The Glory Days Of Radio Ride Again
By Elizabeth McDevitt
 Sundays evenings, my family listened to the Jack
Benny Show. We were in the kitchen, and the radio
was in the living room, so we turned up the volume
and were quiet, except to laugh, all together, every 60
seconds. And before dinner, we all gathered around
the radio to listen to Lowell Thomas or Walter
Winchell for the news. News, comedy, thrillers—the
radio was central to our lives.
And now I’m listening again.
To my sheer joy, I’ve found that many of those old
programs have been digitally remastered, and they
are even better the second time around.
There are several producers putting out these
classics, and my local station in Pittsburgh, Penn.,
KQV, carries them every evening of the week.
They are all broadcast nationwide, and with a little
twisting of the dial—or flipping the switch on your
computer—you can settle back in your easy chair,
listen, and use your imagination, which is not called
upon with television.
Here’s the scoop on the programs. “When Radio
Was,” put out by Radio Spirits, offers a variety of
the old favorites, those mentioned above, as well
as Superman, the Green Hornet, Lights Out (which
sometimes scares me), Boston Blackie, and one
of my favorites, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. The
commentator often gives the date of the original
broadcast, some going back to the 1930s, and it’s interesting to let your mind wander back to the year
and date.
Another regular program is Mystery Theater,
offering some of those listed above, and some
more great sleuths, such as Sam Spade, Richard
Diamond, (played by Dick Powell) and the Shadow,
and some fine series such as Lux Radio Theater and
the Twilight Zone. The program is hosted by British
actor Christopher Lee, who was in the Lord of the
Rings Trilogy and Star Wars II.
The third producer, Jim French, writes his own
material, in the grand style of classic radio for
Imagination Theater. He created his own detective,
Harry Nile, in 1976 and so began 26 years of
episodes. These also star Jim’s wife, Pat French, as
Harry’s admiring and quirky associate. You’ve got to
love Harry Nile. He’s had a hard life: kicked off the
Chicago police force, hounded by a dirty cop who
was on the take, battling his own gambling addiction,
even losing his bride of one year in a gun battle.
Jim French has also stepped into the mind of
Arthur Conan Doyle, and through an agreement with
the Doyle estate, is writing brilliant new Sherlock
Holmes stories. What more could you ask for? Well,
plenty, if you wish, because he has many more
programs and has written more than 500 original
scripts for radio.
If the programs are not available in your listening area, all of these producers have websites, and if you
are into hi-tech, you can download the programs, for
a small cost, onto your iPod or computer, or in some
cases, listen for free. However you do it, you’re in
for a rich experience.
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Elizabeth (Bette) McDevitt writes for magazines and
likes to knit while listening to the radio. Her favorite
spot on earth, next to Pittsburgh, is Iceland, even
when it is in disarray.
 "When Radio Was” can be heard on WGHC 1370
in Clayton, Ga., Sunday from 2 p.m. to
3 p.m. and on WYYZ 1490 Jasper, Ga., Monday
through Friday, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. You can
listen to the daily show free on the computer
at: http://www.radiospirits.com/, and you can
purchase downloads of past programs.
Mystery Theater, at present, doesn’t have
Georgia affiliates, but at their website
(http://www.mysterytheater.com/index.html),
you can listen to the current show free and
purchase past programs to download to your
computer or other devices.
Imagination Theater can be heard on WNRR
1230 AM, Augusta, Ga., Saturdays at 7:00 pm. If
that is not in your listening area, you can find it
on Satellite radio or go to
http://jimfrenchproductions.com/zc137m/,
where you can purchase CDs of the programs.
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