Old Time Radio (with MP3)

[LoyalTubist]

I am old enough to remember when radio dramas were still being played on the radio for the first time (from the Golden Days of Radio. Actually, I only remember two shows, because that's all CBS was playing then and I can only remember back to when I was five years old. The last two Old Time Radio shows that CBS played were Suspense! and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. These two shows were last heard live on a Sunday evening in September 1962.

Now a few years later, CBS brought back radio drama with the CBS Radio Mystery Theater. This was a low budget show, recorded in New York City. I think I read somewhere that the actors earned only a little more than they would have earned if they were working at the (now defunct) Howard Johnson's in Times Square. And these were big name actors, too. Fred Gwynne, Tammy Grimes, Tony Roberts, and the narrator was E.G. Marshall.

The Radio Mystery Theater was a big part of my growing up. It began when I was in high school and a local radio station played it just before it went off the air at midnight. When I went to other parts of the country, it was just as popular.

In 1978, I dropped out of college, then I joined the Army in the beginning of 1979. I remember that someone snuck a radio into the barracks and, when the Radio Mystery Theater was on, it was all we could hear.

I was sent to Berlin, Germany. Old Time Radio was a big deal on the American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS). In fact, in Germany, the AM stations played Old Time Radio from about 7 pm to 11 pm, Monday through Friday and it was referred to as Prime Time Radio.

From those nights, I became aware of the different series that were around from the 1920s through 1962. Fibber McGee & Molly, The Great Gildersleeve, Lum and Abner, The Shadow, Lights Out!, and, my favorite, The Whistler, among many, many others. Most of these were originally aired during World War Two.

I began to get interested in these shows and bought original recordings of the shows. After I left Germany, I found local radio stations that carried the shows. One was KNX in Los Angeles which aired one hour of Old Time Radio seven nights a week (except during special events) until the night of October 31, 2004.

Since then, I have been collecting Old Time Radio shows by saving MP3 files. I have an MP3 player in my car that plays MP3s on a regular data CD. One disc can play over two actual days of programming. (There is between 7 and 21 mb in one hour of programming.)

I am linking this to another subject in this forum involving a radio series called, The Fat Man--its theme was a virtuistic tuba solo!

Should anyone of you be interested in knowing where to get MP3s like these to download for free (legally), let me know by PM or direct e-mail.

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