I joined the (at the time) two broadcast unions in 1990, and submitted my demo once again to Jim in 1994. Meanwhile I continued to learn my craft and improve my “gifts.” In the interim I managed to get roles on several independently produced audio dramas on a sporadic basis. Sadly, Jim was only hiring union talent for his programs, but said when I joined to reconnect with him. In 1974 I learned that an on-air personality named Jim French was writing and airing new full-cast audio shows over KVI, and since I’d just begun my own acting career, I saw a fantastic opportunity to ask for an audition for a part in these new radio shows.

Every night of the week, for an hour each evening, the station would air “The Theater of the Mind” program and I would set my reel-to-reel recorder to capture these broadcasts. I bought everything I could get my hands on, and was able to hear rebroadcasts of the best of the period on Seattle station KVI. New books covering the subject seemed to appear every week along with LP recordings of long-forgotten or lovingly-remembered series. Luckily for me, about two years after my discharge the nostalgia craze of the of the 1970s kicked in and what was old was new again, including old time radio. There through the facilities of Armed Forces Radio, I was able to hear many of the programs mentioned in the book. It opened an entirely new world to me, one I’d had only sketchy knowledge of, and I longed to hear these “lost shows.” Soon after I was sent to Vietnam. However, the draw soon re-asserted itself and what I later found to be the last hurrah of network radio drama was forgotten.until I was in the Army stationed in West Germany, where I found a book in the unit library titled “The Great Radio Heroes” by Jim Harmon.

There was, and soon I was sucked into “Gunsmoke,” “Have Gun, Will Travel” and “Suspense.” For several of the following Sundays I went willingly to my radio for more of these adventures. Quickly becoming bored as any pre-teen would I started to roam the dial, and to my surprise found myself listening to an episode of a show called “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.” This was something new and I was curious to see if there would be any more. One Sunday afternoon back in the late 1950s my parents sent me to my room for some infraction of the rules or other, and being denied TV I chose to tune my radio to the local Rock and Roll station. Albert: Oddly enough I became interested in the Golden Age of Radio first.

The adventures of harry nile radio