The Good Old Days of Radio Show

Today we’re going back to October 4, 1943, for one of the wildest and weirdest comedy programs ever to hit the airwaves, It Pays to Be Ignorant. Hosted by Tom Howard and featuring his panel of so-called “experts,” Harry McNaughton, Lulu McConnell, and George Shelton, the show turns the idea of a quiz show upside down, serving up ridiculous questions, nonsensical answers, and nonstop vaudeville-style banter. You’ll also hear authentic 1940s flavor with wartime bond announcements and classic Peele’s Beer ads, plus a musical interlude from the Korn Kobblers, a novelty band in the spirit of Spike Jones and His City Slickers. The perfect ending to a half hour of vintage radio nonsense.

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Welcome to the fourth installment in our lead-up to Halloween on The Good Old Days of Radio Show. In this episode, we have an episode of The Shadow, titled “The Face,” originally aired on September 21, 1947. The plot follows Hugh Windham, a former actor whose face is horribly disfigured in a plane accident. After plastic surgery fails, Windham becomes a ruthless killer, targeting women who knew his original looks, until The Shadow steps in to stop him. You’ll also hear the original Blue Coal advertisements as they appeared in the broadcast, and John talks about how those ads and occasional mentions of post-war fuel shortages remind us of the real-world backdrop listeners faced at the time.

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On this episode of The Good Old Days of Radio Show, we are bringing you a powerful World War II–era broadcast from March 14, 1944: “The Long Name None Could Spell,” part of the Columbia Presents Corwin series. Written, directed, and produced by Norman Corwin, this dramatic program is a heartfelt tribute to Czechoslovakia after its betrayal and breakup following the 1938 Munich Agreement. Featuring narration by Martin Gabel and commentary from journalist William L. Shirer (who later wrote the famous book “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”), the broadcast captures the intense emotion, patriotism, and moral conviction of wartime America.

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This week, we continue our countdown to Halloween with the third spooky installment in the series. Today’s episode is Quiet, Please classic “Wear the Dead Man’s Coat,” originally broadcast on February 23, 1948. Written and directed by Willis Cooper and starring Ernest Chappell, this story follows Floyd, a man who helps a shady character named Kidney Foot Cassidy get his hands on a warm overcoat… and ends up tangled in a murder, a mysterious coat that turns its wearer invisible, and the signature Wyllis Cooper twist.

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Today we shine a spotlight on one of the great but often forgotten comedians of the 1940s and ’50s: Henry Morgan. We’ll be hearing his April 4, 1950 NBC broadcast, and includes a few fun sketches, like an interview with a wrestler named “Gorgeous Carney,” a musical number from the Billy Williams Quartet, and a parody of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde featuring Henry Morgan alongside familiar voices like Art Carney and Arnold Stang. It’s clever, fast-paced, and a great reminder of just how ahead of his time Henry Morgan really was.

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Today we have another quietly spooky one. This is the classic "Coffin In Studio B," a script written by the highly original Wyllis Cooper, back in the '30s when Cooper was heavily involved in the legendary (and mostly lost), Lights Out! run. We have it from a short revival series from July 13th, 1946. The story focuses on three men late at night in a lonely radio studio, frantically rehearsing for the radio drama, minutes before it goes live. Maybe the best realistic portrayal of what working on a live radio show was like. Oh, except for that coffin part.

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We have an extended episode of the podcast for you today. It’s a rare, full 90-minute CBS broadcast from October 1945 called Stars in the Afternoon. This previously uncirculated broadcast originally aired live from Carnegie Hall, and was a special, designed as a big promotional preview for CBS’s fall lineup. Produced by Norman Corwin, you'll hear snippets and appearances from popular shows of the day, including The Aldrich Family, Inner Sanctum, We the People, Take It or Leave It, and The Thin Man. It’s a fascinating time capsule from the golden age of radio, and gives a real picture of what radio entertainment sounded like in 1945.

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On this first Thursday of October we are featuring a chilling installment from the classic series Mystery in the Air, starring the famous Peter Lorre. Originally broadcast on September 4, 1947 (and yes, sponsored by Camel Cigarettes), the story is titled The Mask of Medusa. The plot takes us into the world of a wax museum owner with a horrifying secret: the “figures” in his museum aren’t wax at all, but real people transformed into living statues by the ancient Mask of Medusa. One of these victims narrates the terror of being trapped, fully conscious but unable to move, while surrounded by forty-seven other frozen murderers. It’s Peter Lorre at his creepy best, in a story that mixes horror, mythology, and 1940s radio magic.

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On this episode, in addition to listening to a newly restored version of “Nothing Behind the Door” by Wyllis Cooper, John and Joel Tefteller dive into the fascinating (and often painstaking) world of audio restoration. They’re joined by Corey Harker, president of SPERDVAC (the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy) to talk about the group’s history and its renewed push to keep classic radio alive. Corey and Joel get into the nuts and bolts of working with old transcription discs: how to clean up the sound without making it artificial, and just how much time and care goes into the process. To really show the difference, they play “before and after” examples from Quiet Please and Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel, a great reminder of why professional restoration matters. It’s all about making sure these historic recordings don’t just survive, but can actually be enjoyed by listeners today and generations to come.

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This episode wraps up our 10 More Monsters series with a once-lost recording of Escape. It’s a tense story set in the Louisiana bayou, where villagers suspect a stranger named Zeb of being a loup-garou ("werewolf") after livestock disappear and a baby dies. Host John Tefteller shares the story of how this rare episode turned up in a collection of reel-to-reel tapes from a late collector, and what it means for preserving old-time radio treasures.

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