RAS #595 – The Monster Maker

On Ron’s Amazing Stories we review an amazing Antman audiobook from Marvel Comics. Two things make this a great listen. The story and the narrator. Next up we have two ghost tales from Ross (A screaming ghost and The Blue Boy). We end the show today with a science fiction story read for us by Ben. It comes from the 1940’s pulp mags and it is an amazing story about a pirate asteroid and the marooned patrol officers sent to take down their leader. All you have to do now is press that play button and enjoy the show.

Featured Story – The Monster Maker

Our featured story comes from the pulp magazines. I was sent an email by Ben Tucker, who lives in Santa Monica, CA. He wrote that he had a story that he would like to read. The problem was that it was written by Ray Bradbury and as you might guess most of his stuff is copyrighted or trademarked. So, I got on the google machine and began my quest on The Monster Maker by Ray Bradbury. I was pleased to find that it first appeared in Planet Stories’ Spring edition of 1944. That means that it is in public domain and can be used on the show. This is a great story and I know that you are going to enjoy it.

“Get Gunther,” the official orders read. It was to laugh! For Click and Irish were marooned on the pirate’s asteroid—their only weapons a single gun and a news-reel camera.

Other Stories Include – The Gas Station Shooting, Review – The Heroes’ Journey, The Shadow Screamer, The Boy Blue, and The Monster Maker

Ron’s Amazing Stories Is Sponsored by: Audible – You can get a free audiobook and a 30 day free trial at audibletrial.com/ronsamazingstories and Gladdy’s Goodies – Good Treats for your dog to eat.

Program Notes: For anyone wanting to know more on the ghosts of Chillingham Castle follow this link.

Your Stories: Do you have a story that you would like to share on the podcast or the blog? Head to the main website, click on Story Submission, leave your story, give it a title, and please tell me where you’re from. I will read it if I can. Links are below.

Program Info: Ron’s Amazing Stories is published each Thursday. You can download it from Apple Podcasts, stream it on Stitcher Radio or on the mobile version of Spotify. Do you prefer the radio? We are heard every Thursday at 10:00 pm and Sunday Night at 11:00 PM (EST) on AMFM247.COM. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link.

Social Links:
Main Podcast Site by LibSyn
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Contact Links:
Email
Story Submissions
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Was That A Monster

Our story is a scary one from Kristopher Evans in Newport. I don’t know for sure which Newport Kristopher is from, because there are so many! But, if I had to guess I would go with New York.

Hey Ron, thank you for the opportunity to share my strange story. I am a long-distance trucker, and I have been doing this for about 15 years now. I drive the really big rigs. Because of the size of the trucks most of my work is done at night. I used to pick up hitchhikers to help pass the time on the lonely roads. I now listen to podcasts like yours to do the same thing. Why? No more hitchhikers, and here is my story.

I was taking a load from New York to Santa Fe. This was a long trip even for me. I was on a lonely stretch of road somewhere in Oklahoma on Highway 44, when I spotted a hitchhiker. He wasn’t asking for a ride, he was just walking along the side of the road, and I was pretty bored so I decided to stop and pick the guy up. I pulled over and waited for him to catch up. He came all along the side and looked up at me. I rolled down the window and asked him if he needed a ride. He gladly accepted, ran around the front of the truck, and hopped in. The first thing I noticed about him, as he got in, was that he was clean. Very rare for hitchers this far from nowhere.

We had gone about 15 miles and I was regretting having him along because he was silent as a church mouse. Absolutely nothing came out of him. I was about to tell him, “Well, this is as far as I go”, when he spoke up.

“Where are you going, anyway?” He said

I decided not to tell him that I was on my way to Santa Fe, so I told him that I would be going as far as Elk City, Oklahoma. I remembered seeing that City on a road sign a few miles back. He replied, “Oh, I better get started then, that’s just a few miles away.”

At that moment a chill went through my body like I’ve never felt before. I literally felt like I was in danger and needed to do something fast so I said, “What do you need to do?”

“Just you never mind, keep driving, and you’ll find out!“ His voice had changed and it sounded evil.

“I’ll have no funny business”, I said, “This is not my first rodeo and you don’t want to deal with me!”

He became quiet again but I could hear him moving around nervously in his seat. It was then I heard the crack. I don’t know how else to describe it. It was not like a weapon click or anything like that. It was like bone breaking. I looked over at the man to see what the noise was and what I saw terrified me. his physical form was changing. I slammed on the brakes, managed to get it over to the side of the road, opened the door, and ran. All the while I felt like I was being chased.. until I didn’t. I was about 50 feet away from the truck when I glanced back and there was no one there. feeling stupid, I walked back to the truck and looked in the cab. The man was gone.

I wish that there was more to this story. I looked around for a bit and couldn’t find him. I looked in the truck and nothing was missing or out of place. I thoroughly searched the sleeper and found nothing out of the ordinary there either. I started up the truck and drove to the nearest bar I could find. To this day I no longer pick-up hitchhikers. – Kristopher Evans, Newport

What a crazy story Kristopher. Something right out of the annals of terror. I actually thought you reacted better than I would have, but it is my guess as a long distance trucker you have seen some pretty strange stuff. Thank you for sharing it!

This Week’s Podcast:

On the show this week we feature a listener submitted and read story titled The Monster Maker. It is a science fiction story taken from 1940’s pulp fiction. Click and Irish were marooned on the pirate’s asteroid—their only weapons a single gun and a news-reel camera. You can listen to this podcast on Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from Apple Podcasts, stream it on Stitcher Radio or on the mobile version of Spotify. Do you prefer the radio? We are heard every Thursday at 10:00 pm and Sunday Night at 11:00 PM (EST) on AMFM247.COM. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link

Your Stories:

Do you have a story that you would like to share on the podcast or the blog? Head to the main website, click on Story Submission, leave your story, give it a title, and please tell me where you’re from. I will read it on the show if I can.Social Links:
Main Podcast Site by LibSyn
The Blog Site by WordPress
Facebook Link
Twitter Link

Contact Links:
Email
Story Submissions
Contact Ron

RAS #594 – Columbia Workshop

On Ron’s Amazing Stories we are going to take a close look at the old time radio series The Columbia Workshop. This was a unique show that was one of the pioneers of modern radio. We have a bigfoot story from a listener in Buffalo, New York. It takes place in the area of Washington state I am very familiar with, The Pacific Crest Trail. The show begins with a review of the audiobook Selected Stories of Harry Bates. Who was he? Press that play button and find out.

Featured Story – Columbia Workshop July, 1936

Our featured story this week isn’t a story at all. It was an experiment by CBS that began in July of 1936. Radio was still a very new thing and early pioneers wanted to find out what the boundaries were of this new medium. It was called The Columbia Workshop. I found the very first episode of the show and cleaned it up as best I could. This one tells two stories while showing what radio sound could do. I hope you like it. My suggestion to you is this: As you listen, imagine yourself listening to an old tube radio, on the porch, on a warm night on July 18, 1936.

Other Stories Include – The Principle Murder, The Day the Earth Stood Still And Selected Stories of Harry Bates, Bigfoot Calling Bigfoot, A Comedy of Danger, and The Finger of God

Social Links:
Main Podcast Site by LibSyn
The Blog Site by WordPress
Facebook Link
Twitter Link

Contact Links:
Email
Story Submissions
Contact Ron

Where Do They Come From?

One of the most often asked questions I get is, “Where do I get my old time radio shows?” I have answered this on the show a couple of times, but have never formally addressed the question. Today I am going to do that:

I first became interested in the golden age of radio in the early 1980s. However, even before that I was listening to CBS Radio Mystery Theater which aired on the radio from 1974 to 1982. In the 80s to get the shows you had to know a guy. All of that changed with the propagation of the internet. Telnet became a thing and there were newsgroups dedicated to the hobby. People would share their collections. You had to have some special archival software to unlock them and to download a single episode could take several hours (even though the files are only a few kilobytes). As the internet grew so did the hobby and I bought my first full collection of Gunsmoke on Ebay in 1996 on 5 CDs. I loved this and at the time I had one heck of a commute to work. These stories were my entertainment.

The next big change also came in 1996. The Internet Archive was born. They began archiving the Internet itself. Like newspapers, the content published on the web was temporary – but unlike newspapers, no one was saving it. Today they have 25+ years of web history accessible through the Wayback Machine. But that was not the end of it. They also began to allow collections to be stored on their servers. This included everything from famous art to radio recordings. It was from here that getting OTR shows became as simple as a couple of mouse clicks.

Here is a quote from their about page: https://archive.org/about/

The Internet Archive serves millions of people each day and is one of the top 300 websites in the world. A single copy of the Internet Archive library collection occupies 99+ Petabytes of server space (and we store at least 2 copies of everything). We are funded through donations, grants, and by providing web archiving and book digitization services for our partners.

So, now you know where I get all of the programs you hear on the show. Everything OTR is there and all you have to know is the name. Just open the Google machine and type the name of the show followed by the word archive and the world of OTR is open to you. (example: “ron’s amazing stories archive” will get you the first 100 episodes of my podcast.)

Here are some example OTR links on The Internet Archive:

Gunsmoke – A 1950’s western drama.
X-Minus One – A 1950’s science fiction drama
The Mysterious Traveler – A 1950’s horror anthology series.

This Week’s Podcast:

On the podcast this week we have something special. We are going to take a close look at the old time radio series The Columbia Workshop. This was a unique show that was one of the major drivers of modern radio. You can listen to this podcast on Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from Apple Podcasts, stream it on Stitcher Radio or on the mobile version of Spotify. Do you prefer the radio? We are heard every Thursday at 10:00 pm and Sunday Night at 11:00 PM (EST) on AMFM247.COM. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link

Your Stories:

Social Links:
Main Podcast Site by LibSyn
The Blog Site by WordPress
Facebook Link
Twitter Link

Contact Links:
Email
Story Submissions
Contact Ron

RAS #593 – Dogs And Werewolves

On Ron’s Amazing Stories the theme is the canine. We will begin the show with a review of the audiobook Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal. Then we tell Jeremy’s strange story that takes place in the deserts of New Mexico. Our featured story comes from the Canadian Mounted Police, and we end the show with a brand new Johnny Is It True – Werewolf Edition. So press that play button and enjoy the show.

Featured Story – The Pack-Rat Nest

Our featured story for this week is all about a dog. It comes from the classic OTR series Challenge Of The Yukon. Sergeant William Preston of the Northwest Mounted Police and his lead sled dog, Yukon King, fight evildoers in the Northern wilderness during the Gold Rush of the 1890s. These stories are well told and the quality of the sound is phenomenal. Our tale is titled The Pack-Rat Nest and might just be the most complete crime story I have heard from old time radio. It first aired on May 13, 1952.

Other Stories Include – Murder At The Mountain Lodge, Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses, The Howl In The Desert, The Pack-Rat Nest, and Johnny Is It True – Werewolf Edition