Note: Presented throughout the day
Originally airing between 1950 and 1951 on Mutual, Incredible But True consisted of 15 minute shows, similar in format to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not that had aired from 1930 to 1948. It was hosted/narrated by Ken Nordine and was produced by Unusual Features Syndicate. Besides the 15-minute shows, another syndication of 3-minute shows was also produced, again hosted by Ken Nordine.
In accordance with standards of good taste and common courtesy, Homesteader Radio confines the broadcast of potentially offensive material to between the hours of 11 pm and 4 am Central Standard Time. During these hours, listener discretion is advised.
Lights Out is an American old-time radio program devoted mostly to horror and the supernatural.
Created by Wyllis Cooper and then eventually taken over by Arch Oboler, versions of Lights Out aired on different networks from January 3, 1934 to the summer of 1947. Lights Out was one of the earliest radio horror programs, predating Suspense and Inner Sanctum.
Note: Presented throughout the day (1-minute format)
Ripley’s Believe It or Not! is an American franchise, founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the Believe It or Not feature proved popular and was later adapted into a wide variety of formats, including radio, television, comic books, a chain of museums, and a book series. On April 14, 1930, Ripley brought Believe It or Not to radio, the first of several series heard on NBC, CBS and the Mutual Broadcasting System.
The Weird Circle was a syndicated radio drama series produced in New York and originally broadcast between 1943-1945.
Dimension X was an NBC radio program broadcast on an unsponsored, sustaining basis from April 8, 1950 to September 29, 1951. The first 13 episodes were broadcast live, and the remainder were pre-recorded. Fred Wiehe and Edward King were the directors, and Norman Rose was heard as both announcer and narrator, opening the show with: “Adventures in time and space… told in future tense…”
The Strange Dr. Weird was a radio program broadcast on Mutual from 1944 to 1945, notable in part because it was a sister series to The Mysterious Traveler, both in theme and its narrator. Maurice Tarplin.
“The Shadow” was the name given to the mysterious narrator of the Detective Story Hour radio program. Listeners found the sinister announcer more compelling than the unrelated stories and began asking news dealers for copies of “that Shadow detective magazine,” though it did not exist. On September 26, 1937, The Shadow, a new radio drama based on the character created by Walter B. Gibson, premiered in which The Shadow was characterized as having “the hypnotic power to cloud men’s minds so they cannot see him.”
Command Performance was a radio program which originally aired between 1942 and 1949. The program was broadcast on the Armed Forces Radio Network (AFRS) and transmitted by shortwave to the troops overseas—with few exceptions, it was not broadcast over domestic U.S. radio stations. Most episodes of the program were produced before an audience in the Vine Street Playhouse in Hollywood, California.
Troops sent in requests for a particular performer or program to appear, and they also suggested unusual ideas for music, sketches, or sounds from home on the program, such as: “Ann Miller tap dancing in military boots”; “a sigh from Carole Landis” or Lucille Ball; “foghorns on San Francisco Bay”; “Errol Flynn taking a shower.” Top performers of the day appeared, including Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Fred Allen, Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland and The Andrews Sisters.
Curtain Time was a radio anthology program in the United States that simulated a theatrical environment “where listeners were invited to attend the evening’s performance.” It was broadcast on ABC, CBS Mutual, and NBC, beginning in 1938 and ending in 1950.
Downbeat was a jazz radio program produced by the AFRS from 1943 until around 1948. Featured artists ranged from vanilla to daring, including Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw and Louis Armstrong. Our collection includes 15- and 30-minute episodes.
Escape was radio’s leading anthology series of high-adventure radio dramas, airing on CBS from July 7, 1947 to September 25, 1954.
In accordance with standards of good taste and common courtesy, Homesteader Radio confines the broadcast of potentially offensive material to between the hours of 11 pm and 4 am Central Standard Time. During these hours, listener discretion is advised.
The Hermit’s Cave was a syndicated radio horror series. The syndication was done via scripts, so that stations could broadcast the program with their own casts.
The program began in September 1937 and continued into the mid-1940s on WJR AM in Detroit, Michigan. In 1942, WJR’s broadcasts of the show were recorded and broadcast a week later on WBBM in Chicago, Illinois. By 1943, transcriptions of the WJR version of the program were also being broadcast in eight additional cities.
Suspense is a radio drama series broadcast on CBS Radio from 1940 through 1962. One of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, Suspense was subtitled “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills” and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era.
Inner Sanctum Mystery, also known as Inner Sanctum, a popular old-time radio program that aired from January 7, 1941, to October 5, 1952, was created by producer Himan Brown and was based on the imprint given to the mystery novels of Simon & Schuster.
The Whistler is an American radio mystery drama which ran from May 16, 1942 until September 22, 1955. A character known only as the Whistler was the host and narrator of the tales, which focused on crime and fate. He often commented directly upon the action in the manner of a Greek chorus, taunting the characters, guilty or innocent, from an omniscient perspective.
Tales of dramatic and entertaining accounts in the history of scientific research, written by Westinghouse physicist Dr. Phillips Thomas. Heard from 1946 into the 1950s, Adventures in Research encouraged a civic interest in science and highlighted technology, inventors and their inventions from atomic power to cash registers.
The CBS Radio Workshop was an experimental dramatic radio anthology series that aired on CBS from January 27, 1956, until September 22, 1957.
