/r/otr

Photograph via snooOG

Old Time Radio (OTR) refers to a period of radio programming lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until the rise of television broadcasting in the late 1950s.

Adventure, comedy, drama, horror, mystery, romance, thrillers. Old Time Radio aims to recreate the spirit of that era by linking to the best of radio broadcasting both old and new.

OLD TIME RADIO

Old Time Radio refers to a period of radio programming lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until the rise of television broadcasting in the late 1950s. Adventure, comedy, drama, horror, mystery, romance, thrillers and sports. /r/OTR aims to recreate the spirit of that era by linking to the best of radio broadcasting both old and new. So gather round the radio with us and tune in your favorites.

Subreddit of the Day: December 14th, 2014

Tiny Subreddit of the Day: September 26th, 2014

RULES

Follow reddiquette.

Post direct links to individual show streams. No downloads or bulk show bundles.

Discussion is encouraged. Arguing is Tolerated. Rudeness and name calling is NOT.

Spam/blogspam will be deleted immediately.

DAILY CALENDAR

  • Mystery Mondays
  • Action/Adventure Tuesdays
  • Comedy Wednesdays
  • Cops & Robbers Thursdays
  • Movie Night Fridays
  • Horror/Thriller/Sci-fi Saturdays
  • Western Sundays

HALL OF FAME EPISODES

WEBSITES

PODCASTS

IOS

ANDROID

WINDOWS PHONE

FRIENDS OF OTR

/r/otr

9,182 Subscribers

7

Looking for help clarifying copyright status.

Hiya. I'm hoping someone here can help me out. I'm wanting to extensively sample episodes of the Red Skelton Program for use in a music project, but I can't quite tell if his radio show is in the public domain. I did some searches in the Stanford Library Copyright Renewal database but found zero results for even searching just Red Skelton's name, and the Library of Congress' database yielded no results as well.

Archive.org has the license listed as Creative Commons for at least one episode (https://archive.org/details/RedSkeltonTheSadTexan/RS\_511205\_People\_Who\_Brag.mp3), but I want to make entirely sure of this before just assuming it all was CC.

7 Comments
2024/11/09
15:48 UTC

18

Lucille Ball's MY FAVORITE HUSBAND CHRISTMAS SPECIAL ๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ…โœจLiz Sews a Sweater for George and holiday comedy ensues | Vintage Radio Classic

2 Comments
2024/11/08
16:23 UTC

11

Alone in Dracula's Castle: A Terrifying Diary Entry | Orson Welles' Dracula Radio Theatre (1938)

0 Comments
2024/11/08
13:46 UTC

17

November 7, 1937: Philco Radios Advertisement

0 Comments
2024/11/07
10:52 UTC

4

Tonight at 10pm EST/7pm PST The Decker Northcutt Case Files: Case#4 Part 7 of 9. This is part of a series I write and narrate. It's A Crime Noir Detective Story told in an Old Time Radio style for modern listeners. It also has horror and supernatural elements in it. YouTube & podcast

1 Comment
2024/11/06
17:43 UTC

8

A Christmas Carol Radio Play | Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge | Classic 1939 Audio Drama

2 Comments
2024/11/06
12:37 UTC

5

Heartbreaking Moment: Arthur Realizes Lucy is a Vampire | Orson Welles' 1938 Dracula Radio Play

0 Comments
2024/11/06
12:30 UTC

21

NEW "Madison on the Air" Modern day girl gets zapped into OTR. This time it's 1870's Arizona where she meets the Man Called Paladin

1 Comment
2024/11/04
19:19 UTC

7

Desperately seeking Christmas skit

Hi everyone, new here. I was wondering if anyone knew an old Christmas sketch, singer goes to producer wanting to record new Christmas song. The producer completely commercializes it and singer leaves crying. Producer version is hey nanny nanny donโ€™t you frown, I got your goat in Allentown. It is definitely not from Green Christmas. I would love help with this, been 40 years since I heard it! I desperately try to find it every year... my family thinks I am nuts!

Additional info:

It was in a montage of Christmas sketches... Green Christmas was one of them, this was mixed in after. It only is maybe 5 - 10 minutes long. The whole thing takes place at the producers office. The singer (a man) wants to record a christmas song... The character keeps trying to sing the song, but keeps getting interrupted by the producer for changes to make it more commercial, etc. There is a part where he says na na na na and the producer says something along the lines of "You added a character!" and the singer says "Huh?" and the producer say "A nanny goat!". Then, the musician finally gives up and leaves crying after the producer suggests "hey nanny nanny donโ€™t you frown, I got your goat in Allentown". I do remember that the singer sings a part about "in Bethlehem" and the producer doesn't know where Bethlehem is, so he changes it to Allentown.

8 Comments
2024/11/04
17:36 UTC

12

Looking for episode

Its about this man the walks into a bar or something alike and meets this man where this particular man is able to give money to the amount of years the man has to live for. The catch was that he is not able to know how many years he has to live. The man begins to live an extravegant life. He eventually starts to run low. Towards the end of the episode, the man makes a deal where in order to stay alive, he has to kill people (sell his soul) in order to gain the amount of years they have left to live to exchange for his. I see that this is a big community considered people have an interest in this old time radio shows

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

3 Comments
2024/11/04
02:06 UTC

7

King Kong Radio Play (1933): A Cinematic Clash of Nature & Civilization

0 Comments
2024/11/03
21:44 UTC

26

Best sinister laugh

I wait with anticipation for his Skeletor-esque laugh.

0 Comments
2024/11/02
22:22 UTC

17

Orson Welles Stars in Dracula 1938 | Full Vintage Radio Drama | YesterHear Classics | Suspense Radio

2 Comments
2024/11/02
13:31 UTC

10

Lum and Abner's Hilarious Election Episode | Classic Radio Comedy for Election Season 2024

0 Comments
2024/11/01
18:25 UTC

5

SPERDVAC Launches Fundrazr Campaign to Support 50th Anniversary Convention

The Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy (SPERDVAC) is launching a Fundrazr campaign to support an in-person convention to celebrate 50 years as a classic radio organization.

Our projected target date is May 1-4, 2025 at the Samโ€™s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This can only happen with your financial support.The expenses required to run an in-person, four day event in 2025 are high. We need to raise $95,000 before December 31, 2024 to meet the cost of holding this event and make it affordable to attendees.

Our Fundrazr page includes details of the venue, the fundraising campaign, the levels of sponsorship and the benefits of sponsor participation. Please spread the word and forward this message to whomever you know who might be interested in supporting our campaign

Your support is essential to make this event a reality and provide an opportunity to salute the people who made SPERDVAC a premier institution for classic radio.

Please click here to support the campaign for this four day event and to learn more about rewards you can earn through your sponsorship.

https://fundrazr.com/sperdvac50th?ref=ab_dDUtDc

Best,

Tim Knofler
President
SPERDVAC
info@sperdvac.com

6 Comments
2024/11/01
15:00 UTC

12

The Shadow (Brought to You by Blue Coal)

As spooky season comes to a close it's quite fun to listen to one of the most popular mystery thrillers of the golden era of radio on one of the best receivers money could buy back in 1937: The Stromberg-Carlson 130-J

0 Comments
2024/11/01
06:50 UTC

9

Relaxing Crackling Campfire Night: Edith Wharton's 'The Maid's Bell' Haunting Radio Play

0 Comments
2024/11/01
02:17 UTC

8

(EP17) The Mercury Theatre On The Air: "The War Of The Worlds"

0 Comments
2024/10/31
02:30 UTC

6

Looking for live radio Halloween Specials - not audio dramas

Hello,

I'm looking for live Halloween Special of old time radio.

Specifically maybe smaller local news radio stations going out on the streets interviewing people, playing Halloween themed music, talking about Halloween, etc...

Does anything like this exist?

0 Comments
2024/10/30
13:47 UTC

27

Sunday, October 30, 1938: The Mercury Theater on the Air.....7:00pm.....WCCO

4 Comments
2024/10/30
09:46 UTC

14

Is there an Old Time Radio Day? If not, I hereby declare Oct 30 to be annnual Old Time Radio Day (because of, you know...). #OldTimeRadioDay

Pass it on!

4 Comments
2024/10/30
08:51 UTC

8

July 1931: KSTP Radio Coverage of Keller Open Golf Tournament, Maplewood, MN.

0 Comments
2024/10/29
22:32 UTC

5

Trying to remember the name of a spooky episode - don't even know which program!

But I do remember the plot, somewhat vaguely... it's told in flashback, about a "great white hunter" type who kills? or otherwise gravely sins against? an african prince or priest, and is thus cursed, and has been trying to flee the magic - i have a feeling that he ends up dead in a rundown hotel in an english port? Does this sound familiar to anyone else at all? Thanks!

5 Comments
2024/10/29
18:51 UTC

8

Help me find this thriller episode

Help me old time radio fans, you're my only hope! I used to listen to all sorts of radio broadcasts as a kid on WAMU. Now I've been trying to recollect some episodes so that I can expose some of my friends to it in time for Halloween.

This episode is a short story about a script writer who got his dream job: working under a infamous director of some weekly detective story (forgot if it was for television or radio). The job ended up being very stressful since he couldn't satisfy the perfectionist director with his ideas. At one point, he had this ingenious idea of having the murder weapon be some poison that was hidden in envelope adhesive, but the director rejected it despite the writer's enthusiasm. The job was so taxing that his girlfriend/wife left him, which I believe ended up being the breaking point for the writer. So while they were on set about to broadcast an episode, the scriptwriter gave the director some gum, which he had hidden the same poison from his pitched idea from earlier. As the director laid dying and everyone else was in a panic, the script writer leered over him about how he concocted the perfect murder weapon. I don't remember exactly how it ended, but the writer never got caught.

There are definitely other ones I can pull up but this story I remember in particular. I got Three Skeleton Keys (Suspense) and Mars is Heaven (X Minus One). If you can't tell me where this story came from, can you send me another good story my way?

EDIT: TY all for the suggestions but the answer was Mysterious Traveler - Murder is My Business thanks to sarcasm-o-rama!

EDIT 2: Even though it wasn't the episode I was asking about, A Murderous Revision was an *excellent* listen!

9 Comments
2024/10/29
18:12 UTC

5

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1954) | Full Sci-Fi Radio Play

0 Comments
2024/10/29
16:00 UTC

3

Looking for a specific thriller/mystery episode...

The story was about a school teacher in a small town who gets a new pupil who loves poetry and literature, and seems to have been quite sheltered up to this point. She (the student) lives out in the boonies, and he (the teacher) goes to her house to talk to her parents.>!He finds out they're monsters (maybe vampires) and I don't think he survives.!<

There was a ilne repeated in the episode that was something to the effect of she's "an odd girl". Her name was something like Nola or Nora, so it would have been like "Nora is an odd girl".

Ring any bells?

3 Comments
2024/10/29
03:56 UTC

12

The Birds (1953) Radio Play | chilling classic that inspired Alfred Hitchcock renowned film.

0 Comments
2024/10/29
02:23 UTC

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