Fill Your iPod With More Than Music, Here's Where
I've had an iPod for about 5 months now, and it really is one of those things that you become attached to. You begin to question how you ever lived with a portable CD player or god forbid a Walkman, even with those awesome 120 minute cassettes and continuous play.
But, the iPod isn't just about music. I have never done any dancing about town with it, in fact I still feel kind of strange walking around with it. It's great on the bus or subway when you want to be anonymous but in the street it feels like more of a distraction. So, what do I do with it? Well, oddly (and sadly) what I do most is relive my childhood of listening to radio dramas before falling asleep. Back then I had my dual-cassette-deck-jealouly-maker next to my bed on a shelf and I used to listen to cassettes of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and various other radio plays like Welles' War of the Worlds (which I memorized due to countless listenings). Not to mention NPR's nearly 15 hour long version of Star Wars...with all the special effects and a lot more to the story. Yes, I can hear you saying, "What an F-ing nerd!". But I can't fall asleep if I don't have something to more or less put me to sleep.
Ok, maybe you're not into Tolkien. Fair enough. Well, you can pretty much find dramatized versions of just about anything. Remember, TV has not always been around, and some people still listen to the radio, like the British. The BBC is still creating great works for the radio in just about every genre...expect Harry Potter...though there are two audio book versions. The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy started out as a radio show. Monty Python did sketches for the radio, and the BBC has done a full cast version of everything from "A Clockwork Orange" to "Dracula" to "The Chronicles of Narnia". Heck, there was even a radio version of Red Dwarf...which I am still trying to find.
There are also literally thousands upon thousands of "old time radio" shows available on the net to download, everything from Orson Welles' The Third Man, the "too scary for radio" CBC show "Nightfall", dozens of Westerns, hundreds of Sherlock Holmes episodes, and well, you name it. Are they good? Well, some of them are. Some of them aren't. It depends on what you're into.
Where can I, the modest iPod owner, get some of these shows? Well, here are 10 great sites to look into. In no paricular order:
Gwangi puts up different shows everyday, he has sort of a theme for each weekday. Check out the "One for the Weekend" that he put's up on Fridays. It's a great place to find old BBC series, and where I managed to get "The First Men in the Moon" and "Brave New World" if I'm not mistaken. He also takes requests. Shows are up for a week.
Centering mostly around Science Fiction and Horror shows, the Zombie Astronaut is a once a month audio magazine. It offers quite a lot of shows like Nightfall, old Vincent Price shows, and quite hard to find serials, like the recently posted version of Stephen King's Salem's Lot. You can also dig through the archives and find a lot of great stuff. Although they are currently busy dealing with things related to Katrina they have promised to be up and running with a new issue soon.
This site focuses mainly on OTR, they also do a Podcast if you want the added convenience of having a show automatically downloaded for you everyday. They even post old play by play of historic baseball games...1947 World Series anyone? They have an impressive back catalog and are worth a look.
4. GPod
I haven't totally understood what the guys on this site are up to. They have some very weird stuff going on. However they do put some rather interesting material up on their site for download, let it be episodes of The Daily Show or interviews with Charles Manson. They also post a lot of provocative audiobooks and occasionally some pretty cool radio dramas.
5. Sherlock Holmes Society of London
If you are into Sherlock Holmes than this is the motherlode. They have a massive collection of radio versions to download. I don't think they claim to have everything but they have A LOT. Dating back to the 30's and up until the 80's. Good listening on rainy nights, even if you don't like detectives.
6. Old Time Radio Talk and Trade
This is an entire site dedicated to the discussing and sharing of radio shows. Each month they spotlight a specific series and offer it for downloading. They also have about 80 other shows to check out. But the real benefit is becoming a member, for free, and getting a Streamload account. Once you've done that you can trade, share, and access shows other members have to offer. I cannot begin to tell you how much stuff I have gotten from the kind people there. But, I will say having all the episodes of "The Black Museum" certainly made me a happy guy.
Here you have a buffet of random scary stuff. Quite good if you want to see what shows are like.
8. The Mercury Theater on the Air
All of the best from Orson Welles, from the infamous War of the Worlds to Dracula to Around the World in 80 Days. A highly recommendable place to start.
9. Radio Lovers
Perhaps the largest collection of free downloads. They offer more than a thousand different shows, I can recommend "Journey to the Center of the Earth". Be advised not all their links work.
10. EY's Audio Links
If those aren't enough then here are 122 more links to various sites offering downloads. Most offer a couple, some offer a lot.
If any one has any additional links they'd like to share feel free to post them in the comments section below.
K. Panda
