[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I love that one, and the late E.G. Marshall had the perfect voice for announcing those tales. I do have to admit to being slightly put-off at times with his pseudo-scientific sermonizing about how humans deny that which they cannot understand which seems to adorn every episode, but that's a small thing, and it does fit well with the genre, so I never really lost any sleep over it.

I'm a fan of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater too. I used to listen to it every weeknight and was never disappointed with it. I found Marshall's introductions and closing perfect for the series.

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

I have a problem with most old American Radio shows, in that what you find is mostly over-compressed Mp-3's that sound like they were recorded on Edison's original cylinder machine.

As to comedy shows, you might try Bergen and McCarthy. Edgar Bergen got away with lots that would have been censored at the time. Downright modern....

I second the recommendation for the Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy radio shows. Although the shows are decades old, they are still funny. The other radio comedians of that time (including Fred Allen, Jack Benny, and Abbott & Costello) are still funny.

Another radio-style program I've taken an interest in are the Twilight Zone Radio Dramas. They take the old Twilight Zone shows and do them as radio broadcasts using many famous stars. In the stories that I have, they take the original and enhance it, providing more depth and detail to the original stories. The ones I've listened to have been excellent.

On the sound quality of old-time radio, it is possible that it is due to the limitations of sound recording technology of that time. Many recordings of early U. S. television programs don't look that great either and a part of the reason could be the methods used to record them (such as Kinescope http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinescope).