The lost art of real radio

I guess the only think I can link to for this post is xmradio.com. So, click on the title to go there.

Friday morning I was late for work because I was listening to The Shadow on XM 164 Old Time Radio Classics. Well, technically I wasn't late because showing up is all that is pretty much somewhat required.

I was just talking with Piccu about it and while he is big into old movies, I'm getting big into old radio. I don't know what it is about these old shows, but I guess it's just that the stories are good, it's different from current radio formats and there are actual stars you have heard of in them. And the DJ that introduces everything will tell you interesting facts about the actors like what they did other than radio.

This morning I woke up shortly before dawn and listened to the ending of The Six Shooter starring Jimmy Stewart before going back to sleep. I guess one of the reasons that these old shows are so good is because all of the great actors back in the 40s, 50s and 60s also did a lot of radio work in addition to TV and especially movies.

Unless you are completely oblivious to everything before you were born, you can find a notable star in most every show. I'm not a big fan of the comedy stuff, but I dig the westerns and mysteries. Gunsmoke, The Lone Ranger(Tonto, while ridiculously stereotyped, is hilarious), Suspense, The Shadow, Mr. District Attorney, Dragnet, Boston Blackie, The Adventures of Nero Wolfe, I like them all and those are just the ones I could come up with off the top of my head.

I'll tell you what really hooked me. On Christmas morning at about 5 a.m. they played It's A Wonderful Life. It wasn't just the movie audio, it was a complete radio show with nearly the entire cast from the movie. I only caught the last 15 or 20 minutes, but that's the kind of thing they did back then and it was great.

I guess why I'm so caught up in it right now is because it simply isn't done anymore. Where can you find a radio show like these? Now it's just music, talk or sports. I believe that XM 163 Sonic Theater is new radio shows like that, but sometimes I listen and it's crazy obscure stuff. But I have heard a good show or two.

I would have to say that the TV shows of Gunsmoke and Dragnet did in the radio shows since they were very popular. Although with computers these old style radio shows would be very inexpensive to produce. The sound effects were probably the only real expense outside of getting actors like Jimmy Stewart and Sidney Greenstreet.

TV pretty much killed creative radio other than morning talk radio which can only get into funny songs and skits. There used to be a time when people gathered around their radios maybe even more than we do TV now. Now some people only listen to radio because their cars came with them. And the creation of these type of shows is a dead art, in my opinion. Other than satellite radio there is no other venue to showcase these types of shows and be able to make even a modest living at it.

Back in the day NBC and CBS produced radio mysteries and dramas that, in my opinion, keep me hooked better than TV does now. The old shows were written and directed each week with composed music and really put together well. And radio was like TV back then. The Six Shooter starring Jimmy Stewart only lasted a year and got moved to different time slots never getting any sponsors.

I realize that TV gets you the big bucks, but TV also costs big money now to produce shows. Sure there are a few sitcoms that are done in studios, but think of all of the shows that are shot on location. That stuff is expensive. I heard that actors love to do voiceover work for commercials because it's easy money, but back in the day actors actually worked in radio and I'm sure they made a nice living at it.

I guess those of us who dig it are lucky that satellite radio has a library of 30 years worth of weekly radio shows with big name actors that dwarf most stars we watch on TV today.