Science Fiction on Radio

There has been science fiction on the radio since before Buck Rogers in 1932. Anthony Tollin tells us that Ultra Violet was syndicated as early as 1930, written and produced by Fran Striker. No audio of the shows has survived, but the scripts have. Perhaps the best Old Time Radio SF shows are NBC's Dimension X (1950-51) and X Minus One (1955-57). Jim Widner and Meade Frierson III published a book updating sci-fi OTR to a much higher degree. A great book for afficianados or those just starting to look into the field. Find out more at Jim's Radio Days Web site - http://www.otr.com/. Also take a look at a longer set of reviews I wrote, SF OTR.

Science fiction is still being made for radio, too. It's all over the Internet.



Contemporary Science Fiction Radio

Current Series still on the air:

Mike Hodel's Hour 25 - http://www.hour25online.com/
Mike Hodel's Hour 25 was a one hour radio program of science fiction and science interviews, with news, reviews, story readings and radio drama, and it was on the air on KPFK in Los Angeles for 30 years.
When the original host, Mike Hodel died, his friend author Harlan Ellison hosted the show for a year and renamed it Mike Hodel's Hour 25. Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski and others followed Harlan. The current host is TV personality and aerospace engineer Warren James. Now they broadcast only on the Internet at the above URL.

 
Hour of the Wolf - http:/www.hourwolf.com/
Jim Freund has one of the most contemporary SF Radio shows around. Hour of the Wolf is still going on WBAI in New York City. He plays SF radio theater, but he also talks about what is going on in the field of SF literature and media, and interviews the writers and artists and other shakers of the industries that Science Fiction is a part of. Good job, Jim.

Destinies - the Voice of Science Fiction - http://www.captphilonline.com/Destinies.html
Presently the longest-running college radio SF show in the world, and the second-longest running SF magazine-type show overall, DESTINIES - THE VOICE OF SCIENCE FICTION airs on Fridays at 11:30 PM on WUSB, 90.1 FM, the radio station of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Hundreds of writers, artists, editors, actors, producers, directors, and musicians have appeared on the program since its debut in April, 1983. Regular features include: the Destinies Audiobook Sampler, Soundtrack Spotlight, Graphic Detail, the Destinies Radio Theater, the Destinies Film Review Team, Christopher DeFilippis' "DeFlip Side," and I-Con highlights from 1985 - 2008, as well as host Dr. Howard Margolin's flawless interviews. Archived broadcasts of all episodes since late December, 2005, as well as dozens of older shows can be found at the website above.

SF & OTR

Old Time Radio (Airwaves OTR Home Page.), by Lou Genco - http://www.old-time.com/toc.html
Includes archives of sources of old time radio tapes, clubs, reviews and program logs, as well as archives of the OTR Digest mailing list. You can find program logs for X Minus One and Dimension X from this page.

Radio Days - Jim Widner's OTR Page - http://www.otr.com/
This guy has a LOT of useful information about the OTR programs, including program logs, discussions, sound files, and much more. Jim and the late Meade Frierson III also published a book, Science Fiction on Radio: A Revised Look At 1950-1975, which has great detail on the NBC programs, X Minus One and Dimension X, and some about the other programs of the same period. A good introduction to the radio genre, or a very good resource for the afficionado. He's also got more about SF Radio on his web site at Widner's Science Fiction OTR - http://www.otr.com/sf.html.

OTRCAT.com
Jon has a really large catalog of MP3 CDs available, in many genres, though he's especially fond of the science fiction ones. See his page on the highlighs of science fiction radio shows, http://www.otrcat.com/science-fiction-in-radio.html.
 

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 Last updated April 7, 2009. ©2000-2009 by Jerry Stearns.