# Did anyone at the time lament the disappearance of scripted/variety radio? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 15, 2015, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864 "2015-01-15T00:37:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864/21 "2015-01-17T02:51:11Z")
I remember when Jack Benny died, a writer in the “New York Times” said it was far more funnier to hear Benny’s decrepit Maxwell automobile sputter and wheeze on the radio as compared to seeing it on television. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864/22 "2015-01-17T05:39:18Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > With the longer commutes people have now, I’m surprised something like that hasn’t started back up. I love listening to Radio Classics on XM 82. Johnny Dollar, The Whistler and Gun Smoke are my favorites. At least now we have podcasts and mp3 players, though. Even for those who drive old cars, there are mp3 adapters that will allow them to hook up their mp3 player, iPod, or smart phone to the car stereo, and play OTR or whatever they want. I agree about the random scheduling, but most of these episodes are downloadable as podcasts, so you can listen to what you want when you want. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864/23 "2015-01-17T05:43:57Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > You’d love BBC Radio 4, It’s not a wide variety of scripted shows, interviews, variety shows and brilliant comedy. > > > > It’s not just a stepping stone or a place for has-been. TV and film stars still want to produce for radio. > > > > You can download and listen to them here. > > And the sister station Radio 4 Extra which delves into the archives > > [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra/programmes/schedules/this\_week](http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra/programmes/schedules/this_week) Thanks for the recommendations; I’ll certainly check these out. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864/24 "2015-01-17T15:09:56Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > What was the quality of car radios and radio broadcasting like in those days? For instance, on long drives, would you have been able to find another station broadcasting the same program when you drove out of range of the station you had been listening to. I’m not sure about other programs, but Signal Oil - the sponsor of _The Whistler_ - often stated in the advertising portions of the show that a road map (available at Signal Oil gas stations, of course) also had a list of stations that carried the show so you wouldn’t miss it while traveling. I like Botar’s for vintage radio shows in podcast form. Most of the suspense shows hold up quite well. The comedy can be hit-or-miss though. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864/25 "2015-01-17T15:17:59Z")
I think the OP has the tail wagging the dog. They didn’t just shut down radio drama one day. What happened was the general public lost interest in radio drama and after it did so, radio stations responded by cancelling those dramas. It’s like lamenting the demise of newspapers in our times. If there was a large bunch of people who actually cared about newspapers, then they wouldn’t be going out of business. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864/26 "2015-01-17T17:17:12Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It’s like lamenting the demise of newspapers in our times. If there was a large bunch of people who actually cared about newspapers, then they wouldn’t be going out of business. There is a large bunch. There’s not a large-enough-to-be-profitable bunch. The distinction is subtle but critical. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864/27 "2015-01-17T19:38:50Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > What was the quality of car radios and radio broadcasting like in those days? For instance, on long drives, would you have been able to find another station broadcasting the same program when you drove out of range of the station you had been listening to. > > For that matter, given that radios were less portable and more expensive during even the last years of OTR’s heyday than they would later become, would that have seriously limited people’s ability to do other things while they listened? it was AM band so signals would travel farther than FM. the radio networks, maybe four, were strong then sent the shows around the country. in the earliest times between the radio, aerial and batteries it was a big package. things got smaller like they do now. there were portable radios the size of a picnic basket. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864/28 "2015-01-18T20:33:48Z")
CBS Radio Mystery Theater aired from 1974 until 1982. My dad and listened to E.G. Marshall and his “tales of the macabre” (uneven in quality, mystery, and macabreness) in the car when he would drive me places as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864/29 "2015-01-18T23:34:09Z")
When NBC started [its weekend program, Monitor,](https://drive.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1955/1955-09-19-BC-Radio-recovers.pdf) (WARNING: It isn’t just a pdf, it’s a 140 page pdf!) critics called it “the doom and damnation of radio” and one dismissed it as a “seemingly endless succession of unfinished bits and pieces…” compared, I infer, to traditional radio programming. [Monitor, however, survived until 1975](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monitor_%28NBC_Radio%29). ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864/30 "2015-01-19T19:26:00Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that radio soap operas were popular with housewives, who could carry on with their ironing and other housework while keeping up with the plot; I’m sure this also applicable to many similar situations, like working on something in your garage, or certain types of business or paid employment. It’s many a moon ago now but I recall being told in Media Studies module that TV soaps followed the formula of radio soaps, in that oftentimes looking at the screen wasn’t necessary to follow the story, there were more audio leads than on other shows. However this may only have been in the context of British soap operas. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864/31 "2015-01-19T19:40:18Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > CBS Radio Mystery Theater aired from 1974 until 1982. My dad and listened to E.G. Marshall and his “tales of the macabre” (uneven in quality, mystery, and macabreness) in the car when he would drive me places as a kid. The CBS Radio Mystery Theater was a conscious attempt to revivie the type of radio drama that had been popular in the “golden age” of radio, and its creator/producer, Himan Brown, had been active during that golden age. I agree that it was “uneven in quality, mystery, and macabreness,” and IMHO it would have been better (tighter and more effective) if it had stuck with the half-hour format of its predecessors. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864/32 "2015-01-19T19:57:58Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > The CBS Radio Mystery Theater was a conscious attempt to revivie the type of radio drama that had been popular in the “golden age” of radio, and its creator/producer, Himan Brown, had been active during that golden age. I agree that it was “uneven in quality, mystery, and macabreness,” and IMHO it would have been better (tighter and more effective) if it had stuck with the half-hour format of its predecessors. Uneven is a charitable description. CBS RMT was mostly pretty bad. I was an avid listener as a teen in the 70s, but it was very nearly all that was available for radio drama. RMT was most successful when they did adaptations of authors like Poe or Twain. Original scripts are uniformly bad. I’m not going just from memory. The show’s whole run, or nearly so, is available and I’ve tried to listen to it. More than a few eps are so bad I didn’t finish them. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864/33 "2015-01-19T21:08:02Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > What was the quality of car radios and radio broadcasting like in those days? For instance, on long drives, would you have been able to find another station broadcasting the same program when you drove out of range of the station you had been listening to. OP are you acquainted with the clear channel AM radio stations? At night you could hear these for hundreds of miles: > **[Clear-channel station](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear-channel_station)** > > A clear-channel station is a North American AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classification exists to ensure the viability of cross-country or cross-continent radio service enforced through a series of treaties and statutory laws. Known as Class A stations since the 1983 adoption of the Regional Agreement for the Medium Frequency Broadcasting Service in Region 2 (Rio Agreement), they ... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-at-the-time-lament-the-disappearance-of-scripted-variety-radio/709864.md?page=1)