Fort Wayne-based Dreamseed has just launched the online infrastructure for what could become the audio-theater version of Hollywood.

Founder Xander Davis says Echo Fiction is the biggest Web-based audio-theater publication source ever created, containing previously recorded and new productions. It just debuted with 100 hours of streaming audio-theater content.

“It’s basically like television shows, but without the visuals,” said the former senior Web designer for Sweetwater Sound. “Unlike television, it’s not distracting, so you can listen to it and … work on something else and be entertained.”

“There are other groups doing this, but their Web sites are only promoting their own shows,” he said.

Echo Fiction “is a one-stop-shop for audio theater, with one consistent way for experiencing the content.”

In addition to new content, the site includes shows from the golden age of radio, such as Jack Benny and the “Mel Blanc Show,” featuring the actor who did the voice of Bugs Bunny for Warner Bros. Entertainment.

“If that was the golden age, I’d say we’re in the platinum age of radio theater because of the Internet mainly, and computers and the iPod. They’ve created a platform for people to create these (audio-theater shows) and distribute them at low cost,” Davis said.

“There’s a community of audio-theater producers online, and they’re all independent. There’s really no money in it yet, and that’s one of the things we’re trying to change,” he added.

Most of the content at Echo Fiction can be streamed online for free and is supported by advertising. In addition to banner advertising on the site, a short audio commercial is inserted three times into each show.

Many of the shows can be downloaded for a price. A typical hourlong show free of commercial interruption costs about $10.

Davis said producing an hourlong audio show can involve more work than producing a music album, and he hopes visitors will be willing to pay “a slightly higher price than iTunes” to support their favorite audio-theater group.

In addition to selling shows through its own site, Echo Fiction plans to make select content available for download via iTunes.

Offering a variety of content at the Echo Fiction site will generate a level of traffic beneficial to all of the audio production companies making their content available there, Davis said. The success of any one show has the potential to increase exposure for all shows.

At its launch, Echo Fiction content partners included Crazy Dog Audio Theater, Darker Projects, Decoder Ring Theater, Dream Realm Enterprises, Final Rune Productions, STH Productions and Dreamseed.

Davis writes, acts in and produces Dreamseed’s science-fiction series, “Soul Rift,” which has a prominent position on the Echo Fiction site.

All of the partners contribute content nonexclusively and retain full copyright. The site plans to add new content partners each week.

Davis said he hopes the site will become an online meeting place for the audio-theater community and its fans, providing networking opportunities for writers, producers, directors, sound mixers and voice actors, as well as a means of staying in touch with their audience.

The site also will provide resources such as tutorials and stock sound effects for creative types and entrepreneurs who want to try their hand at audio-theater production.

Much of the work for an audio-theater production takes place at a variety of locations, with actors recording their lines then e-mailing them to a producer, who assembles them into a show.

Using Echo Fiction for content distribution frees audio theater groups to focus on their passion: telling their stories, Davis said.

“You can write your own show and produce it. You just need a computer and digital audio work station and voice actors and sound effects and music,” Davis said.

“There’s a lot of royalty-free stock music available, and who doesn’t want to be an actor?” he asked. “There’s just a huge, thirsty talent pool waiting to take your script and turn it into a reality. This could be an industry. We could create our own Hollywood.”