Hearing Voices

I will spare you the specifics of how the side effects of radiation therapy for my prostate cancer are playing havoc with my body. Instead, I will tell you about my journey to and from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

My drive to radiation treatments are about 45 minutes or so. Recently, the winter weather has kicked into top gear, so I’ve had to miss a few appointments. These simply get tacked on, but since I am now down to the last four treatments, I REALLY hate to miss one. But as the old margarine ad campaign warned, “It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.”

Since I have a nice, long trip, I looked for something other than music to fill that time. That something is Radio Classics on Sirius/XM. They play old radio shows dating from the 1930s until their fall from favor in the early 1960s. TV ruled the roost then, and folks no longer needed to use their imaginations to enjoy mysteries, horror stories, westerns, comedies, adventures… well, you get the idea.

Radio has played a significant role in my life since I got my first transistor radio for Christmas when I was seven or eight years old. I spent many nights under the covers with an earphone plugged into one ear as I explored the AM bands. Picking up stations form Missouri, Illinois and Iowa was pretty exciting for a kid from West Virginia. You could easily hear the clear channel AM stations (not to be confused with the ineptly named Clear Channel Media which ironically turned into iHeart Radio.)  You could also hear lots of lower powered stations from all over the USA, Mexico and Canada with just a little AM radio.

I was born after the glory days of radio shows. For a short time in the mid to late 1970s, CBS aired a mystery theater radio program on some radio affiliates. I enjoyed listening to these when I was home, which wasn’t too often.

Many years later, I ran across an online article about old time radio shows being available on Internet Archive. They have a lot of them! Many free radio shows can be found at https://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio

I gravitated towards the horror/suspense genre, enjoying many episodes of shows such as “Lights Out!” and “Suspense.” I burned many MP3 episode files onto a CD, and my wife and I listened to them in the dark, much like many others had done when these creepy shows first aired.

I can hear an entire episode of a radio show on my way to Fort Wayne, and a different one on the return trip. While I hear a variety of different shows, I seem to prefer the mysteries and detective stories. “Escape,” “The Whistler,” “Let George Do It,” “Sherlock Holmes,” and “The Falcon” are some good ones. Vincent Price as Simon Templar in "The Saint" is outstanding. "The Shadow" is a famous one, and for good reason. The Shadow has the power to make himself unseen to specific evildoers and then mess with their heads.

“Escape” and “The Whistler” also have some horror themed episodes. “The Hermit’s Cave” is another good source of supernatural and mystery episodes. I have yet to hear a "Lights Out" episode on Radio Classics, though the sci-fi series " X Minus One" episodes play occasionally and is a lot of fun to listen to.

“Gunsmoke” episodes play a lot on Sirius/XM, and while I’m not a huge fan of westerns, some of these are pretty good. Others are not. One really odd western is “Frontier Gentleman,” a short-lived series about a reporter for the London Times writing about his experiences in the American Old West. No, it is not a comedy. Well, it wasn't intended to be.

“Fibber McGee and Molly” is my favorite comedy show. McGee’s banter and snappy one-liners are outstanding. “Our Miss Brooks” is another favorite. I heard a Christmastime episode around the holidays that revolved around returned gifts. I literally laughed out loud many times during that episode!

We are bombarded with movies and TV shows featuring many computer-generated visual effects and characters. We have come to expect sensory overload at the movies. The old time radio shows allow me to use my mind’s eye to enjoy a tale told in less than half an hour. The prime benefit of Radio Classics on Sirius/XM is that I no longer dread the drive to radiation treatments. In fact, I almost look forward to it. Almost.