The text was written in the waning weeks of 1991. When a few episodes were complete, Scott, Kendall, and John got together in Kendall’s basement to record. Equipment consisted of an old consumer-grade quarter-inch open-reel tape recorder, a Radio Shack microphone, and a six-channel mixer. Music, as well as what little Sound effects were used, were produced using Kendall’s and John’s music equipment, including the Roland Juno-2, Korg DS-8, Roland D-110, Akai VX-90, and S-700 sampler, driven by sequencer software on an Atari ST computer. Studio furniture consisted of a card table for the synthesizers and a cardboard box for John to use as a mixing desk.

Since we didn’t have multi-track recording capability, everything had to be performed and mixed live onto the finished tape. Scott would read from the script, while Kendall performed music and sound effects, and John would mix down the performance. The mic picked up every sound in the room, and some from outside, too. We had no microphone stand, so Scott had to keep the mic quiet in his hands. Keeping the voice at the right level was difficult. Mistakes were frequent. Sound effects and music cues were missed. Keeping the narrative in sync with the music was difficult. The music was sequenced, so its timing could not vary. We’d frequently run through the music before the speaking was done, or vice versa, or the musical tension would develop too early or too late in a scene. It took most of a Saturday to record just ten minutes’ worth of finished product.

The first episode was recorded Saturday, January 4, 1992 and was aired at 11:00pm the next night on Scott’s radio show, Variables, which aired on Salt Lake City listener-supported radio station KRCL. We had also recorded very basic intro and outtro music to cap the story at both ends. The ten minutes’ worth of narration didn’t go far, but in the original concept for the show, the narration was designed simply to set the mood for music selections from commercial CDs to be played between scenes.

It’s hard to remember the initial audience reaction the night the first episode aired. There were few, if any, phone calls. That would soon change. But for now, we were elated to hear the first episode come together, and relieved to have pulled it off successfully.

Recording of The next week’s episode followed pretty much in the same way that the first one had. In other words, it was a harrowing, time-consuming experience that took up most of our Saturday, and even minimal quality could be maintained only with great difficulty. By the third week, we were ready to make some changes. A microphone stand was purchased. Kendall’s camcorder was used as an additional recording device. This made it possible to record Scott’s voice by itself on the open-reel recorder, and mix in the sound effects and music later in the process. This opened up time for Kendall to create more complex and detailed music. A new compressor module regulated the wide volume swings of Scott’s voice.

Quality was not so much a hit-or-miss affair anymore, but principal recording and music composition still took most of a Saturday. We all had day jobs, and we could not afford to spend 100% of every weekend working on Searcher and Stallion. Kendall stopped producing original music in order to keep the recordings on schedule. From this point on, barring the rare exception, all music for Searcher and Stallion would come from commercial CDs in Scott’s personal collection or from the station’s library.

By the time the last “Mu-Light Special” episode had aired, audience response was clear. Calls came in every week from listeners who had missed the previous week’s episode and wanted to know what they missed. The week after the final episode, we played all the scenes in the entire story, back to back, with no inter-scene CD selections. Even at that, it took about forty minutes to play the whole thing. It was hard to believe that we’d been able to produce that much material, given our limited means, but satisfying to know that we could pull it off. In fact, the next stories were already being written.

The “Vacation Episode” was just a bunch of music with Scott throwing in ad-lib one-liners between songs – no scripts, no pre-recording, just Scott on the station mic. All I remember about it now was Searcher traveling to the “beach planet of Parthon 6.” We’ll have to pay homage to the “Vacation Episode” at some point, so keep your ears open for Parthon 6 to make a comeback.