Red Lion Hotel, Pendelton, OR. Photo by Scarlett Messenger Quiet Please
Written and directed by celebrated author Wyllis Cooper, the widely acclaimed old time radio program Quiet, Please was first aired on June 8, 1947 over the Mutual Broadcasting System. In this period, several similarly themed anthologies graced the American airwaves. However, it was this series that garnered notoriety during the golden age of radio and was lauded as an innovative and creative work of genius by both critics and academics alike. In fact, Professor Richard J. Hand from Glamorgan University praised Quiet, Please as an “extraordinary body of work,” and its writer Cooper as “one of the greatest authors of horror radio.” Quiet, Please was a mish mash of several literary genres, with supernatural encounters gaining the most prominence.
Snow, Ferndale, WA. Photo by Scarlett Messenger Nightfall
Nightfall is the title of a radio drama series produced and aired by CBC Radio from July 1980 to June 1983. While primarily a supernatural/horror series, Nightfall featured some episodes in other genres, such as science fiction, mystery, fantasy, and human drama. One episode was even adapted from a folk song by Stan Rogers. Some of Nightfall’s episodes were so terrifying that the CBC registered numerous complaints and some affiliate stations dropped it. Despite this, the series went on to become one of the most popular shows in CBC Radio history, running 100 episodes that featured a mix of original tales and adaptations of both classic and obscure short stories.
Sculpture, Bellingham, WA. Photo by Scarlett Messenger X Minus One
Most of the stories for X Minus One were culled directly from the pages of Galaxy. Many of SF’s most popular authors got mass exposure through this series, and even today X Minus One is still generally considered a cornerstone of radio drama.
Most, if not all, of the famous sci-fi authors have had stories featured in this series: Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon, just to name a few.
