October 18, 2001

2:35 PM

When Fred Gwynne and E.G. Marshall died, I was a little depressed. Most people knew Fred from the Munsters and Mr. Marshall from movies; I knew them from work on the CBSRMT. My dog was named Marshall, in fact. It's strange that most people never knew there was another whole world of radio acting out there."

Like this writer, I also grew up listening to (and loving) The CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATRE. It's long gone, but if you search the web, you can find many devoted websites and even some episodes.
posted by grumblebee (8 comments total)

I like this quote from the main site I linked to:

"As a child I spent all my allowance on 9v batteries and C-120 cassettes (remember Radio Shack's free battery punchcard or the animals with radios stuff inside?), hiding AM radios under my pillow so my parents wouldn't know I was awake. My ears would get sore from lying on the speaker or from having a cheap white earphone in for hours. When I could get away with it, I'd set my clock radio (with the numbers printed on flip-flip-flipping metal leaves) to come on at 9pm and it would play WFAA 570 AM for the whole hour... Sometimes I was too scared to listen, but more scared to get out of bed to turn the clock radio off.

"I even had a handlebar-mounted AM radio on my ten-speed so I could listen while I peddled around the block. Strange kid."
posted by grumblebee at 2:42 PM on October 18, 2001

I did the same in the 70's - I had a little novelty AM radio in the shape of a toilet that I bought at a garage sale for a quarter. At 10:07 every week night I would sneak it to bed with me and listen to E.G. Marshall and Mystery Theatre. Those are good memories...
posted by scottfree at 3:00 PM on October 18, 2001

Wow ... I used to listen to that too, and haven't thought of it in years.

While we're (sorta) on the subject, does anyone remember another radio program called "Night Watch"? It was a 10-minute show of spooky stories narrated (and I believe mostly written) by a gentleman named Peter Lee, and often very scary, at least to a 12-year-old me.

No amount of Googling has turned anything up. All I have is an LP of 10 of the stories from the early 70s when the show was on (and unfortunately the record contains some duds, and missed several gems).
posted by chuq at 3:14 PM on October 18, 2001

Well WVXU, the public radio station associated with Xavier University in Cincinnati runs a show at 7 PM EST called "Radio Mystery Theater". I have listened to it a few times and it indeed is an old radio show with mystery/drama type plots. Not sure if this the "CBS Radio Mystery Theater" show or some contempory of that show. The radio station does stream those shows, so looks like you are in luck.

On a side note, while driving one night, I heard a young Kasey Kasam on the Radio Mystery Theater. Very funny and interesting to see where he got his start.
posted by mmascolino at 5:47 PM on October 18, 2001

flooded with radio-on-pillow memories right now...Wow...that was a damned uncomfortable radio i had.
posted by th3ph17 at 6:09 PM on October 18, 2001

Yes, Radio Mystery Theatre IS the same show. It was originally The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre, but "The CBS" is chopped off sometimes when it's sydicated. Kasey Kasam was a regular.
posted by grumblebee at 6:32 PM on October 18, 2001

E.G. Marshall putting on the creepy voice was wonderful. I'm 31 years old - and remember it on the radio (was it on KNX1070) when my folks would drive us between LA and San Diego - this would have been between, say, 1976 and the late 1980's. When I lived in LA a few years ago I remember a radio show called - and this a great title - "Yours truly, Johnny Dollar".

I also remember when Larry King was 3 hours long every night and a great RADIO show. I remember Douglas Adams, Frank Zappa, political figures like Barney Frank, Richard Belzer. Damn I miss quality talk radio. Oh, yeah, and radio drama.

What were we talking about again? :-)
posted by artlung at 8:07 PM on October 18, 2001

Here in Chicago we have "Those Were The Days" every Saturday from 1-5, WDCB 90.5 FM. It's 4 hours of old radio broadcasts including Jack Benny, old serials, Abott & Costelo, and so on. The main sponsor is a store on the northside that specializes in the cassettes and CDs of these old shows.
posted by Qubit at 8:10 PM on October 18, 2001