I get a thrill every time I get in my car.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but when I listen to the radio, my favorite stations to listen to don’t play music. (Yes. I’m weird.)
I like to hear people talk. Talk radio–Christian talk radio–is what I’ve tuned to for years.
Okay, yes. I listen to the great old songs sometimes, but that’s not what I like best.
Recently, I was turning the dial, looking for G-Man’s fave (R & B) when I noticed something intriguing. A station called, “Radio Classics.”
Now, I’m not old enough to remember the time before TV. (Really, I’m not!) But I remember my parents and grandparents talking about old radio shows. Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour have all entertained me while I drive.
Bob, Bing and Dorothy told the story about the Road to Hollywood. (At the end they were waiting tables and working in gas stations.)
They’re funny!
I’ve heard Fibber McGee (He opened his closet door and had an avalanche) Dragnet, Johnny Dollar and Charlie McCarthy. Oh, and The Shadow!
And I heard GUNSMOKE! Great story. (Matt told the bad guys at the end that if he wasn’t the marshal, he’d beat them with his gun.) You know who played Matt on the radio? William Conrad! Remember him? He played Cannon on CBS in the ’70’s.
Not my idea of Matt Dillon, visually. But when it’s on the radio, YOU get to decide how the characters look. 🙂 I like that!
I almost got to hear HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL. Did you ever see that TV show? (It’s on Encore Westerns sometimes.) The TV show starred Richard Boone and was about a hired gun who, in his non-professional life, was a highly educated gentleman. The show was on CBS from 1957 until 1963.
BUT it was also a radio show that ran from 1958 until 1960. HGWT was one of the few shows that was on TV first, then was adapted to radio.
If you have pay=to-play radio, check it out. Very entertaining!
BTW: The pictures used here are all from Wikipedia. Click on the title underneath the photo for copyright and fairuse information.
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Susan Spess Shay 
October 9, 2012 at 9:41 am
I remember Dad or Mom used to call me Fibber McGee, and i never knew why! Now I know! LY
October 10, 2012 at 6:02 am
LOL! You should listen to Classic Radio. You’ll probably figure out a whole lot more we didn’t get as kids.
October 9, 2012 at 10:00 am
I spent 5 weeks in Oklahoma Osteopathic Hospital after turning my Dad’s tractor over. In traction, could not get outta of bed. As a 12 year old city/country boy, my only entertainment was radio.
Day time soaps as One Man’s Family, Stella Dallas, Lorenzo Jones led to night time mystery, as Gangbusters, FBI, Mystery Theater, Green Hornet and on and on.
May be the reason today, I’m still an AM talk radio junkie. 🙂
October 10, 2012 at 6:05 am
I didn’t know that, Larry. Uncle Paul turned the tractor over on himself when he was a young man, too. (I think he was about 16 at the time.) I’m not sure what bones were broken, but Dad says he had a huge cast that went from waist to ankle and had to wear it for several weeks. I’ll bet he listened to the radio a lot, too. I’ll ask him if I get the chance.
October 9, 2012 at 10:04 am
Thanks for the memories…….. they don’t make shows like that any more!!
October 10, 2012 at 6:05 am
I know. Too bad, isn’t it? Those were the best.
October 10, 2012 at 7:38 am
Judy said they had a hard time finding your Uncle Paul.
I fractured my pelvis and was suspended in a sling
around my hips with left leg in traction for 5 weeks. I
could say that’s the reason I am what I am? 🙂
October 11, 2012 at 9:04 am
I heard that story several times right after he broke his hip a few weeks ago. I don’t think they had a real hard time finding him–they knew where he was working. He had two or three dogs with him. They kept running toward the road and barking, then Paul would call them back and warm up on them. Granddad and Frank heard the dogs and knew which way to go.
But they had a hard time carrying him out. They had to walk a half mile or a mile to get back in there, then go back and get a jack to get the tractor off of him.
The front end of the tractor came over the back end–it tipped tail over tea kettle–sort of.
Grandmother was at home with my dad (who was twelve) all this time. I couldn’t have done that. I’d have been out there with them!
I’m sure it seemed like a thousand years while she waited.