Old Time Radio Snack Wagon|Rare Historic Radio Programs

Old Time Radio Snack Wagon|Rare Historic Radio Programs

Get ready for the first-ever snackable Old Time Radio podcast, featuring mostly obscure treasures from radio's golden age. Each week listen for a bite-sized sample of the Golden Age of Radio and journey back to the twentieth century. Gain keen insights into life in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s through short-form old-time radio programs including comedic moments, full-cast short audio dramas, stories from the greatest storytellers of the past, powerful dramatic readings, and even memorable old time radio ads. Unearth legends and rediscover those who have long been forgotten, all while gaining keen insights into life in a world that was. Each episode brings you self-contained short programs or excerpts from longer programs, skillfully introduced by Adam, who provides brief commentary and historical background. For history enthusiasts seeking a tantalizing trip through time, the Old Time Radio Snack Wagon awaits you. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/old-time-radio-snack-wagon-rare-historic-radio-programs--5919985/support.

Episodes

January 1, 2026 28 mins
This episode of Old Time Radio Snack Wagon celebrates Public Domain Day with a special record party featuring some of the most popular and influential recordings of 1925, which have now entered the public domain in the United States.

The program revisits a remarkable year in American music, when recordings that would later become standards first reached the public. Featured selections include performances by Marion Harris, Gene Aust...
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Aired: December 31, 1948

This New Year’s–themed episode from The Red Skelton Show features one of Skelton’s most popular characters — Junior, the Mean Little Kid — as he welcomes 1949 in his own mischievous way.

While Junior’s parents head out to celebrate the holiday, Junior remains behind, delivering wisecracks, mangled logic, and unexpected moments of warmth as the old year gives way to the new.

Originally broadcast on New Year’s E...
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December 22, 2025 12 mins
Aired: Christmas 1939 This episode of Old Time Radio Snack Wagon features a rare holiday broadcast, Season’s Greetings from the Hardys, a special radio program created at the height of the Hardy family films’ popularity. Produced by MGM for syndication, the broadcast brings together the beloved screen family to offer a Christmas message to listeners across the country.

 Set in the Hardy household on Christmas Eve, the program reflec...
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Aired: May 21, 1931

This episode of The Story Behind the Song tells the moving history of the beloved hymn “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds.” First broadcast in 1931 and syndicated by Transco, the program dramatizes the life of Reverend John Fawcett, the English pastor who wrote the hymn after facing a defining choice — whether to leave his small Yorkshire congregation for a prominent London pulpit.

The production, recorded more than a...
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December 8, 2025 11 mins
Aired: Late 1950s–Early 1960s

This segment of The Army Hour takes listeners inside the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, where scientists and technicians demonstrate one of only three “whole-body counters” in existence — a machine designed to measure the natural radioactivity within the human body.

In this rare field recording, Army reporter Lieutenant Paul Weinman undergoes the test himself while Sergeant Arnold Mansky explain...
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This episode of Old Time Radio Snack Wagon spotlights one of radio’s most entertaining announcers — Bill Goodwin, whose witty, in-character commercials for The Burns and Allen Show turned advertising into comedy.

 From the early Swan Soap broadcasts to the later Maxwell House Coffee Time and Amadent Toothpaste sponsorships, Goodwin’s playful delivery and clever integration of product pitches blurred the line between story and salesm...
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Aired: November 26, 1946

This week’s Old Time Radio Snack Wagon brings a Thanksgiving classic by O. Henry, adapted for radio by the Illini Radio Guild. The story follows Stuffy Pete — a down-on-his-luck New Yorker whose Thanksgiving tradition involves more than just a good meal — and an elderly gentleman determined to uphold a charitable custom.

Set in the heart of turn of the 20th Century New York, this campus radio production captu...
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This January 2, 1938 episode of Captains of Industry tells the story of John Wanamaker, the Philadelphia merchant who transformed American retail. Beginning as an ambitious young salesman, Wanamaker dreamed of a store built not just on commerce, but on fair dealing, trust, and hospitality.

His innovations — fixed prices, money-back guarantees, employee education, and designing stores as places of experience rather than mere counters...
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November 9, 2025 17 mins
This May 19, 1953 episode of Adventures in Research tells the story of John James Audubon — the artist and naturalist whose devotion to studying and painting birds resulted in one of the most celebrated works in American scientific and artistic history: Birds of America.

From his early fascination with woodland songbirds to the years he spent traveling, sketching, and refining his craft, this broadcast traces Audubon’s lifelong eff...
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The Old Time Radio Snack Wagon celebrates its 100th episode by returning to one of its very first subjects — the incomparable Jimmy Stewart. This time, we catch the beloved actor in a rare comedic turn from a March 10, 1948 episode of Philco Radio Time with Bing Crosby. In this lighthearted broadcast, Bing and Jimmy spar over Stewart’s bachelor status, trading sharp quips about marriage, women, and independence. 

The exchange soon g...
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October 27, 2025 17 mins
This week’s Old Time Radio Snack Wagon features a chilling episode of Guest Star, a U.S. Treasury Department program promoting savings bonds. In this 15-minute broadcast, acclaimed actress Ida Lupino stars in Fear, a taut psychological drama about a woman convinced that someone is following her—though no one believes her story. As her terror mounts, listeners are drawn into a suspenseful world where reality and delusion blur until ...
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In this episode of The Adventures of Babe Ruth, the Bambino faces one of his toughest opponents — not a pitcher, but an umpire. When a long-simmering feud between Babe Ruth and umpire Tim Daly boils over during a crucial late-season game, tempers flare, fans riot, and the “Sultan of Swat” finds himself caught between pride and responsibility. What follows is a tale of sportsmanship, humility, and redemption — told with the flair an...
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In this 15-minute mystery from The Unexpected, Lyle Talbot stars as deep-sea diver Tom Stevenson, a man drawn into a web of deception and greed when a mysterious widow offers him a fortune to recover lost treasure from a sunken ship off the coast of Hawaii. But as the dive grows darker and the truth rises to the surface, Stevenson learns that fate—and fortune—can turn in the most unexpected ways.

Produced in Hollywood and syndicated...
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In this episode of The Family Doctor, titled Once to Every Boy, mischief finds the Maynard twins when they decide to buy a cigar, pretending it's for their father. What begins as a seemingly innocent errand from the local drugstore quickly spirals into a secret experiment gone wrong. Soon, both the town doctor and minister must step in as the boys learn firsthand the consequences of their actions.

Produced in 1937, The Family Doctor...
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September 29, 2025 9 mins
This April 1, 1943, segment of Kraft Music Hall pairs Bing Crosby with a rising comedy talent who would one day become one of television’s most iconic stars—Lucille Ball. At this point in her career, Ball was a hardworking film and radio actress, known for her quick wit and growing comedic presence.

In this sketch, she plays a regal “Queen Lucille” in a playful routine filled with wordplay, royal suitors, and plenty of laughs. Lucil...
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Aired: 1956–57 (Episode 42 of Greatest Sports Thrills)

On this episode of Greatest Sports Thrills, listeners are treated to the story of Frank Gifford, the versatile halfback of the New York Giants, who helped lead his team to the 1956 NFL Championship. Narrated by Harry Wismer, the program explores Gifford’s rise from USC standout to one of the most celebrated players of his era. Gifford himself shares the moments he considers his ...
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September 15, 2025 19 mins
On this episode of Front Page Drama, drawn from the files of The American Weekly, a reporter sets out to interview a man who has just turned one hundred years old. What begins as a standard feature story soon takes an unexpected turn when the centenarian makes a startling declaration about his future. The encounter sets off a chain of events that reverberate far beyond the man’s modest home.

First broadcast on August 28, 1948, this ...
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September 8, 2025 20 mins
On this episode of Old Time Radio Snack Wagon, we feature an installment of Behind the Story narrated by Marvin Miller: The Crypt of Civilization. This fascinating program, originally broadcast by the Armed Forces Radio Service, explores one of the most ambitious time capsule projects in history.

Conceived in 1936 by Dr. Thornwell Jacobs, president of Oglethorpe University, the “Crypt of Civilization” was designed to preserve a reco...
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On this special episode of The Old Time Radio Snack Wagon, we're ringing in Public Domain Day (and New Year's too) and for once we're not bringing you old time radio. We've got our virtual record play out and are ready to ring in the New Year with some tracks from '23 (1923 that is) that've entered the public domaikn.

Among the '78 RPM recordings you'll hear:

Paul Whiteman's Orchestra brings us., "March of the Wooden Soldiers."

Then, ...
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This week, we take a look at soldiers far from home and how the Armed Forces Radio Services brought them a taste of home with the help of local radio stations.

While the popular World War I refrain, "How are you going to keep them back on the farm when they've seen Paree." While there was truth in this song, American servicemen and servicewomen often longed for home. Wayback Home was a daily fifteen minute series that featured liste...
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