top of page
Search

Another Thing Dies

Updated: May 23

Dad would pick me up at McDonald's on West Road.


Yeah, It's AI. OK, I cheated. But it looked alot like this.
Yeah, It's AI. OK, I cheated. But it looked alot like this.

I would work after school until close and I was too young to drive.


This is dad a year or two later, picking up my sister from her job. But he didn't change. He looked the same picking me up.
This is dad a year or two later, picking up my sister from her job. But he didn't change. He looked the same picking me up.

Lots of times when I was getting in, Dad was listening to the "CBS Radio

Mystery Theater" probably on WHAM-AM 1180.



The host, E.G. Marshall, along with a group of radio actors, would perform a mystery play, complete with live foley sound effects, in the style of radio dramas that have been produced since the 1920s.


E. G. Marshall’s classic closing line on CBS Radio Mystery Theater was:

“This is E. G. Marshall inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for another adventure in the macabre. Until next time… pleasant dreams?”

The final “pleasant dreams?” was delivered with a slightly questioning, eerie tone, followed by the famous creaking door slamming shut.



Actors Tony Roberts, Lois Nettleton, Norman Rose, Tori Keane, and Host E.G. Marshall recording "Honeymoon With Death" for the relaunch of radio drama on CBS in The CBS Radio Mystery Theater (December 1973). CBSRMT launched on January 1st, 1974
Actors Tony Roberts, Lois Nettleton, Norman Rose, Tori Keane, and Host E.G. Marshall recording "Honeymoon With Death" for the relaunch of radio drama on CBS in The CBS Radio Mystery Theater (December 1973). CBSRMT launched on January 1st, 1974

With luck I could get in the car just as the radio play started.

Problem was that the ride would end before the drama.


It's my picture of Lyons Road in Rush, but I asked AI to make it night.
It's my picture of Lyons Road in Rush, but I asked AI to make it night.

Dad would park in the driveway and we would sit there in the dark and finish off the show.


This is a picture dad took in the daytime and I asked AI to make it night.
This is a picture dad took in the daytime and I asked AI to make it night.

Edward R. Murrow caught a lucky break when Hitler "Anschlussed" Austria on March 12, 1938. Hitler just drove in and took the place while people cheered. There was no such thing as a Radio Newsman. Murrow was working for CBS and he invented the job. Murrow should be known as the first "Podcaster" if you want to think of it that way.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEvEmkMNYHY
Edward R. Murrow in response to Sen. McCarthy in 1954 - CBS - "See It Now"

CBS Radio covered World War II and on until the other day. With the change to TV there was crossover. Some Broadcast Journalists did both Television and Radio broadcasts.


Not that most of you ever heard any radio lately anyway. First everyone got a TV then Cable and Satellite and now a phone. Nobody sits in their car in the dark in their driveway and listens to radio plays. Anyone can pull one up at any time. There's no money in it, so it dies.


Here's Danny DeVito to explain it to you:


So CBS killed the Radio Division. No funeral and no calling hours, unless of course you watch old person TV or you endure an advertisement to watch it here:



At McDonald's, there was a policy of FIFO (First In First Out). Meaning, use the oldest stock first to prevent spoilage.


I borrowed this from here. We wore ugly rust colored uniforms though.
I borrowed this from here. We wore ugly rust colored uniforms though.

Maybe this is a FIFO moment?


If CBS Radio created the very first real Network News Broadcast "in" and it is the first "out", does this mean something?


Well, yeah, it means something.


It means that yet another thing that was old, familiar, comfortable and unpopular is too expensive and has been expired due to improfitiblity.


Hope I don't get that way.


Can anyone spare some change?

 
 
 

Comments

SIGN UP AND GET UPDATES

©2026 - THE ECHO - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Fine Print: Void where prohibited by law. Tax, Title and Destination charges not included. Your mileage may vary. Offer varies on conditions honored by participating locations.Any retransmission, rebroadcast or reuse of this website without the expressed written permission of the Commissioner of Baseball is expressly prohibited. You also agree that you will not use the information contained on this website for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, missiles, or chemical or biological weapons. However, these restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.  Batteries not included.

bottom of page