The Blog of Daniel

Just my place to write without any delusions of self-importance.

Video Killed the Radio Star

When I was in high school my friend Michael introduced me to various new aspects of radio.  He never said anything specifically about it, but whenever I went over to his house he or his mother was listening to KGO NewsTalk 810 from San Francisco.  Until then, I thought radio was only about music but they used it to fill their minds with what was happening in the world instead of numbing their minds with television.  They were the very first family I ever knew who did not own a television.

One of the shows we did talk about was the Radio Mystery Theater show that was played on one of our local stations.  Radio Mystery Theater was a weekly radio play performed like they were done in the pre-television radio era.  It was something that my grand parents could relate to and it made me feel nostalgic, even if it all happened decades before I or even my parents were born.On Friday nights we would both listen to Ron Owens do his Rock Trivia and Truth or Fiction shows.  On the latter show, people would call in and tell a story which the host would then have to guess if it was real or made up.  It's was fun.  We never discussed any of that either but I heard Michael call in a few times so I knew he was listening too.  I even heard him call in once years after his college days to one of my favorite hosts, Gene Rusco.

A few weeks ago I found the Old Time Radio Fans site which has archives of thousands of old radio shows available for download in MP3 format.  I got to listen to some of the shows I missed and a couple of radio variety programs from the 30's and 40's.  Check it out, it's just cool and makes me very happy.

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