Episodios

  • Proudly We Hail: First Choice

    Proudly We Hail: First Choice
    Jan 5 2026
    Aired: July 10, 1946

    This episode of Proudly We Hail marks the premiere broadcast of the series, starring Clark Gable in a rare postwar radio performance. In First Choice, Gable plays Duke O’Hara, a powerful political figure on the brink of securing his party’s nomination for governor. On what should be the triumphant night of his career, an unexpected revelation threatens both his ambitions and his marriage.

    As pressure mounts and loyalties are tested behind closed doors, the drama explores the collision of personal relationships, public image, and political power. Set against the backdrop of a lavish nomination celebration, the story unfolds in real time, with emotions running high and consequences looming just beyond the next decision.

    Produced by C. P. McGregor for the U.S. War Department, Proudly We Hail blended dramatic storytelling with contemporary concerns, and this opening episode sets the tone for the series’ focus on character under strain. Gable’s performance brings intensity and authority to a role that hinges as much on restraint as on force.

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    21 m
  • Public Domain Day Record Party 2026

    Public Domain Day Record Party 2026
    Jan 1 2026
    This episode of Old Time Radio Snack Wagon celebrates Public Domain Day with a special record party featuring some of the most popular and influential recordings of 1925, which have now entered the public domain in the United States.

    The program revisits a remarkable year in American music, when recordings that would later become standards first reached the public. Featured selections include performances by Marion Harris, Gene Austin, Al Jolson, Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong, and early recordings of songs that would echo through radio, film, and popular culture for decades. By hearing these records as contemporary listeners first experienced them, the episode highlights how many familiar melodies began before the era of network radio, later finding new life through performers such as Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, and others.

    It’s a reminder of how deeply early recordings shaped the soundscape of the Golden Age of Radio—and how much remains to be rediscovered as more works enter the public domain.

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    29 m
  • Junior Rings in the New Year (Red Skelton Comedy)

    Junior Rings in the New Year (Red Skelton Comedy)
    Dec 28 2025
    Aired: December 31, 1948

    This New Year’s–themed episode from The Red Skelton Show features one of Skelton’s most popular characters — Junior, the Mean Little Kid — as he welcomes 1949 in his own mischievous way.

    While Junior’s parents head out to celebrate the holiday, Junior remains behind, delivering wisecracks, mangled logic, and unexpected moments of warmth as the old year gives way to the new.

    Originally broadcast on New Year’s Eve, this sketch blends slapstick, verbal humor, and gentle sentiment, capturing Skelton’s gift for turning childhood mischief into something both hilarious and oddly reflective.

    As Junior spars with the adults around him and contemplates resolutions in his own crooked fashion, the program offers a snapshot of postwar comedy — lighthearted, chaotic, and full of heart. The episode also showcases Skelton’s skill at live performance, where small missteps become part of the fun, reinforcing why his radio work remains so enduring more than seven decades later.

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    11 m
  • Seasons Greetings from the Hardy's

    Seasons Greetings from the Hardy's
    Dec 22 2025
    Aired: Christmas 1939 This episode of Old Time Radio Snack Wagon features a rare holiday broadcast, Season’s Greetings from the Hardys, a special radio program created at the height of the Hardy family films’ popularity. Produced by MGM for syndication, the broadcast brings together the beloved screen family to offer a Christmas message to listeners across the country.

    Set in the Hardy household on Christmas Eve, the program reflects the warmth, optimism, and sense of shared national culture that made the Hardy films so influential during the late 1930s. With Judge Hardy, Mother Hardy, Andy, and other family members gathered around the hearth, the broadcast captures the idea of the “American family” at a moment when audiences were deeply attached to these characters through years of moviegoing.

    The program also includes a musical performance by Judy Garland, who had appeared as Andy Hardy’s love interest in the film series. More than a piece of entertainment, this broadcast stands as a cultural artifact from a time when fictional families helped shape Americans’ understanding of home, community, and the meaning of Christmas on the eve of a turbulent decade.

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    12 m
  • Story Behind the Song: Blest be the Tie that Binds

    Story Behind the Song: Blest be the Tie that Binds
    Dec 15 2025
    Aired: May 21, 1931

    This episode of The Story Behind the Song tells the moving history of the beloved hymn “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds.” First broadcast in 1931 and syndicated by Transco, the program dramatizes the life of Reverend John Fawcett, the English pastor who wrote the hymn after facing a defining choice — whether to leave his small Yorkshire congregation for a prominent London pulpit.

    The production, recorded more than a century and a half after the hymn’s creation, captures the spirit of devotion and fellowship that inspired its words. Blending dramatization with gentle narration, it shows how one act of faith and love became a lasting expression of community for generations of churchgoers.

    Originally part of a series that explored the origins of America’s most cherished sacred and popular songs, this broadcast reminds listeners that behind every hymn lies a human story of conviction, compassion, and calling.

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    20 m
  • Army Hour Radioactivity Test

    Army Hour Radioactivity Test
    Dec 8 2025
    Aired: Late 1950s–Early 1960s

    This segment of The Army Hour takes listeners inside the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, where scientists and technicians demonstrate one of only three “whole-body counters” in existence — a machine designed to measure the natural radioactivity within the human body.

    In this rare field recording, Army reporter Lieutenant Paul Weinman undergoes the test himself while Sergeant Arnold Mansky explains how the instrument detects gamma radiation from both natural and man-made sources.

    Their conversation captures a moment when America was still learning to live with the atomic age — balancing optimism in scientific discovery with unease about what radiation meant for human health. The result is a fascinating slice of mid-century radio journalism: part science education, part quiet reflection on humanity’s first steps into the nuclear era.

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    11 m
  • Bill Goodwin Sells Stuff|Classic Radio Advertising

    Bill Goodwin Sells Stuff|Classic Radio Advertising
    Dec 1 2025
    This episode of Old Time Radio Snack Wagon spotlights one of radio’s most entertaining announcers — Bill Goodwin, whose witty, in-character commercials for The Burns and Allen Show turned advertising into comedy.

    From the early Swan Soap broadcasts to the later Maxwell House Coffee Time and Amadent Toothpaste sponsorships, Goodwin’s playful delivery and clever integration of product pitches blurred the line between story and salesmanship. His exchanges with George and Gracie were not interruptions, but seamless parts of the show — moments where humor, charm, and promotion worked hand in hand.

    These clips reveal how Goodwin’s voice and timing made even an ad read feel like a punchline — a reminder that in the right hands, the commercial could become an art form.

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    13 m
  • The Illini Radio Guild: Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen|Thanksgiving Audio Drama

    The Illini Radio Guild: Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen|Thanksgiving Audio Drama
    Nov 25 2025
    Aired: November 26, 1946

    This week’s Old Time Radio Snack Wagon brings a Thanksgiving classic by O. Henry, adapted for radio by the Illini Radio Guild. The story follows Stuffy Pete — a down-on-his-luck New Yorker whose Thanksgiving tradition involves more than just a good meal — and an elderly gentleman determined to uphold a charitable custom.

    Set in the heart of turn of the 20th Century New York, this campus radio production captures both the warmth and the irony that made O. Henry famous. It’s a story about generosity, ritual, and the peculiar ways people show kindness — all with the twist you’d expect from one of America’s great short-story writers.

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    20 m
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