I did a search on Google and found some pretty fascinating Old Time Radio news articles on Google News reader.
Kit MacFarlane has a fascinating piece on the Pete Kelly’s Blues Old Time Radio show. You rarely get this much detail on a show, so enjoy. We’ll probably end up doing “Kelly” in a few years.
The Washington Examiner notes that 79 years ago Monday, Sherlock began its radio run.
Chuck Miller blogs about the CBS Radio Mystery Theater with some interesting thoughts on Copyright status, alleging the shows are not in the public domain. I don’t know if he’s totally correct. You can debate whether the shows made before January 1, 1978 are in the public domain, but those made after January 1, 1978 aren’t. However, CBS has shown little interest in enforcing its copyright and if CBS doesn’t care, no one else will either. Even if Mystery Theater were considered “in the public domain,” it wouldn’t matter much for this show as we don’t really do Anthology shows here.
A couple stage productions of Old Time Radio were in the news. “Meet me in St. Louis” was premiered by “Fake Radio Los Angeles” to a generally favorable review in the Times. Los Angeles Theater Works visited Asheville, North Carolina and performed two old time radio plays including the panic-inducing War of the Worlds. The performance featured John DeLancie (and yes, Trekkies, he is “Q” from Star Trek: The Next Generation.)
The Journal-Times reports on a new radio drama effort. I was amused that they referred to the effort as “the brand new old-time radio version” of the Hanna Barbara cartoons, as I don’t think they realized what a paradox their adjective was. 🙂 Still, any brand new radio dramas are welcomed and I have to imagine that Hanna Barbara’s copyright holders are cooperating, so if you live in the Kenosha, Wisconsin area, you’re in for a treat.
hmm….. i don’t see how:
“Slickly professional in every particular…”
“features an adept cast of voice performers…”
“featuring the formidably funny Dave Cox…”
“dulcet-voiced Julie Millet courageously follows in Garland’s footsteps in a surprisingly pleasing turn”
equals a “somewhat less than enthusiastic” review.
There was some criticism towards the end, but I think “somewhat less than enthusiastic” was probably a poor choice of words in retrospect. I changed it to “generally favorable.”