Does anybody else like listening to Old Time Radio?

[whottt]

I love this stuff. I have a theory about fiction, whether it be video, audio, litarature and really any kind of art as well....it always works best if it let's your imagination do some of the work.

The old radio programs do a really good job of that. They give you a framework and everything else you fill in with your imagination and I think that's why they work so well, for me at least anyway. I mean if you asked hundred different people to produce a visual representation of these stories, particularly some of the Sci-Fi and Horror stuff, you would get 100 different results. In that way this stuff can connect with you at a personal level that something that leaves nothing up to the imagination can't, no matter how good the special effects may be.

I have about a thousand of these things on my Ipod that just randomly pop up and they always seem to be more enjoyable than the music.


The best part about them is they don't take up much space at all.

[PakiDan]

Where the f^%k can you listen to old time radio??

[Jekka]

"Who knows? The Shadow do!!" My grandmother said that all the time when I was growing up. And yeah, it's not the right line, but they were in Arkansas at the time ... and old habits die hard ...

[CharlieMac]

I misunderstood. I thought this was gonna be about the KAHL moving to FM on 103.7. Now that's good old music.

[whottt]

Here is a link to a huge archive of these things going back to the 30's and 40's.

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=Old%20Time%20Radio


The best ones IMHO

Nightfall - Mystery/Horror - This one actually came out in the 80's in Canada.

X minus 1 - Sci-Fi - 1950's Sci-Fi series that paved the way for shows like Star Trek and the Twilight Zone.

Suspense - Mystery/Horror - This was the longest running radio show of them all and the last one of the original Old Time Radio Programs to go off the air. Ran from the 1940s to the mid 1960's. The coolest thing about this show is who some of the stars in the episodes are. Back when this show was in it's hey day the big movie stars did radio as well so you get some pretty legendary stars doing episodes of this show.

One of these Suspense shows came on the other day that had Bob Hope in it. Bob Hope...in a mystery. Who knew? Just popped up on the Ipod.

They also have a ton of shows that have all these great character actors like Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karaloff.

Sherlock Holmes - There have been a bunch of these but the main one I am talking about is the one from the 40's that has Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Homes and Watson. This is the iconic Sherlock Holmes pair in the movies and they did a ton of episodes of this radio show as well....the radio shows are better than the movies are.

[whottt]

Where the f^%k can you listen to old time radio??

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=Old%20Time%20Radio



You can dowload them and put them on your Ipod.

They have all sorts of stuff on the news too.....Hitler giving speeches, Winston Churchil giving speeches, the announcment that Pearl Harbor was bomed.

The announcement about the plane crash in Roswell New Mexico in 1947...

[whottt]

"Who knows? The Shadow do!!" My grandmother said that all the time when I was growing up. And yeah, it's not the right line, but they were in Arkansas at the time ... and old habits die hard ...

I've listened to some of the Shadow episodes...the guy who does the laugh is pretty awesome.

You're a librarian right? You'd probably like some of these. There's something about them that's a lot like a book or a secluded corner of a library or something...they are very atmospheric.

[MiamiHeat]

whottt is gay

[Jekka]

I've listened to some of the Shadow episodes...the guy who does the laugh is pretty awesome.

You're a librarian right? You'd probably like some of these. There's something about them that's a lot like a book or a secluded corner of a library or something...they are very atmospheric.

One of my friend's moms used to play old radio shows when we were kids - they were always fun to listen to. Sherlock Holmes was a favorite.

Also, if you like WWII-era stuff, the Indiana University School of Journalism has Ernie Pyle's columns indexed and available full-text. It's pretty interesting reading. http://journalism.indiana.edu/resources/erniepyle/wartime-columns/

[MiamiHeat]

oo WW2 era stuff is interesting.

[whottt]

One of my friend's moms used to play old radio shows when we were kids - they were always fun to listen to. Sherlock Holmes was a favorite.
That's pretty cool. you've already heard some of those old shows then. I had heard the one that came on in the 70's(my grandmother used to listen to it) that was pretty much the last one produced but I had never heard any of the original stuff.




Also, if you like WWII-era stuff, the Indiana University School of Journalism has Ernie Pyle's columns indexed and available full-text. It's pretty interesting reading. http://journalism.indiana.edu/resources/erniepyle/wartime-columns/


I do like WWII, and all history stuff...Thanks for the link :tu

[JoeChalupa]

Yeah, old school radio rocks!! Good stuff.

[Taco]

THIS PAST CHRISTMAS WE WERE DRIVING TO MY NEPHEW'S HOUSE ABOUT A 30 MINIUTE DRIVE AND KTSA WAS AIRING A CHRISTMAS EPISODE OF "THE LIFE OF RILEY"

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/L/htmlL/lifeofriley/lifeofriley.htm

IT WAS PRETTY GOOD

[Capt Bringdown]

Yes - I'm a big fan of CBS Radio Mystery Theater, ever heard of it? It was an effort to revive OTR in the 70's. The show ran quite a few years, from 1974 to 1982.

It used to come on WOAI when I was a kid. I was crazy about it, and always wished I could listen to it again. It turns out that the show has a cult following. I joined a CBSRMT group on yahoo (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cbs_rmt/), and someone sent me a full DVD set of all 1400+ episodes as part of a group share/distribution.

You can also find CBSRMT shows (often with period news and commercials) on torrent sites such as demonoid for download.

Here's another info site if you're interested:
http://www.cbsrmt.info/

[AlamoSpursFan]

Sirius has a classic radio channel. 118 I think.

[Strike]

whottt is gay

You're a complete and total douche nozzle.


THIS PAST CHRISTMAS WE WERE DRIVING TO MY NEPHEW'S HOUSE ABOUT A 30 MINIUTE DRIVE AND KTSA WAS AIRING A CHRISTMAS EPISODE OF "THE LIFE OF RILEY"

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/L/htmlL/lifeofriley/lifeofriley.htm

IT WAS PRETTY GOOD

My mother is a big fan of old time radio programs. She grew up in the 40's when many of the shows actually aired. She owns the biggest catalogue of old time radio programs I've ever seen. I haven't heard any of that stuff in about 15 years.

"The Life Of Riley" was definitely my favorite one.

[JudynTX]

CBS Radio Mystery Theater

:tu Yes, I remember that. We have a few mystery stories on our iPODs.

[whottt]

Yes - I'm a big fan of CBS Radio Mystery Theater, ever heard of it? It was an effort to revive OTR in the 70's. The show ran quite a few years, from 1974 to 1982.

It used to come on WOAI when I was a kid. I was crazy about it, and always wished I could listen to it again. It turns out that the show has a cult following. I joined a CBSRMT group on yahoo (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cbs_rmt/), and someone sent me a full DVD set of all 1400+ episodes as part of a group share/distribution.

You can also find CBSRMT shows (often with period news and commercials) on torrent sites such as demonoid for download.

Here's another info site if you're interested:
http://www.cbsrmt.info/



Yeah that's the show my grandmother used to listen to in the 70's...it's actually really similar to the Suspense show that ran from the 40's to the 60's. Had the same guy producing it.


I'll chekc out that group...getting all 1400 episodes on a CD sounds cool. :tu

You should check out Nightfall...it's sort of the successor to CBS(ran from 1980-1984), and it's got creepier stories too, at one point they tried to get it taken off the air because it was too graphic.

I read somewhere that these sorts of shows are still very popular in the UK and are still in production there.

[EricB]

Old Time radio is awesome stuff.

Huge fan of Jack Benny, dude was hilarious.

[Capt Bringdown]

You should check out Nightfall...it's sort of the successor to CBS(ran from 1980-1984), and it's got creepier stories too, at one point they tried to get it taken off the air because it was too graphic.

I read somewhere that these sorts of shows are still very popular in the UK and are still in production there.


Nightfall, thanks I'll try to find that. Do you know of any links?

Like you said, radio dramas are special. I used to listen to CBSRMT on my mp3 player during my nightly walks/excercise. Giving your imagination a good workout is a great thing. I wish this art form was more popular.

[whottt]

Nightfall, thanks I'll try to find that. Do you know of any links?

Sure do...

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=Old%20Time%20Radio


That link has, I believe, every known old time radio show episode in existence, including every single episode of Nightfall(and CBSRMT).

The only ones they don't have are the ones that weren't recorded...which unfortunately is quite a bit of the old time stuff.






Like you said, radio dramas are special. I used to listen to CBSRMT on my mp3 player during my nightly walks/excercise. Giving your imagination a good workout is a great thing. I wish this art form was more popular.

Yeah they are pretty fun. I don't watch TV at all anymore outside of Spurs games so these are a great substitute.


You would probably like Suspense a whole lot since it is a virtual dead ringer for CBRMT...only with better known actors.

[Dex]

I prefer a nice barbershop quartet.

[SAGambler]

Sirius has a classic radio channel. 118 I think.

XM Radio channel 165 IIRC.