produce high value-added plant materials through precision agricultural technology. High-value-added medicinal crops must be used as raw materials, so they must meet all three types of supply as well as high quality and uniformity, but they are suffering from the lack of customized production technologies and solutions.

AG-Uni aims to contribute to the healthy human life by developing a customized technology and establishing a stable agricultural life industry ecosystem as a provider that provides customized supply through customized production. Agriculture, Human Life Agriculture, which leads to opportunities for the life industry, not just agriculture that we are familiar with, is led by AG-Uni.