Around this time of year you may find yourself with a bit of downtime. Maybe you'll have hours to kill while traveling for a family get together or you'll have some spare mental capacity while baking holiday cookies. One of my favorite ways to use downtime – especially while cooking or crafting – is listening to old time radio programs.
Before television changed the entertainment landscape of this country, radio was the main source of all the drama, comedy, and news programs we use to distract ourselves from daily life. From the 1920's to the late 1950's most households would tune their radios in to hear some of their favorite shows. These shows covered everything from early situation comedies to suspenseful dramas. Also, in a time when movies were shown only in theaters, radio also brought condensed movies (often starring the voices of the same cast) to an audience who may not be able to make it to a theater.
One of the great aspects of listening to old time radio is that it's like a history lesson (without all the boring delivery of an actual history lesson). The 1930's and 40's were a tumultuous time in this country and that is certainly reflected in many of the old time radio shows.
My initial introduction to OTR came through Sirius Satellite Radio's Radio Classics channel. When my husband and I first purchased our car with a satellite radio in it, Radio Classics became one of our instant favorites. There's no better way to pass the long hours of a road trip than listening to old episodes of Burns and Allen.
There are numerous resources for old radio shows online. If you use iTunes, there's a radio station called alltime oldies radio channel under the talk radio tab. Wisconsin Public Radio hosts a few old time radio shows on their website. Radiolovers.com has a vast selection of radio shows available for free download. You can also purchase discs of MP3's of old time radio programs from OTRcat.com. There's also a fascinating history of old time radio, along with a few more resources for listening to the shows, at amoeba.com.
Image: Amoeba.com
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The absolute best old radio you can get is the 1920s Radio Network. You can check it out online: http://www.the1920snetwork.com/ or stream it on iTunes (in the Eclectic section). Seriously, the only radio I listen to and always excellent.
I agree. Get kids started on Old Time Radio shows early - my kids love Jack Benny!
I agree, ravengal! My kids used to love to listen to Bob and Ray; but their friends just didn't get what was funny about it!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE OTR! My favs are Shelrock Holmes, The Shadow, X-1, and Jack Benny. The old commercials crack me up too. :) I'm a huge fan, and the best place to get access to almost ANY old show is at http://www.rusc.com/
The guy who runs it adds new shows almost every day & has built quite a collection. They're all in the public domain, but he does charge a small fee for access (to keep the whole place up & running)- plus there's no limit to how many you can download! :)
Milwaukee Shool of Engineering (call sign WMSE) has old time radio on Sunday mornings. I'm proud to add that my husband and some friends perform in new "Old-Time Radio" programming as Radio WHT. They've done one live play a month, first Sunday of the month. Their version of "A Christmas Carol" will be performed this coming Sunday morning, and it's on the station's archive (WMSE.org) later on.
It's great fun, both in the true classics, and in the new take on the form.
I like listening to Radio Classics on Sirius. My mom has talked about radio in her day a lot, and now I've been able to experience what it was like.
I don't have a Sirius unit in my home, just my truck, but I do have their music channels on DISH, so I usually listen to The Spectrum when I'm in the kitchen.
My personal favorite, which I first heard broadcast in the golden era of public radio dramas in the 70s and 80s, is The Fourth Tower of Inverness. Very silly and metaphysical.
Odds are your local library has lots and lots of radio plays on CD and/or through their downloadable audiobook service. Look in the library catalog for the subject Radio plays and you should get a list.
There is also a sizable archive of old-time radio at the Internet Archive. Some of the stuff there is really interesting, particularly the news segments reporting various historically significant events. But there is lots of radio comedy and drama too.
My 5 year old and I did this while cooking one day a few months ago. By the halfway point, she had abandoned her chopping duties and was sitting on the floor by the table where the computer was sitting. The screen was black, but she was staring at it the whole time. I guess it takes a few times before they realize they can do other things, huh?
Love the list, this will be great for holiday baking extravaganzas.
I get so much more done when listening to the radio rather than having the tv on.
Thanks to everyone who posted links!
My dad got me into the Shadow and Green Hornet radio shows when I was about 9 years old and it quickly spread into a love for Red Skelton, Edgar Bergen, and on and on.
I'm only 25 now so it's been an uphill battle to find anyone my age who's ever HEARD of most of these old shows/performers, let alone listens to and enjoys them (luckily I live in a building with lots of elderly people in it now so I'm hoping to find some listening partners soon).
Oh, pureevil, there are some great children's radio shows! I have a big collection of the Let's Pretend show which tells a different fairy/folk tale each episode, many of which are ones kids today are unlikely to be familiar with. I downloaded it for one of my nephews (though he's still a bit young for it) but ended up listening to a bunch myself!
check out "the golden age of radio" on wbai in new york city sunday nights from 7 to 9 p.m. (http://www.oldtimeradio.com/). max schmid is a bit strange but the shows are good.
December is always a '12-hour-shift-every-day' month for me. By the time the family is supposed to be celebrating together, all I can think of is swollen feet and my bed :o(
Maybe in the distant future however, there will be cookie baking and free time - at least I dream of it :o)