Colin and AJ’s Clash of the Christmases

We both think of 2020’s party as possibly our best so far.

Once it became clear that COVID-19 would not allow us to have a traditional in-person party, we started considering alternatives. Our original plan was to overdub a famous noir movie and do a noir themed party (check back later to see if this happens in 2021). Thus, our first COVID-instinct was to see if we could do a drive-in movie.

We spent a few days driving around the St. Louis region looking at extant drive-ins and surveying different possible places where we might build our own. On these drives we found ourselves chit chatting about different party ideas. Our dear friend McKenzie Holloway had been encouraging us to do a radio play for years (one might say she predicted COVID-19: she always warned us that one day people might not be able to physically make it to the party and that on that day we’d be glad to have a radio play in our pocket).

In this context, AJ threw out the idea that if we didn’t find a good spot to set up a drive-in we might considering doing an old-fashioned Christmas special variety show on the radio. This would harken back to our earlier parties and aim less to be a wild Christmas parody and more a sincerely cozy Christmas broadcast.

This idea stuck with us both and we quickly abandoned the movie and began seeking out a radio partner. Classic 107.3FM immediately jumped on board and we officially decided to do a radio show.

Picking a concept took some time. We worked quite a bit to come up with a genuine structure for a radio special. A show that would feature earnest music performances, local guests, and stories from Colin and AJ. But AJ, ever the master of process, broke the notion of a radio play to its essence and suggested we do a parody of the 1938 Orson Wells "War of the Worlds” adaptation.

We immediately listened to the play and realized it was ripe for our own adaptive purposes. The original play begins with a concert broadcast (we could keep the musical guests) and later featured interviews of random citizens (we could also keep local guests). But it would also allow us to maintain that Colin and AJ spark, so to speak, by simulating an alien invasion hell bent on destroying Christmas.

The production process evolved quickly. Classic 107.3 (shockingly) signed off on the idea (even our decision to maintain the surprise of the original broadcast and pitch our show not as a War of the Worlds parody but rather as an international music special). We wrote the script and picked the music in October, recorded the music in November, and recorded the voice actors in December.

We spent a lot of time scouring the world of international Christmas music to arrive at our five song selection. AJ arranged them all and worked with our friends Jack and Dan Eschmann (and several others listed above) to rehearse and record them. Colin focused on casting the roles and the two of them tackled the recording sessions and editing together.

The broadcast aired on December 18th at 8:00PM central. We’re not sure how many people listened in but we both got quite a few review texts from family and friends and the station also got some humorous feedback emails.