When I was but a wee lad, I became somewhat obsessed by old time-style radio shows, though not necessarily old time radio. My fascination was primarily with the sound effects which were used, and the ingenious ways in which they were created.
Many a late night, as I lay in bed, a single earphone connected to my Panasonic Panapet Radio , tuned to KTRH, I would slip this mortal coil. KTRH ran both The CBS Radio Mystery Theater (1974-1982) and, a bit later on, the General Mills Radio Adventure Theater (1977). 
In 1981, National Public Radio began broadcasting the BBC's awesome The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and its own dramatization of the original Star Wars trilogy (not even a mention of mitochlorians or Jar-Jar Binks). But as cool as these two were, they could never do to me what the sound of this could do to me and my 8-year-old imagination....It is still rather remarkable to me what can be found at YouTube. Or is the remarkable thing what people upload to YouTube?? Either way, this is a bit of an episode of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater which was broadcast on December 28, 1976. This one was titled "The Artist":
This post reminded me of a radio show, Nightfall, that I listened to on MY Panasonic clock radio (didn't we all have one?) around 1980 or so. Looks like a Canadian production, but I guess the Wash DC/VA station I listened to picked it up. It came on late, after I was supposed to be asleep. It was terrifying to me as a 9 year old but great stuff!
ReplyDeleteHmm, I'll have to look into Nightfall. Thanks for mentioning it. Do kids today still experience things like this??
ReplyDeleteI doubt many kids have a taste of these things unless their parents are old time buffs. Such a shame. When my girls are older, these radio shows might be fun to listen to on car trips though.
ReplyDeleteIt's coming back to me now - I also listened to The Shadow around the same time. Must have been on the NPR station. I completely forgot about that classic until now!
There's not much on Nightfall. Now I can't find the audio clip I found last night. Of course Wikipedia has an article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightfall_(CBC)
Thanks for the link, Amy. The Shadow - now that's a classic radio drama. Orson Welles?
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