The Scotto Grotto (org)

I have perhaps 20-25 homemade burned CD’s of old time radio… (Jack Benny, The Shadow, Dragnet, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, etc). I figure about 11ish hours apiece. I can’t believe I’ve listened to all of them , and am now restarting from the beginning of the stack. I’d estimate I listen to about 2-4 hours a day, after folks go home… My Office-mate isn’t big on 1930s-1950s variety stuff. I can honestly say, that there’s a pile of quality entertainment on those CD’s. I’m not sure why my tastes run to nostalgia from before I was born.. it seems a little more honest, and not quite so… oh, I’m not sure. I’d just much rather listen to an episode of Suspense than Watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, even though they share a lot of elements. Weird Science, Horror, Fantasy… but without some of the more ‘modern TV’ trappings. Maybe because it’s sound only.. you can fill in your own special effects, character appearances, and I think they deliver a more solid story base sometimes. Also, you can have a show about only one or two people (Like the Shadow, and Margo Lane) and not know what/who the bad guy is in a mystery, or who might get killed. I think the hitchhikers guide is better as a radio show, than a tv miniseries, too (although both were quite fun). Added Bonus, you can listen in the dark, in bed, eyes closed.

Odds are good that the vast majority of folks today rarely listen to anything aside from music or talk stations on the radio anymore… and I think that’s sort of a shame. Drama, comedy and so on. Radio plays are a thing of the past… admittedly some of them should stay there, but there’s a lot of potential for good stuff, even as webcasts. http://prairiehome.org/ does webcasts of the one exception I know. Prairie Home companion is nice… music, comedy, drama, and homespun stuff, to the tune of our current age. I actually tune in once a week to hear the fresh stuff. It’s good. (The website’s better, because you can pick and choose the stuff you want to listen to during the show… So I can Jump right to News from lake Woebegon and Guy Noir.) Plus they have show archives that go waaaaaay back to the mid 90’s if you can’t get enough of it. (I’ve listened to them all, a little at a time… usually a classic episode after listening to a particularly good regular show.)

Not sure what point I’m making, other than “DRAMA RADIO GOOD! MONGO LIKE!”