Happy 40th Birthday to Old Time Radio

It was on September 30th, 1962 that CBS Radio broadcast the final major network radio shows thus the starting date for OTR - OLD TIME RADIO!

I believe the final network radio shows included Suspense and Johnny Dollar...What were the other network shows? And how will you observe the 40th "birthday" of OTR?

However, one could intrepret things broadly by saying that Hi Brown's Mystery Radio Theater was a network show while CBS lent its network to the show. I guess technically, it was not broadcast on all the network, but had to have local stations sign up - but one could also argue that local stations did not have to carry Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar by the time they signed off.

Then too, NBC brought back selected episodes of X Minus One too. So I guess it is all relative.

I like to refer to that date as the end of continuous network radio drama since network radio drama was first heard.

One could also consider the smaller Religious Radio Networks which ran "religious oriented radio drama shows" past September of 1963. Amazingly one of those radio shows continues running even to this day.

The shows I remember clearly hearing in 1963 and beyond were "Heartbeat Theatre" (from the Salvation Army 10 pm Sundays on WMAL/DC), "Unshackled" (which is 52 years and still being produced and running - www.unshackled.org) and "The Eternal Flame" (from New York City's WABC). All these shows were professionally produced and continued the tradition of radio drama.

LONG LIVE OLD TIME RADIO!

I agree that Sept. 30th 1962 was an end to a special era.

As for the CBC, as well as the BBC, all I can say is that they knew a good thing when the heard it!

http://www.old-time.com/otrlogs/

Nov 25th,1960: Last Broadcast of the remaining CBS Radio soap operas, which included a series called BEST SELLER (dramatizing current novels). Also Last Broadcast of AMOS 'N' ANDY in any form on radio.

November 27,1960: Last Broadcast of HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL.

November 28,1960: Debut of "new" CBS Radio format which includes 10 minutes of news on the hour and five minute "news features" on the half hour (similar to The Osgood Files and such of present day CBS Radio). Also a 20 min GARRY MOORE hosted interview show and a 20 min BING CROSBY-ROSEMARY CLOONEY music show, plus a 50 minute ARTHUR GODFREY TIME show and a 25 minute TV soundtrack version of ART LINKLETTER"s HOUSE PARTY , all of these on a Mon-Fri basis. On Sundays there was a 50 minute drama segment featuring GUNSMOKE and JOHNNY DOLLAR, with SUSPENSE replacing DOLLAR by late June 1961.Sadly, beginning October 1962 only the Godfrey and Linkletter series remained.

SORRY!!!!

Eric

It's hard to believe CBS had 10-minute news on the hour then. Remember the sounder they used at the time? I once heard the aircheck of WCBS from 11/22/1963 when they broke in for the first NetAlert bulletin on the shooting of JFK, it had that on-the-hour sounder.

I do recall some of those features that came on the half-hour then. CBS in the 60s had an umbrella title for those features called Dimension, in the same manner as NBC's Emphasis. One of these shows was Dimensions of a Woman's World with Betty Furness.
They later had things like Dear Abby's spot, which has been mentioned elsewhere on this board. That's the one where Harry Bartel would read the letters and Abby would reply to them. I also recall Mike Roy's Cooking Thing, where Mike and his sidekick Dennis Bracken would make merry with that day's recipe.

Boy the little things I remember about radio.....

Theater Five had some pretty good episodes if you could get past the rather fifties retro opening music. Many were SF-themed, though the show was not entirely of that genre as some books indicate (Hickerson's Guide refers to it as a Science Fiction series). One writer who contributed to the show was Sherman Dryer, who had produced 2000 Plus, the first adult science fiction series from 1950.

Some of the copies circulating are not very good, though almost all of the episodes are available.