Old Time Radio Listeners' Memories

Spoiler : Mom's family was too poor to have electricity until she was almost grown. Dad's family were poor too. And he lived in the mountains next to what is now the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, without electricity until he was 13 and moved to Knoxville. When they finally got radios, Mom loved the music and female comediennes while Dad loved all the comedies, detective and hero shows. Wish I had known of your site before either one passed away. But, at least I get to re-live their enjoyment.

Spoiler : I was a boy growing up in the 1940s, and like many others during that time, I found solace in the world of Old Time Radio. I would spend hours listening to shows like "The Lone Ranger", imagining the stories come to life through the power of the human voice and sound effects. Years went by, and I got married to the love of my life. She was an even bigger fan of Old Time Radio than I was, and I often found her lost in the world of sound and storytelling, just like I used to be as a boy. However, life took a turn when my wife passed away, leaving a void in my heart that nothing could fill. It was only when I tuned into an old-time radio station one day, that I realized the memories and emotions that Old Time Radio could evoke. I was transported back to my childhood, and I felt like my wife was there with me, listening to the same shows that she loved so much. I wanted to share this love with my grandchildren, so I gathered them around the MP3 player, and introduced them to the world of sound and storytelling that their grandmother had so loved. And as I watched my grandchildren get lost in the world of Old Time Radio, I realized that I loved it just as much as my wife did. Every time I listen to an Old Time Radio drama, I feel like my wife is still with me, and I am grateful for the special bond that it creates between me and my grandchildren. I am proud to pass on this love for Old Time Radio, and keep my wife's memory alive for generations to come.

Spoiler : I was born in the late 1930s, during a time when radio was the primary source of entertainment for many families. Even as a young girl, I was captivated by the magic of old time radio. Every week, my family and I would gather around the radio to listen to our favorite shows. I loved the way the voices of the actors brought the characters to life, and how the sound effects and music added to the drama. I was especially fascinated by the mystery and suspense shows, where the plot would keep me on the edge of my seat. As I grew older, my love for old time radio only grew stronger. I collected recordings of my favorite shows and would listen to them over and over again. I was especially fond of the classic detective shows, such as "The Adventures of Sam Spade" and "Dragnet." Even today, I still enjoy listening to old time radio. It brings back so many wonderful memories and the timeless stories and performances still captivate me. I feel grateful to have experienced this unique form of entertainment and to be able to continue enjoying it all these years later. Whenever I listen to an old time radio show, I am transported back in time to those cozy evenings with my family, gathered around the radio and lost in the world of make-believe. And, for a little while, I feel like that young girl again, full of wonder and excitement for the magic of radio.

Spoiler : My wife and I are big fans of old time radio. It comes from upbringing. My family introduced it to us when we were young in the 1960s to be exact. My wife was also introduced to OTR around the same time.

Spoiler : I’ve loved radio for as long as I can remember. That’s been quite some time as I will be 68 this year. Radio is magic and makes things as big as your imagination. I remember when Superman came to TV how disappointed I was because he was much better at flying in my mind, and his uniform was in color! One of my favorite shows was The Whistler although I really didn’t appreciate how good it was back then. After all I was only 4 to 9 years old. But you had to appreciate the Whistler theme and the way the announcer carried the story as if he was inside the brain of the subject. Speaking of the Whistler theme music their were words to the theme for a brief time. The words were S-I-G-N-A-L Sig-nal, Sig-nal gas-o-line. Sang to the Whistler theme of course. Signal Gasoline presented the Whistler and my dad drove a Signal gas truck while my grandfather operated a Signal gas station. Somehow that too made the show special. When I was a little older we would listen to The Cisco Kid. Strange as it may seem I can still remember how the show started with, “Cisco, the sheriff is getting closer.” Cisco would reply, “This way Pancho, Vamanos!” Each show would end with a little humor by the Cisco kid which was always appreciated by Pancho. I am retired now but spent most of my working life in the field of electronics and that’s because of the magic I perceived as Radio. My first experiment in radio electronics should have been my last. Back in the early days radios used electron tubes. Each tube had unique characteristics. That is to say you could not mix and match them. But mix and match is exactly what I did when I tried to fix one. My "Fix" resulted in the radio beginning to spark and smoke wonderful colors in a most terrifying way. My mother saved the day by pulling the plug, as I was too scared to know what to do. Speaking of early days, there were actually radios that didn’t need batteries and didn’t plug into the wall. They used a crystal and a piece of wire, like a safety pin, connected to a long wire antenna with a headset across the wire/crystal combo. The wire (called a cat's whisker) had to contact the crystal in just the right way. When adjusted just right you could hear people talking or playing music through the headphones. Now that is real magic! The magic still works for me and OTRCAT is the place to go to get the magic.

Spoiler : I was born before TV. During my younger years we only had radio for entertainment. But, there were lots of enjoyable programs and, since we never had had anything else, we were completely happy with it. And, like today, many companies advertised their products on radio. In those days tobacco companies had complete freedom to advertise. Although I have heard thousands of ads for cigarettes, I never did start smoking. But, I still remember many of the products (Lucky Strike, Camels, Old Gold, Philip Morris and so on). I have a large collection of “Old Time Radio” programs. A lot of them still mention their sponsors. Many of those old companies no longer exist. So, it is interesting to hear them mentioned. A while back I was listening to a recording of a Red Skelton program which was made before WW2. At the time, his sponsor was Avalon Cigarettes. Well, I had never heard of that company. But, being as this is the age of the Internet, it is possible to research just about anything. So, I looked up this company. It seems that Avalon was a very popular brand during the 1930s and before. They were made with tobacco that was imported from Turkey. The Turks had a secret ingredient that they used to flavor their tobacco. And, a lot Americans liked that taste. When the Turks harvested their tobacco, they would cure it in certain buildings that were specially made for just this purpose. They would hang it from the ceilings. Then they would bring in cart loads of the secret ingredient and pile it on the floor. When they had the proper amount of the ingredient, they would light it on fire, close the doors and allow the smoke from the burning “ingredient" to saturate the tobacco. It gave the tobacco a different flavor that millions of American smokers enjoyed. Avalon was one of the top sellers during that era. But, in 1939 Europe went to war. The Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean became war zones. It was no longer possible for Avalon to get their tobacco shipped from Turkey. When their supply of tobacco was exhausted, that was the end of their product. So, cigarette smokers had no choice but to switch to other brands. By the time the War ended, every smoker was used to regular American tobacco. Also, tobacco companies did not want to depend on getting their tobacco from a country five thousand miles away when it grows so well right here in America. So, no effort was made to revive Avalon’s products. Although it was popular in its day, today Avalon Cigarettes is a forgotten brand. And, by the way, is it now OK to mention what the secret ingredient was? It was CAMEL POOP!

Spoiler : I really like your analogy of OTR being like a time machine. I'm 56 and did not grow up with otr, but somewhere in my childhood I know my dad listened to CBS Mystery Theater and I must have caught the bug then. I have also been a long time listener to serial shows on public radio like Prairie Home Companion. I'm not really a prude but I have to say, I love the lack of gutter culture and lack of cursing on otr. Thank you for curating this enormous collection of OTR history and making it available to us. Never underestimate the importance of what you do. It's history.

Spoiler : Well that is a long story but a good one. I started by listening to radio broadcaster Jim White in St Louis. I lived in Rochester NY at the time. He was playing spooky shows around Halloween. I called the station after he played them and talked with him. We had a nice chat about the OTR material of which I was too young to remember. This was in 1981. He put me in touch with Metromedia out of Minneapolis and I ordered an intro pack. The first show I listed to was Fibber McGee and Molly “The baseball perfume”. From then on I was hooked. In 1987 I started an OTR radio club in a Senior Citizen center. The people there were so enthusiastic about the programs that they started requesting shows. One lady, Evelyn, a black lady wanted me to play A&A. I didn’t like the show but she insisted so much we did play it. She remembered where she was when she heard the show. I’m not sure she did but it added to the enjoyment of the shows. The simplicity of the plots and likability of the characters on the shows always brought smiles around. I started a show club in St Louis after I moved there. My wife is from there and we married in 1992. Now she loves the shows too. WE like to talk with people about their favorite shows. We do the Cinnamon Bear at Christmas time. My favorite show changes from time to time. Right now, I am into Morse I love a Mystery. I also like the cornball humor of Fibber McGee my first show. I like Western shows too like Gunsmoke and Frontier Gentleman. I was sad when the 100th anniversary of radio’s invention passed without a mention by the media. Radio is still the best form of media and still tends toward respecting the listener. Maybe we will celebrate Amos and Andy 100 years but I doubt it. There was a time when we could trust media personalities but now it is slipping into a dull form. I will continue to collect shows as long as I have breath and then, who knows.

Spoiler : They had a secret ingredient. I was born before TV. During my younger years we only had radio for entertainment. But, there were lots of enjoyable programs and, since we never had had anything else, we were completely happy with it. And, like today, many companies advertised their products on radio. In those days tobacco companies had complete freedom to advertise. Although I have heard thousands of ads for cigarettes, I never did start smoking. But, I still remember many of the products (Lucky Strike, Camels, Old Gold, Philip Morris and so on). I have a large collection of “Old Time Radio” programs. A lot of them still mention their sponsors. Many of those old companies no longer exist. So, it is interesting to hear them mentioned. A while back I was listening to a recording of a Red Skelton program which was made before WW2. At the time, his sponsor was Avalon Cigarettes. Well, I had never heard of that company. But, being as this is the age of the Internet, it is possible to research just about anything. So, I looked up this company. It seems that Avalon was a very popular brand during the 1930s and before. They were made with tobacco that was imported from Turkey. The Turks had a secret ingredient that they used to flavor their tobacco. And, a lot Americans liked that taste. When the Turks harvested their tobacco, they would cure it in certain buildings that were specially made for just this purpose. They would hang it from the ceilings. Then they would bring in cart loads of the secret ingredient and pile it on the floor. When they had the proper amount of the ingredient, they would light it on fire, close the doors and allow the smoke from the burning “ingredient" to saturate the tobacco. It gave the tobacco a different flavor that millions of American smokers enjoyed. Avalon was one of the top sellers during that era. But, in 1939 Europe went to war. The Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean became war zones. It was no longer possible for Avalon to get their tobacco shipped from Turkey. When their supply of tobacco was exhausted, that was the end of their product. So, cigarette smokers had no choice but to switch to other brands. By the time the War ended, every smoker was used to regular American tobacco. Also, tobacco companies did not want to depend on getting their tobacco from a country five thousand miles away when it grows so well right here in America. So, no effort was made to revive Avalon’s products. Although it was popular in its day, today Avalon Cigarettes is a forgotten brand. And, by the way, is it now OK to mention what the secret ingredient was? It was CAMEL POOP!

Spoiler : Thanks for helping keep this great entertainment medium alive. MUCH better than ANYTHING available on TV. "End of expense account. Remarks: I appreciate OTRCAT. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar." I couldn’t resist it.

Spoiler : Thank you for continuing to make these programs available. They revive a memory of me as a four-year-old laying on the linoleum floor in a one-room farmhouse in Nebraska with only a single light bulb, radio, and no indoor plumbing listening to "The Lone Ranger." Then in later years, I enjoyed the golden years of radio baseball with the voices of Mel Allen, Harry Carey, and of course, Vin Scully. Keep up the great service you provide.

Spoiler : I remember when I was very young, my great grandmother had a huge floor radio set...it was taller than I was. I and my siblings came along too late to enjoy those family times gathered around the radio, raptly listening to the many great shows. But we did the next best thing...once a week, mom would clear the furniture from the living room, put up a card table, and set out a big bowl of pork and beans and a plate of hot dogs. The family would have a fun meal gathered around our old black and white TV and watch the Saturday night favorites...Lassie, Walt Disney, Ed Sullivan, Red Skelton, many of them carryovers from the radio days. I am grateful that OTRCAT has these archives of so many timeless classics. I can share them with my kids and have some wholesome fun. The even better thing is, the kids get to use their imaginations to visualize the stories being told...Flash Gordon against Ming the Merciless, Superman using his powers against the bad guys. Doesn't get any better than that, folks! Happy Listening!

Spoiler : My dad is almost 92 and, if he ever listened to radio shows, he doesn't share his memories about them. As for my late mother, the only two she remembered listening to were a children's show, the title of which she couldn't remember but had the theme song "In an English Country Garden", and "Easy Aces."

Spoiler : A long time ago I became interested in OTR. A couple of paths led me: ~When I was probably 7 or 8 years old—50+ years ago on this very night—my father told me to listen to WGN to listen to a radio program. It was a rebroadcast of War of the Worlds. Blew me away. At about the same time, my father told me to watch this “silent” movie starring Buster Keaton airing on TV. It was “The General." ~I remember my grandmother asking other family members at a Thanksgiving dinner if they knew that some of her favourite radio programs were now off the air. I was puzzled. As an adult, I believe this was the autumn or October or November when the networks pulled off the few remaining radio shows. ~ When I was 9 years old, we went to NYC to visit the fair. As part of the trip, we went through Rockefeller Center. One of the stops on the tour—one of two stops I remember—was taking the tour participants into and through one of the actual radio studios. I remember the walls were very dark wood and smelled of heavy, stale cigarette smoke. I remember the tour guide showing us some of the sound effect tools. The one I clearly recall was the tool to simulate the sounds of a person falling down. You know the sound—it is a three or four part sound. The tool was a stuffed dummy on a rope—like a noose—that was pushed down these 4 or 5 steps. Scared the hell out of me and was also fascinated. ~In the early 1970’s, my family and I lived within hearing distance of a little radio station in Evanston, Illinois—in a very small building behind the Orange Crush sign. That program was Chuck Schaden’s first radio program and the beginning of his lifetime of airing and sharing OTR programs.

Spoiler :

I’ve been collecting OTR for some time and before the blessed advent of MP3 I was limited to tape which was expensive for the number of episodes one could get at a time. However, I like OTR so much I was willing to pay the price and had a considerable collection of cassettes. I purchased several Thomas reproductions of old radio sets all of which had a cassette slot discretely positioned on the side so I could experience listening to the programs on a radio that looked like a radio on which I could have heard the original programs when they were broadcast. My wife gave me a console model for my birthday and when it was delivered and I unpacked it in the living room I spent a few moments trying to figure out where to put it and realized I was trying to rearrange things so that the radio would occupy the where the TV was since that was the entertainment focal point of the room and, when I was little, that was where our radio sat.

Some time later I had one of the “cathedral” model table radios in my office, perched on the top of a bookcase across from my desk. One day I had a tape of the Burns and Allen program plugged in and playing when the building concierge came in to deliver a memo from building management. Since we were friends, she sat down in one of the visitor’s chairs, with her back to the radio, to visit.

After a few minutes she realized what she was hearing, glanced over her shoulder and, with wonder in her voice, asked, “Is that Burns and Allen?”

Seizing on my chance I answered, “Yes. It’s an old radio. It gets old radio programs.”

The next few seconds were worth the price of admission. A look of stupification flashed across her face as she considered that outrageous statement and processed whether or not it was true and, if so, how could it be true. She spun around in her chair to stare at the radio which was when she saw the cassette protruding from the side and knew that she’d been had. It was a beautiful moment.

Spoiler : NOT A "PLACE"... But a HIGHLY EFFECTIVE "MOOD-ENHANCER"! Many "OTTERS" ("OTR-ers") I have spoken with (to both my surprise and delight) are in agreement on "THIS"... A "FORMULA" for using OTR to IMPROVE MOOD while working, yet NOT "distracting from productivity" (following OTR 'plot-lines' OR 'punchlines'): "LAUGHTER" is a powerful "FORCE" in life. Usually, for "GOOD"! The "TRICK" is: 1) DETERMINING the OTR "SHOW(S)" that work BEST for YOU; 2) "FINDING" the optimum VOLUME LEVEL on YOUR audio system that "allows" the "DIALOGUE" to be "inteligible." BUT... "Enhances" "LAUGHTER," which will be "louder" than speech (Just ASK any OTR "Comedy-Show" SPONSOR!!!) And, 3) "getting used" to this... NO dubious "organics"! NO chemicals!! NO prescriptions!!! SOUND CRAZY? JUST TRY IT!! "The OLD-Cat" P.S. Many folks I spoke with about this "Phenomenom" were already aware of it! Even an OTR show mentioned most often!! WHICH ONE? "MINUS" the "band number" AND "tenor solo"... PLUS "A Laugh" that was (Almost...) a "Cast Member" in its' own right... The OTR show named most often for this "FORMULA"? "THE GREAT GILDERSLEEVE" But ONLY those (65% of these programs) with ("T.P.G." - #1) HAROLD PEARY! "#2" = WILLARD WATERMAN (35% of the shows) "did" the "G.G." character's "Voice" to a point of "eerie perfection"! But couldn't do "The LAUGH"! And, whether from wisdom or respect, "W.W." never even tried to "use" IT!

Spoiler : I was working nights and came across cbsrmt. From then on I was hooked. Back then I had to go to the library and check out cassettes for more shows which I did almost daily when working. I now have an extensive collection of mp3 cds. I'm now enjoying the otrcat collections. I'm still amazed how I can become immersed in a story and how actors become the characters so much I forget who the actor is as he or she becomes that character. I only hope I can pass this enjoyment to my grandchildren.

Spoiler :

But mainly, I'm writing to share an unforgettable story about OTR. I grew up in the 50's, when the "Golden Age of Radio" was declining and turning to rust. And I was too young to appreciate network radio. But as a teen, oh how I wished there would be some decent shows on the four major networks of the time.

Anyway, when we lived in Alexandria, Virginia and I was five, we always heard "Break the Bank." I think it was the summer of 1951 that we took a trip to New York to spend a few days with friends and see the old neighborhood where I was first brought up.

One day, my mom and I went to the NBC studios where the program was aired live. The only thing that scared me was that the applause sounded so different from how I first heard it on the table model in our basement kitchen back home. It was louder and very live! I held my ears when people clapped. Other than that, the program was very real, just like on the air!

After the show, my mom piggy-backed me, and we went over to meet Bud Collyer and his announcer, Wynn Elliott. Lou White was the organist, and Mom may have met him, but I didn't. All I remember was that both Bud and Wynn shook my hand, and both were pleasant-very pleasant, in fact!

Of course, Wynn went on to broadcast sports for CBS Radio, and we all know what happened with Bud. Game show host extraordinaire! But I remember him for his reading onto talking book records the Today's English Version of the New Testament for blind listeners. He seemed to me a very humble and Godly man-kind and gentle. I'll not forget that experience of having met him and Mr. Elliott.

Keep up the good work