Episode Summary

The Haunting of Radio Centro, of Season 5 Episode 13 of the Spooked Podcast, tells the tale of an employee named Guillermo and his encounter with a spirit at the radio station he works for. If being haunted by an angry spirit wasn’t enough, he discovers that he has psychic powers that augment the horror in which the spirit puts him through. He learns to manage his psychic abilities with the help of Mr.X, an important figure at his station who also possesses the sixth sense.

Notable Techniques

• Layering
  • The story is accompanied with various background noises depending on the moment. Whenever Guillermo is broadcasting, we hear the theme music of his radio station, as if we were listening to a radio broadcast within a broadcast. Other sounds such as footsteps and phones ringing are added to the scenes in which those sounds take place, making us feel as though we were experiencing the haunting from Guillermo’s senses.
• Volume
  • There was often some sort of background music/noise over the course of the story, and I noticed how it tended to get louder during suspenseful moments. There would be a gradual crescendo in the music that mirrored the feelings of Guillermo’s fear, illustrating the intensity of the moment.
• Timing
  • On a similar yet somewhat different note from Layering, the audio consisted of two speaking tracks. The first was Guillermo’s voice in Spanish, his native language. This is what would start of sentences before slowly fading into a lower volume, occurring when the second track began. The second track followed the first in an English translation of what Guillermo was saying, and together they worked to emulate a documentary or interview, which appeals to fans paranormal genre.
• Voice
  • Lastly, the translator’s voice would change pitch and tone, depending on things such as emotional intensity and the mood. Although this seems like a pretty obvious thing to do, I think it’s still important to recognize how this aspect contributes to the immersive telling of this story.

How Audio Enhanced the Story

In short, all the techniques mentioned above were effective in creating suspense and immersing the audience into the story. The layering audio puts us directly in Guillermo’s shoes, as we hear the things he hears in the story. The volume works to impose a similar sense of anxiety onto us that he experiences. The timing of the Spanish audio and the translation make the story feel as if Guillermo himself is a real person who is telling you about the haunting, almost forcing us to believe that he actually experienced these paranormal events. While the script itself was descriptive and expressive, the story wouldn’t have been the same if it stood alone. Audio enhances a story by providing the auditory senses with information that only further immerses them in the events of the story