Remembering Radio?

[kingzeppelin]

When I was a kid in the 1950's we did not have a TV so Radio was the only "outside" source of entertainment.
The family would gather around "the wireless", as it was called here in England, to be enthralled by dramatised stories such as Dick Barton (Special Agent), Journey Into Space, and The Man In Black. Or to laugh along with The Clitheroe Kid, The Navy Lark and the Goons.
A very innocent, and simple pleasure remembered by me with great nostalgia.

What about you, got any old Radio favourites?

 

[no bounce no play]

The Many Loves of Helen Trent - came on just before Arthur Godfry.

 

[FlakeNoir]

Badjelly the Witch ~ Spike Milligan

 

[GNTLGNT]

...I was born in '61, so the heyday of the radio drama had faded by then-but being in broadcasting my entire adult life has given me the unique opportunity to sample a great many of the archived selections and I still love....The Shadow....

 

[FlakeNoir]

...I was born in '61, so the heyday of the radio drama had faded by then-but being in broadcasting my entire adult life has given me the unique opportunity to sample a great many of the archived selections and I still love....The Shadow....

Morning TV in NZ didn't come about until much later, the radio programs continued on into the 80's. (I think?)

 

[days be strange]

You could probably try searching for it on archive.org they have a section for old radio programs.

Old Time Radio : Free Audio : Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

they have the CBS radio mystery hour for those interested

The CBS Radio Mystery Theater : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[king family fan]

We listened to the radio a lot as kids. But it was because we choose too.I still always play my radio. I could get by without a TV but not the radio.

 

[Walter Oobleck]

Television had firmly established itself as the leader in home entertainment when I was younger, so radio did not play as much a part in our lives as it did for the previous generation. What I recall as a teenager was trying to dial-in Wolfman Jack...on the AM dial...kind of like the search for extraterrestrials where I call home, out here on the perimeter (Michigan's Upper Peninsula). Anyway, Wolfman Jack was a disc jockey and he had a flamboyant style. If atmospheric conditions were ripe and we had a slow and easy hand on the dial, we'd be able to pick up WLS out of Chicago...either his home base...as I recall, that's what we thought at the time...or an affiliate that carried his show. Catching him on the airwaves seemed like a 50/50 proposition, at best.

Another radio days scene I remember is when my old man's older brother, Elmer, came up over the summer...from Maryland...to visit. Elmer and Aunt Catherine (and a pile of cousins) would stay up the hill at Grandma's, but they'd be at our house, too. Elmer and the old man would sit in the kitchen, a big yellow moon coming up over Torch Lake, the windows would be open, and in between calls from Ernie Harwell (Detroit Tigers' Baseball!) you could hear the crickets outside and maybe a coffee cup being set back on the table. I'd be in the living room, the sound of the television turned down low so I could eavesdrop on their...conversation...or in reality, the lack thereof. I wanted to hear what they'd talk about as the old man was the most reticent of men, steel and velvet, I only knew too well his steel and seldom did I feel any velvet...most of the time I didn't recognize it when it happened. Always thought it amazing that after the first initial brief exuberant greetings when Uncle Elmer and Aunt Catherine came in, my old man and uncle seemed to refrain from conversation altogether. I can imagine them listening to the radio as kids...something I know they did...because that was something the old man told me they did.

And then locally here, too...WMPL radio...pronounced wimple-radio...had a variety of call-in hours throughout their history. One was called Hot-Line, and as kids we'd gather on the front porch straddling the closed railing, picking at the waves of peeling lead-based paint, and waiting to hear one of our mothers call in to SuperBody (yeah...that was one of the radio personalities)...or MaryAnne. Torch Lake had been filled...almost...with tailings from the copper-mining heyday...tailings that blew into town when the wind blew...so mothers hanging the wash on the line'd be upset when the wind blew and they had to run out to gather in the laundry. With windows open summer, everything in the house'd be coated with a fine layer of gritty dirt. Through the years, a variety of solutions were experimented with...but it wasn't until the area was listed as a SuperFund site that money was provided to cover "the sands" as we called them...and now they're "waterfront lots". Go figure.

 

[kingzeppelin]

The Many Loves of Helen Trent - came on just before Ar

Television had firmly established itself as the leader in home entertainment when I was younger, so radio did not play as much a part in our lives as it did for the previous generation. What I recall as a teenager was trying to dial-in Wolfman Jack...on the AM dial...kind of like the search for extraterrestrials where I call home, out here on the perimeter (Michigan's Upper Peninsula). Anyway, Wolfman Jack was a disc jockey and he had a flamboyant style. If atmospheric conditions were ripe and we had a slow and easy hand on the dial, we'd be able to pick up WLS out of Chicago...either his home base...as I recall, that's what we thought at the time...or an affiliate that carried his show. Catching him on the airwaves seemed like a 50/50 proposition, at best.

Another radio days scene I remember is when my old man's older brother, Elmer, came up over the summer...from Maryland...to visit. Elmer and Aunt Catherine (and a pile of cousins) would stay up the hill at Grandma's, but they'd be at our house, too. Elmer and the old man would sit in the kitchen, a big yellow moon coming up over Torch Lake, the windows would be open, and in between calls from Ernie Harwell (Detroit Tigers' Baseball!) you could hear the crickets outside and maybe a coffee cup being set back on the table. I'd be in the living room, the sound of the television turned down low so I could eavesdrop on their...conversation...or in reality, the lack thereof. I wanted to hear what they'd talk about as the old man was the most reticent of men, steel and velvet, I only knew too well his steel and seldom did I feel any velvet...most of the time I didn't recognize it when it happened. Always thought it amazing that after the first initial brief exuberant greetings when Uncle Elmer and Aunt Catherine came in, my old man and uncle seemed to refrain from conversation altogether. I can imagine them listening to the radio as kids...something I know they did...because that was something the old man told me they did.

And then locally here, too...WMPL radio...pronounced wimple-radio...had a variety of call-in hours throughout their history. One was called Hot-Line, and as kids we'd gather on the front porch straddling the closed railing, picking at the waves of peeling lead-based paint, and waiting to hear one of our mothers call in to SuperBody (yeah...that was one of the radio personalities)...or MaryAnne. Torch Lake had been filled...almost...with tailings from the copper-mining heyday...tailings that blew into town when the wind blew...so mothers hanging the wash on the line'd be upset when the wind blew and they had to run out to gather in the laundry. With windows open summer, everything in the house'd be coated with a fine layer of gritty dirt. Through the years, a variety of solutions were experimented with...but it wasn't until the area was listed as a SuperFund site that money was provided to cover "the sands" as we called them...and now they're "waterfront lots". Go figure.

Great post Walter, thanks for sharing your radio memories so vividly.

 

[jacobtlong]

Radio? What is that again?

 

[Neesy]

Radio? What is that again?

 

[kingzeppelin]

Freddie Mercury obviously had very fond memories of Radio, these lyrics sum up perfectly what Radio meant to people prior to the TV/Internet age.

 

[no bounce no play]

If atmospheric conditions were ripe and we had a slow and easy hand on the dial, we'd be able to pick up WLS out of Chicago...

Double-you-ell-essss...
lol, it's been forever since I lived in Chicago but I still keep expecting to hear that station ID before and after the news. Did you ever catch Chickenman?

 

[GNTLGNT]

...ummm yeah!...

 

[fljoe0]

I was born in 1961 and besides music, my main use for radio was sports. There wasn't the 24/7 coverage of sports (it was more like 3/2 coverage ) like today, so radio was the way to follow your team. I was and still am an Atlanta Braves fan (probably because Florida had no team and the local radio station carried most of the Braves games). NFL home games were not televised, so I listened to Dolphins home games on the radio. One of the Braves announcers was Ernie Johnson (father of the TNT guy). I heard Carlton Fisk's home run on the radio as well as Hank's 715. There was only 1 TV in a house in those days so it was kind of hard to talk mom into watching baseball so most of the world series games were heard on the radio.

 

[no bounce no play]

...ummm yeah!...

That's It!

 

[Walter Oobleck]

Double-you-ell-essss...
lol, it's been forever since I lived in Chicago but I still keep expecting to hear that station ID before and after the news. Did you ever catch Chickenman?

I was ready to say "no" until I played GNTLGNT'S link...and yeah, I remember that now. There's some great stuff on NPR about 6 PM e.s.t. Did you know Henry Kissinger is from Bismarck, North Dakota?

 

[Walter Oobleck]

Was sitting in the truck at lunch-time listening to the radio...have had it tuned to NPR for a time now...something different. In the post above, #17, I mention a show on NPR at 6 p.m. Heard a commercial today--the show is Prairie Home Companion...or is it also called Lake Wobegon Days? Anyway, I've caught that a few times driving back from the woods 6-ish on a Saturday evening...

I think I tried listening to his show, Garrison Keillor, years ago...late seventies...and I thought he was off his rocker...so either we're both off our rockers or something...as I thought the few programs I've caught on Saturday...actually only a part of the program...thought they were a hoot.

 

[SharonC]

I remember a show when I was a kid in the 60's called "Radio's Golden Hour" which played on our local radio station - Absolutely got me hooked on The Shadow, Boston Blackie, The Lone Ranger and some of the old comedies Molly McGee and Fibber. Made me wish I had been born back in that time.

 

[Nerich]

The Hand Of Simeon Botar is from the 1950s but I used to listen to repeats on Friday nights in my bedroom staying up all night in the late 1970s/early 80s.