From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Bob Carlson, and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is KCRW's program of stories and original documentaries,

it's a part of the Independent Producer Project,

and on this episode, the winners of KCRW's first annual 24-hour radio race.

Just a couple of weeks ago, producers from all over the world

took part in a frenzied 24 hours of high-stakes radio making.

It sounds insane, right? Why would anybody even do something

like this? Normally producing a radio story takes a lot of time taping and retaping interviews,

writing and rewriting scripts,

editing and re-editing audio.

Sometimes the story you end up with

is nothing like the story you first meant to tell.

So we created the 24-hour radio race to experiment. meant to

experiment with all that.

What happens when a producer is given nothing but a theme

and a ridiculously short time frame?

It boils the creative process down to its very... a now. On Saturday, August 17th at 10 a.m. as the race began, I presented this year's theme on a video clip that was sent to the racers.

Okay, you ready? Here's the theme. It's the last thing you'd expect.

No, that was the theme. We asked the contestants to make stories about the last thing you'd expect.

Something interesting, something surprising.

And then with that, they were off.

The producers were released into the wild microphones in hand

...