Sources of OTR Soap Opera Episodes
Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 6:44 am
The following are all the sources I have used in building my own radio soap opera collection, with the exception of a couple of dealers who have gone out of business and one whose holdings have been inaccessible for several months. Most of these have been mentioned in other posts, but I'll bring them all together here, update them, and add one or two new ones.
I. Free Downloads
Archive.org is a great source of free mp3 downloads. It offers many episodes of Backstage Wife, The Goldbergs, The Guiding Light, The Life of Mary Sothern, Ma Perkins, One Man's Family, Pepper Young's Family, and Young Widder Brown.
On the same site, single episodes of almost twenty soap operas are to be found under "Complete Broadcast Day." A log identifying them is located on the main page for that item.
Also, single episodes of nine soaps are under "D-Day." No log is provided there, but the soap operas are found in the following:
Part 008: Valiant Lady, The Light of the World, The Open Door, Bachelor's Children.
Part 009: Amanda of Honeymoon Hill, Second Husband, Aunt Jenny's True Life Stories (aka Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories).
Part 010: Big Sister, The Romance of Helen Trent.
II. Radio Club Libraries
The SPERDVAC (sperdvac.org) library system contains well over two hundred episodes of soap operas on cassette tapes. After joining the club for $25, members may borrow items from the various libraries for a modest fee and keep them for about a month. You can listen to the tapes, and if you have the equipment can dub the programs onto your own cassettes or encode them to another format.
SPERDVAC has some episodes of most of the soaps found on archive.org, as well as a host of others. Here is a partial list: Against the Storm; Aunt Mary; The Brighter Day; Joyce Jordan, M.D.; Just Plain Bill; Life Can Be Beautiful; Lora Lawton; Midstream; Myrt and Marge; Our Gal Sunday; The Right to Happiness; Road of Life; The Second Mrs. Burton; Stella Dallas; This Is Nora Drake; The Woman in My House; The World of Rosalind Marlowe; and Young Doctor Malone.
The Old Time Radio Researchers Library Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OTRRLibrary/) lends disks to members for only a postage charge ($2 per order is common). To join this group, you must first be a member of either the Old Time Radio Researchers Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OldTimeRa ... hersGroup/) or the OTRR Distro Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OTRRDistroGroup/). Membership in all these groups is free.
Most of the library's holdings are in wav format, which can be played on a computer with a dvd drive. Single episodes of Against the Storm and The Right to Happiness are available, as are multiple ones of Joyce Jordan, M.D.; Hilltop House; Road of Life; and Backstage Wife.
III. Dealers
Many soap opera recordings are offered in mp3 format at otrcat.com. Some of the series with multiple episodes are Big Sister, The Brighter Day, Front Page Farrell. Hilltop House, Just Plain Bill, Lorenzo Jones, Myrt and Marge, This Is Nora Drake, The Romance of Helen Trent, Stella Dallas, Valiant Lady and Young Doctor Malone. A single episode of each of these can be heard as a free download.
Bookzap.com provides multiple episodes in mp3 format of The Guiding Light, The Life of Mary Sothern, Ma Perkins, Backstage Wife, One Man's Family and Young Widder Brown.
I. Free Downloads
Archive.org is a great source of free mp3 downloads. It offers many episodes of Backstage Wife, The Goldbergs, The Guiding Light, The Life of Mary Sothern, Ma Perkins, One Man's Family, Pepper Young's Family, and Young Widder Brown.
On the same site, single episodes of almost twenty soap operas are to be found under "Complete Broadcast Day." A log identifying them is located on the main page for that item.
Also, single episodes of nine soaps are under "D-Day." No log is provided there, but the soap operas are found in the following:
Part 008: Valiant Lady, The Light of the World, The Open Door, Bachelor's Children.
Part 009: Amanda of Honeymoon Hill, Second Husband, Aunt Jenny's True Life Stories (aka Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories).
Part 010: Big Sister, The Romance of Helen Trent.
II. Radio Club Libraries
The SPERDVAC (sperdvac.org) library system contains well over two hundred episodes of soap operas on cassette tapes. After joining the club for $25, members may borrow items from the various libraries for a modest fee and keep them for about a month. You can listen to the tapes, and if you have the equipment can dub the programs onto your own cassettes or encode them to another format.
SPERDVAC has some episodes of most of the soaps found on archive.org, as well as a host of others. Here is a partial list: Against the Storm; Aunt Mary; The Brighter Day; Joyce Jordan, M.D.; Just Plain Bill; Life Can Be Beautiful; Lora Lawton; Midstream; Myrt and Marge; Our Gal Sunday; The Right to Happiness; Road of Life; The Second Mrs. Burton; Stella Dallas; This Is Nora Drake; The Woman in My House; The World of Rosalind Marlowe; and Young Doctor Malone.
The Old Time Radio Researchers Library Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OTRRLibrary/) lends disks to members for only a postage charge ($2 per order is common). To join this group, you must first be a member of either the Old Time Radio Researchers Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OldTimeRa ... hersGroup/) or the OTRR Distro Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OTRRDistroGroup/). Membership in all these groups is free.
Most of the library's holdings are in wav format, which can be played on a computer with a dvd drive. Single episodes of Against the Storm and The Right to Happiness are available, as are multiple ones of Joyce Jordan, M.D.; Hilltop House; Road of Life; and Backstage Wife.
III. Dealers
Many soap opera recordings are offered in mp3 format at otrcat.com. Some of the series with multiple episodes are Big Sister, The Brighter Day, Front Page Farrell. Hilltop House, Just Plain Bill, Lorenzo Jones, Myrt and Marge, This Is Nora Drake, The Romance of Helen Trent, Stella Dallas, Valiant Lady and Young Doctor Malone. A single episode of each of these can be heard as a free download.
Bookzap.com provides multiple episodes in mp3 format of The Guiding Light, The Life of Mary Sothern, Ma Perkins, Backstage Wife, One Man's Family and Young Widder Brown.