New adventures calling for duo

Despite his many talents, Dr. Floyd spent years cooped up in the closet of a Burbank apartment, rolled up in old drawings and cast aside in tapes of an old public access television program.

Now, thanks to the efforts of the creators of “The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd,” a popular children’s podcast, not only does Floyd get out of the house, but each time the quirky scientist steps out, thousands of children go with him.

“Dr. Floyd is always chasing his nemesis, Dr. Steve,” explained Grant Baciocco, one of the radio character’s creators. “Each episode he chases Dr. Steve to a different time and place.”

“The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd,” an audio program available over the Internet, follows Dr. Steve as he attempts to steal historical artifacts to bring back to the future and sell on eBay. At every turn, Dr. Floyd is hot on his heels.

Baciocco and his partner, Doug Price, came up with the idea for the show in 1999, thinking they would launch it on a local public access channel. It wasn’t until Baciocco paired their idea with new podcasting technology, however, that the show really took off.

“We met each other working on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland,” Price said. “We used to work the same shifts, and on our breaks we would ride each others’ boats and joke back and forth with each other.”

Price had already come up with the idea for Dr. Floyd’s character, along with the scientist’s trusty robot C.H.I.P.S., for a comic book he made during college. When Baciocco approached him with the idea of making a children’s program, Price decided to resurrect the characters.

“We wanted something that would be educational and would be on television forever, rather than shoot for prime time and be canceled after an episode or two,” Price said.

Price and Baciocco shared a passion for education. Baciocco works in the Glendale Unified School District as a substitute teacher and Price is currently getting his master’s degree in science education. Most children’s television, both thought, was entertaining without being educational.

“Everybody’s making shows that are controversial or very funny, but they’re not teaching you anything,” Price said.

Their first attempt at creating the show, however, failed after a few episodes, and the pair’s plans were put on hold.

“We quickly ran out of money,” Baciocco said. “But in April of 2004 I just said, ‘I want to do something more with these characters.’”

Baciocco, a lover of radio programming, decided that creating an audio program would be cheaper and more realistic.

“You can do a lot more with audio than you can with video,” he said. “If you can use your imagination.”

Baciocco restarted the program on an Internet radio station. Back then the program had about 20 listeners, he joked.

The following November, Baciocco stumbled across something called podcasting. It would allow the duo to release their episodes on the Internet, and listeners would be able to automatically download them to their computers or mp3 audio players.

Suddenly the program started to take off.

“We were the first really family-friendly podcast,” Baciocco said. “We have about 5,000 to 7,000 people downloading each week.”

As the program has grown in popularity, the duo has found celebrities willing to lend their voices to the program. Jeffrey Tambor, an actor on the television show “Arrested Development” recently gave his voice to George Washington. Baciocco is hoping to get Jon Heder, the actor who played Napoleon Dynamite in the movie of the same name, to play Napoleon.

The pair are also considering offers to turn their radio program into a television show.

“It never occurred to me that the radio show would lead to a television show,” Price said. “But no matter what happens, we’re going to keep making the radio show.”