[Crimson-Blue-Green]

I can't say I'm into old time radio, although I listened to a Superman episode that was decent.  I used to listen to rock all the time, then I got bored and discovered Japanese idol pop music.  Yeah, this music isn't for everyone.  You need to be open minded about listening to songs not sung in your native language.  Then you need to get past the the whole cutesy bubblegum pop image.  So....I'm listening to Candy Kiss, Caramel Ribbon, Prizmmy, Yuka Wada, SunRisa, CRUiSE!, amorecarina, PARLISH, Michinoku Sendai ORI HIMETAI and some other groups no one but me has heard if.  😀

[elGiron]

I can't say I'm into old time radio, although I listened to a Superman episode that was decent.  I used to listen to rock all the time, then I got bored and discovered Japanese idol pop music.  Yeah, this music isn't for everyone.  You need to be open minded about listening to songs not sung in your native language.  Then you need to get past the the whole cutesy bubblegum pop image.  So....I'm listening to Candy Kiss, Caramel Ribbon, Prizmmy, Yuka Wada, SunRisa, CRUiSE!, amorecarina, PARLISH, Michinoku Sendai ORI HIMETAI and some other groups no one but me has heard if.  😀

I can relate to the boring ass Rock music problem, Crimson. Been there, done that. Which brings me to why I decided to post. I listen to "Meet The Residents" all year round, and heavily during December. It's Christmas, but ain't nobody raisin' much of a fuss... nobody, but ME!

You'll definitely need an open mind to listen. Oh! And the only Japanese idol music I listen to are the Boredoms...

[John Kerry]

Cuurently listening to Hawkwind's "It Is the Business of the Future to Be Dangerous".

[bowers]

 Just found a 70's radio series I didn't know existed, "The Devil and Mr. O". Hosted by the famous head writer and director of "Lights Out", Arch Oboler. It featured transcribed episodes from 1942-43 with new introductions and narration by Oboler. Also contains contemporary commercials. I just finished "Paris Macabre", and the story was fresh as ever.
Oboler started out writing pulp stories and went on to become the king of horror radio. His gruesome sound effects were superb! In the early 50's, he helped introduce 3D movies with his box-office hit "Bwana Devil".
Episodes are available at The Old Time Radio Researchers Group Library. No registration needed, just jump right in and download! Cheers, Bowers

[narfstar]

never heard of before thanks

[Captain Audio]

Been listening to audio book stories by Clark Ashton Smith, one seriously strange dude.
His stories have H P Lovecraft reeling on the ropes and some are like the occasional back story of Conan Novels, the legends behind the supernatural circumstances Conan ends up facing.
No doubt he greatly influenced many of the more commonly known authors of the macabre and supernatural but is almost unknown to younger readers.

His stories range from the distant dark mists of the past to centuries or more in our future, from demon haunted palaces of lost civilizations, both human and alien, to barren frozen asteroids and planets with hidden deadly dangers. There are even stories with a humorous ending, despite the requisite bloodshed and madness.

Till now I'd only read possibly three of his stories, now I found 64 public domain downloads, stories I never knew existed.

[paw broon]

I've been binging on Paul Temple radio serials recently and just finished Paul Temple and the Gilbert Affair.  This isn't the original radio broadcast as the episodes have been deleted, but it's a vey faithful full cast re-creation with Crawford Logan and Gerda Stevenson as PT and Steve.  This has been on BBC radio and it's a terrific 10 part thriller.
Most of the Paul Temple radio serials have been released on cd, either the originals as broadcast decades ago or high quality re-ceations featuring the original music and sound effects where they're available.  Can't recommend them highly enough.
There are also some narrated versions and I recently listened to one of them narrated by Anthony Head. Great for passing the time on the bus into Edinburgh.

[bowers]

Hi, Paw. Good to be back. Found several Paul Temples at OTRR and I'll give them a try. Cheers, Bowers

[crashryan]

I'm recovering from another "eye procedure" (the last, I hope!) and spending a lot of time with my eyes closed. So I put on some old time radio.

It's been years since I've listened to The Shadow. I'd heard only a couple of the Orson Welles shows, so that's where I started. I was surprised to discover how different The Shadow was in those early years. His abilities and operating style changed a lot between these shows and the classic 40s series.

The biggest difference is that The Shadow is a much more public figure. Everyone, crooked or honest, seems to have heard about him. They all know he's an ordinary person using hypnosis to make himself invisible. The Shadow makes several public appearances. In one episode he talks to the Board of Directors of an opera company. Later in the same episode he addresses an entire theater audience, giving a florid speech denouncing crime. Knowing The Shadow is a real man, crooks don't have the supernatural fear of him they have in later episodes. Several criminals try to trap, grab, or shoot him, though of course it never works. The scripts use a lot of "invisible man" gimmicks like self-opening doors and floating objects.

The Shadow's relationship with Margo Lane is also different. She takes a more direct part in his missions. She's his designated driver; Shrevvy the comical cabbie is thankfully absent. The Shadow summons Margo using a portable short-wave radio. Unfortunately Margo can be rather stupid. Lamont Cranston enters a criminal hideout as the Shadow. Fearing he's in trouble, Margo bangs on the door and calls Lamont by name, thus telling the crooks The Shadow's secret identity. The Shadow escapes this situation using an ability he lost over time: he hypnotically compels one of the bad guys to attack the other.

The writers seem not to have decided just what Cranston's mental powers are. In one show he establishes a mental link with a missing scientist. In another he claims to read a criminal's mind, though this may be a bluff.

On the balance the Welles Shadows are pretty good. Orson Welles (just 22 years old!) makes a good Shadow and an acceptable Lamont Cranston. His Lamont is marred by a tendency to deliver his lines in a rushed mumble. It's an annoying habit that worsened over time. In the 1950s Harry Lime shows Welles seems impatient to finish the job so he can rush home to some Paul Masson wine. He barely gives the other actors time to finish their lines before hurrying into his next speech. Agnes Moorehead makes a good Margo Lane. The supporting cast is also fine.

[Captain Audio]

"The scripts use a lot of "invisible man" gimmicks like self-opening doors and floating objects."

An invisible man on the radio is as hard to pull off as a ventriloquist act.

[crashryan]

It isn't hard at all to do an invisible man on radio!

"Hey, what was that noise? The door...opening by itself!"

"Wha--a gun floatin' in midair!"

"The paper...something yanked it right out of my hand!"

Not as elegant as the movies, I'll admit.

[MarkWarner]

Have you heard any of the Damon Runyon Theater? https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=3287 a recent discovery on my part

[crashryan]

I wanted to recommend another program I sampled during my closed-eye phase. I'd never heard of Rogue's Gallery, starring Dick Powell. The Wikipedia entry calls the show a sort of run-up to Powell's better-known program, Richard Diamond, Private Detective. Detective Richard Rogue is a skirt-chasing private investigator who confronts the usual mix of murder, mayhem, and femmes fatales.

Though the Richard Rogue character has a tough edge, the scripts are lighter in tone than those of typical hardboiled detective shows. Dick Powell is perfect in the role, tempering a breezy, jokey delivery with just the right amount of roughness.The supporting cast is also excellent. A full musical score by Leith Stevens lends an extra touch of class. My only complaint with the production is the almost complete absence of sound effects. I suspect the producers figured that Powell's detailed narration tells everything we need to know, so we don't need sound effects. Wrong. The result sounds unfinished.

There is one aspect of Rogue's Gallery that baffles me. This is Eugor (pronounced Yugor), a cackling gremlin who appears in Rogue's head whenever the detective is knocked on the bean--which is constantly. The unconscious Rogue imagines himself transported to "Cloud Eight," where smart-ass Eugor berates him, discusses the plot, and offers advice. Then Rogue is returned to consciousness and goes on with the story. The whole thing is beyond weird. It seems we're supposed to believe Eugor is a product of Rogue's imagination. However the creature seems to be privy to things Rogue couldn't know. In one show both Rogue and a crook are knocked out. Eugor looks over at "Cloud Nine," sees the crook there, and tells Rogue that the man is still unconscious. To me the gimmick is a total misfire.

Still, the rest of Rogue's Gallery is strong enough that even giggling Eugor can't tank it. I recommend it.

[MarkWarner]

Been there, seen it, done it! Dick Powell is great!

[The Australian Panther]

Anybody out there like to multitask?

Read comics and listen to music at the same time? Or anything else at the same time/ 

I'm a fan of early 60's ( pre beatles) guitar and surf instrumental bands.

I only recently came across Japan's Takeshi Terauchi who is as good a guitar wizard as anything I have heard in this genre.
There is quite a lot of his music and bands on Youtube. Start with this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbSJ0HVwpzc

What comic might you read while listening to this style of music? 

[paw broon]

O.K., impressed. As a fan of The Ventures, Shadows (early stuff) and some other guitar bands, I thoroughly enjoyed this lot. Here are a couple of British bands you might not have heard - and not necessarily all guitar.
Group X from 1963;_
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPGMokiOTUc
Nero and the Gladiators from 1961:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL-hRKqqRLU
Bert Weedon from 1961:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtctpGkleLA
Swedish group The Spotnicks from 1963:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDsR7wf5uRc
The Dakotas from 1963:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAEcWLYrDuc&index=57&list=PL147A9E72762254A1
and for a bit of fun, Lord Rockingham's X1 from 1958, with Hoots Mon:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wioh5qUj7fM

[The Australian Panther]

Glad you liked it. The only band on your links I'm not familiar with  is Nero and the Gladiators. Have to check them out. In the meantime I came across a Polish band Tajfuny who at their best are something special. Can't find a whole album on Youtube but this link will get you to a number of their tunes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-ip0RAd4sE
They can be very melodic and sweet. There is a greatest hits album, Tajfuny - Z Archiwum Polskiego Radia Vol 7 , Which I think is the Polish equivalent of a BBC collection. I think 'Tajfuny' means 'Typhoon' an apt name for this type of group.

Cheers

[profh0011]

After being completely hooked on "independant" news this year, the last several weeks, partly to take a break, I've been doing my best to plow through as many episodes of THE GREEN HORNET radio show as I can.

I've noticed something rather odd.  Quite a few episodes in late 1945 sound like they might have been RERUNS of much-earlier stories.  These are not episodes I've heard at the top of the list, either.  What clues me in to this are lengthy and repeated references and descriptions about Britt Reid's father, what he hoped his son would do, Mike Axford being hired as Britt's live-in bodyguard while trying to also become a reporter, and so on.  The presence of city editor Donegan has also increased dramatically, and any references to the war have vanished.

All this leads me to believe I'm now listening to the EARLIEST episodes of the show, not the latest.

Does anyone have any access to what might be a complete episode guide to the series?  Such a list might allow me to cofirm this, one way or the other.

It occurs to me that, if the episodes I think are reruns turn out to be that, the chronological list here at the site could be re-arranged to put the "later" episodes where they actually belong (if earlier dates for those stories can be found).

[profh0011]

Speaking of "multi-tasking"-- listening to news shows or old-time radio is a perfect thing to do while I'm either doing Photoshop (TONS of this in front of me), or pencilling / art in general.

On the other hand, if I'm ever writing or posting reviews, anything with talking gets in the way.  So, for those things, it's MUSIC!

[MarkWarner]

I am pretty much the same. Editing pictures, scanning or fixing stuff I listen to OTR or audiobooks. If I need to concentrate it is silence.

[bowers]

 Prof, have you tried OTTR Library? Old Time Radio Researchers Library is an invaluable site to OTR buffs. An enormous collection of both domestic and foreign programs, including some very obscure gems you can find nowhere else. Free downloads (up to 10 gb per month), no usernames or passwords required. Trying to download an entire series at once is not allowed as they don't like the for-profit leeches and their server can only handle 50 logins at one time. Not following the rules gets you kicked off.
Their "Green Hornet" collection is similar to the CB+, but has more of the 1952 episodes. Some of the radio anthology series, such as "Suspense" did repeat some scripts over the years, albeit with different casts. The episodes you mention might even be recycled scripts. Since people couldn't binge-listen back then the writers could easily get away with it! Cheers, Bowers

[crashryan]

I like OTR episodes which were redone with a different cast. You get a glimpse at how different actors interpret the same character. As a Philip Marlowe fan I enjoyed hearing both versions of the "Red Wind" adaptation, one with Van Heflin as Marlowe and the other with Gerald Mohr. The scripts were basically identical although a few lines differed.

[Captain Audio]

"Quite a few episodes in late 1945 sound like they might have been RERUNS of much-earlier stories."

Could be that scripts already written for that period were behind events. The War was basically over so stories involving ongoing conflict were no longer relevant and the scripts would have to be rewritten. As a stop gap older prewar  scripts were dusted off.

[paw broon]

While I've been searching out the files Wiseman sent me -  I seem to have misplaced them
I've been listening to the new Wilko Johnson album, "Blow Your Mind".  You really need to play this loud but this youtube  entry will give you a flavour.  Although the reproduction here is a bit flat and low, hopefully it will tempt some of you to buy the album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89eLsfPL0-g
And here's Wilko in the mid '70's, live, with the great Lee Brilleaux dishing it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHm7uIC84YM

[The Australian Panther]

Here is a little gift for you all I just found elsewhere.

https://www44.zippyshare.com/v/YvHMGCYM/file.html

Adventures Of Superman - Music From The Original 1950s Television Series

Enjoy!