
X Minus One: 1950s Science Fiction Radio Programs Available to Listen (2011) - optimalsolver
https://archive.org/details/OTRR_X_Minus_One_Singles
======
flats
X Minus One was the best of the full-cast science fiction radio shows of the
50s (episodes like “Star Bright”, “The Parade”, and “Field Study” are forever
etched in my memory) but there were several others - I recommend the Relic
Radio Science Fiction podcast ([https://www.relicradio.com/otr/home-2/science-
fiction/](https://www.relicradio.com/otr/home-2/science-fiction/)) for a
sampling of them.

My favorite science fiction radio, though, is Michael Hanson’s Mind Webs. You
can listen to all of the episodes at the Internet Archive
([https://archive.org/details/MindWebs_201410](https://archive.org/details/MindWebs_201410))
& I compiled a list of my favorite episodes to guide you on your journey at
[https://blog.robador.com/2015/04/the-best-of-mind-
webs/](https://blog.robador.com/2015/04/the-best-of-mind-webs/). Not full
cast, but great stories told well with good music. They even made some new
episodes a couple years ago before Michael Hanson died.

~~~
mintplant
_Mind Webs_ is excellent! I would also recommend _Quiet Please_ , which has a
similar feel and quality but a more horror/speculative fiction focus.

[https://www.quietplease.org/episodes/](https://www.quietplease.org/episodes/)

The episode _The Thing On The Fourble Board_ is widely regarded as a classic
of that era of radio.

[https://www.quietplease.org/episodes/the-thing-on-the-
fourbl...](https://www.quietplease.org/episodes/the-thing-on-the-fourble-
board-60.html)

While I'm at it, I'll point to Erik Bauersfeld's _Black Mass_ as well, another
high-quality horror-fantasy radio show that was produced locally in the Bay
Area. The adaptation of _The Outsider_ always gives me chills.

[https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/thriller/black-
mass/th...](https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/thriller/black-mass/the-
outsider-1968-11-20)

------
optimalsolver
Of possible interest: I made a Reddit bot [0] that searches YouTube for
science fiction and fantasy audiobooks when their titles get mentioned in
comments, and then replies with the link. It uses the Speculative Fiction
Database for reference.

[0]
[https://www.reddit.com/user/EmotionalField](https://www.reddit.com/user/EmotionalField)

------
annoyingnoob
When I was a kid there was a local radio station that would play all kinds of
old radio programs. I fell asleep every night for years listening to them.
They would play War of the Worlds on Halloween. I feel lucky to have stumbled
on old radio as kid.

~~~
mcbuilder
Same! WHO 1040 AM. This was my favorite followed by Dimension X, Suspense, and
the Burns and Allen Show. They dramas and sci-fi were pretty intense listens
as a kid.

~~~
annoyingnoob
It still amazes me that many of those shows were done live on the air, not
prerecorded. Sounds effects and all.

------
twic
The UK had Journey Into Space:

[https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/sci-fi/journey-into-
sp...](https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/sci-fi/journey-into-space)

That was an episodic space adventure, rather than unrelated short stories like
X Minus One.

~~~
UncleSlacky
They're played quite frequently on BBC Radio 4 Extra as well:
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00clkyv](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00clkyv)

------
tzs
This reminds me of something I've wondered about and been irked by recently.

Audio without video works well for storytelling. Video without audio doesn't
work nearly as well.

There are a few over the air TV channels I can get but not strong enough to
avoid fairly frequent dropouts. A dropout causes up to a couple seconds or so
of parts of the picture frozen and parts replace with assorted colored blocks,
and audio to be completely lost.

It makes the program pretty much unwatchable.

If they had just allocated more bandwidth to ECC on the audio, even if that
meant less on the video and so more frequent video dropouts, most of those
channels would become watchable, because for most programs missing a little
video doesn't make you lose the story as long as the audio is uninterrupted.

~~~
em-bee
i made a similar experience with the star trek fan films i have been watching.
you can find anything from the most ridiculous to professional productions.
there is a huge range.

on the other hand star trek audio drama (and any scifi audio drama i have
listened to) all sound most excellent. there is hardly any that doesn't. as
long as you have some decent voice acting and a few sound effects, you are
good.

------
csours
See also Science Fiction Theater. Here's the episode that played the night of
the "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance that George McFly would have seen in
Back to the Future:

The Hastings Secret
[https://archive.org/details/ScienceFictionTheatre1956TheOthe...](https://archive.org/details/ScienceFictionTheatre1956TheOtherSideOfTheMoonS01E39/Science+Fiction+Theatre+-+1955+-+The+Hastings+Secret+-+S01E29.mp4)

------
drdeadringer
I was raised on re-runs of Dragnet, The Shadow, The Six Shooter, and The
Whistler. Years later I got hands on X Minus One, CBS Radio Mystery Theatre,
and others. For a spell there was the "modern era" 'Cape Cod Radio Mystery
Theatre' too.

Great times. I revisit from time to time. Buy Blue Coal -- anthracite!

------
msla
The Internet Archive has a whole section of Old Time Radio:

[https://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio](https://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio)

I've always liked "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar":

[https://archive.org/details/OTRR_YoursTrulyJohnnyDollar_Sing...](https://archive.org/details/OTRR_YoursTrulyJohnnyDollar_Singles)

And there's Bob and Ray episodes:

[https://archive.org/details/bobandraytoaster?tab=collection](https://archive.org/details/bobandraytoaster?tab=collection)

"The Damon Runyon Theater" is good:

[https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Damon_Runyon_Singles](https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Damon_Runyon_Singles)

~~~
sqlacid
I highly recommend NIGHTFALL from CBC. [https://archive.org/details/Nightfall-
cbc-oldTimeRadio](https://archive.org/details/Nightfall-cbc-oldTimeRadio)

Newer vintage, 80's, excellent productions

~~~
msla
CBS Radio Mystery Theater is another "OTR Revival" series, from 1974 to 1982.

Complete collection:

[https://archive.org/details/cbsrmt-74-02-08-33-conspiracy-
to...](https://archive.org/details/cbsrmt-74-02-08-33-conspiracy-to-defraud)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_Radio_Mystery_Theater](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_Radio_Mystery_Theater)

Rod Serling hosted The Zero Hour 1973 to 1974:

[https://archive.org/details/podcast_zero-
hour_259662597](https://archive.org/details/podcast_zero-hour_259662597)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zero_Hour_(U.S._radio_seri...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zero_Hour_\(U.S._radio_series\))

And then Sears Radio Theater, aka Mutual Radio Theater:

[https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Certified_Sears_Radio_Theat...](https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Certified_Sears_Radio_Theater)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Radio_Theater](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Radio_Theater)

It's amazing what you can find if you know where to start digging.

------
dathanb82
I was very surprised to click on the llama icon and end up in a web-based port
of Winamp.

~~~
Igelau
Retro AND vintage!

------
bilater
I want to know when exactly did people stop talking like this or was this only
a Shakesperean thing for media and gradually went out of fashion?

~~~
dyates
It's called the Mid-Atlantic or Transatlantic accent and was designed as a way
to blend the American accent with British Received Pronunciation. It was
deliberately cultivated by the upper class and actors in the early 20th
century; there was a book called Speak With Distinction that taught people how
to speak like this.

It started dying after WWII and was basically gone from the media by the late
60s. Maybe because post-WWII America was less dependent on ties with Britain
for its national identity, or maybe because people decided it sounded silly
and fake. No-one spoke with the accent naturally, so it really only took a
fashion change for it to disappear.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-
Atlantic_accent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent)

[https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-fake-british-
acc...](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-fake-british-accent-took-
old-hollywood-by-storm)

~~~
082349872349872
I put Suez (1957) as an end bracket for the british empire, which would agree
as an inflection point with "started dying after WWII and was basically gone
from the media by the late 60s."

(When Orwell describes Airstrip One as always having been a part of Oceania,
he's taking the early adopter "after WWII" viewpoint. This year we'll learn if
the airstrippers will have always been eating chlorinated chicken...)

------
tzs
Wikipedia has a handy list of X Minus One episodes based on stories by famous
writers [1], and a list of all the episodes [2]. These might come in handy
since the Archive.org listing just lists the episode titles.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Minus_One#Episodes_based_on_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Minus_One#Episodes_based_on_stories_by_famous_writers)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_X_Minus_One_episodes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_X_Minus_One_episodes)

------
Igelau
There are hits and misses in here, but I love listening to these. A few big
names in there too. I seem to recall there's an episode in there that's
preceded by an announcement about the Korean War.

------
phreeza
Love these, used to listen to them a lot. The Veldt is probably my favorite.

~~~
chadcmulligan
It was also an episode on Ray Bradbury Theatre iirc, a great story

------
jsemrau
That comes at an amazing timing. In my opinion, this time period was a golden
age of science fiction. And I agree with Peter Thiel that we are currently
mostly viewing the future as too negative.

~~~
JaimeThompson
As a side a lot of us could view the future in a more positive way if people
like Peter Thiel would use their immense power for good instead of just
enriching themselves / helping others spy on us.

~~~
jsemrau
Valid point. Yet, the 50s and 60s had, from the viewpoint of now, a more
exploratory and positive outlook on the future that is worth living and
investing in. Currently, all future scenarios are dystopian nightmares. In my
opinion, that needs to change.

~~~
rangibaby
The first radio story is literally about Commie, oops, I meant alien,
infiltrators disguising themselves in human society to destroy it from the
inside

------
sn41
I absolutely love science fiction of the 1950s and early 1960s. In my spare
time, I try reading "Galaxy science fiction" from archive.org. It is a
pleasure to read classics like "The Fireman" by Ray Bradbury, which eventually
became Fahrenheit 411, in their original versions. One, now largely forgotten,
novel I enjoyed from that period is "Day of the Triffids".

~~~
vmilner
The BBC radio 1968 version of Triffids is excellent, with a pretty modern
feel, (except for the music). The BBC 1981 TV version is also great.

~~~
jamiek88
That version scared the crap out of me as a kid, now I realise why , I was
four!

------
CamperBob2
I wonder what the copyright status of these shows is? I wish I'd been a little
more aggressive with wget a few months ago when IA was posting a lot of
textbook .PDFs. The same consideration might apply here if you're a fan of
this type of material. Once it's been yanked from the archive, you have to
assume it's gone for good.

~~~
em-bee
well, the internet archive hopefully vets stuff they feature, so it should be
safe.

but i agree with you. i am listening to the more recent scifi audio dramas and
i am keeping a copy of each one.

------
CarbonJ
X Minus One is great! A friend of mine runs "Retrostrange" \- a radio station
that plays old sci-fi shows and often features it. I find it really relaxing
to throw it on in the background while I work.

[http://retrostrange.com/](http://retrostrange.com/)

------
xixixao
Also a golden age of radio. Orchestra, cast, sound effects. Are shows like
this ever produces nowadays?

~~~
flats
The BBC & the CBC produce a lot of dramatic radio with full casts & music &
sound effects, but not all that much science fiction - see BBC Radio 4 Extra,
for example. CBC’s Vanishing Point is the most recent dedicated speculative
fiction show I’m aware of with that level of production values.

------
euroderf
Why doesn't someone sell refurbished radio sets preloaded with this kind of
material ?

------
pjmorris
I once read a Harlan Ellison essay on the power of the spoken (and written)
word applied to radio stories. He had a line about the imagination having a
much larger special effects budget than any movie studio could ever achieve.
It always stuck with me.

~~~
em-bee
i have a similar thought on role playing video games. if you remember text
based MUDs, they allowed for a lot more imagination like a book vs movies.

now i wonder, we have book, audio drama and movies, and we have text and
graphic games, but i have not yet seen any pure audio game. something even a
blind person could enjoy

------
giantrobot
On SiriusXM there's an old time radio channel that plays this show and tons of
others (Ch 148 Radio Classics). I love X Minus One, Dimension X, Suspense, and
Escape. You can also find them on The Internet Archive.

------
shrubble
I would mention that archive.org also has Escape! as a series, which includes
a good adaptation of the short story, 'The Most Dangerous Game' amongst its
episodes.

------
creativeCak3
This is why I'm so happy Internet Archive exists. Listened to the first
episode, and it's not too bad! Thanks for this gem.

