Lights Out | Old Time Radio

Lights Out presents “The Coffin in Studio B,” originally broadcast on July 13, 1946. This was episode 2 of NBC’s 1946 summer revival, written by Wyllis Cooper and directed by Albert Crews.

During a late-night rehearsal just minutes before airtime, the Lights Out cast and crew struggle to prepare their next broadcast. Then an elderly visitor arrives with a coffin catalog—and an unsettling insistence that actor Ed Henley make a selection. Bob Murphy stars as Henley in this self-referential radio-studio tale of mounting dread.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:52 Original Broadcast
28:43 Closing

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Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Money Money Money,” originally broadcast March 30, 1943. Also known as “Three Thousand Dollars,” this Arch Oboler-written and directed CBS drama is listed as episode 297 overall and episode 26 of the 1942–43 season.

On a coastal waterfront, a sailor’s $3,000 sweepstakes win catches the attention of Tony, a deep-sea diver whose appetite for money threatens friendship and trust. Featuring Lou Merrill, Walter Soderling, and Gloria Blondell, the story follows greed and mounting danger from the docks to a deep-sea salvage expedition.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:53 Original Broadcast
30:38 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Nature Study,” originally broadcast on June 22, 1943. Episode 38 of the CBS series was written and directed by Arch Oboler and features Cathy Lewis and Mary Jane Croft.

Four tourists on a scenic canyon outing find themselves trapped after a rockslide seals off their route with massive boulders. As the canyon closes in around them, the ordeal tests their relationships and consciences. Ironized Yeast sponsored this 1943 broadcast.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:40 Original Broadcast
24:30 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Rocket Ship,” originally broadcast July 28, 1945. This archival NBC summer-revival episode is a Wyllis Cooper science-fiction fantasy.

Set against the possibilities of interplanetary travel, “Rocket Ship” ventures beyond Earth in the imaginative style of the 1945 Lights Out revival. The program was sustaining and drew on an earlier Cooper Lights Out script.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:42 Original Broadcast
29:02 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Murder Castle,” originally broadcast February 16, 1938. Written especially for radio by Arch Oboler, this NBC Red Network drama was inspired by Chicago’s real-life H. H. Holmes “Murder Castle” case.

A young woman answers a confidential employment advertisement and enters the imposing home of Mr. Stewart. As unsettling questions surround the house and the women who have sought work there, her sister begins searching for answers amid locked rooms, shadowed corridors, and a residence with deeply guarded secrets.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned and mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:45 Original Broadcast
26:54 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Protective Mr.Drogen,” a circulating title variant for “The Projective Mr. Drogan,” originally broadcast on CBS on January 26, 1943. This Arch Oboler fantasy-horror drama is identified as episode 17 and features Edgar Barrier as Mr. Drogan.

Mr. Drogan discovers he can bring extraordinary—and dangerous—things about through thought or spoken wishes. As the possibilities of his new power expand, the story becomes an unsettling examination of ambition, impulse, and responsibility. The broadcast was later reissued as “Big Mr. Little.”

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:53 Original Broadcast
29:34 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Sakhalin,” originally broadcast on CBS on August 10, 1943. Episode 45 of the 1942–43 revival was written, directed, and produced by Arch Oboler, who is also featured in the cast.

At a remote penal colony on Russia’s Sakhalin Island during the czarist era, a visiting inspector confronts Commandant Renikoff, whose ruthless control of the isolated outpost is threatened by official scrutiny. The setting’s harsh confinement and mounting tension drive this ominous drama.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:47 Original Broadcast
31:05 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Flame,” episode 25 of Arch Oboler’s 1942–43 revival, originally broadcast on March 23, 1943. Written and produced by Oboler for CBS and sponsored by Ironized Yeast, this surviving archival recording runs approximately 23 minutes.

Arnie Douglas has long been fascinated by fire, but his interest deepens into a dangerous obsession when old fire-worship lore suggests that flame may possess a will—and a presence—of its own. A chilling supernatural drama of ritual, fixation, and destructive allure.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:47 Original Broadcast
24:07 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Immortal Gentleman,” originally broadcast on August 31, 1943. This Arch Oboler drama, starring Franchot Tone, is episode 48 of the 1942–43 season.

A young man obsessed with death is unexpectedly thrust into a distant future where medical science has made eternal life commonplace. In a society transformed by immortality, he is forced to question what life—and death—truly mean.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:42 Original Broadcast
24:20 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Bathysphere,” originally broadcast June 29, 1943. In this Arch Oboler political suspense drama, a scientist known as the Doctor and an unnamed dictator, “His Excellency,” descend in a small bathysphere toward the ocean floor.

As pressure builds in the confined diving bell, the two men face a tense confrontation over power, freedom, and dictatorship. Hans Conried stars as the Doctor and Lou Merrill as His Excellency in this CBS revival of Oboler’s earlier 1939 play.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:51 Original Broadcast
30:15 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “The Dream,” episode 83, originally broadcast on March 23, 1938. Written by Arch Oboler and starring Boris Karloff, this NBC drama marked the series’ fourth-anniversary broadcast and began Karloff’s run of five consecutive appearances.

University biology professor Darrell Hall, who insists he has never dreamed, waits for a jury’s decision in a murder case. As he recounts the events that brought him to court, a nightmare and an unsettling recurring presence begin to blur the line between sleep and waking life.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:50 Original Broadcast
30:45 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “The Signal Man,” originally broadcast on August 24, 1946. This eighth and final installment of NBC’s 1946 summer revival adapts Charles Dickens’s classic ghost story.

A London Times reporter visits an isolated railway signalman in a deep cutting beside a dark tunnel, where telegraph equipment, a red signal light, and the constant responsibility of passing trains heighten an atmosphere of dread. Adapted for radio by Frederick J. Lipp and produced and directed by Albert Crews, the drama features Boris Aplon and Herb Butterfield.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:52 Original Broadcast
29:37 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Fast One,” originally broadcast January 5, 1943. Written, directed, and produced by Arch Oboler, this CBS revival episode is also known as “The Fast One” and “Speed.”

A mysterious chemist’s experimental formula can accelerate human thought and movement to an astonishing degree. When two men see criminal opportunity in the discovery, Detective Mark Fenn investigates an apparently impossible daytime robbery—and the dangerous price of unnatural speed. The cast includes Edmund MacDonald, Lou Merrill, and Earle Ross.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:44 Original Broadcast
23:02 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Scoop,” originally broadcast on December 8, 1942. Also known as “Cemetery,” this is episode 10 of the 1942–43 season, written and produced by Arch Oboler for NBC.

A hard-nosed newspaper owner begins dismissing longtime employees, including a devoted veteran columnist who has spent four decades serving his readers. When business decisions collide with loyalty and human dignity, the story takes a darkly unsettling turn. The original broadcast was sponsored by Ironized Yeast and concludes with an Arch Oboler war-bond appeal.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:51 Original Broadcast
27:35 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Spider,” originally broadcast June 8, 1938. This Arch Oboler jungle-horror drama is identified as episode 94.

In the upper Amazon, two American butterfly collectors hope their specimens will finance the trip home. Their remote expedition takes a chilling turn when they encounter a giant spider that may be either a priceless discovery or a threat beyond their control.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:38 Original Broadcast
23:07 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Author and the Thing,” originally broadcast September 28, 1943. This is episode 323 of the overall series numbering, and the final broadcast of Arch Oboler’s 1942–43 CBS revival.

In this self-referential horror story, writer-producer Arch Oboler plays a fictionalized version of himself, racing a deadline in his office while searching for a terrifying new idea. As he works at the typewriter, the line between imagination, the script page, and reality begins to blur. Mercedes McCambridge co-stars.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:54 Original Broadcast
24:06 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Super Feature,” episode 82, originally broadcast on NBC Red on March 16, 1938. Written by Arch Oboler, this installment of the pioneering experimental drama series survives as a local archival recording.

In an oil-workers’ town, ruthless traveling picture-showman Mr. Gibson pressures his anxious assistant, Slow, into a dangerous scheme while an audience watches the film. What begins as an ordinary moving-picture exhibition takes on an increasingly unsettling edge.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:48 Original Broadcast
27:30 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “Ball Paris Macabre,” originally broadcast March 9, 1943. Also catalogued as “The Ball (Paris Macabre),” this 1942–43 season episode was written, directed, and produced by Arch Oboler.

In prewar Paris, American college students Paul and Jerry pay their way into an artists’ masquerade ball, expecting an unusual night of entertainment. Instead, masked dancers, strange rituals, and uneasy warnings make the gathering feel increasingly ominous. Bea Benaderet and Jane Morgan are among the featured cast.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:45 Original Broadcast
27:51 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “State Executioner,” originally broadcast on March 17, 1937. Episode 41 of the NBC series, this Arch Oboler psychological drama survives as a local archival recording.

In England during the reign of King George III, state executioner Samuel Jones reflects on the work that has defined his life. As troubling doubts begin to intrude, the drama explores conscience, duty, and the human cost of the gallows.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:45 Original Broadcast
22:49 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

Lights Out presents “The Meteor Man,” originally broadcast on CBS on December 22, 1942. This is episode 12 of the 1942–43 season, written by Arch Oboler and featuring Bret Morrison.

During a nighttime meteor shower at an isolated vacation home, Professor Russell J. Adams and his wife Diane watch a fiery object fall into a nearby field. Russell’s curiosity leads them to bring the small meteorite indoors for examination, but the seemingly ordinary space rock soon unsettles everyone in the house. Also known in later listings as “The Hungry Ones,” this story revisits an earlier Oboler Lights Out dramatization.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:47 Original Broadcast
24:10 Closing

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lights-out-old-time-radio--7222656/support.

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio