Halloween! Words! Contest! Okay, inspiration.

I'm a big fan of old-timey radio — it's just one facet of my having been approximately 80 years old since birth. I am deeply resentful of the fact that The Big Broadcast doesn't provide podcasts, and am prepared to draft a curt letter to that effect on my IBM Selectric. Perhaps I'll send it to my local paper's editor.

The best old-time radio isn't very spooky, it's true — cowboys, detectives and comedy teams are the order of the day. There are a decent number of supernatural programs, but WAMU tends not to play them. Those that I've found online are almost all awful. One exception, though, is Beyond Midnight. I won't claim to be a connoisseur, but it seems to be pretty good, aside from the discordant shilling for a defunct laundry additive named Bio-tex (which is sort of fun in its own right). And it's considerably easier to listen to than even the audiobooks I've posted in the past — creeping woodwinds and alarmed brass can go a long way toward punctuating a tale of fright.

Here's an episode that I particularly liked. Emily and I shut off all the lights and listened to it over dinner, and it was great.

Beyond Midnight – Let Me See Your Face

The episode page can be found here. More episodes are here.

ALSO / WOW: Check out the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Collection for much, much, MUCH MUCH more.

ALSO ALSO: Apparently Beyond Midnight is of South African provenance. I'm not sure why, but I find this interesting; maybe you will, too.