The Relic Radio Listener Community
How did you get hooked on OTR?
It's a question that I've seen pop up on most OTR sites since the onlines brought me the glory of Newsgroups and alt.radio.oldtime, but I've always found peoples stories fascinating.
I, for one, started when my dad had me listen to all the shows that were emerging from vaults, and aired again back in the 70's. I loved Fibber and Molly, The Shadow, Suspense and the "new OTR" of Radio Mystery Theater. The one joke I have with my Dad is that we both listened to those shows 'back when we were kids'.
As I became a teen, my love of OTR became something I did in secret since I was involved with the punk/hardcore scene, and my friends had a hard time trying to figure what to make of me when they dug through my tapes and came across things called "The Country of the Blind", or "Our Miss Brooks". I'd quickly snatch them away and say I listened to a lot of audio books.
But that seems to have turned around, since I worked downtown a few years ago, and the club on the main floor had a band called "The Mercury Theatre" playing there. I looked them up, and though they're not very good, all their music is based off old radio shows. http://www.myspace.com/themercurytheatre
I was ahead of my time.
I, for one, started when my dad had me listen to all the shows that were emerging from vaults, and aired again back in the 70's. I loved Fibber and Molly, The Shadow, Suspense and the "new OTR" of Radio Mystery Theater. The one joke I have with my Dad is that we both listened to those shows 'back when we were kids'.
As I became a teen, my love of OTR became something I did in secret since I was involved with the punk/hardcore scene, and my friends had a hard time trying to figure what to make of me when they dug through my tapes and came across things called "The Country of the Blind", or "Our Miss Brooks". I'd quickly snatch them away and say I listened to a lot of audio books.
But that seems to have turned around, since I worked downtown a few years ago, and the club on the main floor had a band called "The Mercury Theatre" playing there. I looked them up, and though they're not very good, all their music is based off old radio shows. http://www.myspace.com/themercurytheatre
I was ahead of my time.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Richard Bjarnason on -
We are a strong, resilient, vibrant breed! Not dying, no! (A tad nerdy, perhaps). Shorpy provides many wallpapers for the family screens.
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Permalink Reply by Golden Mask on -
I started listening when I was probably 6 or 7. Every year our family would take a vacation in the station wagon from Wisconsin to North Carolina. With two significantly older brothers giving me constant hell the multi-day car trip was not constant joy. To keep us under control my folks got some cassette tapes of old radio shows. The classic: The Shadow, The Green Hornet, Abbot & Costello and Jack Benny. I loved them dearly and tried to buy as many as the local Waldenbooks carried.
Years later, in my mid-20s I was living in WA state I met a buddy through the record store I worked at who also loved OTR. We got seriously obsessed and through the Radio Spirits catalog dug a lot deeper into OTR. We had a "Radio Show Club" and met once a week to listen to 2-4 hours. We seriously geeked out on OTR and had a great time. That went on for well over a year but then I moved from WA to Minnesota and rather fell out of OTR (except when I would use them for sampling in my electronic music).
My primary audio joy over the past 5-10 years has come from Doctor Who audio fiction though Big Finish. Over the past few months I got plugged into iTunes podcasts and that re-ignited my OTR passion. I've especially enjoyed the variety found on the Relic Radio podcasts. I've recently started up a blog with reviews of OTR, Modern Audio and old pulp magazines. It's at www.goldenmasks.blogspot.com if you're interested.
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