What did we look at when we listened to the Radio?

Fibber McGee and Molly, the Great Gildersleeve, the Lone Ranger, the squeaking door of the Inner Sanctum were all alive in my mind and I had clear images of each as I listened while doing my homework. The musical theme of the FBI Story still resonates in my head and hearing it still announces that it is almost bedtime on Sunday night and the weekend is over; school the next day.

So vivid were the images of those old radio shows, my mind created full scenes, smells, wardrobes, and special effects imagery as vivid as any television show can do now. It actually diminished the experience when real images replaced those I held in my imagination.

I miss them.

About half of our shows, such as I Love a Mystery, Inner Sanctum, The Whistler and I Led Three Lives, we listened to in the dark. The rest, I don't know. Straight Arrow and Cisco and Matt Dillon we had to look at each other. The Great Gildersleve, we listened to over bowls of beans and cornbread.

No Tv image could equal the vision I had of Jack Benny going down to his subbasement and being admitted to his vault by the ever present guard.

My sister and I usually listened to the "children's hour" on the rado (and I afterwards to the football [soccer]).

I was sitting on the sofa, a 19th century piece, because that usually was father's place. But when it became a little dramatic in the radio, I sometimess bit in the wood of the arm rest. Those marks are still to be seen [free entry for A2K'ers] more than 50 years ...

(And we lively imagined how the action on the radio was looking alike!)

Tom Corbett, Space Cadet

My dad would bring it up everytime he saw me watching Star Trek.

"PLunk yer magic twanger froggy" That evoked all sorts of images that carried on into my teen years when that phrase was used in a derisive fashion to others. I cannot recall why.

What did you look like?

The Shadow knows......

bwahahahaha

I am too young to personally know - but whenever you watch something in the movies or on TV about those olden days - you always see the family gathered around the radio and staring at the radio while listening.

So my guess is you looked at the radio.

on sunday mornings from 6 to 8 a.m. we usually listened to the oldest and longest running radio broadcast : the hamburg harbour concert (hamburger hafenkonzert) .
its first broadcast was on june 9 , 1929 - and it is still being broadcast (all over the world by shortwave and now also over the internet) .

these 2 lp's were issued for the 50th anniversary in 1979 .



it started out being broadcast from the ships and docks in the port of hamburg but eventually started broadcasting from other ports - as far away as china .
since i have some lp's , tapes and cd's (thanks to walter) of the various concerts , i can now listen to it anytime - no need to get up at 6 a.m.

even the "queen mary ii" is being welcomed during one of its regular calls on the port of hamburg during july and august .



perhaps we'll be able to be onboard the MARY some summer - would be nice to be moving up the elbe river and seeing all the old sights from shipboard .
hbg

yes , linkat , we did look at the radio !
this could have been our familie with my brother taking the picture with his box-camera .
hbg

Actually, we also went to the Saturday matinee to see Roy Rogers, Tom Mix, and Rocket Man for four Pepsi bottle caps.

Don't you ever just stare with your eyes open without actually looking at something? (Try not to do this while driving..)

I remember listening to the radio - when I actually listened - in two situations.
One was at a friend's house in Riverdale in the Bronx - big house, big radio, big deal for me to be invited over. I don't remember actively listening before.. the whole family was listening to Sargent Preston of the Yukon and I did too. I presume I stared at the radio and at them intermittently.

Around then, when I was eight, we got a tv, and listened at home to the radio less. I still have that radio cabinet, which was tall and my father made shorter, and use it as a bookshelved cabinet even now.

Second time I really remember listening was when I was quarantined with scarlet fever and not allowed out of bed, except for bathroom trips, for two weeks. So I was lying down and listening to The Shadow (with Mercedes McCambridge's voice), and Mr. and Mrs. North, and Perry Mason.. I remember really liking the serials. That probably started me on a long life of liking crime fiction. I figure that I sometimes looked at the room, which I knew well, looked at it blankly I suppose, and sometimes had my eyes closed.

does anyone remember the show that featured canaries singing to classical music? I can't remember what it was called, but it was sponsored by Hartz.

I often listen to the Old Time RAdio station on Sirius satellite. Its fun, except for the really crappy sound response on the fairly crappy music

I used to be for Sirius radio stations, but it wasn't worth it to me, because I spend so little time in my car. When I cancelled my subscription, they asked if I would keep my subscription if they gave me a good discount, but I said "no."

the "driving" station (and at home too) is SYRACUSE NPR - good news and VERY GOOD old style jazz - would really miss it if it ever changed format .
hbg



none better than leo !
while i`m no friend of `christmass`music - leo`s 2 hour `jazz christmas` is an event never to be missed - luckily i`ve taped some of those shows .

ci, thers a radio company out there that makes a wireless "net" radio that, once you tune it via download of the WWW on the memory, you can listen to any satellite service . Itll work with a wireless router so you can have one in any room in the house. I listen to a lot of the CBC comedy stuff on weekends and The "World Tomite" by tuning my laptop to the ST Johns NB station. I keep the laptop in a Fla room where we go and eat supper in the fall and winter.

PS , I have a set of small HArmon KArdon speakers attached so the sound is half decent.

I can get a couple of radio stations in PA (AM 580 in HArrisburg) They play Old Time radio on SUnday nights. and getting it via their live feed website assures great reception.

My Sirius system has a movable tuner that I can remove from the car and lay in the house. Didnt your car have that? I pnly have trucks and a teeny Hybrid so I dont know about most cars. I do know that Chrysler has a removable Sirius module on the Crossfire

That's good news! Thank you. My Sirius is imbedded into the radio system, so there's no way to remove it in my Acura TL, as far as I know (which isn't too much). However, I'm really dying to listen to Groucho again; he's always been my favorite radio/TV personality.

whenever we get PMing bacdk, drop me a line and Ill send you the data on a sound system that is "net" based and allows you to program the web sites with live feed. I have several of these shortcutted on my active desktop so if I wanna listen to Canada or LAtvia, BOOM, Im there and I dont need no steenkin shortwave set.