With the demise of the soaps, does anyone listen to radio theater?

[kentauros]

I was never that into daytime soaps, but was sucked into plenty of the nighttime ones (L.A. Law, St. Elsewhere...) However, I've loved radio theater since hearing series like "The Adventures of Jack Flanders", "Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy", "Star Wars" and of course, "Nick Danger, Third Eye" ;)

Years ago, I discovered Radiolovers.com and found a treasure trove of old radio shows. I focused mainly on the science fiction ones, and even there, it was pretty much just 2000 Plus. I remember a rather horrifying story written by Clifford Simak, too...

ZBS.org is still producing shows, and I seem to recall Claudia Christian had her own sci-fi series called Anne Manx.

So, any other radio-theater-lovers out there? :D

[CatholicEdHead]

1. Yes, I try to catch Prairie Home Companion most weekends

Parts of their show fits this genre.

[kentauros]

3. I used to listen to that

but got out of the habit of listening. I've always enjoyed him, though :)

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

2. Wow!

Thanks for that!!!!!!! :o)

[kentauros]

5. You're welcome!

:D

Have you ever gone to ZBS and looked around? "The Adventures of Jack Flanders" and especially, "The Fourth Tower of Inverness" are phenomenal! :D

[madinmaryland]

4. They've taken them off during the day, but basically, the same shit is on at night,

just disguised as "drama"

:puke:

[kentauros]

7. Yeah, I know.

I only watch a handful of shows anymore at all, like SGU and Top Gear ;)

I'd love to see a resurgence of radio theater, since so many people use mp3 players now...

[timtom]

29. I've been thinking about producing just that!

I even wrote and recorded half a spoof of old-time detectives. I thought it was quite clever.

[kentauros]

31. Other than setting up your own Internet radio station,

your other option is to get airplay on your local public radio stations. Until you make a name for yourself, the satellite stations won't touch it, even though I've heard one of them does have some kind of radio theater show...

If you ever upload it somewhere, let us know so we can listen! :D

[JVS]

6. Who needs soaps when you can have shocking paternity test results?

[kentauros]

8. News junkies don't know what fiction is like

:P

[LoveMyCali]

9. I was listening to mysteries while at work

at www.mysteryshows.com/CBS-Radio-Mystery-Theater/index.php

but there were only a limited amount for free so I'll check out the site you listed.

Thanks

[kentauros]

10. I remember when they used to play those shows on their affiliate stations

but only really late at night. I'll have a look at that one, too :)

RadioLovers also used to have more science fiction links (maybe bandwidth problems or copyright conflicts?) so I hope there's still enough variety on the rest of the genres.

[kentauros]

11. Here's another one: Riders in the Sky

I remember hearing that one on KPFT years and years ago and always thought it was fucking brilliant! :D

Here's their site, but the shows aren't free: Riders in the Sky

[trof]

12. Radio Days. Oh yeah.

The Woody Allen movie was on TCM (I think) last night.
Loved it AND knew ALL the lyrics to the songs.
Mix t. was impressed.

I used to rush home from grammar school circa 1951 to listen to:
Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders
The Lone Ranger
Gene Autrey and The Melody Ranch
Superman!
The Green Hornet
Sky King (Who lived on the Flying King ranch, and flew the airplane Songbird)
The Shadow..."Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of man?
The Shadow knows."
Woooo

Later, after supper, the whole family would gather 'round the floor model Stromberg Carlson radio (taller than I was and with all those bands - AM, shortwave, stuff I can't remember now) and listen to:
Amos & Andy
Lum & Abner
Fibber McGee & Molley
The Great Gilroy
Our Miss Brooks
Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons
The FBI, In Peace And War!
Gangbusters!
Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.
Edgar was the ventriloquist and Charlie was the wooden head. I STILL don't understand how this went over on the radio when the whole point of the performance of a ventriloquist is seeing him live and seeing that his lips don't move.
:wtf:
Maybe it was the snappy repartee? Edgar had good writers.


One summer, when I was being 'baby sat' by an older lady in the neighborhood, I heard all the soaps:
Young Widder Brown
Lorenzo Jones
Backstage Wife
Ma Perkins
Dr. Kildare

Yeah, them was the days.
Thanks for the memories.
:-)

[kentauros]

14. I bet you also loved the movie "My Favorite Year"

"Damn you! I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star!" :D

And you remembered a helluva lot more than I did growing up in the 60s with TV instead of radio ;)

[timtom]

30. "The Great Gilroy"

Do you really mean, "The Great Gildersleeve?"

[trof]

33. Woops. Senior moment?

Thanks.

[Ptah]

13. Thanks for the links.

I'm enjoying Benny Goodman now.

I remember listening to Gunsmoke way back when.

[kentauros]

15. You're welcome!

:D

Benny Goodman is great anytime :)

[CatholicEdHead]

16. It just came to me that WPR plays old time radio shows on weekend evenings

So go to Wisconsin Pubic Radio, wpr.org and listen in.

http://www.wpr.org/otr/

[kentauros]

18. Now that's a great site, too!

I see they have X Minus 1. Maybe that's the one I was thinking of for the Clifford Simak tale...

Thanks for the link! :D

[Upton]

17. I like Imagination Theatre

Harry Nile is my favorite..

http://jimfrenchproductions.com/zc137m/

[kentauros]

19. Lot of cool shows there

Thanks! I'll be spending the holidays looking through and listening to a lot by the looks (sounds) of it ;)

[Hayabusa]

20. I don't know if this counts but...

I have five Star Wars audio dramas that I've enjoyed listening to, two Torchwood audio dramas and the Penny Arcade/PVP D&D podcast which is the two groups sitting around a table and played Dungeons & Dragons.

[kentauros]

21. Radio theater can cover anything that works like a play

in audio only. I have a couple of Star Wars radioplays and some of the ZBS shows meant only for airplay (longer episodes in strict half-hour formatting.) If it's just someone reading from a book, then it's not radio theater, but audio-books ;)

If there are sound effects and two or more people doing parts, even with different voices, then it's radio theater :D

[pokerfan]

22. When Radio Was and Imagination Theater

One of my local AM stations carries them on weekend evenings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Radio_Was
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagination_Theater

[kentauros]

23. Just now looking at your first link

and saw it's part of the RadioSpirits.com network. Then in their list is the "Smithsonian Collection" making me think that there is probably a wealth of old shows archived on The Internet Archive :)

And here we are: http://www.archive.org/details/radioprograms

[bikebloke]

24. iTunes has free downloads of radio dramas.

I downloaded a bunch for traveling on long coach journeys. Lots of old classics. Those I've listened to have held up pretty well. I listened to Gaslight waiting for a bus in the Istanbul otogar. There are even new serials like WormWood. You may have to go to their site for those. Also freebies.

In iTunes go to Podcasts > Audio Podcasts > Performng Arts > Classic Radio Drama
> Darker Projects
> Wormwood

...or just look through Performing Arts. They've got lots.

[kentauros]

25. That's a good source, too :)

I'm "anti-iTunes", but that's just me ;)
I'm sure it's a good source for everyone else :D

[WolverineDG]

38. Thanks for the tip on iTunes

I love listening to the old radio shows. :) I once fell out of bed laughing at a Burns & Allen show.

dg

[martymar64]

26. The outings by the Atlanta Radio Theater group are very good

I especially like them because they produced a couple of Lovecraft stories for the radio.



Joe Bob says check it out

[kentauros]

27. Lovecraft radio theater?!

Talk about creepy! :o :scared:

I'll have to look for them. Thanks! :hi:

[timtom]

28. Gotcher Radio, right here!

Every night I fall asleep with earphones, listening to Jack Benny, Information Please, all of Firesign Theater, and more.

Since I grew up listening to radio, it is the natural entertainment medium for me.

[kentauros]

32. It's certainly a medium that is not going away,

what with digital, satellite and HD-radio formats out there now :)

Well, I'm not sure if digital-radio is out there yet. The NAB was against it for the longest time, because it would have meant anyone could set up their own station, within FCC regulations and broadcast on a very specific frequency with no bleed-over at all! Imagine hundreds if not thousands of radio stations across a large city, like say, Houston. Commercial radio would have been killed overnight ;)

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

34. If you have Sirius-XM, channel 164 is for you

almost all radio shows are on, such as Suspense, The Whisperer, Have Gun Will Travel, etc.

[RebelOne]

35. I listened to all the old radio shows when I was a kid

because I did not have TV. I was born before TVs were in every household.

[Frank Cannon]

36. I listen to "X Minus One" almost every night to relax before going to sleep

http://www.archive.org/details/XMinus1_A

It's probably the greatest science-fiction radio show ever made. They did some really fine stories, including J.T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Frederik Pohl's "Tunnel Under the World", Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations", and my personal favorite, Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air".

Check it out, if you haven't already. They are more than 100 episodes out there.

[kentauros]

37. I don't always remember the titles or the writers.

Thus the fact that I recall one was written by Clifford Simak but not the title, and I remember hearing the one titled "A Pail of Air" but forgot it was by Fritz Leiber. I'll have to look for the one by Frederick Pohl as I've always liked his writing, especially the Heechee Saga :)

[Frank Cannon]

39. I haven't listened to the Simak one. I'll look for that.

Another episode I really liked was "Colony", by Philip K. Dick. And then there is "A Logic Named Joe", by Murray Leinster, which predicted home computers, the Internet, and privacy issues--and the story it was taken from was written in 1946!

Like all of science fiction, X Minus One conforms to Sturgeon's Law. But there are some real gems in there for the genre buff.

[kentauros]

40. I had collected about 44 episodes from RadioLovers.com

so I'll use that archive.org link to rename them this time around. Plus, when I listened to "A Pail of Air" from the archive, it kept cutting out, so I reverted to my copies. I'll listen to what I have and see if "A Logic Named Joe" is there, too. Sounds really interesting! :D

Murray Leinster sounds familiar, though. I think he might have also written a weird "atomic djinni" story if I'm remembering that right. I know there's a lot of sci-fi still written now, but the stuff written in the early days was pretty cool, too. I'm a big fan of A.E. van Vogt, so I'd love to see "Slan" or "The Weapon Shops of Isher" turned into a decent movie someday :)