Old Time Radio
2099
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – The Shadow: ‘The Gibbering Things’
One of the longer running shows (1937 – 1954) during the Golden Age of Radio was The Shadow. While later seasons of the pulp hero’s adventures could be summed up as each episode breaking down as The Shadow’s companion Margo Lane stumbling across some gangsters, being abducted by said gangsters,…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – The Mysterious Traveler: ‘Behind the Locked Door’
The Mysterious Traveler was a program that featured stories which ran the gamut from fantasy to science fiction to horror to straight detective tales. Sorry to say, even though the program was pretty damn popular when it aired (1943 through 1952), only 75 of the original 370 episodes have survived. One…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – The Black Mass: ‘An Evening’s Entertainment’
During the 1960s one of the more interesting radio programs was The Black Mass. The program wasn’t carried nationwide but aired in and around Los Angeles, on KPFA and KPFK, with an irregular schedule from 1963 through 1967. Each episode of The Black Mass surely isn’t everyone’s cup of tea…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – 19 Nocturne Boulevard: ‘The Temple’
Most people would think the days of audio drama have come and gone but there are still plenty of independent groups producing excellent programs by way of the internet. One of these groups is Julie Hoverson’s 19 Nocturne Boulevard and there are plenty of goodies at the website for you…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – Quiet, Please: ‘Northern Lights’
We’ll return to the old Quiet, Please vault for the latest Spooktacular show. While Wyllis Cooper could create top notch horror tales, he certainly wasn’t a slouch when it came to science fiction either. Northern Lights is no doubt Cooper’s finest effort as it came to spooky SF and the…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG October Spooktacular – Suspense: ‘The House in Cypress Canyon’
Who would have ever thought Suspense would have introduced a horror tale featuring Dashiell Hammett’s legendary detective Sam Spade. Well, truth be told Spade isn’t a character in the main story though. The House in Cypress Canyon is what is traditionally known as a frame story; a story within a…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – Nightfall: ‘The Porch Light’
I thought I’d bring an episode from our neighbors to the north for tonight’s Spooktacular with the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s Nightfall. Nightfall was a show which aired from 1980 through 1983 and featured some of the craziest, scariest, and downright black tales ever to grace the airwarves anywhere. Since Nightfall…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – The Price of Fear: ‘William and Mary’
While most radio drama died off during the late 1950s and early 1960s here in the U.S., the Brits across the pond have continued the great tradition of great stories carried through the airwaves. One series which aired for a couple years in England was The Price of Fear starring…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – The Hall of Fantasy: ‘The Shadow People’
A program back in the 1950s which could provide some nice chills was The Hall of Fantasy. While the series is probably not one of the best remembered (or regarded by some) since it didn’t employ big name actors and the slim budget the show operated on led to somewhat…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – BBC Radio 4: ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’
I know a lot of people dug the edit I put together of At the Mountains of Madness BBC Radio 4 did a few years back and now, as a Spooktacular treat, here’s the BBC production of The Shadow Over Innsmouth – another of H.P. Lovecraft’s classic Mythos tales! You…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – Dimension X: ‘The Veldt’
We hear from the pen of Ray Bradbury once again on one of the first science fiction programs to make a bow on radio, Dimension X. While a lot of episodes of Dimension X went a bit overboard with heavy handed moralizing, every once in a while you’d hear a…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – Suspense: ‘The Hitch-Hiker’
Talk about an episode which has nearly everything – Orson Welles; A script by Lucille Fletcher; Atmospheric (and unusually minimal) sound effects. The Hitch-Hiker, which is spelled in the style of the day, is surely one of my favorite old time radio scripts and just might keep you guessing until…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – Lights Out: ‘Death Robbery’
Time for more Arch Oboler and Lights Out! During the 1930s, 40s, and 50s – in radio or film – if you wanted to scare the audience you gave Boris Karloff a call. I get a kick that by all accounts Karloff was the epitome of the quiet English gentleman (and…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – Suspense: ‘Sorry, Wrong Number’
What has to be no doubt one of the most famous radio stories of all time (outside of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds) has to be Sorry, Wrong Number. The radio play was performed eight times from 1943 through 1960 with Agnes Moorehead giving a one woman tour-de-force each…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – Lights Out: ‘Poltergeist’
TGG’s October Spooktacular – Lights Out: ‘Poltergeist Once again we’ll take a spin with Lights Out for some scary fun. You have to appreciate how most episodes of the series start out innocently enough and then begin to ramp up until it gives you a good sock at the end.…
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Audiobooks and Old Time Radio
TGG’s October Spooktacular – Suspense: ‘The Dunwich Horror’
H.P. Lovecraft’s stories didn’t make too many appearances on radio back in the day but every once in while you’d actually catch a tale here or there. While I can’t say the Cthulhu Mythos translated overly well to a thirty minute format at least here we get in interesting performance…