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jpmcwjr

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,739
27,336
Carmel Valley, CA
Since the thread containing discussion and links of archives of old radio shows has been closed, I open this one in hopes of something positive.
My explorations are very preliminary, but the following site has very high quality recordings. (someone suggested this; I didn't find it.)

https://archive.org
It has links to many other things besides radio shows- happened on a good news article on Elon Musk's interesting career.
Some of the links in the other thread had some very poor quality copies of radio shows, so what links are your favorites?

 
Chasing Embers

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,445
109,364
I bought the DVD "The War Of The Worlds" (1953 version), and it has Orson Welles' radio broadcast on it. Would love to have been alive back then to have experienced that first hand!

 
woodsroad

woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
11,794
16,147
SE PA USA
I used to collect OTR off of Usenet, and accumulated quite a library.

Here's my addition: If you ever read any of Jean Shepherd's books ("in God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash" and "Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories: And Other Disasters") or if you liked the film adaptations of his work ("A Christmas Story" and "The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters") then you'll probably enjoy listening to the radio shows that started it all. Shepherd had a late night gig on WOR in NYC for many years, and many of his shows were preserved on transcription discs. "The Brass Figlagee"on iTunes and "JeanShepherdNetcast" are two good places to start listening, but I'm sure that there are more. Archive.org has a lot of his stuff as well, although it's unorganized. Enjoy!

 
brian64

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,636
14,756
The great thing about radio is it's theater of the mind. Imagination gets way too little exercise these days.

 
agnosticpipe

agnosticpipe

Lifer
Nov 3, 2013
3,345
3,484
In the sticks in Mississippi
+1 on what Woodsroad said!

But for a movie about the effect of the radio on people's lives, try Woody Allen's "Radio Days". It's a fictitious but funny story, and I remember sitting around the radio when I was a kid and listening to some of the fun programs. I believe it's a bit biographical of Woody's life as a child, but then I'm probably reading too much into it.

 
ophiuchus

ophiuchus

Lifer
Mar 25, 2016
1,560
2,059
Saturday and Sunday 11PM-2AM (Central) every week, you'll find the WGN Radio Theater; Carl Amari and Lisa Wolf host old time radio shows of all kinds, though Suspense and Fibber McGee and Molly figure heavily in the rotation. Come to think of it, they play a lot of X-Minus-One, one of my favorite shows in all radio and television.
You don't have to be able to capture WGN-AM (720) to listen; you can catch episodes on the show's page on WGN's website. (That last sentence is a link.)
By the way ... anyone remember The CBS Radio Mystery Theater hosted by E.G. Marshall five nights a week back in the mid-70s into the early-80s?

 
ophiuchus

ophiuchus

Lifer
Mar 25, 2016
1,560
2,059
"CBS Radio Mystery Theater presents ... "
http://www.cbsrmt.com
This site features all 1399 episodes of the show's run.
Around 1979-80, Monday through Friday, CBS radio played Sears Radio Theater at 10PM. Each night, the show featured a different genre (western, mystery, comedy, romance, and suspense) with a different host. At 11PM, CBS radio news and sports, followed at 11:10PM by The CBS Radio Mystery Theater. I'd listen with the lights off. That two hour block beat anything that was on television at the time.

 
ophiuchus

ophiuchus

Lifer
Mar 25, 2016
1,560
2,059
Relevant to our pipe hobby ...
Key to Murder
The above CBSRMT episode features a pipe smoking homicide detective; the pipe is referred to often.
Pie in the Sky
The next episode, pipe smoking and pipe tobacco is cleverly central to the plot of this story (sorry ... the sound quality is poor on this one, but it's worth a listen).
Just for fun. :puffy:

 
JimInks

JimInks

Sultan of Smoke
Aug 31, 2012
61,269
563,739
I have a collection of over 40,000 shows and have listened to them all. Here's a really great site: http://otrrlibrary.org/index.html
They have the most shows on the 'net.

 
jefff

jefff

Lifer
May 28, 2015
1,915
6
Chicago
LA Theater Works does some amazing plays on the radio. I used to listen to it on NPR. A lot of it was just incredible and none of it sucked.

 
derfatdutchman

derfatdutchman

Lifer
Jun 4, 2014
1,134
1
Some great links! One of the perks of my satellite radio subscription is I get the Radio Classics channel, its a nice change on long trips.

 
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