The Drama of Radio Dramas

[Apache]

I still love The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe. The plots may not be up to Rex Stout's standards, but Sydney Greenstreet captured the essence of Nero Wolfe.
Apache

[DoctorOhh]

Looks like I'll have to investigate OTR, sound like fun.

[pdurrant]

I can highly recommend Radio 4 and Radio 4 extra on the BBC iPlayer for spoken word drama and comedy.

If I was to recommend one programme, it would be "Cabin Pressure" by John Finnemore. OK, it's a sitcom, not a drama, but it is a very witty sitcom. It's bound to be repeated on BBC radio at some point, but if you'll take my advice you'll buy it from audiogo.com now anyway. The six episodes of series one are only $3.99 for all six at the moment.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I never realized there were so many private eye shows on back then. Right now, I'm listening to Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator on 20th Century Radio. He's no mere PI, he's a CI. I guess that's a higher rank. LOL

"Get this, and get it straight: Crime is a sucker's road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison or the grave. There's no other end ... but they never learn!"

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Apache

I still love The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe. The plots may not be up to Rex Stout's standards, but Sydney Greenstreet captured the essence of Nero Wolfe.
Apache

I'm listening to it right now on 20th Century Radio.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by cromag

SHHHHH!!!!

Back in the mid-90s one of the public radio stations in New York City concentrated on children's programming during the day. It was a 30 minute drive to my daughter's pre-school (she was 4 that year) and I timed it so I'd be picking her up as a story program (usually one of the Rabbit Ears productions) was starting. The story would just be finishing up when we got to the driveway.

I had two reasons. First, I believed (and still do) that having her listen to a story was a good use of her time, good for developing focus and logic, etc. Second, when she was 4 years old she was a "talker." Having her listen to stories was good for my concentration while I drove!

Other favorite audio story series included the Kinetic City Super Crew (a science series), Growler Radio, and stories by Jim Weiss.

The radio station changed its format a couple of years later, but those were the golden years!

Sounds cool. It's a shame the demand isn't there to support more OTR programming on AM/FM stations. We have one AM station here in Seattle that has 9 hours of weekly programming. Wish it had more so I wouldn't have to rely on a net connection.

Here's a list of children's shows available from TuneIn Radio.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

"Get this, and get it straight: Crime is a sucker's road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison or the grave. There's no other end ... but they never learn!"

Just listened to that one too.

When browsing the web, I always multitask -- audiobooks, music, OTR, local radio, radio dramas, or TV. Gotta have something on in the background. Right now, I'm on an OTR kick.

[crich70]

One newer project can be found here:

In the early 1950s, Leonard Allen was the producer and host of After Dark, a very popular, independently-produced suspense-horror radio show. His on-air persona, Dr. Damien Crask, was practically a household name. But when his best friend and business partner, Robert Stroud, stole the scripts and decamped for Hollywood to produce his own show, After Dark lost its biggest sponsor and Allen, feeling betrayed, gave up. After Dark died, unfinished.

Fifty years later, Allen is dying in a state-run nursing home, when he is approached by the mysterious David Lewis, a smooth-talking businessman who gives him a strange offer: the role of caretaker and tour guide for an historic lighthouse off the New England coast. Allen is unable to resist the lure of a mystery and, when invigorated by a sudden and unexplained improvement in his health, he accepts the job.

The Mask of Inanna

[JSWolf]

A really good old radio drama is The Suspense version of Sorry Wrong Number starring Agnes Moorehead. It's really good and it's only a half hour. You can download it from the Internet Archive

[BeccaPrice]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Be sure to check out 20th Century Radio. It plays 24/7 and has a nice mix of OTR's. Here's the program schedule. You can listen on your computer or with apps such as TuneIn Radio and Shoutcast.

Thanks you so much for this! My mom has terrible insomnia, and tended to listen to all-night talk radio when she was wakeful - this was dreadful because she's pretty liberal. I tried to get her into audiobooks, but she couldn't figure out how to work my extra ipod very well. A friend set her up with an icon on her iPad for this, so she can listen to OTR now, rather than rabid right-wingers when she can't sleep. What an improvement!

[daffy4u]

This thread has given me great ideas for entertainment while traveling with my 85 year old father next month (and myself as well!).

I found the BBC player app in the Google Play Store (looking forward to a 4 part Sherlock Holmes program later today). I also found an Old Time Radio Player app (with ads). I purchased the no add version for $1.29.

Just using the search term "radio theater" in the Play Store showed several promising apps. For 99cents I also grabbed the "Mystery Theater 5Min Mysteries" app.

This app contains Forty-Eight (48!) episodes of the classic “The Five Mysteries Program” which aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System from August 10, 1947 to March 27, 1950. Cast members included Jackson Beck, Staats Cotsworth, Michael Fitzmaurice, Timmy Hyler, Abby Lewis, Frank Lovejoy and Ian MacAllister. The famous Rosa Rio played the memorable organ music on every episode.

Each episode presents a story. A story of greed, jealousy, desperation, theft, larceny, and even... murder! All of the clues needed to solve the crime are given to the audience, leaving only one question to ponder: whodunit?

This app not only catalogs the episodes of this amazing series, shows you which shows you have listened to, but it also lets you play along. At the crucial moment, it will ask YOU to provide the vital information needed to solve the crime; then wait in suspense to see if you are correct. If you solve the cases you will earn points, and eventually get promoted.

Thanks for this thread! Radio dramas on NPR led me to my love of audiobooks.

[Rylon]

I took a look at archive.org, and it's great. Still need to check out some of the other suggestions, but that's a wonderful start.

[grumbles]

Check out the productions of the ZBS Foundation (www.zbs.org). I first heard "The Adventures of Ruby" almost 30 years ago, back when the CBC broadcast a lot of radio drama, both CBC produced and purchased. Alas, the CBC no longer produces any radio drama. One of the last shows was Afghanda, an truly outstanding series. ZBS has continued to produce the Ruby series along with the Jack Flanders adventures and are beautifully produced.

I went to a boarding school, and I remember listening to Johnny Dollar, Gunsmoke and others after lights out. This was on a small portable radio that used subminature tube (small tubes with wire leads) and assorted B-batteries (in 22.5, 45 and 90 volt sizes). This was in the late '50s.

The Internet Archive is a wonderful resource. They have all the available Suspense episodes, probably the best radio drama series of all time. They also have other shows like Dimension-X and X Minus One.

I just took a quick look and both "Nightfall" and "Vanishing Point", two series from the CBC in the '80s are available there. They were excellent. I miss real radio.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by grumbles

The Internet Archive is a wonderful resource.

This, a million times. And not just for OTR. It seems like I "rediscover" the Archive every couple of years and it's a joy all over again.

But in the realm of OTR, while exploring there, I found the OTRR Certified collection of Hank Williams' Mothers Best Flour broadcasts, which my roommate (diehard, longtime Hank fan) had never heard, and which includes tracks Hank never recorded elsewhere (that we know of). That I was able to contribute to my roommate's collection is something in itself, but to hear some of those songs was incredible.

And it was all because of this thread. I love MobileRead.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

This, a million times. And not just for OTR. It seems like I "rediscover" the Archive every couple of years and it's a joy all over again.

But in the realm of OTR, while exploring there, I found the OTRR Certified collection of Hank Williams' Mothers Best Flour broadcasts, which my roommate (diehard, longtime Hank fan) had never heard, and which includes tracks Hank never recorded elsewhere (that we know of). That I was able to contribute to my roommate's collection is something in itself, but to hear some of those songs was incredible.

And it was all because of this thread. I love MobileRead.

They have some good old PD movies too including a good selection of silent movies. Things like Edison's version of "Frankenstein" among others.