Listen To It Now! Classic Radio Shows (1934 - 1995)

Blow is a list of classic radio shows that are currently available to stream or download, thanks the love and dedication of fans and historians world wide. Get your popcorn ready, turn off all the lights, and prepare for some excellent stories that will surely transport you to another world.

Simply click on the series header links below - they will take you to the Internet Archive were you can choose which episodes you'd like to listen to.

Nighty Night!

Last updated September 15, 2016 with 12 radio programs.



From Internet Archive: Chet Chetter's Tales from the Morgue is a series of short stories as told by an old obliging morgue attendant, licensed embalmer and resident story teller named Chet Chetter to a passing stranger of the night played by you the listener. The stories Chet relates to us are all quite fanciful. They deal with topics that would be classified supernatural and science fiction. They border on outrageous but that is how they are meant to be.

Roughly half of the shows feature a nice, likeable, rural southern manure hauler by the name of Elmer Korn who always finds himself involved in some inane predicament. The creators of the series themselves admit the show is rather off-beat but, you will find, not without it’s own charm which lies within the humorous writing and the recurring characters. (1980 - 1995)

Dark Fantasy:

From The Internet Archive: Dark Fantasy was a short series with tales of the weird, adventures of the supernatural, created for you by Scott Bishop. The series aired as a horror drama on NBC between 1941 and 1942.



From Wikipedia: Lights Out is an American old-time radio program devoted mostly to horror and the supernatural.  Created by Wyllis Cooper and then taken over by Arch Oboler, versions of Lights Out aired on different networks, at various times, from January 3, 1934 to the summer of 1947 and the series eventually made the transition to television. Lights Out was one of the earliest radio horror programs, predating Suspense and Inner Sanctum.


Incredible, But True:

From Internet Archive: This series consisted of 15 minute shows, similar in format to Ripley's Believe It Or Not that had aired from 1930 to 1948. It was hosted/narrated by Ken Nordine and was produced by Unusual Features Syndicate.

From Radio Horror Hosts: Incredible, But True was a series that recreated urban legend type stories in radio drama form, complete with cast, organ music, and sound effects. The short radio dramas would tell of some sort of unexplained phenomena that was mysterious and yet, true (supposedly). The host /narrator was Ken Nordine (who later become famous narrating the surreal spoken word series, Word Jazz). The syndicated series was produced by "Unusual Features Syndicate" and ran from 1950 to 1951 on Mutual.




Inner Sanctum Mysteries:

From Wikipedia: Inner Sanctum Mystery, also known as Inner Sanctum, a popular old-time radio program that aired from January 7, 1941 to October 5, 1952, was created by producer Himan Brown and was based on the imprint given to the mystery novels of Simon and Schuster.
From Internet Archive: The anthology series featured stories of mystery, terror and suspense, and its tongue-in-cheek introductions were in sharp contrast to shows like Suspense and The Whistler. The early 1940s programs opened with Raymond Edward Johnson introducing himself as, "Your host, Raymond," in a mocking sardonic voice.


Molle Mystery Theater:

From Internet Archive: NBC's Mystery Theatre began airing with much fanfare on September 7, 1943. The series promised stories from the greatest classical and contemporary mystery authors -- and production values to match. And it kept its promise. It was aided from the outset by the addition of an 'annotator'-- as it was described in the 1940s --named Geoffrey Barnes. The annotator served in the role of expositor, filling in on the plot development as necessary and providing a back-story when needed.



Mystery House:

From Internet Archive: Mystery House was a program in the 1950s, but not your "run of the mill"-type program. Actually, it was more of a proving ground for novels. Dan and Barbara Glenn owned a publishing company named "Mystery House" located at 70 Park Avenue, New York City. Dan and Barbara decided to test some of their novels on a real listening audience. Each episode was taken from a novel they were planning on publishing. The entire staff at Mystery House was involved, everyone doing their part, whether it was rewriting to adapt it to radio, playing the parts, or doing sound effects -- everyone joined in.



Quiet, Please!

From the Internet Archive: Quiet, Please! was a radio fantasy and horror program created by Wyllis Cooper, also known for creating Lights Out. Ernest Chappell was the show's announcer and lead actor. Quiet, Please! debuted June 8, 1947 on the Mutual Broadcasting System, and its last episode was broadcasted June 25, 1949 on ABC. A total of 106 shows were broadcasted, with only a very few of them repeats. Earning relatively little notice during its initial run, Quiet Please! has since been praised as one of the finest efforts of the golden age of American radio drama.



The Sealed Book:

From Internet Archive: The Sealed Book was a radio series of mystery and terror tales, produced and directed by Jock MacGregor for the Mutual network. Between March 18 and September 9, 1945, the melodramatic anthology series was broadcast on Sundays from 10:30pm to 11:00pm.




Suspense:

From Internet Archive: The show was on the air for a little over twenty years beginning in January, 1942 and was rarely pre-empted. There were 947 performances. Nearly all (approximately 895) are available to collectors. When Suspense left the air, radio was never to see the likes of such a series again.




The Weird Circle:

From Internet Archive: The Weird Circle was a 30-minute, syndicated, supernatural/fantasy series that ran from 1943 through 1945. There were 78 episodes produced.  The show's strength was stories from famous writers of the two genres, including Robert Lewis Stevenson, Victor Hugo, Edgar Alan Poe and even Charles Dickens. Most all of the stories came from the Victorian era or older.One of the more unusual aspects of the show was that there was no music, other than between scenes. Some have claimed that this lack of music helps to keep the show from being 'dated' and it remains fresh to this day. 


The Whistler:

From Wikipedia: The Whistler is an American radio mystery drama which ran from May 16, 1942, until September 22, 1955, on the west-coast regional CBS radio network. The show was also broadcast in Chicago and over Armed Forces Radio. On the west coast, it was sponsored by the Signal Oil Company: "That whistle is your signal for the Signal Oil program, The Whistler." There were also two short-lived attempts to form east-coast broadcast spurs: July 3 to September 25, 1946, sponsored by the Campbell Soup Company; and March 26, 1947, to September 29, 1948, sponsored by Household Finance. The program was also adapted into a film noir series by Columbia Pictures in 1944.

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