Old Time Radio memories...

[mark414]

inspired by a conversation from another thread...(that got locked)

i personally am WAY too young to have actually heard any "new" old time radio (i'm only 20), but when i was younger my dad had all sorts of cassette tapes, like the shadow and suspense and a collection of bradbury stories called "Bradbury 13" (has anyone else heard these? they're amazing). wisconsin public radio also plays a couple hours of old time radio shows every sunday night...

anyways when i was younger my little brother and i shared a room and my dad would always come in and lay with us and listen to the radio or pop in one of the tapes...our favorite was always "the wind" from the bradbury 13 collection even though it always scared us half to death...

anyone else have any great old time radio memories???

(and seriously has anyone else heard the bradbury 13 collection?)

[frylock]

1. knx 1070-am in los angeles used to play an hour of otr every night..

until about a year ago. I used to listen quite often. Some of my favorites were The Lives of Harry Lime with Orson Welles (based on The Third Man), Gangbusters, Dragnet, and Tales of the Texas Rangers.

When I was younger, in the mid to late 70's, I would listen to the CBS Radio Mystery Theater every night when I would go to bed.

[Not_Giving_Up]

2. KTRH in Houston used to play them on Sunday nights

I don't think they do anymore (hadn't thought about it for a while). The Shadow, Suspense, The Life of Riley, and Dragnet!

[opihimoimoi]

3. BOSTON BLACKIE, Lone Ranger, The Fat Man, The Shadow,

LOL

[Floogeldy]

4. I love story-telling radio

Seems a good radio writer can evoke images in my mind beyond those reduced to film or TV.

Good stuff.

[enigmatic]

5. Hey, I play OTR on my station!

My internet station plays OTR Mon-Wed starting at 9pm-11pm ET, and on Friday I have "The Sports Cavalcade" that plays classic radio sportscasts from 1930-1970. And I do take requests for any OTR shows you'd like to hear, so lay them on me!

http://www.radioenigma.com

[mark414]

6. wow! i bookmarked it!

do you have any "suspense?"

that was probably my favorite series, with the exception of the "bradbury 13..." though i doubt you'd have those...do you?

here's some info if you're not familiar...

http://www.otrplotspot.com/Bradbury13pl.htm

[enigmatic]

7. Absolutely!

I've got a bunch of episodes of "Suspense"; I tell you what; I'll do a marathon next week of classic episodes from the show. PM me and I'll let you know what episodes I can play..

[mark414]

8. fantastic

i'll try to think up of a few and let you know

[enigmatic]

11. If anybody has requests for OTR Shows..

for me to play on my station, PM me and I'll be glad to play them; I have a pretty huge collection of shows to choose from, so that's no problem..

[Thtwudbeme]

9. That damned creaking door on "Inner Sanctum!"

Used to scare the hell out of me when I was a kid in those thrilling days of yesteryear!

[SCDem]

10. I'm not old but in my day I remember Dr Demento was a big thing!

I know I know it isn't a radio great but it is a old radio memory!

[trof]

12. We'd sit around the old Stromberg-Carlson at night

and listen to the news with H. V. Kaltenborn. He was the Walter Cronkite (and then some) of his day. Then came Jack Benny, Amos & Andy, The Ted Mack Amateur Hour, and Double Or Nothing. I think you started out answering a question for one dollar and (MAYBE) progressed on up to The Sixty-Four Dollar Question. That's not a typo. The BIG prize was $64 back then. Have no idea how they arrived at that stopping point.

The S-C was a big mahogany thing about the size of a standard Wurlitzer juke box. Just without all the bubble lights. It had 4 or 5 radio bands, AM, short wave, long wave, medium wave, etc. No FM then. We could only get anything on the AM tuner.

It had a BUNCH of vacuum tubes about the size of a "D" cell battery. Every once in a while a tube would burn out and the radio would quit. You'd peek in the back and see which tube wasn't lit up, unplug it (after it had cooled down) and take it down to the drug store to get a replacement. There were a myriad of tube sizes in that radio, so you had to take the old one with you to make sure you got the right tube.

In the mornings Don McNeil's Breakfast Club was on. His sidekick was Sam something. A regular "gee whiz" segment was "Fiction and Fact With Sam's Almanac".

During the day the soaps were on. Young Widder Brown, Lorenzo Jones, Young Dr. Kildare, Stella Dallas, Portia Faces Life, Ma Brown. Also the ever popular "Queen for a Day". Monday through Friday they'd have some lady on with the worst sob story you ever heard. She won a bunch of prizes like washer, dryer, etc. for coming on and moaning her tale of woe into the microphone. A bit like our current tell-all shows.

When I got home from school I listened to Gene Autrey and the Melody Ranch, sponsored by Doublemint gum. I think Pat Buttram was Gene's sidekick. It was kinda standard that at some point during every program Gene would say "OK, lets go get those rustlers (bank robbers, train robbers, claim jumpers), but first I wanna sing a little song".

Also Bobby Benson and the B Bar B riders. Bobby was always getting out of one hair raising scrape after another. Ovaltine always played an important part in his escape...somehow. There was The Phantom and Captain Midnight too.

Saturdays I remember The Buster Brown Show with Smilin' Ed's gang and Froggy the Gremlin.

I also remember hearing the announcement of FDR's death. I was around 4 or 5, but I do remember it.

Thanks for stirring up the memories Mark.

[mark414]

13. hey no problem

part of me wishes that i would've been around to hear all my favorite programs new, but then again i wouldn't have all those great memories with my dad.

great stories you have!