Old Time Radio

If you thought old time radio was long gone and dead think again. Older entertainment like old time radio shows are making a huge come back and they’re mainly making their debut online. Read on to learn more.

For anyone who grew up listening to old time radio shows today’s entertainment can seem a world away from the good, clean fun of the radio. The good news is that this variety of entertainment is definitely making a strong comeback, and it’s ironically taking place right online. The information super highway is leading the way for the comeback of an age old entertainment channel—radio.

Listening to the radio in the 40’s and 50’s people had a brand new way to hear news and stories in their home. One of the most popular forms of old time radio were mystery shows that would sometimes be broadcasted over several days in some cases. These mystery shows would involve either a murder or crime taking place and the mystery would be solved by the person narrating the “case.”

These shows were largely popular at the height of old time radio and they are now making a comeback right on the internet where users can stream or download real old time broadcasts of these shows. While there are some variations of these broadcasts on services like iTunes it’s really a better idea to use a site online that is dedicated to old-style radio broadcasts to make sure you get the highest quality audio recordings.

Today’s entertainment in contrast to the old style radio shows is significantly different. Broadcasts used to be clean, universal fun for everyone who listened in and the good news is that you can now bring back that same good quality entertainment for the entire family with nothing more than an internet connection, a home computer and some speakers to play the audio on.

If you’re worried you don’t have the knowledge to make one of these online sites work for you, rest assured it’s quite easy. Most of the online sites that offer downloadable or streaming broadcasts will let you use a media player that is most likely already installed on your computer. If not you can download a free media player like VLC or Winamp to play the audio from the site.

If you’re interested in getting access to entertainment that’s still wholesome without sacrificing entertainment value then checking out some dedicated old-time radio sites is a great way to get started. There is a growing demand for old time radio shows that reflect the values and entertainment of their day and there’s no better way to satisfy this need then by going right online

Do you want to access real old radio shows for free right online? Go to this website right now to get started and gain access to a large variety of shows you can download or stream straight to your home computer.

One of the most often repeated lines didn’t come from a political speech, a movie, or even a rock song, but from an old time radio show.  “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” was from a show that started in the 1930s.
 
The line was originally voiced by the narrator of a radio show called “Detective Story”. But the eerie character became so popular the show was the renamed “The Shadow”.

It was narrated by Frank Readick, Jr., and was accompanied by the  musical theme, Camille Saint-Saëns' Le Rouet d'Omphale ("Omphale's Spinning Wheel", composed in 1872). A sinister laugh was also heard from the ominous voice.

The sinister narrator was created to add interest in The Detective Hour radio show and boost sales of the Detective Story Magazine. However, people found the eerie character so compelling that they started asking for the “The Shadow” magazine, even though it didn’t exist.

The Shadow was a vigilante who fought crime using his psychic powers. On the radio show he had the power to seem invisible by influencing the minds of his enemies. Some his more popular nemeses were Kings of Crime and The Red Menace.

The mysteriously cloaked figure with the sinister voice was always clad in black and worked mostly at night. He had the power to defy gravity, unravel codes, speak any language, and had super-human strength.
 
Some of the most popular of The Shadow radio shows where the ones voiced by Orson Welles.

The character of The Shadow was so well loved that he was eventually featured in motion pictures, comic books, television shows, and even video games. The magician Walter B. Gibson wrote much of the material that turned The Shadow into a pulp icon. He wrote under the pen name Maxwell Grant and other writers eventually wrote the stories under the name, also.

At the end of each show The Shadow reminded listeners, "The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay.... The Shadow knows!"

Though the lines of The Shadow have remained famous, at one time it was heard to track down episodes of the radio show. But that is no longer true. Thanks to the internet you can now find copies of this and many other radio shows.

The Shadow ran until 1954 and is still a favorite show to many.

Listen to and download over 2,000 totally free old time radio shows, just visit our old time radio show website and our old time radio information blog today.