Hello Everyone,
I thought I would paste in the following USA Today article as you may find
it useful. The link to the original article is located at the end of the
text.
Enjoy,
Mark
Web's Best Kept Secret? Free classic radio dramas
By Marc Saltzman, Special for USA TODAY
March 25, 2016
If you're looking to fill up your smartphone, tablet or laptop with great
content, there's a lot more than just music, videos, ebooks, and games.
Without costing a dime, there are many tens of thousands of "old time radio"
shows - from the golden age of radio - available for streaming or
downloading.
You might be asking yourself "Why would a future-looking technology
journalist want to fill up his phone with radio dramas popularized in the
'40s and '50s?"
Yes, I see the irony. But you'd be pleasantly surprised at how entertaining
these are - and they've kept me sane while commuting in a car or resting my
eyes on a plane. Or, in many instances, I'm playing a game on my phone or
tablet while listening to these shows at the same time. These bite-sized
old-time radio ("OTR") shows are typically 20- to 40-minutes in length.
We're not talking audiobooks here, which are typically narrated by one
person, but rather, these are well-acted radio plays, often with music and
sound effects. Because you're using your imagination to "see" the
characters, environments and actions, these shows feel wonderfully intimate
and personal.
Just like other media, there are different genres for different tastes.
Comedy fans, for example, might prefer to hear the likes of Jack Benny and
Abbott and Costello, while those who prefer science fiction would likely get
a kick out of X Minus One or Orson Welles' (in)famous War of the Worlds
broadcast.
Me, personally? I love the horror, suspense and sci-fi stuff. Favorite
series include Inner Sanctum, CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Lights Out,
Suspense, Quiet Please, The Shadow, Mysterious Traveler, X Minus One, and
anything from Ray Bradbury (be sure to download "Mars is Heaven" and "To the
Future").
Survived by the Internet and MP3 files, most of these radio shows - which
were popular before television took off in the 1950s - still hold up well in
the 21st century. That is, if you can get past some of the classic
stereotypes (such as the Irish cop), sponsor jingles about cigarettes, and
everyone calling each other "dahling."
Because the copyrights expired for most of these shows, you can download and
listen to them for free. Or if you can't be bothered, there are OTR podcasts
to subscribe to. Or for complete collections, you can buy them on disc or
hard drive. However you acquire them, you can fill up your device with
downloaded OTR or stream away.
Enjoy, and spread the word.
Where to get OTR shows
Web sites, satellite radio: Archive.org is the best online resource for free
OTR, which houses many tens of thousands of shows you can download -
one-by-one or as a complete series - and you can then listen to these MP3s
on any compatible device. You'll also get photos, show descriptions and
comments from listeners. Shows can be searched by name or browsed by average
review rating, number of downloads, number of reviews or recent additions.
Also bookmark RelicRadio.com and RUSC.com (Are you sitting comfortably?),
which let you listen to more than 35,000 shows. Those who listen to
satellite radio might not be aware of an old-time radio station that streams
shows 24/7, called Radio Classics (Channel 148).
All of the Relic Radio podcasts are free.
All of the Relic Radio podcasts are free. (Photo: Relic Radio)
Podcasts, apps: There are many dozens of free OTR podcasts to subscribe to.
Most are divided into genre, such as The Horror! or OTR Westerns, or they'll
be posted by name of show, such as ones devoted to Dragnet, Escape. Lone
Ranger or The Shadow. iTunes is popular for subscribing to podcasts and
syncing with mobile devices, but there are many other podcast aggregators,
too. Be sure to check out the Relic Radio podcasts; they're all free but the
narrator -- who introduces each segment with a bit of historical information
-- usually asks for a small donation at the end of the episode. A number of
apps are also devoted to OTR, some of which let you stream shows while
others have a download option.
Buy on hard drive, disc: If you have a lousy Internet connection, want
complete collections, or can't be bothered with finding and downloading
episodes online, you can always buy OTR and have it shipped to your door.
OTRCAT.com lets you buy discs for $5 apiece, sold by show or theme (genre).
Another option is a hard drive with many thousands of OTR episodes, such as
the $74 portable drive at OldTimeRadioDVD.com; the 500GB drive is packed
with more than 74,000 radio shows and other audio and video material. There
are also OTR collections to buy on eBay and online classifieds sites like
Craigslist.
Surf Report readers, do you ever listen to OTR? If so, how do you acquire
them in the digital age?
Columnist Marc Saltzman writes on tech devices and trends for USA TODAY.
Follow Marc on Twitter: @marc_saltzman. E-mail him at
[email protected].
Original Article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/saltzman/2016/03/25/webs-best-k
ept-secret-thousands-free-classic-radio-dramas/82204502/
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