THE BEST FREE RADIO DRAMA INTERNET SITES

Selected by Mark Leeper, last updated March 14, 2009
Online version of this list: http://geocities.datacellar.net/markleeper/radio.htm
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Those of you who have read the MT VOID for a while know that I have a special interest in radio drama.  It is particularly convenient to download it from the Internet.   Different users will record programs in different ways.  These days most people download MP3.  Being old-fashioned I frequently transfer the programs to audio tape via a jack in my PC.  I do have and iPod these days and use it very extensively.  These are the best Internet sites I have found for finding radio drama.  The sites I list offer radio drama without charge.

There are really two types of site. There is PC radio. These just broadcast 24 hours a day from what is usually a non-published schedule. The listener can sample it at random times or can just record an interval of time and then go back and choose what he likes. BBC7 is the exception in that it does publish its schedule a week in advance.  There are also download sites where you choose a program and listen on your PC or download it.

Look for the notations  GEM:  and  NEW ENTRY: 

Please note the "Of Related Interest" sites at the end.  It is not exactly radio drama when you get readings of stories and entire novels free from the Internet, but it will be of interest to many of the same people.  Having listened to Old Time Radio for many years some of the old sources are getting repetitive.  But there is so much new media of interest I really cannot keep up.

Warning:  The BBC online sites are still in a state of flux.  I have gotten complaints that not all of their media is available outside of the UK and they insist on using their own player.  Fair enough, they are subsidized by taxes in the UK and we are freeloaders (freedownloaders?).  Most of what they offer gives no problem.


 

PC RADIO STATIONS PLAYING CONTINUOUS OLD TIME RADIO DRAMA

The first five are much the same as each other. Yesterday USA has more original programming and longer musical interludes. That is not to my taste, but the programs are good.

1. Treasure Trove ACB Radio: ACB is the American Council for the Blind. This site was established as entertainment for the blind, but I can imagine they have a lot of other listeners as well. It has a really good selection of old time radio including some BBC science fiction. You might want to also make a small contribution to the ACB.

http://acbradio.org/treasure-trove.html


NEW ENTRY: 

2. Wizard Media Old Time Radio: This site offers a program a day in several different categories like a daily "X Minus One" or "The Cisco Kid."  Some videos are also available.  They also offer a link to listen again to ten previous shows in each category.

http://www.wizzard.tv/oldtimeradio

 

3. Yesterday USA: This station associated with a broadcast museum is a good source of old time radio, but it does it own original programming much of which is not very interesting to me. There are long musical interludes, interviews, hosts talking, musical programs, etc. They do more children's programs than others above.

http://www.yesterdayusa.com/streams.htm

4. WNAR: This is a Pennsylvania AM radio site that is a lot like Treasure Trove and Yesterday USA.  It has nonstop old time radio.  At least for this one there is a schedule right on the page.  Some of the programming is religious.

http://www.wnar-am.com/

5. OTR NOW: This station offers two different streams of Old Time Radio.  One stream is general radio with standard Old Time Radio programs.  The other is Crime Radio which they say features "Old-time Radio Detectives, Cops & Robbers, Guns & Ghouls Danger & Dames!"

http://www.otrnow.com/otrnow/index.htm

GEM:

6. BBC 7: BBC has established this all-entertainment PC radio station with rebroadcasts of their older programs. There is science fiction, mysteries, comedy, etc. every day. Usually it is in the same time slots. Often they do Sherlock Holmes. Goon Shows show up frequently and they really are very funny.  Since BBC drama is so frequently better than much of what was done in the US for radio drama, certainly some of what BBC7 has is a very welcome find.   Their symbol that says it is available to be played on a computer looks like "i>".   If you see this, click on the title.   PLEASE NOTE:  The BBC has revised their websites.  BBC links may not work.  And some programs will not be playable outside of Britain.

To play:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/#

Today's BBC7 Schedule (All times are in GMT):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules


BBC7 SF and Fantasy schedule:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/genres/drama/scifiandfantasy

BBC7 Horror and Supernatural schedule:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/genres/drama/horrorandsupernatural

BBC3,4,7 Spring 2009 science fiction season:

This is a once-only series of various works of science fiction and horror.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/scifiseason/

 


WEEKLY/DAILY SOURCES FOR RADIO DRAMA DOWNLOADS

GEM:

1. BBC 7 Listen Again site: At this site BBC7 has replay sites that allow the user to play BBC7 programs at any time in the six days following any program, just like the plays listed below.  This, combined with the quality of BBC7 programming is a very, very big convenience.  One no longer has to record at just the right instant.  Thank you, Beeb.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/programmes/a-z/player

 

2. BBC Saturday Play: 60-minute weekly plays. The BBC Saturday play tends to be light entertainment. It typically may be a comedy, a crime story, or a thriller. There are a few romance stories. BBC radio plays generally have high production values.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/saturday_play.shtml

 

3. BBC Friday Play: 60-minute weekly plays. I find that these are much like the Saturday plays, but they tend to be on more serious subjects.  (Of late they frequently do not have Friday plays.)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/friday_play.shtml

 
4. BBC Afternoon Plays (45-minute plays, five a week) This is more a mixed bag. There are love stories, comedies (some quite funny), fantasies, detective stories, historical dramas, you name it.  Never science fiction, but occasionally they do ghost stories.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/afternoon_play.shtml

 

5. BBC World Service World Drama  (60-minute weekly plays). Yet another site for new plays each week.  The plays  may not  be available outside the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/world_drama.shtml

 
6. The Halls of Ivy: This is a weekly program about a college president. It stars the distinguished Ronald Colman and usually stresses intellectual values.

http://classicmoviefavorites.com/colman/ivy.html

 

7. Decoder Ring Theater: This site seems to specialize in modern pastiches of  Old Time Radio.  Currently they are running a series with their hero the Red Panda (obviously patterned on the Green Hornet).  In the past they ran a radio noir hard-boiled detective series called Black Jack Justice.  The acting is a little too tongue-in-cheek for my taste, perhaps inspired by the Firesign Theater.

http://decoderring.libsyn.com/

 

8. WBAI Golden Age and Mass Backwards:  Max Schmid on WBAI does a weekly show "The Golden Age of Radio" and he also will frequently play radio drama on his other weekly show "Mass Backwards."  These shows are downloadable from the WBAI archive.  Do a search on the page for the two titles and then click on link in the right column.

http://archive.wbai.org/

GEM:

9. Imagination Theater: This is a weekly radio program of newly produced original drama. Each is a program of about 50-minutes with generally two stories. They have several series with continuing characters. They do stories with detectives like Sherlock Holmes and their own Harry Nile, a sort of hard-boiled detective in the Philip Marlowe vein. They also have stories with an occult detective. Then a lot of their stories are not in series. This is the most accurate pastiche of Old Time Radio currently available and is something of an institution. If you have heard all the old OTR shows, this station will have good material you have not heard before. Jim French Productions syndicate the show to local radio stations, but the weekly show is also available at their web site.  It is a little hard to find where in their site to find the program.  Go to the home page and on the right side you'll see the sidebar that says: "Show Information." Click on "Imagination Theater" then click on the "Listen now" buttons.

 

http://jimfrenchproductions.com/


GEM:

10. LA Theatre Works: This is just one play a week, but it is two hours long and usually a production of very high quality.  It is good (frequently familiar) playwrights and good (frequently familiar) actors.  After a week the plays remain on the site, but are replaced with a sample that is just the first 15 minutes.  I recommend checking each week.

http://www.scpr.org/programs/latw/index.html

The schedule of upcoming programs can be found at

http://www.latw.org/radio/list.aspx

11.  Old Time Radio Fan: This site offers two popular radio programs from the Golden Age each day.*

 

http://www.otrfan.com/otr/today.php

 


This is the entire past week's selections waiting to be played again.

http://www.otrfan.com/otr/weekly.html


And the last week's offerings, 14 in all, are available for play and download at this site. 

http://www.otrfan.com/otr/recent.php

NEW ENTRY:
GEM:

12.  Escape and Suspense: Escape and Suspense were the two best action and adventure anthology series.   This site is a treasury collection of episodes.  Notice that in the right column you have links to many more episodes.

http://www.escape-suspense.com/

 

But wait.  There's more.  Actually there is access to many more shows available.   Click on a series title anywhere on the above listings and you get a text description telling you about the series and several episodes you can click on to hear or download.  Sadly there is no way to find a complete list of the programs this site offers.


 

 

FIXED COLLECTIONS FOR DOWNLOAD

1. The Mercury Theatre on the Air: Perhaps the greatest genius of radio drama was Orson Welles. This site seems to be a complete source for everything he did on radio. This includes the famous October 30, 1938 "Panic Broadcast" based on THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, but even better is his adaptation of DRACULA.

http://www.mercurytheatre.info/

 

2. Quiet Please: Wyllis Cooper created one of the better horror series of Old Time Radio. Some episodes of Quiet Please are very good mood pieces.  A few have become classics.

http://www.quietplease.org/index.php?section=listepisodes

 

GEM:

3. The OTR Network Library: This is a terrific collection of over 12,000 Old Time Radio programs.  Not just the weaker programs either.  Things like  a long run of Lux Radio Theater.  This site is a must for OTR fans.  Really!

http://www.otr.net/

 

4. Monster Club Radio Library: An extensive collection of horror, science fiction, and fantasy Old Time Radio programs.  Very worth visiting.

http://www.themonsterclub.com/radiolibrary.htm


GEM:
5. The Internet Archive: This site is part of a very large project to save Internet material and make it constantly available.  That mission covers a lot of ground but part is that they store Old Time Radio shows, more than a thousand at this point.  It is a fascinating site to just browse to see what they do have in addition to radio shows. Like any large library it is impossible to know exactly what to look for, but you can let the search window look for specific items.  For example, search for "Lux" and you will find years of "Lux Radio Theater" with hour-long radio dramatizations of films.

http://www.archive.org/details/oldtimeradio


6. The Wireless Theatre Company: The Wireless Theatre Company seems to be around to give a venue for new writers of plays.  Apparently they put out plays on a regular basis in zip file format (so you may need winzip on your PC).   As  Mariele  Temple , their  artistic  director,  tells  me  "We now have a new look website, with over thirty productions and plays starring both Prunella Scales (Fawlty Towers) and Nicholas Parsons. This Christmas [2008] we will be recording our first audio theatre pantomime, written by Richard O'Brien (The Rocky Horror Picture Show)."

http://www.wirelesstheatrecompany.co.uk/

NEW ENTRY:

7. Radio Tales of the Strange and Fantastic:  This is not a big collection, but it has some good radio programs.  Mostly they are collected from other sites like the archive.org.  But it is nice to have the links in one place.

http://www.digital-eel.com/rtsf/

GEM:
8. RadioLovers:  Not as extensive as the Internet OTR Archive (I think, I haven't counted) but still a fairly large source of OTR sorted by series.*

http://www.radiolovers.com/

 

 


OF  RELATED INTEREST

NEW ENTRY:

GEM:

1. Radio Drama Revival!: Fred Greenhalgh does a weekly show (dated Thursdays) about 30-minutes to an hour in length dedicated to (mostly new) radio drama.  He will have entire productions of radio drama or he will just have programs about how radio drama is created today.  The program is always of interest and it is a good place to learn not just of Greenhaigh's own productions but also of other productions companies around the country with a copious collection of links.  His site also offers archives of programs going back to January of 2007.  The show seems to be a real labor of love.

http://www.radiodramarevival.com/

 

GEM:

2. RadioGOLDINdex: This is not a source for Old Time Radio, but it has very useful episode guides for Old Time Radio series.   It is a valuable reference

http://radiogoldindex.com/frame1.html

 

3. Simply Scripts: A site with scripts and transcripts of OTR programs*

http://www.simplyscripts.com/radio.html

 

 

NEW ENTRY:

GEM:

4. LibriVox Audio: This is not drama but  books read by human readers (as opposed to some sites that have computer voices).  There are over 1600 books in public domain available.  Topics include the classics, science fiction, fantasy, history, etc.

http://www.archive.org/details/librivoxaudio

http://librivox.org/

 

NEW ENTRY:
5. Podiobooks: This is a lot like LibriVox.  It is downloadable readings of whole books or shorter pieces, fiction and nonfiction, read by non-professionals.  They also do have an Audiodrama category.

http://www.podiobooks.com/index.php


6. Golden Age of Radio--World War II News Broadcasts: Not drama but dramatic.  A large collection of radio broadcasts, 662 in all, documenting World War II while it was happening.*

http://www.archive.org/details/worldwarIInewsOTRKIBM





 

 

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