• Retro Radio: Old Time Radio in the Dark

  • By: Darren Marlar
  • Podcast
Retro Radio: Old Time Radio in the Dark By cover art

Retro Radio: Old Time Radio in the Dark

By: Darren Marlar
Listen for free

  • Summary

  • Welcome to Retro Radio: Old Time Radio In The Dark! Here I bring you shows from the Golden Age of Radio in the darker genre. I’ll have classic radio of the macabre and horror, mysteries and crime, and even some dark science fiction.
    Weird Darkness, 2024
    Show more Show less
Episodes
  • “SUSPENSE!” 5-HOUR MARATHON 011 #WeirdDarkness #RetroRadio

    “SUSPENSE!” 5-HOUR MARATHON 011 #WeirdDarkness #RetroRadio
    May 4 2024
    Get full-length pulp audiobooks, pulp eBooks, and old-time radio shows ABSOLUTELY FREE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD by emailing WeirdDarkness@RadioArchives.com!

    When the dramatic anthology series "Suspense" premiered over CBS Radio on June 17, 1942, it did so as both a summer series and as a sustaining program. The network had no idea how well the series would perform - its only previous showcase was as an hour-long audition on the 1940 series "Forecast" - so running out and getting a sponsor didn’t seem to be important at that particular stage. Besides, in the show’s salad days, the guest stars that did appear were of considerably low wattage. But as "Suspense" grew in popularity and began to attract a more upscale acting clientele anxious to participate in “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills,” finding someone to pick up the weekly tab became a top priority for CBS. Luckily, in December 2, 1943, the series found its 'angel' in the sponsorship of Roma Wines. "Suspense’s" long association with Roma (and co-branded Cresta Blanca) was good for both the series and the company; a bigger budget attracted bigger guest stars and, as the program began to climb in the ratings, the company began to enjoy substantial profits. This fruitful arrangement came to an end on November 20, 1947. Roma had been admittedly seeing other programs behind "Suspense’s" back and the bright array of top Hollywood talent began to dim a bit as many of the stars began to tire of the program. CBS rolled the dice and took one heck of a chance in keeping "Suspense" on the air; the network still felt that the series was popular with audiences and they agreed to sustain the program until another sponsor could be found.How serious was CBS about keeping its prestige show? Beginning January 3, 1948, "Suspense" was moved to Saturday nights and was broadcast from 8:00 to 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. That’s right: a full hour of “Suspense.” Hour-long dramatic shows were a gamble at best; many stars tended to shun these programs - a half-hour show was grueling enough to get through - and only a few, "The Lux Radio Theater" being the best example, managed to continue on the air for very long. But Lux had a sponsor all too willing to write checks on a weekly basis...while CBS, without a sponsor to back them up, was still the sole support of "Suspense." What's more, the network learned soon enough that by doubling the show from half-hour to hour-long status, they had to double the pay of the individuals working on the show as well. (Networks, as a rule, cringe at the thought of giving money away.) To jazz up "Suspense," CBS hired actor Robert Montgomery to be the host and occasional performer, figuring that on the weeks when they had to resort to a less-than "A" list of guest stars, at least Montgomery would be around to provide a certain degree of glitter. Montgomery, at it turned out, made appearances in quite a few of the hour-long shows, including both the premiere, “The Black Curtain”, and most notably in “Night Must Fall”, which allowed him to reprise the role he had created in the 1937 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture of the same name. "Suspense’s" hour-long experiment closed up shop on May 15, 1948 and the show moved back to Thursday night in its familiar half-hour form through September 1962.
    00:00:00.000 = INTRODUCTION
    00:01:54.350 = The Ten Grand (June 22, 1944)00:31:15.744 = The Walls Came Tumbling Down (June 29, 1944)01:00:28.813 = The Search For Henri LeFevre (July 06, 1044)01:30:02.526 = The Beast Must Die (July 13, 1944)01:59:29.689 = The Black Shawl (July 27, 1944)02:28:49.817 = Banquo’s Chair (August 03, 1944)02:58:17.500 = The Diary of Saphronia Winters (August 17, 1944)03:27:47.412 = Black Path Of Fear (August 31, 1944)03:57:20.238 = Voyage Through Darkness (September 07, 1944)04:26:51.081 = You’ll Never See Me Again (September 14, 1944)
    SOURCES AND ESSENTIAL WEB LINKS…
    This episode is sponsored by http://RadioArchives.com
    Weird Darkness Retro Radio theme by Storyblocks.
    = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
    "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46
    WeirdDarkness® - is a registered trademark. Copyright, Weird Darkness, 2024.

    CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/suspense-marathon-011
    Show more Show less
    4 hrs and 57 mins
  • “X MINUS ONE” Multi-Episode Marathon 11 #WeirdDarkness #RetroRadio

    “X MINUS ONE” Multi-Episode Marathon 11 #WeirdDarkness #RetroRadio
    May 3 2024
    Get full-length pulp audiobooks, pulp eBooks, and old-time radio shows ABSOLUTELY FREE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD by emailing WeirdDarkness@RadioArchives.com!

    By the mid 1950s, science fiction had largely fallen into a familiar pattern, regardless of medium. When fans tuned into the radio or caught the latest science fiction movie, they either encountered space opera adventures or fare aimed largely at a juvenile audience. Only in magazines such as Astounding Science Fiction and Galaxy were stories grounded firmly in science fiction being told with mature themes aimed at character development, true literature taking off to the stars. The debut of X Minus One in April 1955 changed that on radio, making this program not only the best of its type, but in many ways one of the only shows from Radio’s Golden Age to present science fiction for a well-rounded adult audience. It is an often debated point among experts and fans as to whether or not X Minus One was simply a new season of Dimension X, a program that ran on NBC in 1950-51, or a revival of sorts of this previous show. The latter is probably more accurate since the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new productions of Dimension X episodes. What makes X Minus One stand out, however, is the fact that the remaining programs were actually adaptations of works from two of the best science fiction magazines of the period. NBC staff writers, primarily Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, scoured the pages of Astounding Science Fiction and then later Galaxy Magazine for tales that would thrill and chill their listeners, aiming most assuredly at the more sophisticated science fiction fans. Stories penned by noted science fiction and genre authors such as Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein, Frederik Pohl, and Isaac Asimov, and many others found themselves expertly adapted for radio over the program’s nearly three-year run. Listen to X Minus One and rocket to new heights of top-notch science fiction old time radio!

    00:00:00.000 = INTRODUCTION
    00:01:54.470 = The Embassy (July 28, 1955)
    00:25:49.998 = The Veldt (August 04, 1955)
    00:49:44.039 = Almost Human (August 11, 1955)
    01:13:13.099 = Courtesy (August 18, 1955)
    01:36:44.580 = Cold Equation (August 25, 1955)
    02:00:18.990 = Shanghaied (September 01, 1955)
    02:23:11.605 = The Martian Death March (September 08, 1955)
    02:46:33.950 = The Castaways (September 15, 1955)
    03:08:36.379 = The Moon Be Still As Bright (September 22, 1955)
    03:32:25.135 = First Contact (October 06, 1955)
    03:55:03.177 = Child’s Play (October 20, 1955)
    04:18:08.170 = Requiem (October 27, 1055)
    04:41:50.103 = Hello, Tomorrow (November 03, 1955)

    SOURCES AND ESSENTIAL WEB LINKS…
    This episode is sponsored by http://RadioArchives.com
    Weird Darkness Retro Radio theme by Storyblocks.
    = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
    "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46
    Find out how to escape eternal darkness at https://weirddarkness.com/eternaldarkness
    WeirdDarkness® - is a registered trademark. Copyright, Weird Darkness, 2024.
    = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
    CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/xminusone-marathon-011
    Show more Show less
    5 hrs and 6 mins
  • “INNER SANCTUM MYSTERIES” Multi-Episode Marathon 10 #WeirdDarkness #RetroRadio

    “INNER SANCTUM MYSTERIES” Multi-Episode Marathon 10 #WeirdDarkness #RetroRadio
    May 2 2024
    Get full-length pulp audiobooks, pulp eBooks, and old-time radio shows ABSOLUTELY FREE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD by emailing WeirdDarkness@RadioArchives.com!

    A creaking door and a chorus of haunting organ music. No radio show opening is more memorable for many fans than the one heard on Inner Sanctum Mysteries. This disturbing simple salvo led people into thirty minutes of suspense and horror sprinkled with puns from a creepy host, all of which can now be heard again in sparkling audio quality from Radio Archives.
    Inner Sanctum Mysteries was the brainchild of producer Himan Brown, inspired by the unsettling creaking door in the basement of a studio where he once worked. Brown took that inspiration and built around it a formula that lived on beyond the show itself. Listeners tuned in every week to hear that door open and be welcomed by the sinister, yet often humorous host to join him in a chair near the fire inside the Inner Sanctum for a story sure to chill them to the bone.
    Stories on Inner Sanctum Mysteries originally included both classic and original tales, the new stories taking center stage as the show continued. With writers like pulp scribes Emile Tepperman and Robert Newman, as well as Robert Sloan, Milton Lewis, and others, it is little surprise that Inner Sanctum is still beloved by fans today. Utilizing numerous clichés and literary devices, Inner Sanctum Mysteries carried listeners into the heart of horror, a liberal dose of camp often thrown in. Using voices ranging from star Boris Karloff to a veteran crew of New York radio actors, Inner Sanctum set the standard for horror programs both on radio and even inspired decades of horror hosts on television.
    Inner Sanctum Mysteries features some of the best of fright, terror, and fantastic storytelling old time radio has to offer!

    00:00:00.000 = INTRODUCTION
    00:01:54.794 = Over My Dead Body (June 23, 1947)
    00:26:33.106 = Till Death Do Us Part (October 27, 1947)
    00:55:25.238 = Death Out Of Mind (December 29, 1947)
    01:19:37.154 = Tempo In Blood (January 12, 1948)
    01:44:00.097 = Magic Tile (March 08, 1948)
    02:08:12.114 = Lady Killer (March 29, 1948)\
    02:32:40.929 = The Corpse Laughs Last (June 28, 1948)
    02:58:18.135 = Death Demon (July 05, 1948)
    03:28:00.959 = Eyes Of My Murderer (July 19, 1948)
    03:53:29.093 = Murder Takes A Honeymoon (July 26, 1948)
    04:17:39.242 = Murder Ship (August 02, 1948)
    04:42:54.281 = House Of Doom: AFR Version (August 09, 1948)

    SOURCES AND ESSENTIAL WEB LINKS…
    This episode is sponsored by http://RadioArchives.com
    Weird Darkness Retro Radio theme by Storyblocks.
    = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
    "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46
    Find out how to escape eternal darkness at https://weirddarkness.com/eternaldarkness
    WeirdDarkness® - is a registered trademark. Copyright, Weird Darkness, 2024.
    = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
    CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/innersanctum-marathon-010
    Show more Show less
    5 hrs and 8 mins
Drama & Plays Science Fiction
Show more Show less

What listeners say about Retro Radio: Old Time Radio in the Dark

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.com reviews

Amazon reviews
No Reviews are Available