41 Episodes of this incredibly well written, directed, and acted series known as Fort Laramie. Norman MacDonnell created and produced this series. He insisted on historical accuracy of the names, places, authentic native American practices, military terminology, etc.  I guess you could sum it up in saying the program "payed attention to detail" This is the 17th episode posted in the "Fort Laramie" playlist on this podcast.

Fort Laramie - Epi 17 - Sgt. Gorce's Baby  May 27, 1956  - Western Adventure Series

Do you remember a time when wars were cold and people fought them in the shadows? It was a time of spies and secrets with each side trying to outdo the other using any means necessary. Join us as we drop in on a highly classified meeting at the Pentagon in Washington D.C., where even the uncanny is not off the table, in the play "Spooky"!

Tonight’s episode was written by Josh Horowitz 
Produced by Aimee Pavy
Sound edit and sound design by Josh Horowitz
Heard in tonight’s play were: 
Josh Horowitz as the KGB Scientist and Spy 2
Lena Horowitz as Katya
Bob Telford as Colonel Sweeney
Michael Carnegie as the Military Aide
Brett Stillo as Agent Lansing
Audra Wolfmann as Agent Meadows
Regina Yermus as Vasimovna
Edward Champion as Deputy Director Cartwright
Aaron Seymour as Agent Gusterson and the Doctor
Beth Damiano as Patty
Aimee Pavy as the Room Service Lady
Landon Hood as Spy 1
Dana Kelly Jr. as the President’s Aide
And JFK as the President, courtesy of NVIDIA Natural TTS Synthesis and Tacotron 2

Music and sound effects from FreeSound.org
Additional music arranged and performed by Josh Horowitz 
Episode cover by Peter Wiberg from Pixabay 
Logo design by Michael Dern 
And yours truly Josh Horowitz

Learn more about the show at www.twelvechimesradio.com.

And a shout out to podcast friends of the show: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society, Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Radio, The Gray Area, the Narada Radio Company, and our new friend Horror Shop Radio!!  

If you enjoy our plays, please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts. Or drop us a line via email (twelvechimesradio@gmail.com). We’d love to hear from you. Thank you for listening and hope to see you again...at midnight.

25 - Spooky

November 1st, 1973. The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City.

We’re listening in on a press conference hosted by the Mutual Broadcasting System. They’ve purchased the rights to air The Zero Hour from the just-heard Jay M. Kholos. The Zero Hour has thus far been hosted by Rod Serling and directed by Elliott Lewis. It’s Mutual’s first dramatic radio show in nearly twenty years.

As Mutual Broadcasting spent much of the 1950s changing ownership groups, while national advertising was slowly abandoning radio for TV, Mutual ended its last two remaining half-hour dramas, Counterspy and Gangbusters, in November of 1957. Sports and news began to take up the majority of the network’s programming.

Throughout the 1960s more frequent ownership and management changes continued to create network instability, before C. Edward Little was named president in 1972. 

During his time as President, Little created the Mutual Black Network, the Mutual Spanish Network, and the Mutual Southwest Network. 

Under Little's administration, Mutual became the first commercial broadcasting entity to use satellite technology for program delivery. He also hired Larry King to host an all-night phone-in talk show. King was a one-time announcer for Little at WGMA in Florida. He went on to national fame in both radio and TV, winning a coveted Peabody Award along the way.

But that’s not why we’re eavesdropping in 1973. We’re here for the return of dramatic programming on network radio in the form of The Zero Hour which had been airing in syndication since the fall. 

Why is this such a momentous event? How did we get to this point? Tonight, we’ll find out. 

____________

The last network big four radio drama, Theater Five, ran on ABC and was launched on August 3rd, 1964. 

Unfortunately by the mid 1960s network radio had undergone a transformation. Theater Five’s half-hour time slot only allocated twenty-one minutes for story-time. The other nine minutes went to news, station identification, and local advertising. ABC’s affiliates also had the first right of refusal. In some big markets Theater Five ran on other radio stations. 

Two-hundred-fifty-six total episodes were produced before Theater Five was canceled after the July 30th, 1965 episode. 

For the next seven years, except for any dramatic vignettes on NBC’s Monitor, NBC, CBS, ABC, and Mutual broadcasting’s network fed programming was relegated to news, sports, talk, and music. 

Then in early 1973, an entrepreneurial ad man named Jay M. Kholos had a big idea. He grew up in Southern California around the entertainment and media industry. 

Kholos’ idea? He sensed an oncoming nostalgia wave and wanted to relaunch a high-production, serialized audio drama, but updated for the modern sensibilities of 1973.

Kholos needed a hook. He felt by telling one story in five half hours over the course of a contained week, he could keep the listener’s attention and get them to tune back in. 

Enter Rod Serling, famed creator of The Twilight Zone. Serling had worked in radio, in Springfield, Marion, Columbus, and Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Kholos was soon in touch with Elliott Lewis. By 1973, he had nearly forty years of experience as a writer, director, actor, and producer. Kholos was able to secure the rights to several stories. Now, he needed acting talent.

The goal was to pair name brand film and TV talent with the best Hollywood radio veterans. Howard Duff could have fit into either category. By the 1970s, Duff and Elliott Lewis had been friends for thirty years. They both helped grow the Armed Forces Radio Service during World War II.

Duff was chosen, along with Patty Duke and John Astin to lead the first cast in an adaptation of Bill S. Ballanger’s The Wife of the Red-Haired Man. 

Kholos put the program under the umbrella of The Hollywood Radio Theater. They chose Radio Recorders, the largest independent studio in Los Angeles, for the program.

The Zero Hour would debut in late summer.

BW - EP146—001: December 1973 With Rod Serling And The Zero Hour—The Big Idea

Kat Epple's musical description of an Osprey in flight. 

Flight Of The Osprey

Since about the 1830s until today, there has been a tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas eve. In the spirit, ha ha, of this tradition, regular cast member Crystal Why tells us a ghost story, told on location from a haunted house on Russian Hill in San Francisco. Turn off your lights and bring out the candles. Do you hear a noise? Did that candle move? Tune in and find out what happens! Happy Holidays!

Written/Produced: Aimee Pavy (yep, it's completely scripted!)
Voices: Crystal Why "interviewed" by Aimee Pavy
Holiday Music: “Carol of the Bells” by Jill Tracy from her Christmas album "Silver Smoke, Star of Night."

Thank you for listening and supporting audio drama podcasting!

Find us on iTunes, Podchaser, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, wherever you find podcasts. If you enjoy our plays, please SUBSCRIBE and leave your review on iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And please drop us a line via email at twelvechimesradio@gmail.com and check out our website www.twelvechimesradio.com. And thank you for listening!

Twelve Chimes It's Midnight

19 - Christmas Ghost Story

George Hicks D-Day excerpt

Wouldn’t It Be Nice

A demo tape I did in June 1991.  I did this on a hunch in the pre-internet days when I heard there were stirrings in Hollywood to revive the great Jay Ward cartoon characters. It worked!! And I got the job of voicing immortal characters like Bullwinkle J. Moose for 20 wonderful international years. Thanks to Bill Dowling from the old Top Spots studio for recording this nearly 30 years ago.

Keith Scott  Jay Ward Voices Demo DE - BEEPED

This Halloween 1944 episode of the Chase and Sanborn program starring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy featured Orson Welles. It aired on October 29th, 1944 on NBC. 

Welles was then heavily campaigning for President Franklin D. Rosevelt's third re-election. Election day was the following week.

10/29/44, episode 340

The Charlie McCarthy Show: Guest Orson Welles—10/29/1944

Jay - Z - People Talking (Nas Diss)

When her girlfriend is kidnapped by bandits, Cordelia sets out on a journey to rescue her true love. But when she comes across the town of Oxgate, Cordelia is confronted with an injustice she simply can’t ignore. Will she be able to save the local lesbian saloon from a corrupt Sheriff and his band of thugs, or will she fall short — losing a chance at reuniting with her soulmate in the process?

Out Skirts (Teaser)

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting.

BW - EP146—001: December 1973 With Rod Serling And The Zero Hour—The Big Idea

The WallBreakers

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