01 YOUR CHARACTER
You bring the person
Your humour, your interests, your voice and your stream style are yours. The concept gives you a home in the world, not a personality to perform.
GENERATION 03 / AUDITIONS OPEN
FEEDBACK
Gen 1 brought the station back on air. Gen 2 answered. Gen 3 is what we kept.
SHORTWAVE · 10 RESIDENTS · 2.30–25.78 MHz
MEET THE RESIDENTS ↓WELCOME TO THE STATION
{OFFBAND} broadcasts from a station between worlds. Gen 1 brought it back on air. Gen 2 heard it from somewhere else, and answered. After two generations the station is louder than it has ever been, and some of that sound has started coming back.
In audio, feedback is what happens when the output loops back into the input and turns into a sound of its own. Some of what the station sends out does not fade. It lingers in the things people keep sound in: tapes, records, answering machines, the song stuck in your head. The station hears it coming back, and the sound starts to take shape.
Gen 3 did not drift in from the dark or answer from far away. They are made of what listeners held on to. Ten residents, each on their own shortwave frequency.
THE OPEN QUESTION The station has never formed a resident out of its own audience. Why now, and what happens if the loop keeps getting louder?
02 YOUR DESIGN
A starting point, not a cage
Names, outfits and details are open for discussion before anything goes into production. If something doesn't feel like you, we talk about it.
03 YOUR PLACE
No replacement casting
Your frequency is yours. If a talent ever leaves, that frequency retires with them. It is never recast.
THE RESIDENTS
Which one feels like you?
Ten concepts, ten frequencies. Each one is a story prompt for a character you build, not a script to follow.
The Night Drive
KEEPS the car radio at 2 a.m.; the songs from long roads.
The road is empty. The radio isn't.
Shaggy dark hair, amber eyes like dashboard needles, a charcoal driving jacket with a glowing amber lining and a road-line stripe down one sleeve, fingerless driving gloves, an old car key on a lanyard.
A QUESTION TO EXPLORE
Where was he driving — or was the drive the point?
A story prompt, not a prescribed personality.
The Crate Digger
KEEPS the records nobody else bought.
Every record is somebody's favourite.
Messy curls, round glasses, an oversized olive cardigan over a canvas record-shop apron with a vinyl-groove motif, big vintage headphones round his neck, a record sleeve under one arm.
A QUESTION TO EXPLORE
What record is he still looking for?
A story prompt, not a prescribed personality.
The Black Box
KEEPS the last minutes before something ended.
Someone has to remember how it ended.
Short silver-gray hair, pale blue eyes, a gunmetal flight suit with international-orange panels and reflective tape, a bulky orange recorder module on his chest, a padded aviation headset round his neck, heavy boots.
A QUESTION TO EXPLORE
Does he play the recording back, or keep it sealed?
A story prompt, not a prescribed personality.
The Sampler
KEEPS fragments, chopped into something new.
Nothing is lost if you can loop it.
Spiky black hair with teal tips, teal-green eyes, one earbud, a charcoal streetwear hoodie with a 4×4 grid of pad squares on the chest, patch cables looped over his shoulders.
A QUESTION TO EXPLORE
Is he making something new, or rebuilding something old?
A story prompt, not a prescribed personality.
The Mixtape
KEEPS a playlist made for exactly one person.
Side A is for you. Side B is for me.
Wavy chestnut hair in a loose half-up bun held by a pencil, warm hazel eyes, a cosy cream cardigan covered in little doodles, a plaid skirt, a long ribbon of magnetic tape spooling around her like a sash.
A QUESTION TO EXPLORE
Who was the tape for — and did they ever hear it?
A story prompt, not a prescribed personality.
The Answering Machine
KEEPS the messages nobody returned.
You have one new message.
Dark auburn hair in a 90s low ponytail with a claw clip, an oversized beige blazer with shoulder pads over a turtleneck, a coiled phone cord as belt and bracelet, a microcassette brooch, one small red LED earring.
A QUESTION TO EXPLORE
Which message has she been waiting to return?
A story prompt, not a prescribed personality.
The Encore
KEEPS the last song after the lights go down.
One more song.
A high bubblegum-pink ponytail with lime tips, a cropped black stage jacket, a pleated skirt, stacked glowstick bracelets, star confetti caught in her hair, a ribbon tied to her mic.
A QUESTION TO EXPLORE
What happens to her when the crowd finally goes home?
A story prompt, not a prescribed personality.
The Music Box
KEEPS one lullaby, wound by a key.
Wind me up. I'll play it again.
Long ash-blonde hair in a ballet bun with a ribbon, layered rose tulle, a fitted bodice with fine brass gear filigree, and a brass wind-up key on her back.
A QUESTION TO EXPLORE
Whose lullaby is it?
A story prompt, not a prescribed personality.
The Echo
KEEPS the last word you said.
Say it again. I'll keep it.
Long layered pale-sand hair with sage tips that trail into faint afterimages, pale sage eyes, flowing sandstone robes striped like canyon walls, a concentric ripple motif.
A QUESTION TO EXPLORE
Does she ever say anything first?
A story prompt, not a prescribed personality.
The Earworm
KEEPS the song stuck in your head.
You're humming it right now.
The smallest resident, with a sly sideways grin. Messy violet hair with one spiral strand, bright cyan eyes, oversized headphones that are never off, a spiral motif everywhere, and a hoodie that swamps her, sleeves past her hands.
A QUESTION TO EXPLORE
What song is stuck in her head?
A story prompt, not a prescribed personality.
HOW TO AUDITION
Come as yourself.
Find the resident (or two) that pulls at you. You don't need a finished character, a model or a polished demo. We want to hear who you are. Here is what to have ready:
- 01 Which resident(s) you connect with, and why. A few honest sentences is plenty.
- 02 A link to a short voice or stream sample. You, talking naturally, is enough.
- 03 Your availability: roughly when and how often you could stream.
APPLY — APPLY@OFFBAND.TV
Email the three things above to apply@offband.tv.