It has been 20+ years since we got rid of TV. Now I find myself Listening to less and less commercial radio. It has become the same shite over and over ad nauseam. I know what's coming, so I have tired of the Bravo Serria. So besides reading and listening to books, I started listening to old 1940-1960 radio programs to pass my time. The difference between these older radio programs and today's shit. Is remarkable. The ads are typically corny but fun and the PSA are all pro-American. Red Cross, US Savings bonds at 25 percent interest, polio awareness, etc. If anyone would like to listen, here are two good sites. Https:// archive. org. I am currently listening to The Six Shooter - Single Episodes : Old Time Radio Researchers Group : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. With Jimmy Stewart, great show. And there is also Old Time Radio Downloads Both carry Western, Sci Fi, Jack Benny, original Drag net and gun smoke. Don't know if anyone else would like this. But it makes me smile and laugh. All so makes me sad at how far we have fallen.
In the 80's we had a local station did old time radio shows. I could listen for hours. I liked all the shows but I think I iked The Great Gildersleeve the best.
There are a LOT of shows there I might need the next expansion disk for my NAS sooner than I thought.
I recall listening to The Johnny Dollar detective series on radio on the Armed Forces Radio Network while an Army dependent youngster in West Germany. It was before my Dad saw fit to buy our first family TV set. We sat together each night for another episode. I think it brought us closer in a good way. I believe the art of listening, in this case to the radio with no TV, helped develop my mind in better ways than if we had afforded television. I was forming my own pictures mentally from the words and sound effects of the radio show---no "spoon-fed" images. A few years later when we were transferred back stateside, we finally obtained our first B&W TV. We only received 3 stations, but I became the family TV guide, knowing when every program would come on,
Had a radio program on the AM every Sunday morning for years called "When Radio Was" Made it a point set aside two hours to sit in the barn with a coffee pot and listen. Then one Sunday it was just gone and replaced with some lawyer doing legal advice Q&A calls that last about 2 months, then it was some home repair show that died after a few weeks, Now it is 2 hours of ask the Pastor and I don't think they could have found a more boring monotone pastor to bore people to death. Now it is just silence in the shop on Sunday mornings
Thanks for the links. Looks like fun. I haven't missed TV at all, and it's been years since I tuned out. Somebody at work the other day mentioned how happy they were that I didn't listen to talk radio all day now. I thought about that, and I think the last time I listened to talk radio at work was in 2001. I really enjoy searching for obscure musicians like Leon Redbone or interviews with Frank Zappa on YouTube and just letting them run to see what will pop up next. It may be that BIg Brother has zeroed in on my preferences, or maybe it's just dumb luck, but I've found this quite enjoyable. Occasionally it'll go astray, but usually it's a nice random mix of older stuff that lets me escape the news of the day... if just for a few hours.
I do the same thing Hot Diggity , I find those Utube videos can really take you back to younger years .And I've found some really good unheard of musical artist , and some long forgotton ones on there as well . Usually the TV is just on for background noise to try and block the ringing in my ears .
Leon Redbone, now that brings back memories. First heard him on Saturday Night live years ago. Unfortunately, my internet service is non existent and depends on which way the wind blows so watching YouTube is a non starter.
Used to listen to The Lone Ranger and The Shadow as a kid. My dad figured out how to tape them (didn't have a radio receiver with plugs in the back). I think he bared a couple wires in the back and spliced them into input jacks for the tape deck. Don't really know, as it was back in the late 60s. We have a TV, but we pretty much only use it to watch DVDs, listen to music or maybe watch an older TV show or movie using the Roku. I think the last time we actually watched a network TV show might have been a couple of years ago, and then it would have been a Mythbusters rerun.
Cpaspr, your Dad and mine were cut from the same cloth. My Dad liked his VHS machines, and hated when the DVD took over. He really didn't like having to go through the menus. So he figured out how to copy the "copy protected" DVD programs to a VHS tape! I have no idea how he did it, but it worked!
There aren';t too many of us who don't have a TV but like you, I gave mine up about 15 years ago. I mostly read, 3-4 books a week and like you, enjoy the old radio shows. We're a dying breed.
When my brother and I were very young 1954-55 he built a crystal set and we listened to some guy reading the funny papers. Having only a single head-phone we had to take turns listening. Later on, dad gave my brother a "hollow scratcher" and we listened to a lot of overseas broadcasts too. Only old-timers know what a hollow scratcher is.
