Old
time radio that you can enjoy in the comfort of your own home!
Once upon a time there was old time radio …
Long, long ago, before Detective Andy Sipowicz was patrolling the streets of New York in NYPD, before Jerry Seinfeld was making people laugh, before Harry Potter was wooing audiences on the silver screen and before "shock-jocks" were polluting the airwaves there was a form of entertainment that transported people off to strange new worlds on a daily basis.
A medium that:
… could not be seen and yet could create the most wonderful images in your mind.
… could make you laugh or cry.
… brought all America together to share the trials and tribulations of some of the greatest characters ever created.
… reached far and wide in times of national celebration and disaster.
It's hard to believe now just how popular and powerful a medium radio was back in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, but in its day it was, in many ways, bigger than anything we have today.
What happened to all those old radio shows and why would anyone want to listen to them today?
It's over 70 years since Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll first hit the airwaves with Amos n' Andy and nearly 40 years since Johnny Dollar filed his final expenses claim. For some people these names will bring back many memories, but few readers under fifty will recall clearly the wonderful days of the golden age of radio.
Why, all these
decades later, when we have hundreds
of terrestrial, cable and satellite
channels to choose from would people
want to listen to these old radio
broadcasts? What on earth could be so
special about these old radio
shows?
There are 1001 answers to that question because every listener is different. For some it is the well thought out plots of the police procedural stories, for others it is concise thirty-minute storylines, others might prefer the wholesome nature of the shows devoid of profanities and vulgarity, and many listeners to old radio shows simply enjoy the escapism often referring to them as "movies for the mind" or "movies without pictures".
Fortunately, over the years many people have collected and restored these old shows so that they can be enjoyed again as much by older listeners as a new generation coming to them for the first time. Whether you fall into the former or latter group or somewhere in between does not matter … these fabulous shows are, and always have been, something that people of all ages can enjoy.
Whether you're
eight or eighty, American or from
elsewhere around the globe, male or
female, there are shows available for
download from RUSC that you will
enjoy. If you've never heard an old
radio show or it's a long time since
you had the pleasure click on the link
below and have a listen to just a very
small selection of the many thousands
of shows available from RUSC.
There are over 5,000 shows available for downloading from RUSC (that's well over 2,500 hours of listening) on RUSC. The shows are divided into ten categories (e.g. comedy, detective, drama, variety) so you can easily find the kind of shows you will enjoy. If you'd like to see a list of just some of the many different series available on RUSC click here.
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Health Warning! |
If you would like to know more about the wonderful world of old time radio you can download a free ebook I have put together called The RUSC Guide to Old Time Radio. It is 88 pages long and includes sections on the history of radio, how to download old radio shows and play them on your own computer, lists of my favorite series and lots more information. To download your copy click here.