Ok, so I am not that 'old'. At 42 I have memories of the waning power of radio shows, that and the tales my parents told me of sitting by the radio on evenings listening to the shows of then.

My favorite memory is of driving up into the mountains of PA with my dad, well after dark, listening to EG Marshall hosting "The CBS Radio Mystery Theater".

Tell you what, you could NOT get a better setting to listen to suspense/horror radio than being surrounded by pitch black mountains, no lights, houses or even cars *sometimes*.

With the radio on the AM dial fading in and out, it was just the best.

Anyway, I found a site that pertains to the CBS Radio Mystery theater, and they broadcast, share and discuss the 1300+ episodes.

I currently have downloaded about 300 and my two small kids like to listen to them in our Barth when we are on long trips.

http://www.cbsrmt.info/macabre/index.php

Up in Grand Rapids in the early 70's WLAV FM became the first area FM to go to a "progressive rock" format and to mix things up they experimented with Sunday nights featuring new and old show style radio comedy. The new was stuff like The National Lampoon Radio Hour, which was only a half hour long, Monty Python, and that sort, but the fun stuff was when they dug up the older shows like The Bickersons. Don Ameche and ?? I found a cassette of The Bickersons years ago and spent a lot of long hours on the road laughing to the same gags over and over. Thanks for the link and I'll give it a shot, perhaps it will give us something worth while to listen to on the road besides Dave's Country disc.

In El Lay, KNX used to broadcast the same on Sunday nights. My youngest son was a big fan, so I had to equip the SOB with a better antenna and booster so we could hear it on our way back to town from the Colorado River. We had to leave Blythe at the right time so as to be in range when the program started.

I credit that show, and other old radio shows for weaning him from television and video games, contributing greatly to his cultural education. Too many kids growing up today are overstimilated by their entertainment and have way too short attention spans. The subtleties, shadings and nuances of good entertainment are lost on many of them.

I found it interesting that Sting did a whole hour program on the music of John Dowland, whom he recently discovered. A valiant effort.

Danny, Don Ameche's ??? was the singer Frances Langford. I've known a few couples who could have been the prototypes for the Bickersons.

Thanks Roy, I could have dug through my cassettes and found it but what fun would that have been? I hope you never rode with your friends when she was driving!
I agree that the visual perfection of todays entertainment somehow diminishes the stimulation of reading or listening. I have read Lord of The Rings at least 5 times, first when I was 18, last when I was 48 or better, and seeing the almost perfect reproduction on the big screen was emotionally moving but somehow anticlimactic after years of picturing the story in my head. I'm sure I'll feel the same when Stranger In a Strange Land finally comes out, no matter how well done it is.
"Thread drift alert"!! Currently reading Thunderstruck by Erik Larson, who wrote Izaaks Storm about the Galveston hurricane of 1909??.
Fans of non-fiction historical lit need to put this guy on top of the list.

I've listened to some old radio programs on XM radio - they can sure paint a picture in your minds eye.

Going back to the days of the old radio programs and picturing what your mind saw - painted how we saw fit. Very powerful stuff!

I'm a big fan of the cops and bad guys - the drama of what would happen next - the dramatic pauses, the music of impending doom! - the "tune in tomorrow to hear the exciting conclusion of..."

The commercials for big tobacco and Burma Cream. Can't you just taste the Root Beer Floats?

Thank you for this thread. I am hooked on OTR. I have a few hundred shows online, mostly Sam Spade, the Shadow a ton of the CBS a couple with Ronald Reagan and I even have African Queen with Bogart.

When we used to travel as a family before the kids got too old and we got the Barth we used to have tons of Louis L'Amaur westerns.

I am a particular fan of Burns and Allen and have several of their radio shows.

My youngest son was such a fan of OTR and The Shadow in particular that he named his all-black Schnauzer "Shadow".

one time when we were living on Maui and i had a long layoff i read all of Louis's books.....i think it was something like 113 or 117 that he wrote. I still like westerns, in fact i just finished a Ralph Compton western today.

I have a shelf of more than 100 of Louis Lamour's books. Read 'em all from start to finish over about 14 months last year. My memory's getting to the stage where they're all new again.

I am also a big LL fan. I am not sure how many of his book I have read, but if I knew anything about any details in his books, they were always accurate. Mojave Crossing in particular dealt with an area I knew very very well. There were no inaccuracies. There was one about a Brujo in Malibu that was also pretty accurate. I think he did as much research as Michener.

About six years ago, my wife and I took our four grandchildren to Florida's Disneyworld from Ohio by automobile. We knew they would get bored so we bought some tapes of old radio programs. We had Jack Benny,Abbot and Costello,Fibber McGee, The Lone Ranger,George and Gracie, and The Bickersons. During periods of boredom, we would play a tape. These four children, ages 5,6,8,and 10, listened dutifully as played our favorites from our childhood. That would be all except The Bickersons, which we had never heard. Although they were polite, we were disappointed that they were not as excited as we were at their ages.
Then we played The Bickersons and were they ever excited! Maybe they could relate the show because of their homelife. We must have played those tapes ywenty times down and back. They soon knew many of the parts and would interject in anticipation. We felt very good to khow that in this age of TV, play atation, and other sophistcated toys, a simple radio program could still capture a child's imagination.

"So Gracie where'd you get all the flowers?", "You know where I got them George, I told you I went to visit Aunt Elsie at the hospitial and you told me to take her flowers, so when she wasn't looking I took her flowers".

Say Good Night, Dave.