Wednesday, October 22, 2014

82


When I was 13 (man, I was the same age as Eli 13.3!), I was fiddling around with the radio one night and stumbled on a program called CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

I still remember sitting in the dark, listening to this program, the only light coming from the radio dial.

I'd never listened to a dramatic program on the radio before, and I was mesmerized. There's a measured pace to radio programs, a kind of breathing between beats, that lets the plot develop in a manner that can be quite gripping.

I listened to this program every night for weeks, then eventually went on to other interests, but I never lost the fond memories.

I have satellite radio in the Accord Hybrid, and a few days ago I stumbled onto a station called "Radio Classics" (Channel 82). It has a ton of old-time radio programs, and they're just as absorbing as when I was a kid.

Driving to pick up Eli 13.1 from school today, I heard an old program called "X Minus One". It's a science fiction program, and here's an interesting note about the shows:
The stories for the show came from two of the most popular science fiction magazines at the time; Astounding and Galaxy. Adaptations of these stories were performed by Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts. They even wrote a few original stories of their own. The writers of the magazine stories were not well known then but now are the giants of today. These stories came from the minds of Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Poul Anderson to name a few.

The episode I heard in the car today was called "A Logic Named Joe" (episode 31), and if you want a good example of the genre, there's a full archive of the show here.

If you have satellite radio, and want to listen to something relaxing (but engaging) in the car, this might be right up your alley.

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