Old Time Radio

When I was a kid I remember one day laying in bed in the attic of our small house where my Dad had built me a room, complete with pull down stairs I thought this was one of the coolest places in the world (The Beach Boys song "In My Room" comes to mind).  I was listening to my radio on one of those single flesh colored ear buds (anyone remember those) and across the airwaves came KNX 1070 News radio (I still remember the jingle) and the sound of a creaking door.

I was totally engrossed, totally captured and totally glued to my radio as E. G. Marshall came on with his disturbing voice and said "Come In, Welcome, I'm E. G. Marshall".  He then introduced the show and off on an adventure, thriller, mystery I would go.  At the end he ended the show with "Until next time, pleasant... dreams?"

Oh man, you cannot believe the excitement when I found this show and I couldn't wait until next time, I listened faithfully every night that I could from then on out for several years.  I believe this was around 1976 or 1977 and the show ran from 1974 to 1982 and produced 1,399 shows.

This experience started my life long love of Old Time Radio and even to this day I find comforting memories in listening to my favorites... CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Suspense, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Burns and Allen, Abbott and Costello and many many more.  I'm not old enough to have heard these old radio shows when they originated but I am old enough to have heard CBS Radio Mystery Theater when it was still on the air and oh such wonderful memories.

Here's a funny little story.  I remember traveling with my parents somewhere, no idea where but the people we visited had a cassette of Abbott and Costello that they gave me.  Well I had a little walkman type radio of some sort, and I had some headphones.  And you remember how the show starts out with Costello screaming "Heyyyyy  Aboooott!!!!"  Well my Dad was pulling out of the driveway and I turned on that show and that little cassette player must have been turned up all the way and that sound came over the headphones loud enough to scare my Dad half to death.  He thought he had run over a kid or something.  Like I said, great memories.  I can laugh about it now but I don't think my Dad was real happy at the time.

If you would like to experience some of these shows, try the following free sites:

Old Radio World
Internet Archive - Old Time Radio

ENJOY!