The Good Old Days of Radio Show

Today, John Tefteller sits down with Jerry Haendiges, one of the true pioneers of vintage radio collecting and preservation. Jerry takes you back to the very beginning, when he was literally rescuing transcription discs from radio stations in 1965, back when a lot of places were just tossing them out. He talks about the formation of SPERDVAC (one of the major groups dedicated to saving radio drama), and why digitizing rare recordin...

This week, we continue our look at the brilliant and often overlooked series Crime Classics. Host John Tefteller is joined again by experts Karl Schadow and Steven C. Smith to spotlight the August 1953 episode "Your Loving Son, Nero." They dig into the “quadruple threat” talent of Elliott Lewis and the unforgettable music of Bernard Herrmann, who made a small ensemble sound like a full orchestra. Then we hear the episode itself, a ...

Ready for a little St. Patrick’s Day time travel? Today we are bringing you a 1949 broadcast made for St. Patrick’s Day, hosted by Ray Milland and starring Edmund Gwenn as the storyteller. The story is a whimsical fable called “The Leprechaun Who Didn’t Listen,” and it follows Johnny, a young leprechaun (played by Alan Young) who just will not take advice from his elders or teachers… and keeps paying the price for it.

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We’re kicking off a brand-new ten-week series, this time diving into the 1953 program Crime Classics. Host John Tefteller is joined by two guests, researcher Karl Schadow and biographer Steven C. Smith, to explore how producer Elliott Lewis created one of radio's most unique historical crime dramas, and how composer Bernard Herrmann managed to make it sound epic using only a handful of musicians. This week’s featured episode takes ...

It’s time for some classic deadpan radio comedy served extra dry. Today we're bringing you two original Bob and Ray Show recordings from August 1951, played straight off vintage AFRS transcription discs. And if you’ve never heard Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding in their early days, this is the perfect intro. You’ll hear sketches like an “ad” for a dual-purpose swimming pool table, plus a fake Adult School o...

This is the final episode of Carlton E. Morse's Adventures By Morse syndicated radio serial, The Cobra King Strikes Back. And after 10 weeks of scary adventures in the Cambodia jungles, ancient temples, and gorillas and werewolves, it feels like a hard-earned rescue… but in this type of pulse-pounding, high-octane story, the relief never lasts long.

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Today, host John Tefteller and radio historian Dr. Joe Webb uncover another rare find; a long-lost episode of the hit 1940s crime drama “Mr. District Attorney.” This one’s been missing for decades until recently discovered in a private collector’s stash. John and Dr. Webb go into the history behind the series and how it became one of the most popular crime shows of its time. They also talk about why so many East Coast programs from...

We're nearing the end of our 10-part adventure Carlton E. Morse 1944 serial in the jungles of Cambodia today. In this chapter, Captain Friday and the crew make a desperate break for it, trying to escape an ancient temple that’s been taken over by a twisted priesthood of men who’ve become something far more savage than human. Their guide, Taquan, a man caught between Western learning and his own fading traditions, leads them through...

It’s time to hang out with one of radio’s original troublemakers. In this episode, we’re spinning The Henry Morgan Show from May 16, 1950, hosted by the “bad boy of radio” himself, Henry Morgan. He’s sharp, irreverent, and famous for taking shots at pretty much everything… including his own sponsors (when he actually had them). Morgan’s joined by Art Carney and Arnold Stang, and the show's packed with sk...

We've made it to chapter 8 of Carlton E. Morse's Adventures By Morse serial. Things get a lot darker as Captain Friday and the rest of the expedition are holed up inside a remote Cambodian temple, cut off from the outside world. As night falls, the conversation turns to local legends—stories of werewolves, human beasts, and ancient curses—made all the more unsettling by strange howls echoing through the jungle. Another pure pulp cl...

It’s Tuesday, so it's back to zany comedy 1940s radio style. This time it's an October 1944 episode of It Pays to Be Ignorant, the “quiz show” where a panel of so-called experts take moronic questions and proudly give the most ridiculous answers possible. And this week’s twist? They’ve got composer Deems Taylor in the mix, acting as the classy, unbothered foil. Expect goofy musical bits, comedians heckli...

The pulp radio adventures of Captain Friday and Skip Turner continue today. The crew finally learn the truth behind their so-called kidnapping, and Patricia and Celia swear they were confronted by a savage, beast-like man in their room. The Cobra King Strikes Back was the second 10-part Carlton E. Morse syndicated series that followed briefly after the first run of Morse's better known serial, I Love A Mystery.

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Happy Valentine's! It's been awhile, but today we're back... marching through another great 1947 episode of The Jack Benny Program. But of course because it's Valentine's Day, and Valentine's Day is Jack Benny's birthday, we picked it up. In this episode the gang does a hilarious parody of the movie The Egg and I. And because it’s 1947, Lucky Strike cigarette ads worked right into the comedy.

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The wild goings-on continue in today's chapter of Carlton E. Morse's Adventures By Morse radio serial. Captain Friday and the rest of the expedition are still prisoners, driven deeper into the Cambodian jungle. Wild ponies, narrow jungle trails, and a secret passage hidden behind a waterfall all stand between them and whatever fate awaits. The journey ends inside Hollow Mountain itself, where the prisoners are forced up swaying lad...

John Tefteller and radio historian Dr. Joe Webb are back with another “lost and found” classic: a 1948 episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade. This one was missing for decades until it turned up on an Armed Forces Radio Service transcription disc, and it’s based on Dashiell Hammett’s short story The House in Turk Street. John and Dr. Webb dig into the behind-the-scenes history, from the show’s production quirks and cast lineup to H...

Our pulp escapade into the imagination of Carlton E. Morse continues today with chapter five of Adventures by Morse. Captain Friday and the rest of the expedition wake up as prisoners inside a forgotten Cambodian temple, hauled there by a roaming bandit caravan and at the mercy of the jungle. What follows is a run of vanishing companions, hidden trap doors, and underground passages crawling with things you definitely don’t want to ...

Today we're following up on our commitment to finish the 15-episode run of The Stan Freberg Show. This episode is basically roasting its own cancellation. In the process, Freberg gives an early demonstration of what a brilliant mind he had for creative advertising with wonderfully ridiculous fake ads for “Instant Freberg.” They also do a hardboiled detective spoof called “Sam Spelade.” John wraps things ...

On this episode of The Good Old Days of Radio Show, we plunge deeper into The Cobra King Strikes Back as our jungle adventure continues. After being ambushed at the ruins of Angkor Thom, the ancient walled city in Cambodia that once served as the heart of the Khmer Empire, the team finds itself swept away by a massive caravan into the remote wilderness. Held in stone chambers deep in the jungle, the group must battle fear, fatigue ...

We’re back with part two of John Tefteller’s conversation with Bob Lynes and Barbara Sunday, the dynamic duo behind the long-running Los Angeles radio show Don’t Touch That Dial. This time, they touch on the golden age of radio’s big revival during the ’70s through ’90s. Bobb and Barbara share stories from those early preservation days, the tricky business of royalties and archives, and what it was like to meet the original writers...