Arch Oboler's Light's Out

[ChiTownScion]

..... is what really got me listening to OTR. Back around 1970, then "underground" FM station WLS-FM (later WDAI) of Chicago began rebroadcasting these fine programs under the moniker, "The Devil and Mister O." I was in high school, and was captivated them.

Anyone else recall the programs?

 

[LizzieMaine]

That rerun series got a lot of people interested in Oboler's work -- I used to hear those on WMEX in Boston in the mid-late '70s. Most of the programs came from the 1942-43 season of "Lights Out," but a few were taken from "Arch Oboler's Plays," a 1939-40 NBC series Oboler did after leaving "Lights Out," in which he focused on more philosophical/political themes than he had in his earlier work.

Oboler burned out on radio in the late forties. In 1948 he wrote a scathing essay for Variety in which he condemned the sausage-grinder mentality of the people who ran the radio business, and essentially washed his hands of it. Much the pity, because it would have been very interesting to see him creating new work in the '70s rather than simply repackaging the old.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I remember CBS radio doing their Radio Mystery Theater in the 70's and 80's as well. Different production, and it seemed to draw on a wider range of talent- both in acting and in writing- than Lights Out, but a similar theme presented later in the evening. I'd certainly rather listen to such tales at night on the radio than watch American Idol or Dancing With the Stars.... but evidently mine is a shrinking demographic as far as that sort of thing is concerned.