Karrigan McClellan

EDT 180

Welcome To Night Vale

1.) Description: Welcome to Night Vale

2.) Genre and Audience: This podcast is going to fall under the arts category. The topics
covered are fantasy news stories and is one host speaking to the audience. The intended
audience is the people of the fictional town of Night Vale, in this case, anyone who
decides to pick it up and listen.
3.) Show Frequency and History: Welcome to Night Vale is a fantasy thriller radio
show set in the small desert town of Night Vale. The host of the radio show is Cecil
Palmer. This podcast has 176 episodes and is still running today. Welcome to Night Vale
started on June 15th, 2012, and airs twice a month. Each episode brings back the same
characters that we’ve met in previous episodes. The show is a story about how the town
grows and progresses and overcomes different obstacles, while introducing side plots that
may either span 2 minutes, or 7 episodes.
4.) Host(s) Biographies: Cecil Palmer is an eccentric radio show host that lives in Night
Vale and is fairly active in the community. Often times he goes off on tangents about how
his day has been or how the process of asking out Carlos the Scientist is going. Not much
is known about his past, as he is as spooky and mysterious as Night Vale its self.
5.) Topics and Episodes: The podcast is set up like a radio talk show, with every episode
having traffic reports and weather predictions for the day, however, in each episode the
“weather” report is just an indie song, then it goes back to whatever “news” Night Vale
has in store for us today. In one early episode, the five headed dragon, Hiriam McDaniels,
ran for Mayor but was wanted for tax evasion. In yet another, the mysterious glowing
cloud hovering over the Arby’s started dropping dead animals on people. Each show
develops plot that eventually turns into an actual story line about the safety of the town
and who wants to threaten it, but still is all told to us through the voice of Cecil the
talkshow host. Each episode runs for about 21 minutes, with a brief introduction from the
writers, and a brief ending from them as well. As far as an audience member goes, I really
enjoy listening to the way it’s set up. It’s always one person speaking, and you can listen
to it while doing homework or driving and almost pretend like it’s a real radio show. The
way its structured also gives the audience a break, and allows them to not have to pay
attention 100% of the time.
6.) Revenue Model: Their revenue model is patron, and donation based. They’re funded
through a site called Patreon, where people can donate however much a month based on
different tiers and receive special offers and gifts for their donations. They also rely on
book sales from their Night Vale books, and ticket revenue from tours.
7.) Future Outlook: Welcome to Night Vale has been running for 8 years now with lots
of success. Personally, the only things I can see ending Night Vale is either the pandemic,
or the ending of the story. Much like movies and tv shows, Welcome to Night Vale’s plot
 Karrigan McClellan
EDT 180
has to end sometime, unless they want to be like the Simpsons and just keep going
forever.