The Best and Worst of Scary Old Time Radio
Old Time Radio Thrills! Frights! Shocks! The scariest and the best stories to listen to in the dark– Find out what to track down and what to avoid! Perfect for sleepovers and Halloween parties!
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 Scariest Old Time Radio Shows |
 Old Time Radio Downloads |
 Ratings Guide |
 Common Motifs |
Abbott & Costello
Appointment With Fear
Bela Lugosi’s Mystery House
Beyond Midnight
Black Chapel
Black Mass
Blackstone the Magician
Bradbury 13
Cabin B-13
CBS Radio Mystery Theater
Chet Chetter’s Tales from the Morgue
The Clock
Creaking Door
Creeps by Night
Dark Fantasy
Darkness
Devil’s Holiday
Devil’s Scrapbook
Dimension X
Escape
Fear on Four
Fred Allen
Grand Marquee
Hall of Fantasy
Halloween Specials
Haunting Hour
House of Mystery
Hermit’s Cave
Inner Sanctum
Lights Out
Macabre
Molle Mystery Theater
Murder at Midnight
Mysterious Traveler
Mystery Playhouse
Mystery in the Air
NBC University Theater
Nightfall
Nightmare
Obsession
Out of the Night
Price of Fear
Quiet, Please
Sealed Book
Sears Radio Theater
The Shadow
Sleep No More
Strange
Strange Dr. Weird
Suspense
Tales From the Crypt
Chamber of Horrors
Theater 10:30
Theatre 5
Unexpected
Weird Circle
The Whistler
Witch’s Tale
X Minus One
ZBS Media: Jack Flanders
Ratings Guide
This is a classic. The audio drama has scary, imaginative properties that reflect the best of Old Time Radio storytelling.
This is a quality show that is better than average. Play this for a friend or at a Halloween party and you won’t be disappointed.
Fun to listen to, but the twist ending is not especially imaginative, nor do the sound effects set it apart from the rest. Most fall in this grade.
Not fun to listen to. Plot inconsistencies make the listener strain to comprehend the story or a lack of creativity makes it just plain old boring.
I want the half hour of my life back! Why did someone bother to save this on reel-to-reel, much less convert it to digital?
Murder and revenge are common, even expected scenarios in horror and crime fiction, but these angles are replayed ad nauseum in old Time Radio.
A false scenario is meant to drive the protagonist insane (or kill them) so the instigator can get the inheritance money. The gaslighting deception usually backfires.
It’s the cops screwing with a criminal to elicit a confession.
A severed hand comes for revenge.
Instead of a werewolf, a woman becomes a were-cat!
The narrator was dead the whole time.
Folk magic gets revenge for the powerless and wronged.
A nagging wife gets her comeuppance.
Treasure is stolen from an ancient temple in the jungle and a curse befalls the thieves.
A doll (or ventriloquist’s dummy) has a life of its own.
The King’s Executioner, or a hangman, lives up to his reputation.
Bet you a thousand bucks you can’t spend a night alone in the haunted room!
Help me retrieve the treasure or I’ll tell the cops what you did!
An accidental death is staged for the life insurance pay out. But there’s always a snag!
