Retro Radio: Old Time Radio in the Dark

Retro Radio: Old Time Radio in the Dark

byDarren Marlar

FictionDramaHistoryScience

Welcome to Retro Radio: Old Time Radio In The Dark! Here I bring you shows from the Golden Age of Radio in the darker genre. I’ll have classic radio of the macabre and horror, mysteries and crime, and even some dark science fiction. 5-hour marathons posted seven days per week with a variety of shows included each day!

Episodes(40 episodes)

THE LATE DEPARTURE: The Eleven O'Clock Train That Wouldn't Leave King's Cross | #RetroRadio
A 43-year-old London workaholic with high blood pressure races to King's Cross for the eleven o'clock train home, and the train won't leave the station.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Grey Slapper” (November 22, 1978) ***WD00:46:04.471 = Harry Lime, “Artis Long And Lime is Fleeting” (November 09, 1951)01:10:54.373 = BBC Haunted Tales of the Supernatural, “The Late Departure” (August 23, 198...
Published: Oct 2, 2026Duration: 5h 11m 35s
THE THING AT NOLAN: A Murder Trial With No Body | #RetroRadio
In the Missouri Ozarks of 1879, Charles May walks into the woods to dig a ditch on the morning his son swears he'll make him pay for a bloody nose, and he never walks back out.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Thing at Nolan” (November 20, 1978) ***WD00:46:36.423 = Dimension X, “Competition” (November 19, 1950) ***WD01:15:42.732 = The Eleventh Hour, “Esc...
Published: Oct 1, 2026Duration: 5h 10m 0s
THE FAVOR OF WOMEN: Earth Has Fifteen Days Of Fuel Left | #RetroRadio
In the year 3978, Earth is fifteen days from running out of the fuel it runs on, and the only planet that can sell it more is ruled by a queen who stopped selling a year ago.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Favor of Women” (November 17, 1978) ***WD00:45:22.154 = CBC Mystery Theater, “The Signal Man” (1968) ***WD01:14...
Published: Sep 30, 2026Duration: 5h 3m 42s
No Thursday Night Runs At The Firehouse | #RetroRadio
Arch Oboloer’s “Night”: Chicago firemen tell one of their own why their station hasn't made a Thursday-night run in twenty years, in Arch Oboler's play about a single night across America in June 1945.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Conspiracy” (November 15, 1978) ***WD00:46:25.640 = Arch Oboler’s Plays, “Night (Thursday Nights At The Firehouse)” (June 07, 1945) 01:15:55.462...
Published: Sep 29, 2026Duration: 5h 2m 30s
THE SOUND OF TERROR: Kidnapped For Answering The Wrong Phone | #RetroRadio
Left alone at a Ninth Avenue bus stop on the day a U.N. ambassador is kidnapped, a detective's girlfriend picks up a ringing pay phone and hears a stranger tell her the ransom is on its way to the pickup.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Sound of Terror” (October 27, 1978) ***WD00:46:38.792 = 2000 Plus, “Robot Killer”...
Published: Sep 27, 2026Duration: 5h 4m 0s
AUNT MAE: Death's Agent Comes Back At Three In The Morning | #RetroRadio
Oliver Carsons has spent three nights trying to stay awake in a locked, barred bedroom, and every night a tall man with a face like a skull comes in to tell him he'll pay for killing a girl named Sally.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Family Ties” (October 25, 1978) ***WD00:47:00.989 = The Shadow, “Brief Fame Of John Cooper”...
Published: Sep 26, 2026Duration: 4h 59m 15s
THE LAZARUS SYNDROME: He Was Happier Being Dead | #RetroRadio
A 53-year-old computer executive lets his 29-year-old boss push a receptionist of 31 years out the door, then chases the company's youth craze onto the tennis court with a heart his doctor has already warned him about.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Lazarus Syndrome” (October 23, 1978) ***WD00:47:07.172 = Peril, “The Diary” (1953) ***WD01:12:43.894 = Mystery Playhouse, “Breakdown” (June 12, 1945...
Published: Sep 25, 2026Duration: 5h 2m 8s
NEVER ANSWER AN ADVERTISEMENT: Wanted, A Doctor Who Knows Beetles | #RetroRadio
A struggling young doctor answers a newspaper ad for a strong, steady-nerved beetle expert, and the lawyer who hires him at a hundred pounds a day won't tell him what the job is.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Never Answer An Advertisement” (October 18, 1978) ***WD00:47:04.513 = Mr. Keen, “Yellow Talon Murder” (September 22, 1949)01:16:44.287 = Murder At Midnight, “Death Across The B...
Published: Sep 25, 2026Duration: 5h 0m 51s
THE WINDS OF TIME: Her Headaches Led Back To Hitler's Bunker | #RetroRadio
A woman whose migraines have already cost her a husband and two children lets psychic healer Bryce Bond hypnotize her back through her past lives, and each life she lands in puts a man's death in her hands.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Winds of Time” (October 16, 1978) ***WD00:46:43.794 = Philip Marlowe, “High Collared Cape” (April 25...
Published: Sep 22, 2026Duration: 5h 0m 52s
THE MAN IN BLACK: A Murder The Police Say Never Happened | #RetroRadio
A Washington legal secretary kneels on a Georgetown sidewalk with a dying stranger who names his killer only as the man in black, and by morning the police have no body, no blood, and no interest in anything she saw.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Man In Black” (October 11, 1978) ***WD00:46:04.265 = Sherlock Holmes, “Maltree Abbey”...
Published: Sep 21, 2026Duration: 4h 59m 13s
THE CAPTAIN OF THE POLE-STAR: Something Is Out There Calling Him | #RetroRadio
Three months out of Dundee and anchored to unbroken Arctic ice, a whaling crew starts hearing something come aboard at night and go straight down into the captain's locked cabin.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Captain of the Polestar” (October 06, 1978) ***WD00:47:05.828 = Future Tense, “Cold Equation” (May 08, 1975) ***WD01:10:30.076 = BBC Ghosts From The Past, “Mortmain” (A...
Published: Sep 20, 2026Duration: 5h 4m 19s
SHADOW OF LOVE: A Haunting Made Of Affection | #RetroRadio
A man who can't bear to be touched, let alone loved, comes home one night convinced that something in the house has grown fond of him.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Shadow of Love” (October 04, 1978) ***WD00:47:11.996 = Dimension X, “Shanghaied” (January 12, 1950) ***WD01:16:50.607 = The Eleventh Hour, “Engulf Cathedral” (ADU)01:43:00.257 = Escape, “Maracas” (November 22, 1949) ***WD02:11:45.075 = Murder By Experts...
Published: Sep 19, 2026Duration: 5h 0m 50s
THE FOREVER ALLEY: What Happens To A Bowling Alley After Midnight? | #RetroRadio
There's only one way out of the Forever Alley, a cop was parked in front of it all night, and the man inside still vanished.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Forever Alley” (October 02, 1978) ***WD00:47:30.644 = CBC Mystery Theater, “The Screaming Skull” (April 01, 1968) ***WD01:16:44.754 = The Clock, “Death Valley” (February 21, 1956)01:42:13.284 = Creeps By Night, “Six Who Did Not Die”...
Published: Sep 18, 2026Duration: 5h 6m 28s
THE TRAP: A Free Sample Arrives At The Hunting Cabin Door | #RetroRadio
Two men on a hunting vacation in the Adirondacks wake to find a small metal box sitting in their cabin doorway, a tag on top calling it a free promotional model of a brand-new kind of trap.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “A Thousand Year Old Story” (September 29, 1978) ***WD00:45:44.446 = X-Minus-1, “The Trap” (February 13, 1957)01:07:38.102 = Appointmen...
Published: Sep 17, 2026Duration: 5h 6m 58s
GRANDFATHER'S SEVERED HEAD: He Wants Another One Buried With Him | #RetroRadio
A young engineer brings his pregnant wife home to the Philippine mountains, where his grandmother insists the only thing that will quiet his beheaded grandfather's ghost is the head of his wife's grandfather.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Head Hunters” (September 27, 1978) ***WD00:45:52.459 = The Saint, “Unhappy Homicide” (November 06, 1949) ***WD01:09:54.844 = Theater 1030, “Trespassers Will Be Experimented...
Published: Sep 16, 2026Duration: 5h 1m 31s
THE CONVERSION FACTOR: A Truck Stop Waitress Holds The Missing Equation | #RetroRadio
A physicist who has spent five years and twenty million dollars chasing one missing equation leaves his attaché case in a highway diner, where the seventeen-year-old at the cash register reads the twelve pages inside and understands every line.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Conversion Factor” (September 22, 1978) ***WD00:45:12.953 = Radio City Playhouse, “Reflection” (January 01, 1950) ***WD01...
Published: Sep 15, 2026Duration: 5h 9m 11s
THE BEHEADING: An Actress Trusts A Surgeon To Take Her Head Off | #RetroRadio
A movie actress worn down by a lifetime of asthma puts her hand in a bald doctor's and agrees to let him remove her head, on his promise that a prettier one is on the way.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Beheading” (September 20, 1978) ***WD00:46:46.654 = CBC Nightfall, “Willoughby Obsession” (September 05, 1980)01:14:40.820 = Nightmare, “The Leech” (April 07, 1954...
Published: Sep 14, 2026Duration: 5h 2m 33s
BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP: A Catskills Killer Dreams Of A Brother Of Light | #RetroRadio
A young intern at a state asylum wires a homemade telepathy set to the forehead of a dying, illiterate mountain man whose ravings describe palaces of fire he could never have read about.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “It’s Hard To Be Rich” (September 18, 1978) ***WD00:46:47.126 = Beyond Midnight, “Short Circuit” (January 03, 1969) ***WD01:12:15.812 = MindWebs, “Beyond The Wal...
Published: Sep 12, 2026Duration: 5h 2m 9s
SORRY, WRONG NUMBER: Leona Stevenson Overhears Her Own Murder | #RetroRadio
Starring Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster, a bedridden heiress alone in a New York townhouse asks the operator to ring her husband's office, gets crossed into a stranger's call, and listens to two men schedule a killing for 11:15 that night.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Secret of Crow’s Nest” (September 15, 1978) ***WD00:46:32.237 = Lights Out, “Valse Trie...
Published: Sep 11, 2026Duration: 5h 1m 42s
TONIGHT, SEPT 11TH: The Entire Smiley Face Killers Audiobook Before Its Amazon Release in October!
On Friday, September 11th, three weeks before anyone could buy it, I played the entire audiobook of my new book live on Patreon, start to finish, with the chat open the whole time.  Something I only do for my Patreon members! https://weirddarkness.com/patreon Since 1997, young men have walked out of bars alone and turned up in rivers. Two retired New York detectives say it's a serial killer network, and that police have been calling murder an accident. The FBI says there's no evidence any of it is connected. THE CONCRETE SMILED gives that theory it...
Published: Sep 11, 2026Duration: 1m 34s