Podcast
Retro Radio: Old Time Radio in the Dark
Hosted by Darren Marlar · EN
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.
136episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The Atomic Crabs of Bikini Atoll | #RetroRadio
1w ago05:08:33Tap to summarizeTwo downed pilots wash up on a deserted Pacific island and discover that the atomic bomb tests there have bred something monstrous in the lagoon — and it's coming ashore. | Mysterious Traveler: “Strange New World”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, “Loser Take it All” (February 24, 1978) ***WD00:46:58.849 = Molle Mystery Theater, “Doctor And Lunatic” (April 26, 1946)01:16:08.715 = Mr. Keen, “Mr. Trevor’s Secret” (February 17, 1944)01:46:10.329 = Murder at Midnight, “Death Across The Board” (September 18, 1946)02:12:35.073 = The Black Museum, “A Silencer” (1951-1952) ***WD02:39:11.673 = Mysterious Traveler, “Strange New World” (February 19, 1952) ***WD03:09:18.423 = CBC Nightfall, “The Chrysalids, Part 1” (June 10, 1983)03:39:33.359 = CBC Nightfall, “The Chrysalids, Part 2” (June 17, 1983) ***WD (LQ)04:07:01.729 = CBC Nightfall, “The Chrysalids, Part 3” (June 24, 1983)04:37:59.139 = Obsession, “Wind Song” (1950-1951)05:07:42.417 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0699
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The Vanishing Bride and the Government's Secret Experiment | #RetroRadio
1w ago05:04:43Tap to summarizeHis fiancée disappears without a trace the night they were supposed to set their wedding date, and the deeper Peter digs, the closer he gets to a secret the government would rather keep buried.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, “Vanishing Lady” (February 23, 1978) ***WD00:47:12.759 = Lux Radio Theater, “Strangers On a Train” (December 03, 1951)01:42:29.027 = Macabre, “Man In The Mirror” (November 27, 1961) ***WD02:11:29.529 = Philip Marlowe, “Ladies Night” (February 21, 1950)02:42:27.542 = The Black Mass, “Nightmare” (January 18, 1964) ***WD03:09:50.427 = Michael Shayne, “Date With a Wedding” (May 14, 1945) ***WD03:39:01.077 = Beyond Midnight, “Sheriff’s Wife” (1969) ***WD (LQ)04:07:02.485 = Mindwebs, “When It Changed” (1976-1984) ***WD04:34:02.016 = Mystery In The Air, “Horla” (August 21, 1947) ***WD05:03:52.064 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0698
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The Church of Hell: The Tenant Who Was Frightened to Death | #RetroRadio
1w ago05:01:31Tap to summarizeDavid and Jane Francis come home from a European holiday to find the wealthy widow who'd sublet their country house dead of fright — and the rooms left behind tell of melted mirrors, scorched floors, and a circle burned into the wood that no living tenant should have known how to draw.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 Church of Hell” (February 17, 1978) ***WD00:44:41.163 = The Haunting Hour, “Case of the Lonesome Corpse” (May 12, 1945) ***WD00:58:44.462 = The Hermit’s Cave, “The Nameless Day” (ADU)01:23:36.914 = Mystery Is My Hobby, “Faithless Wife” (ADU)01:46:32.934 = Sherlock Holmes, “Babbling Butler” (January 27, 1947) ***WD02:15:53.849 = Mystery House, “Death With a Punch” (April 28, 1946) ***WD02:41:53.489 = House of Mystery, “Gift From The Dead” (August 03, 1947) ***WD03:11:32.618 = Incredible But True, “Appointment Stockholm” (1950-51)03:15:09.461 = Inner Sanctum, “Dead Man’s Vengeance” (October 07, 1944) ***WD (LQ)03:35:40.413 = Jeff Regan Investigator, “The Lonesome Lady” (July 24, 1948)04:06:15.379 = The Key, “Extension of Time” (1956) ***WD04:31:17.317 = Lights Out, “The Signalman” (August 24, 1946)05:00:40.818 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0697
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JUKEBOX WEIRDO | Send Me Your Weirdest Idea, I'll Turn It Into a Song!
1w ago00:10:30Tap to summarizeStep right up, Weirdos! Got a strange idea rattling around in your skull — a haunting nobody believes, a cryptid your uncle swears he saw, some true-crime case that still keeps you up at night? Jukebox Weirdo turns it into a real, honest-to-goodness song. You bring the weird, you pick the band off the Weird Darkness Records roster, and I write it and produce it — with your name on the idea. And if it's a keeper, I'll send it out to Spotify, iHeart Radio, YouTube Music, and everywhere else, so you can crank it for everybody you know and holler, "THAT'S my song!" Want in? Become an Official Weirdo at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL and send me your idea. Let's make something strange together!
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The Looking Glass Girl: What Did They Do To Her? | #RetroRadio
2w ago05:04:50Tap to summarizeTwo young Parisians dreaming of artistic greatness stumble upon a squalid countryside farm, where one becomes fatally transfixed by a strange, silent girl the family keeps like livestock — and the price of his masterpiece may be more than either of them can imagine.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, “Nighteyes” (February 13, 1978) ***WD00:44:52.381 = Faces In The Window, “Pit And the Pendulum” January 24, 1953) ***WD01:16:57.706 = Dark Fantasy, “Cup of Gold” (May 08, 1942) ***WD01:41:08.547 = BBC Fear on 4, “By The River, Fountainebleau” (February 14, 1988)02:11:47.932 = Future Tense, “Protection” (May 29, 1974) ***WD (LQ)02:35:01.801 = BBC Ghosts From The Past, “Mortmain” (April 22, 1992)03:20:24.273 = Columbia Workshop, “Half Pint Flask” (July 06, 1939)03:49:41.327 = Hall of Fantasy, “The Tell-Tale Heart” (June 01, 1953) ***WD04:13:19.188 = Harry Lime, “Voodoo” (August 31, 1951) ***WD04:37:18.634 = BBC Haunted Tales of the Supernatural, “The Grey Ones” (August 11, 1984)05:03:59.833 = Show CLose(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0696
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Royston House: The Mansion That Forbids Mirrors | #RetroRadio
2w ago04:54:19Tap to summarizeA young woman hired to care for an invalid widow in a crumbling Hudson River mansion soon learns why her brooding employer forbids every mirror in the house—and why the dogs are always watching.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, “Reflected Terror” (February 10, 1978) ***WD00:46:05.827 = Deep Night CBC, “Ice Screams” (August 05, 2005)01:20:02.229 = Calling All Detectives, “The Necktie” (1947)01:29:12.083 = The Devil and Mr. O, “Balance Sheet” (December 24, 1971(01:59:18.938 = Diary of Fate, “Walter Vincent” (May 25, 1948) ***WD02:28:14.559 = Dimension X, “The Parade” (August 25, 1950) ***WD02:55:28.216 = The Strange Dr. Weird, “The Man Who Lived Twice” (January 30, 1945) ***WD03:08:09.231 = The Eleventh Hour, “Bomb” (ADU)03:34:51.891 = Escape, “Action” (July 21, 1949)04:04:04.818 = Murder By Experts, “The Big Money” (July 25, 1949)04:33:28.472 = Exploring Tomorrow, “Diamond Mountain of Venus / aka Inferiority” (June 04, 1958)04:53:28.724 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0695
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A Doctor Discovers Her Immigrant Patients Aren't Human | #RetroRadio
2w ago05:08:09Tap to summarizeA young doctor returns to her childhood slum to open a free clinic, but when a dying patient vanishes from her examination room and his grieving cousin swears the boy has simply gone home, she begins to wonder what kind of people she's really been treating.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, “All Unregistered Aliens” (February 09, 1978) ***WD00:45:43.486 = Calling All Cars, “Burma White Case” (December 06, 1933) ***WD (LQ)01:14:27.499 = Casey Crime Photographer, “Clue In The Clouds” (February 26, 1944) ***WD01:45:06.776 = CBC Mystery Theater, “The Cable Car Incident” (1967) ***WD (LQ)02:11:42.746 = Chet Chetter’s, “Biloxi And the Bogus Beavers From Bornac” (1990-1992) ***WD02:40:43.122 = The Clock, “Ghost Story” (December 13, 1955)03:07:11.394 = Creeps By Night, “Strange Burial of Alexander Jordan03:36:40.775 = SONG: Static Wax, “The Dead Man’s Bell” (based on the Strange Burial of Alexander Jordan): https://weirddarkness.com/music03:43:07.328 = The Crime Club, “Dead Man Control” (March 20, 1947) ***WD04:11:24.922 = Crime Classics, “Peaceful Pass T. Edwin Bartlett Grocer” (June 22, 1953)04:40:59.478 = Danger Dr. Danfield, “Little Meteorite Wanted To Be a Star” (February 02, 1947)05:07:17.930 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0694
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Dr. Heidegger's Experiment and the Fountain of Youth: A Hawthorne Mystery | #RetroRadio
2w ago04:58:33Tap to summarizeFour aged friends gather in an eccentric doctor's shadowed study, where he offers each of them a single glass of water he swears was drawn from the Fountain of Youth.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, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” (February 07, 1978) ***WD00:47:39.915 = Arch Oboler’s Plays, “Engulfed Cathedral” (May 06, 1939) ***WD01:17:52.594 = BBC Radio 4/Radio 7 Ghost Story, “Jonas” (mid 1970s)02:46:16.760 = Night Beat, “They” (August 17, 1951)03:15:39.186 = Beyond The Green Door, “Mrs Curlew — Poisoner Marries Major” (1966) ***WD03:19:27.495 = The Black Book, “My Favorite Corpse” (February 24, 1952) ***WD03:35:06.168 = *SHOW NAME UNKNOWN*, “Black Ghost” (1930) ***WD04:01:09.186 = Barry Craig, “The Judge And The Champ” (October 17, 1951) ***WD04:31:00.486 = Box 13, “The Hot Box” (December 26, 1948)04:57:42.628 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0693
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The Haunted Crossroads: A Hanged Woman's 200-Year Curse | #RetroRadio
2w ago04:57:45Tap to summarizeA lonely Massachusetts crossroads has been claiming the lives of lawmen for over two hundred years—each one stabbed in the back in a spot so open no killer could possibly reach him, while the only sound in the dark is a woman's cold laughter.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 Talking Women” (February 06, 1978) ***WD00:47:04.966 = 2000 Plus, “The Giant Walks” (November 08, 1950) ***WD01:15:57.050 = The Unexpected, “Nightmare” (October 31, 1948)01:29:30.334 = Unsolved Mysteries, “Writing On The Wall” (October 05, 1949) ***WD01:44:12.246 = Dark Venture, “Hideout” (January 07, 1947) ***WD02:09:03.788 = The Weird Circle, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1945)02:36:35.446 = The Whistler, “Danger Is a Beautiful Blonde” (March 05, 1945)03:07:19.667 = Strange Wills, “Madman’s Diary” (August 17, 1946)03:37:02.993 = Witch’s Tale, “Haunted Crossroads” (October 17, 1932) ***WD04:01:39.046 = X Minus One, “Hostess” (December 12, 1956)04:29:47.425 = ABC Mystery Time, “Four Fatal Jugglers” (1957) ***WD04:53:37.561 = Strange Adventure, “Diamonds In The Desert” 04:56:54.720 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0692This installment of #RetroRadio — old-time radio in the dark — gathers twelve vintage broadcasts spanning crime, science fiction, the supernatural, and the just plain strange, drawn from CBS Radio Mystery Theater, 2000 Plus, The Unexpected, Unsolved Mysteries, Dark Venture, The Weird Circle, The Whistler, Strange Wills, The Witch's Tale, X Minus One, Masters of Mystery, and Strange Adventure.CBS Radio Mystery Theater opens the night with "The Talking Women," written by Sam Dan and starring Ed Ames, as host E.G. Marshall introduces wealthy executive Robert Bayswell, a man whose endless "business trips" to New York have quietly covered a five-year affair with his mistress, Lolly "Dolores" Harbison. When Bayswell decides to end the relationship and return to his wife Martha, a struggle over a loaded .38 revolver sets a chain of events in motion — one that draws in nightclub photographer Julie Palmer and homicide detective Sergeant DeLuca, both circling a death no one can quite explain.2000 Plus delivers the science-gone-wrong terror of "The Giant Walks," in which the obsessed Dr. Ellsworth, having used a pituitary revitalizer to breed giant rats four feet long, sets his sights on the next logical subject — a human being. His powerfully built test subject Barstow is grown to thirty feet of muscle and bone, while uneasy assistant Weston watches the experiment spiral past anything Ellsworth can hope to control.The Unexpected stars radio's Lurene Tuttle in "Nightmare," the tale of understudy actress Jenny, who answers her door to a hideous, dwarf-like old peddler selling two dolls — one that cries and one that laughs. Against the peddler's strange warning, she chooses the laughing doll, and its contagious, mocking laughter begins to follow her everywhere she goes, into the theater, the subway, and her sleepless nights.Unsolved Mysteries presents a true-style ghost story told by foreign correspondent Jackson, who recalls a visit to a centuries-old medieval castle in Northumberland, England, complete with drawbridge, moat, and turrets — and its resident phantom, the Lady Evelyn, said to warn the family of any impending disaster. Sleeping in the haunted wing, Jackson is roused by a figure who writes a message in letters of fire across the stone wall, a warning tied to the RMS Titanic.Dark Venture stars William Conrad in "Hideout," the confession of small-time gambler Sam, who sits in on one of Phil Collins's famous high-stakes poker games, wins and loses a fortune, and ends the night shooting political big shot Mike Barnes. Fleeing to Chicago and a rooming house run by Dave Jordan, Sam stumbles into a carnival fortune teller, Madame Zara, who reads the cards and tells him he will die within three days at the hands of a man with white hair — just as hired killer Whitey Burke begins closing in.The Weird Circle summons its bellkeeper for the immortal Robert Louis Stevenson tale "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," in which Dr. Henry Jekyll brews a potion meant to separate the good and evil halves of a single man. The draught gives life to the stooped, deformed, and wholly malevolent Edward Hyde, who terrorizes the streets of London while lawyer Mr. Utterson, Dr. Lanyon, and the faithful butler Poole try to understand what their friend has unleashed.The Whistler brings the Signal-sponsored noir "Danger Is a Beautiful Blonde," as bored construction engineer Van Stevens, killing time in a small coast city on a Saturday night, is picked up on the street by a beautiful young blonde in a slick convertible. She drives him to a seaside mansion full of priceless art, and the flirtation turns to ice the moment she asks him to look under her bed — where a dead man lies hidden.Strange Wills stars distinguished Hollywood actor Warren William as attorney John Francis O'Connell in "Madman's Diary," a probate-court reading of the last testament of the late Professor Lucifer Nicolai. The diary records the professor's decade-long obsession: an electromagnetic experiment to separate the human mind from the body and hurl it backward along light waves into the past. His subject, a young orphan named Alice, is sent first to the age of King Arthur and Guinevere, then far deeper — a quarter-million years before Christ.The Witch's Tale, narrated by 122-year-old Nancy, the Witch of Salem, and her wise black cat Satan, tells "The Haunted Crossroads," where state troopers keep dying at a barren Massachusetts intersection — each one stabbed in the back in a spot so open no killer could possibly reach him and flee unseen. After young Trooper Tom Fallon falls beside his uncle Sergeant Pat McGee and friend Gene Hardy, the only clue is a woman's cold laughter in the dark and a curse reaching back to 1721 and a hanged woman named Goody Fairfax.X Minus One, hosted by Isaac Asimov, presents "Hostess," the story of biologist Rose Smollett, who brings home a guest from another world — the Hawkinsite physician Dr. Harg Tolan, a six-limbed being who breathes cyanide from a cylinder at his mouth. Tolan has come to Earth to study the dreaded "inhibition death," the wasting illness that kills his people, and his quiet questions about the missing persons bureau begin to unsettle Rose's policeman husband, Drake.Masters of Mystery offers the island thriller "Four Fatal Jugglers," in which business partners Gordon Penrose and Dave Copeland — tangled together by Gordon's wife Lydia and her demands for a divorce — head off for a weekend of duck hunting on a tiny, isolated island in the middle of a lake. Lydia's protective brother Bob is drawn in too, and with old grudges, suspicions of murder-by-hunting-accident, and a hunting knife in play, the trip becomes a deadly game of who can be trusted.Strange Adventure closes the night with a desert tale of two weather-beaten prospectors, gangling Slim Sandstone and his stocky partner Geordie Gaines, who walk into the bank of George Alden and deposit a canvas sack half-filled with uncut diamonds. Their secret field out on the desert is rich beyond belief, and the greedy banker schemes to maneuver the pair out of their claim — never suspecting what a salted diamond strike can teach a smart financial tycoon.
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What Lives in the Pool Behind Witchwater Green? | #RetroRadio
2w ago04:50:47Tap to summarizeA fragile young mother, alone with her infant daughter in a remote old mill, becomes certain that something is moving in the deep black pool behind her bedroom wall, and that the villagers fighting to keep it filled know exactly what it wants.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 Ice Palace” (January 31, 1978) ***WD00:46:31.886 = BBC Radio 4 Spinechillers, “Witch Water Green” (1984) ***WD01:43:45.218 = Strange Wills, “Girl From Shadowland” (August 10, 1946)02:13:05.441 = Strange, “Phantom Wagoneer” (March 21, 1955) ***WD02:26:39.689 = Suspense, “Portrait Without a Face” (March 02, 1944) ***WD02:57:22.906 = Tales of the Frightened, “Man in a Raincoat” (1957)03:02:18.144 = The Creaking Door, “A Day of Truce” (October 12, 1964) ***WD (LQ)03:32:29.501 = The Saint, “Murder On The High Seas” (October 01, 1947)03:56:44.596 = Theater Five, “A Little Piece of Candle” (November 18, 1964)04:16:57.180 = Theater 1030, “The Thing In The Hall” (1968-1971) ***WD04:46:19.007 = Tales From The Tomb, “Don’t Drink With Strangers (1960s)04:49:56.396 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0691
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