How did you get hooked on OTR?

[pbeyer]

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.

[presbyfruit]

I've always loved old movies but I can't remember listening to OTR until I got my iPod and discovered the free OTR podcasts. Then I got hooked. One thing I especially love is how the shows capture the zeitgeist of the period during which they're produced.

By the way, the juxtaposition of "Our Miss Brooks" and "punk/hardcore scene" in the same sentence is pretty funny (and unexpected).

[Jake]

Well, I got hooked on OTR by way of a funny story. We (my family) were part of the local Sams Club (a whole-sale warehouse chain), and my mom took us 5 kids to do some shopping.
While in there, some of us (being little kids,) wanted mom to get us something to keep us quiet in the car. So what did she do? She took us over by the Audio Tapes section (I'm dating myself), and told us to pick out a good 2-tape set. At the time, GAA had "Burns and Allen" and "The Shadow" on the display. We chose The Shadow, and the rest (for me, at least) was history.
I'm 18 and completely addicted now!

[Jim]

I hadn't heard any otr until a couple of years ago when I started podcasting. I'd heard of the usual Shadow and War of the Worlds shows, and the bit of Little Orphan Annie in A Christmas Story every Christmas, but little did I know then the vast amount "out there." Or how much I would enjoy it!

With FM radio just about useless, and the fact that I'm apparently not into music as I once was, it's a perfect companion while working outside, at the desk, or just about anywhere. Each show is like a little trip back in time, which appeals to the history buff in me.

[Specky]

Hello all!
I discovered OTR via itunes just recently, but I always liked radio dramas and such. I grew up in a really small town, so you had to create a lot of your own fun or read at the library or play the radio. On Sunday nights the local classics station would play music from the 1920's, 30's and 40's and it really appealed to me; I knew it was my kind of thing from the first moment I heard "I Don't Want To Set the World On Fire". I liked reading classic ghost stories at the library when I was a kid; the budget was small for new books, so a lot of the books were fairly old. I got hooked on Algernon Blackwood, EA Poe, M.R. James and some others pretty early on. I think the mix of the music and the books was a positive one.
Anyway, it's nice to have found the old broadcasts (my grandmother used to tell me stories from the radio she had heard when she was younger, it always fascinated me) and this listener community.

[Jim]

It's good to have you here Specky! Where have I heard that song before? Something on TV I think but it escapes me...

[pbeyer]

I've never actually heard that song all the way through before, but I first heard it as an intro to a Megadeath song back in the 80's. Probably not the best way to be introduced to it.

[Jim]

That may very well be it! Megadeth's "Set The World Afire" from 1988. (had to look that one up) I knew I equated it with something dark. You've either got a great memory or you're still head-banging.

[pbeyer]

Oh no, no, no. I'm a father of two now.

[wednesday]

the horrid FM rock station would play OTR on Sunday nights when i was a kid, my brother and i would listen each week with our mom. when i grew up and moved to VanCity the news station would play OTR from Midnight to 3am each morning, i found it one night when Art Bell was bumming me out.
PS i still listen to hardcore punk.

[Richard Bjarnason]

I was in a rather significant mva 3 years ago - 1 month after starting on my own legal practice (great timing, that!), had just bought my first smart phone, and was looking for things to listen to on it whilst recuperating (although to say I took time off would be a bit of an exaggeration). I found librivox through a friend, and somehow that led me to a Mercury Theatre site. I listened to all those Orson Welles shows, while also enjoying Macaulay's History of England from the Ascension of James II (not for everyone, I'll admit!), and gradually I moved more and more into OTR while listening to fewer and fewer audio books (although some librivox discoveries were surprising and amazing: Dracula and Frankenstein among them). I've always loved history, and old movies, and old ephemera (Lileks, anyone? Shorpy? Plan 59?), so OTR was a natural. Some of the shows take me back, too, having heard them late nights or on road trips as a child, and some not-so-otr, like Zero Hour, I actually remember listening to when the episodes were first on the radio!

[pbeyer]

Lileks, Shorpy and Plan59 are all sites I go to regularly. Well, Shorpy mostly since they update almost every day. And I know what you mean about hearing shows again that we've heard when they first aired. I remember a lot of CBS Radio Mystery Theater from when I was a kid. We're a dying breed.

[Jake]

If you like audio books of the classics, listen to Orson Welles version of Dracula. Enthralling!