Audio books are a popular way of listening to books while you are traveling, working out or just working around the house. But once upon a time, people used to gather around their radios in the evenings to listen to an old time radio show. A few years back when we first got satellite radio in our house, we discovered the old time radio channel which played shows that had aired on the radio long before television or audio books. We often listened to a show or several shows when we were just having a lazy afternoon. And they were lots of fun, having sound effects, music and several actors, instead of just one person reading a book (as the audio books do).
So we began to seek out the old time radio shows online and we found a host of great sites which allowed us to download stories or plays and listen to them on our computer. I fondly remember a number of weekends spent listening to the entire radio broadcast of Les Miserables. I’d never read the book before so this was a great alternative. There are many great online sites which play old radio programs, such as :
http://www.oldtimeradiofans.com/
Many people now listen to podcasts on their iPods, so naturally, there has been a demand for stories or books to be put on a podcast. I came across an interesting site which does just that.
http://wizzard.tv/oldtimeradio
Maybe these old time radio shows won’t compete with audio books (the sound quality isn’t always great and they are a bit old-fashioned), but they can be an interesting alternative to a new medium.
