Together in the dark, listening to the radio

By Joe Brown

Friday, May 2, 2008 | 2:15 p.m.

Just a couple dozen people showed up at Sam's Town last night for the special live broadcast of the public radio show "This American Life". But those who did shared a uniquely memorable experience.

One of the most popular shows on public radio, the 12-year-old storytelling program has something of an underground following -- an underground numbering in the millions. This "our secret," cultish feeling comes from the fact that most people listen to the cherished show alone, at home on the radio, in the car, and more and more through headphones via iTunes podcasts. It has always felt like a private discovery.

So it was a strange thrill to find oneself cheering for favorite "characters" (bespectacled cute-nerd host Ira Glass had a kind of '50s movie star quality on the big screen), and applauding when old favorite segments (like the classic about the best phone message recording in the world) were referenced.

After about 10 minutes, the screen went dark, but the audio continued, and the audience chuckled and settled in, companionably listening to a radio show together in the dark -- it felt like a flashback to the 1940s. And it was oddly wonderful.

Then the sound went dead, too. And the audience entertained themselves, talking about memories of the show while waiting, mostly patiently (tickets were $20), for the glitch to be fixed. "Somebody tell a story!," someone called out, and everyone laughed.

When the technology was repaired (Las Vegas was receiving the live feed from New York on a time delay), it was sort of an anticlimax. Parts of the show seemed like an infomercial for the TV version of "This American Life," which starts its second season on Showtime this Sunday. And the producer of the TV show was a wan substitute for any of the hoped-for "stars" of the show, such as Sarah Vowell or David Sedaris.

Still, it was a noble experiment. The show was simulcast at 300 cinemas across the U.S., including five Las Vegas theaters.

The best moments of the night were when this small, self-selected group, devoted fans of a radio show in 2008, found ourselves just listening -- together -- with no visual distraction. It's probably too much to hope that radio-at-the-movies will become a cultural trend, but here's one vote for it.