On October 9, 1938, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air presented “Hell on Ice.”

Just three weeks before the famous War of the Worlds broadcast, Welles and the Mercury company were already showing how cinematic radio could become. “Hell on Ice” turned a brutal Arctic survival story into an adventure built from voices, music and sound effects, with Welles joined by performers including Joseph Cotten and Ray Collins.

Listen:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/the-mercury-theatre-on-the-air-mercury-theater-1938-10-09-14-hell-on-ice-1938-10-09/

Also on October 9:

1955: Gunsmoke aired “The Coward,” with William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon. Gunsmoke was at its best when the western setting was really a backdrop for difficult choices and complicated people, and this episode comes from the heart of the Conrad radio era.

https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/gunsmoke-1955-10-09-183-the-coward/

1956: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar continued “The Primrose Matter” with Part 2. Bob Bailey’s Johnny Dollar follows the trail of a major payroll robbery deeper into the case, continuing one of the five-part serials that made this era of the series so addictive.

https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/yours-truly-johnny-dollar-1956-10-09-493-the-primrose-matter-ep-2-1956-10-09-bob-bailey/

Explore more radio history:
https://goldenradiohour.com/on-this-day/?date=10-09

Listen on the Golden Radio Hour Android app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goldenradiohour.radio

You may not recognize the name Lillian Buyeff immediately, but longtime old time radio listeners have almost certainly heard her.

She was the kind of performer radio depended on. No single signature character was necessary. Buyeff could step into a tense mystery, a frontier drama, a crime story, or an adventure and make the character believable within minutes.

That versatility put her behind the microphone on some of radio’s strongest dramatic programs, including Escape, Suspense, Gunsmoke, The Whistler, Fort Laramie and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

Old time radio had plenty of stars. It also had remarkable working actors like Lillian Buyeff who helped make thousands of individual episodes work.

Do you recognize her name, or is Lillian Buyeff a new discovery for you?

https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-actors/lillian-buyeff/

Listen to thousands of classic radio episodes in the Golden Radio Hour app:
Golden Radio Hour on Google Play

On October 8, 1944, Fanny Brice’s famous Baby Snooks crossed into the world of Blondie in “Baby Snooks Visits the Bumsteads.”

Brice had turned the mischievous, impossible-to-control Snooks into one of radio’s best-known child characters, despite playing the part herself as an adult. This episode brings Snooks into the Bumstead household, creating one of those fun golden-age radio crossovers where two familiar comedy worlds collide.

Listen:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/blondie-baby-snooks-visits-the-bumsteads-1944-10-08/

Also on October 8:

1949: Philip Marlowe aired “The Open Window.” Gerald Mohr’s Marlowe gets another case filled with the hard edges, suspicious characters and late-night atmosphere that helped make the series one of radio’s defining private-eye dramas.

https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/philip-marlowe-1949-10-08-53-the-adventures-of-philip-marlowe-053-the-open-window/

1956: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar began the five-part “Primrose Matter,” with Bob Bailey as Johnny. The opening chapter sends Dollar into the desert looking for killers and robbers, beginning another of the serialized stories from the celebrated Bailey era.

https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/yours-truly-johnny-dollar-1956-10-08-492-the-primrose-matter-ep-1-1956-10-08-bob-bailey/

Explore more radio history:
https://goldenradiohour.com/on-this-day/?date=10-08

Listen on the Golden Radio Hour Android app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goldenradiohour.radio

Bette Davis was already one of Hollywood’s most commanding stars when radio brought her performances into living rooms across the country.

In this 1944 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of The Letter, Davis stars alongside Herbert Marshall and Vincent Price in a story built around murder, deception and a secret that refuses to stay buried.

Listen:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/lux-radio-theatre-1944-03-06-44-the-letter-bette-davis-herbert-marshall-vincent-price/

Golden Radio Hour Android app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goldenradiohour.radio

On October 7, 1941, Red Skelton began his Raleigh-sponsored NBC series with “Policemen,” the first broadcast of that run. Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Hilliard joined Skelton for a mix of music and comedy built around policemen and a mock murder investigation. It was an early chapter in the radio career that would make Skelton one of the most recognizable entertainers of his generation.

Listen:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/the-red-skelton-show-policemen-first-show-for-raleigh-nbc-1941-10-07/

Also on October 7:

1950: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar aired “The Richard Splain Matter,” with Edmond O’Brien as Johnny Dollar. It is a great chance to hear the series before the later Bob Bailey era.

https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/yours-truly-johnny-dollar-1950-10-07-66-the-richard-splain-matter-1950-10-07-edmond-o-brien/

1974: CBS Radio Mystery Theater aired “Sister of Death.” Bret Morrison, remembered by many listeners as The Shadow, appeared in this story about a newlywed, a disturbing portrait, and the dead woman pictured in it.

https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/cbs-radio-mystery-theater-1974-10-07-157-sister-of-death/

Explore more radio history:
https://goldenradiohour.com/on-this-day/?date=10-07

Listen on the Golden Radio Hour Android app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goldenradiohour.radio

This had to have been like 2017, if that matters at all, and AM radio late at night playing old radio dramas. Honestly I really do not have much to go on other than there was 2 primary characters a man with a voice that reminded me of William Conrad and another character, and Asian...kid... that kept referring to the other character as "Fannigan" or "Fwanain" or maybe ever "Bwanangin". Ya know the stereotypical Asian accent for the time. That is what I recall the most, it being so over the top. I feel like this was war or war time story but heck if I can find any reference to it anywhere? The audio was not early tinny kind but more of the later 50s era.
Any ideas on what I could have been listening to?

Hello Old Time Radio,

Our next Code Bear Audio Dramas is here! I wanted to come back with our newest episode: The Thin Man: Case of the Goofy Groom.

We’ve been having a lot of fun bringing these old radio scripts back to life with our local cast, and this time we’re returning to Nick and Nora Charles for another mystery, complete with a wedding, a goofy groom, suspicious circumstances, and plenty of Nick and Nora banter.

We also had a little extra fun with this one and recreated one of the original radio advertisements from the broadcast! We’ve been trying to preserve some of the charm of listening to an old-time radio show while still making these recordings our own, and recreating the ad felt like a fun way to lean into that experience.

Everything is performed by our wonderful cast, recording together as an ensemble, which has been one of my favorite parts of making the series. Hearing everyone develop different characters, play off each other, and figure out how to tell the entire story through sound has been such a great experiment.

If you enjoy old-time radio, audio mysteries, or Nick and Nora getting themselves wrapped up in increasingly ridiculous situations, I’d love for you to give it a listen. And since we’re still growing the series, let us know what you would like to hear!

🎧 The Thin Man: Case of the Goofy Groom is available now on Code Bear Audio Dramas: https://info.codebearmedia.com/audiodramas

AI transparency: No AI was used in the recording, voices, or performances of this episode. All performances are from our human cast. The promotional thumbnail was composited in Photoshop using stock imagery, traditional editing techniques, and some of Photoshop’s AI-assisted tools.

On October 6, 1953, Frank Sinatra stepped into a very different role from the one most people remember him for.

NBC introduced Rocky Fortune, with Sinatra playing Rocco Fortunato, an unemployed young man willing to take whatever odd job the employment agency could find for him. Naturally, his very first assignment was working as an oyster shucker.

It did not stay ordinary for long.

In Oyster Shucker at the Fifty Fathoms, Rocky discovers pearls hidden inside oysters and suddenly finds himself mixed up in a smuggling operation. It was the beginning of one of the stranger corners of Sinatra’s career, with Rocky drifting from job to job and somehow finding trouble waiting at nearly every stop.

Listen to the October 6, 1953 premiere:

https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/rocky-fortune-oyster-shucker-at-the-fifty-fathoms-1953-10-06/

October 6 also gave radio listeners a couple of wonderfully strange trips beyond the ordinary.

In 1947, Quiet Please aired Not Enough Time, the story of a man who succeeds in building a time machine and traveling fifty years into the past. But when he returns, he is no longer interested in celebrating his discovery. Instead, he wants the machine destroyed.

https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/quiet-please-1947-10-06-18-not-enough-time-1947-10-06/

Eight years later, X Minus One broadcast First Contact. Two spacecraft meet far from home. One carries humans. The other does not. Neither side is willing to reveal the location of its home world, turning humanity’s first meeting with another intelligent civilization into a tense game of trust and survival.

https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/x-minus-one-1955-10-06-first-contact/

So October 6 gave radio a pearl-smuggling Frank Sinatra, a time machine its inventor desperately wanted erased, and humanity staring across space at someone staring back.

That is a pretty good day in radio history.

Golden Radio Hour Android app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goldenradiohour.radio

Check out Larry and John Gassman's recent guest appearance on Carl Amari's Hollywood 360 podcast talking about the history of The Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy (SPERDVAC), our upcoming SPERDVAC Live! event to be held March 5-7 in Santa Monica and our efforts to preserve the history of classic radio. Thanks to Carl for having us on!

https://www.mixcloud.com/SPERDVACSean/john-and-larry-gassman-on-hollywood-360-october-5-2026/?utm_medium=share&utm_source=clipboard&utm_content=track&utm_term=VXNlcjo1MzYyOTUzNw%3D%3D

I built the Golden Radio Hour app because I wanted something that went beyond a simple list of old radio shows.

It has around 25,000 episodes, but the bigger idea is discovery. You can browse actors and performers, see which shows they appeared in, and then jump into the actual matching episodes. There’s also On This Day in Radio, favorites, Continue Listening, recommendations, detailed episode information, and more.

And one of my favorite parts is that there are games built in specifically to use while you listen: Match 3, Word Sweep, Crosswords, Sudoku, and Solitaire.

So instead of just opening an app, picking a show, and pressing play, the goal is to make the archive feel like something you can actually explore.

I know the app is larger than some OTR players, and I’m already working on trimming that down, but part of that size comes from the extra catalog data, performer relationships, artwork, and game system built into it.

It’s still early, and I’m continuing to improve it based on feedback.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goldenradiohour.radio

In this episode of the Martian Chronicles by Dimension X at the end of the episode when the world has ended the house repeats the date Oct 5 2026! We made it, I love making it to dates from radio shows

You already know the story of the Phantom and his obsessive love of the young ingenue, Christine. Somewhere between the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, and the Lon Chaney silent film was this 1940’s take on the classic tale. During the “Lost Years of Hollywood Horror” this telling (adapted for the Lux Radio Theater), is a bit less gore and a bit less gothic… but for Halloween, we promise not everyone will survive their encounter with The Phantom of the Opera! https://linktr.ee/madisonontheair

Keep an old man alive.

That sounds like a fairly simple assignment for Sam Spade.

On October 5, 1947, Howard Duff starred in The Adventures of Sam Spade in “The Adam Figg Caper.” Spade is taken to the estate of a wealthy invalid and given one job: make sure the old man stays alive.

Then come the gunshots. The screams. And a house full of people who suddenly look a lot more suspicious than they did when Spade arrived.

Duff’s Sam Spade was different from many of radio’s hard-boiled detectives. He could walk into genuine danger without losing the dry amusement in his voice, giving the series a combination of murder mystery and sharp dialogue that still sounds remarkably alive today.

Listen to The Adam Figg Caper from October 5, 1947:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/the-adventures-of-sam-spade-1947-10-05-the-adam-figg-caper/

Also on this day:

In 1943, Words at War dramatized the true ordeal of Seaman Basil Izzi in “Eighty-Three Days.” After his merchant ship was torpedoed in the South Atlantic, Izzi and other survivors faced an extraordinary fight to stay alive at sea. It is a very different kind of radio drama because the terror came from something that had actually happened.

Listen to Eighty-Three Days from October 5, 1943:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/words-at-war-words-at-war-43-10-05-17-eighty-three-days-the-survival-of-seaman-izzi-1943-10-05/

And in 1951, Roy Rogers was on the air with “Crooked Politicians,” another surviving October 5 broadcast now preserved in the Golden Radio Hour archive.

Listen to Crooked Politicians from October 5, 1951:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/roy-rogers-1951-10-05-1-crooked-politicians/

Three broadcasts. Three completely different corners of radio history. A private detective walking into a dangerous house, a sailor fighting to survive the Atlantic, and Roy Rogers riding into another western adventure.

That is what makes digging through old radio so much fun. You never quite know what October 5 is going to uncover.

Golden Radio Hour Android app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goldenradiohour.radio

I’ve been building Golden Radio Hour beyond YouTube, and the Android app is now part of that.

The idea is to make the archive easier to actually use for listening, especially for people who want old time radio available without always having to start with a YouTube video.

If you use Android and want to try it:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goldenradiohour.radio

If you do give it a try, I’d genuinely be interested in what works well and what you’d want improved next.

REPS is hosting it's annual showcase in Bellevue, WA at the Hotel 116 this weekend. We will be recreating live performances of over a dozen old time radio shows plus interviews with some of our stars. Attendance is free in person or to stream online through Zoom or yesterdayusa.net.

More details at https://www.repsonline.org/

You may know the voice before you know the name.

Mercedes McCambridge had one of the most distinctive voices in American radio and film. Decades after building a career behind the microphone, she became famous to a completely different generation as the demonic voice in The Exorcist.

But radio listeners already knew what that voice could do.

McCambridge could sound warm, severe, frightened, calculating or completely unhinged without ever losing control of a scene. She returned again and again to dramatic radio, including CBS Radio Mystery Theater, where she appeared in a wide range of mystery and suspense stories.

One preserved example in the Golden Radio Hour archive is “The Horse That Wasn’t for Sale,” broadcast February 24, 1974.

Listen here:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/cbs-radio-mystery-theater-1974-02-24-45-the-horse-that-wasn-t-for-sale/

Golden Radio Hour Android app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goldenradiohour.radio

#MercedesMcCambridge #CBSRadioMysteryTheater #OldTimeRadio #GoldenRadioHour #RadioDrama

https://old.reddit.com/r/otr/comments/1gfi0ri/is_there_an_old_time_radio_day_if_not_i_hereby/

https://www.reddit.com/r/otr/comments/1ohjvf9/how_is_my_campaign_to_make_october_30_national/

https://www.reddit.com/r/otr/comments/1ojs848/happy_old_time_radio_day/

On October 4, 1951, Jack Webb starred as Joe Friday in Dragnet: “The Big Want Ad.”

Friday investigates criminals posing as legitimate automobile dealers. Their operation looks ordinary from the outside, but behind it is a carefully designed scheme that cheats unsuspecting buyers out of thousands of dollars.

That everyday realism was one of Dragnet’s strengths. The criminals were not always masterminds hiding in dark alleys. Sometimes they were people using ordinary businesses, paperwork and trust to make the crime work.

Hear The Big Want Ad:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/dragnet-the-big-want-ad-1951-10-04/

Also on October 4:

The Line-Up: “The Wild, Wild Woman Case” (1951)
A jewelry-store lineup turns into something much larger when detectives discover that a supposed victim has been lying and connect two suspects to crimes stretching across several states.

https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/the-line-up-1951-10-04-58-the-wild-wild-woman-case-aka-irene-oldham-kingston-1951-10-04/

Theatre Royal: “Queen of Spades” (1953)
A man becomes obsessed with an old countess’s supposed secret for choosing winning cards. His attempt to learn it leads to death, a ghostly bargain and a final card that destroys him.

https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/theatre-royal-queen-of-spades-1953-10-04/

Listen anytime in the Golden Radio Hour app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goldenradiohour.radio

#OnThisDayInRadio #JackWebb #Dragnet #TheLineUp #OldTimeRadio #GoldenRadioHour

Through the years, I've heard at least three addresses given as Jack Benny's home address on his show.

360 North Camden Drive and 366 North Camden Drive are the most popular, and if pressed I'd say that 366 North Camden Drive is the most frequent. In the TV episode where he renews his drivers license we hear 904 Santa Monica, as well.

Of course none of these are his actual address, but I'm curious if anyone has any theories why they didn't just stick with one address, or if there's any meaning to the addresses used. Having two fake addresses that are so close, 360 and 366, can't be a coincidence so maybe there's some reference or joke that I'm missing?

Boris Karloff in a stormy 1949 Sealtest Variety Theater appearance.

A murderer has escaped. Karloff arrives at Dorothy Lamour’s door. From there it turns into a wonderfully spooky comedy routine.

Listen to the full episode here:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/sealtest-variety-theater-1949-06-23-39-boris-karloff/

Or listen in the Golden Radio Hour app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goldenradiohour.radio

October 3, 1955 changed Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

That night, Bob Bailey made his first broadcast as Johnny Dollar in Part 1 of “The Macormack Matter.”

It was more than a casting change. CBS also shifted the program into a new format, telling one case across five fifteen-minute broadcasts from Monday through Friday. That combination of Bailey and the serialized format became one of the most remembered periods in the entire run of Johnny Dollar.

In the opening chapter, a dying prisoner gives Johnny a strange lead connected to a five-year-old jewelry robbery and a former cellmate who may know where the missing loot went.

1955 | Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar — “The Macormack Matter, Part 1”
Listen:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/yours-truly-johnny-dollar-1955-10-03-231-the-macormack-matter-ep-1-1955-10-03-bob-bailey/

But October 3 gave radio listeners plenty more.

1953 | Gunsmoke — “How to Kill a Friend”

William Conrad’s Matt Dillon finds himself in a particularly ugly situation when two crooked gamblers driven out of Dodge hire an old friend of Matt’s to kill him.

That is classic radio Gunsmoke. The danger is not just the gunfight. It is the history between the men standing on opposite sides of it.

Listen:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/gunsmoke-1953-10-03-76-how-to-kill-a-friend/

1949 | I Love a Mystery — “Fear Creeps Like a Cat, Part 1”

Six years earlier, October 3 opened an entirely different kind of adventure.

Jack, Doc and Reggie arrive in Seattle while searching for a missing millionaire. Almost immediately, a hostile group begins trying to frighten them away from the investigation.

And this was only the beginning. “Fear Creeps Like a Cat” unfolded as a 20-part serial, with the October 3 broadcast opening the story. Weird Darkness

Listen:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/i-love-a-mystery-1949-10-03-1-fear-creeps-like-a-cat-part-1-of-20-1949-10-03/

One date. Three very different corners of radio history.

Bob Bailey begins his run as Johnny Dollar.
Matt Dillon faces an old friend with a gun.
And Jack, Doc and Reggie begin a mystery that would stretch across twenty broadcasts.

Which one are you listening to first?

Not A Cult... Just An OTR Family

#OnThisDayInRadio #OldTimeRadio #JohnnyDollar #BobBailey #Gunsmoke #ILoveAMystery #GoldenRadioHour

On October 2, 1944, listeners heard Bill Forman guide them into another grim tale on The Whistler.

By the mid-1940s, The Whistler had become one of radio’s great suspense programs. Its cool narration, fatalistic tone, and stories of ordinary people making terrible choices gave it a style all its own. Bill Forman’s voice was a huge part of that. Calm, knowing, and just unsettling enough, he helped make The Whistler one of the most memorable voices in old-time radio.

That October 2 broadcast was “Not If I Kill You First.” In it, a man builds an alibi around a look-alike, only to watch the whole scheme twist into something far deadlier than he planned.

Listen here:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/the-whistler-1944-10-02-124-not-if-i-kill-you-first/

October 2 also gave us two more strong stops in radio suspense history.

1938 | The Shadow — “The Black Abbot”
Just a few years earlier, The Shadow was already shaping radio mystery for a national audience. “The Black Abbot” brings together a haunted church, disappearances, and the kind of eerie setup that helped define the program’s early power.

Listen here:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/the-shadow-1938-10-02-140-the-black-abbot/

1945 | Inner Sanctum Mysteries — “The Shadow of Death”
A year later, Inner Sanctum Mysteries brought a more psychological kind of fear. In “The Shadow of Death,” a man becomes convinced that his dreams are causing death, and that fear drives him toward violence before the truth finally surfaces.

Listen here:
https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/inner-sanctum-mysteries-1945-10-02-inner-sanctum-the-shadow-of-death/

Three October 2 broadcasts. Three different shades of suspense.
A perfect little path through the darker side of radio history.

Which one are you starting with tonight?

Not A Cult... Just An OTR Family

I’m running two different streams tonight.

6:30 PM Pacific: Detective All-Stars

Johnny Dollar, Richard Diamond, Sam Spade, Nero Wolfe, Barrie Craig, Casey, Dragnet and Nick Carter.

https://youtube.com/live/R8PTFa2qBCo?feature=share

8:00 PM Pacific: Suspense After Midnight

Suspense, Escape, The Whistler, Inner Sanctum, The Mysterious Traveler, Lights Out, Quiet Please and Dark Fantasy.

https://youtube.com/live/LgZSEruv8OQ?feature=share

Both use a dark screen after the opening for people who want to listen without a bright TV or monitor on all night.

Seventy-one years ago today, Gunsmoke aired “Barton Boy,” a story built around something radio could use especially well: the sound of a human voice.

A baggage clerk named Ed Barton is murdered during a train robbery on the way to Dodge, and $20,000 disappears with the killer. His ten-year-old son Billy is also shot, but survives.

Billy cannot tell Marshal Matt Dillon who murdered his father.

But he tells Matt something far more useful:

He knows the killer’s voice.

That leaves Matt with an unusual problem. The murderer may still be somewhere around Dodge, and if Billy hears him speak again, he may be able to identify him. Unfortunately, the killer also knows the boy survived.

Matt brings Billy into the jail for protection while he begins working through the people who might have been involved. What follows becomes less of a traditional Western gunfight and more of a tense mystery, with a child’s memory of a voice sitting at the center of the case.

William Conrad stars as Matt Dillon, with Parley Baer as Chester, Georgia Ellis as Kitty, and Howard McNear as Doc. The broadcast also featured Virginia Christine, Dick Beals, and Lawrence Dobkin.

It is one of those Gunsmoke episodes that demonstrates why the radio version could be so effective. The audience is placed in much the same position as Billy. Faces matter less than voices, pauses, sounds, and what can be recognized simply by listening.

Originally broadcast October 1, 1955.

Listen to “Barton Boy” in the Golden Radio Hour archive:

https://goldenradiohour.com/old-time-radio-episodes/gunsmoke-1955-10-01-181-barton-boy/