CBS Radio Mystery Theater

Once again I've rediscovered a piece of my past thanks to the Internet and my MP3 Player.

When I was a teenager , in 1974, one of our our local AM radio stations (WEST in Easton, Pennsylvania) started broadcasting a new CBS radio network program called Radio Mystery Theater. It was hosted by E. G. Marshall (pictured to the left).

This was a return to radio broadcasting of dramas like those that were such a significant part of my parent's childhood. I appreciated those old radio shows because my mom & dad used to talk about them a lot and even listened to them on tape from time to time.

At the time 10 o'clock, the time the program came on the air, was my bed time. So I would listen to it 5 nights a week. I loved the drama and the mystery of each and every episode.

I even started writing and recording some of my own comic satire versions in my room on my cassette tape recorder. Instead of E. G Marshall, my host's name was F. S. Sheriff. That little play on words always made my dad laugh whenever I played my tapes for him.

One week during my 8th grade year my English class performed an abbreviated version of one of the Radio Mystery Theater's scripts that appeared in Scholastic magazine. It was called "Lost Dog". I was so familiar with the story that I got to play the role of the husband, the villain in the play.

The September after I graduated from high school I started working the graveyard shift at a local plastics factory. That's when portable headset radios had first become available. I bought one and used to listen to it during my shift. Although I didn't start work until 11:30PM Radio Mystery Theater came on as a rebroadcast at 2 or 3 in the morning. I used to listen to it then as well. It helped pass the time at a job that was very repetitive and boring.

On December 1982 Mystery Theater broadcast it's last program. I had stopped listening to it long before then because a lot of things changed in my life including my radio listening habits.

I haven't heard any of the show since. I've thought about them quite often, especially when I would see E. G Marshall play a congressman or the president in a movie or TV show.

Last week I started thinking about the show again. I did a search of the Internet and once again it came through for me. I have found about 100 Mystery Theater programs in a down loadable MP3 format. Now I can transfer them to my phone MP3 player and listen to them in the car or when I go to bed. I know it's getting to be pretty common place but I've just found another aspect of my childhood that I can reconnect with anytime I want to. I love the Internet.