If you’re looking to fill up your smartphone, tablet or laptop with great content, there’s a lot more than just music, videos, ebooks and games.
Countless old-time radio (OTR) shows, from the golden age of the medium — mostly from the ‘30s to the ‘60s — are available for streaming or downloading.
Unlike audiobooks read by one narrator, these are well-acted radio plays with a cast of characters, often with music and sound effects (referred to as “foley,” such as a creaking door or footsteps).
Because you’re using your imagination to “see” the characters, environments and their actions, OTR shows feel wonderfully intimate and personal. No wonder OTR is often referred to as the “theatre of the mind.”
(Those who grew up in Toronto may recall 104.5 CHUM FM ran a show on Sunday nights called “Theatre of the Mind,” which aired creepy and sci-fi old radio shows. It was on right after the “Sunday Night Funnies,” featuring the likes of Dr. Demento and “Weird Al” Yankovic songs.)
“I heard my first classic radio show at the age of 12, a scary episode of Suspense starring Cary Grant, and I was instantly hooked,” recalls Carl Amari, radio and TV producer, director, host and actor. Ten years later, Amari began licensing the broadcast and sales rights to classic radio shows, and in 2009 started producing and hosting Hollywood 360, a weekly nationally syndicated nostalgia radio series and podcast that airs these radio favourites.
Typically 20 to 40 minutes in length, these bite-sized old-time radio shows are great for when you’re walking, flying or closing your eyes at night in bed.
Just like other media, there are different genres for different tastes. Comedy fans, for example, might prefer to hear the likes of Jack Benny, The Great Gildersleeve and Abbott and Costello, while those who prefer science fiction and horror — like yours truly — would get a kick out of X Minus One, Inner Sanctum Mysteries, Lights Out, Quiet Please, Dark Fantasy, The Shadow, Suspense, and Nightfall (a Canadian one from the ‘80s).
Where to get OTR shows today
A few places to get these episodes:
Radio, websites: Amari’s Hollywood 360 (hollywood360radio.com) lets you sign up to have the full 5-hour Hollywood 360 radio show sent to your email every Monday via a digital download link. Every classic radio show that airs on Hollywood 360 is transferred from the original source material, whether it’s the master tape or 16-inch transcription.
Archive.org houses tens of thousands of shows you can download, one-by-one or as a complete series zipped up in MP3s. Also bookmark RelicRadio.com and RUSC.com (“Are you sitting comfortably?”).
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YouTube is also a great place to listen to countless radio plays, from all the big shows back in the day as well as lesser-known options.
If you subscribe to satellite radio, SiriusXM has an OTR radio station called Radio Classics (Channel 148).
Podcasts, apps: There are hundreds of free OTR podcasts to subscribe to. Most are divided into genre, such as Strange Tales or OTR Westerns, or they’ll be posted by name of show, such as ones devoted to Dragnet, Escape, or Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
In some cases, the podcast host will add some facts or colour commentary about the episode. Examples of such podcasts are The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society, Radio Retropolis, and Radio Rarities (co-hosted by Amari).
Many apps are also devoted to OTR, some of which let you stream shows while others have a download option.
Buy on disc, digital download: If you have a lousy internet connection or can’t be bothered with finding and downloading episodes online, you can always buy OTR on disc.
Along with Amari’s The Ultimate Classic Radio Collection (ultimateclassicradio.com), a box set of 400 half-hour classic radio shows on 200 CDs or via digital download (and accompanied by a 60-page historical book), you can also join Classic Radio Club (classicradioclub.com), where each month members receive 10 half-hour classic radio shows on 5 CDs (or via digital download) in a collector case with a 12-page historical booklet.
There’s also OTRCAT.com, which sells inexpensive discs — playable in a regular CD/DVD player or packed with MP3s to play on a computer — plus the site offers digital downloads, too.
War of the Worlds radio play turns 86
It’s almost Halloween, an apt time to celebrate the famous — nay, infamous — “The War of the Worlds” radio broadcast, which incited a panic among many of its listeners across the U.S. on Oct. 30, 1938, when it ran on the show The Mercury Theatre on the Air.
The CBS Radio adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel about a Martian invasion, narrated and directed by Orsen Welles (no relation), was presented in a breaking news-style delivery for the first part of the show, when a musical interlude was “interrupted” to report of unusual activity detected on Mars, followed by unknown object landing on a farm in Grovers Mill, New Jersey — the start of a deadly alien invasion.
One of the many shows you can hear for free today, it’s a time-tested classic.
Speaking of alien visitors, also be sure to stream or download the Lux Radio Theater’s January 1954 adaptation of “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” which is also an excellent radio play.