I ran across the Old Time Radio Researchers group a while ago. They have set out upon a very challenging task - to collect, organize and correct virtually all existing Old Time Radio Shows (many of which are in the public domain, even in the U.S. - virtually all are in the public domain in Canada).
They have re-encoded many of the existing shows from original transcription disks, in far greater quality than what had existed previously (when disk space wasn't as abundant as it is today - a typical 1/2 hour show that has been redone will have a size around 25MB, as opposed to 6-7MB, with the corresponding increase in quality).
They still have a ways to go, but here is a link to what they have available for download so far: https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22OTRR+Certified+Set%22&page=1
There's a lot there... enough to run an entire OTR format. Great.
Great collection. I run some of it late at night for my listening pleasure. I am fan of OTR, Johnny Dollar for some reason is on of my favorites along with The Shadow. I even like the old sci-fi's. Perhaps I am a junkie for the days of old radio...
once the Trans Pacific Partnership is ratified sites like archive.org will likely be no more. the copyright office is already working on new rules to send to congress aimed directly at libraries and sites like archive.org.
Our cultural heritage is being aborted.
Interesting quirk about these old time radio shows.
The show itself may be in the public domain, but the popular music performed in these shows is NOT public domain. So to broadcast them or offer them up for public consumption would require the clearance of the copyright holders of the songs themselves, just like any other music you may play on the radio.
Example. I just went to the site mentioned above and downloaded some Mel Blanc shows. I did not catch the name of the woman singing, but the song "Rumors Are Flying" was performed in it's entirity in the show I listened to. That song was published in 1946 and is definitly not in the public domain in the USA. In the USA broadcast or public performance of that song requires licensing.
Many OTR shows contain songs of the era, performed live at the time within the body of the program. It may be possible that the performance itself could be PD (e.g. you might not owe SoundExchange for the performance rights) but you would definitly need to have your music licenses in place for the song itself.
This is what is going to trip up the widespread distribution of these shows in the future.
This is also why shows like "The Green Hornet" and "The Lone Ranger" used classical music -- in these cases "Flight of the Bumblebee" and "William Tell Overture" for their theme songs. They were chosen specifically because no licensing costs would be incurred to use these songs in those radio programs, as they were public domain songs. The actual performances of those works in the shows likely belonged to the producers or company that created the programs, and by now those performances have fallen into PD.
You'd better archive the shows you like before they're no longer available.
TIB
Most OTR shows (drama, comedy, theater, etc.) do not contain musical performances. There may be incidental music to transition between scenes, but that generally is just considered part and parcel of the entire performance. It's true that such shows as Kraft Music Hall (i.e., variety shows) and even some others (such as TheJack Benny Show) do contain musical performances.
I was under the impression that a musical performance embedded as a small part in an audio show or even a film was treated differently. Otherwise, the huge number of public domain films from the 30s, 40s & 50s (many of them musicals) wouldn't be found on cheap DVD labels. Or identified to be in the public domain in various databases. But I could be wrong about that.
Some OTR has been declared in the public domain through court cases (such as most of Lum & Abner). And supposedly, once something is in the public domain, it can't be taken out. Even with new laws (although with the way things are going you never know).
It's all very sad. The only reason most of these pieces of history survive is because some peopled cared enough to fish out master transcription disks out of the garbage (the owners of the shows, generally the sponsors, could have cared less, obviously, since they threw them out). And now because someone might be able to make a buck or two, there's renewed interest and they stop the general public from getting access to them.
It flies in the face of the establishment of 'public domain', which was created to save cultural history and give the public access to things (after a suitable length of time, allowing the creators to make money) which might just disappear otherwise.
When first created US copyright lasted a year, to give creators an opporutnity to earn from their work.
Couple more recent licensing issues. TV shows. As a huge fan of WKRP in Cincinatti, I tried for years to buy the serive won VHS, DVD, whatever. All I could ever find was season 1. Know why? They couldn't work out the details of incidental popular music played in the studio in many scenes. Even though the song may have only been heard for a few seconds, the songs needed to be licensed and in many cases the song owners either wouldn't license them at all, or they wanted far too much money. FINALLY last year a production company got the cash together, and got the rights needed to release all the seasons. It was a very expensive DVD set because of this cost, but you can bet I bought a set!
Another big one was the Smothers Brothers Show from back in the 60's. A great program, filled with a lot of great musical guests, many of whom would never have had TV exposure without this show. They released the shows on DVD, but as it turns out many shows were missing, or musical performances were edited out of some shows. Why? Because the music license either was prohibitively expensive or just not available at all.
It's only going to get worse.
TIB
that when a certain black mouse get's ready to hit the PD then all of a sudden here comes congress with another copyright extension act.
i'm just sayin
seems to me the original 14+14 not to exceed the death of the original author was more than sufficient for content creators to make a good return on investment even more so in this mass media day and age.
Here's another link - from the same people, the OTRR, this one has everything (the previous link was only certified sets) - these ones may be works in progress and contain dating errors, etc.
It may be a better place to start if you're not familiar with OTR, as you can sample individual shows from over 1000 OTR series, many of them relatively unknown.
I'm still on the 'A's, having worked my way through the most interesting of the numbered ones.
One very good drama series (with science fiction & horror mixed in) is Arch Oboler's Plays - I'm reminded of it as I continue to go through the 'A's. Also worth checking out is his earlier series, Lights Out (much more science fiction & horror, which was also made into a TV series in the 1950s).
Oboler is an incredible playwright - I was first introduced to him through the purchase of a book of his radio plays - it inspired me to seek out & find the radio programs. His stories focus mainly on the characters, as opposed to cheesy plots, making them several cuts above the standard radio play of that era.