Retro Radio: Old Time Radio in the Dark

Five words from a faceless machine end Walter Hayes's career — and send him down a spiral where the only solution he can see is to be worth more dead than alive.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, “Sorry To Let You Go” (October 21, 1977)00:45:08.893 = MindWebs, “Letters From Underneath The Earth” (January 24, 1983)01:15:14.587 = Two On a Clue, “The Case of the Silent Witness” (October 03, 1944) ***WD01:29:41.774 = Mystery In The Air, “Black Cat” (September 18, 1947) ***WD01:55:27.900 = Molle’ Mystery Theater, “Creeper” (March 29, 1946)02:24:33.240 = Mr. Keen, “The Missing Witnesses” (January 13, 1944) ***WD02:52:57.583 = Murder at Midnight, “Ape Song” (April 13, 1947) ***WD03:19:33.899 = Black Museum, “Auto Service Card” (March 28, 1952) ***WD03:45:30.365 = Mysterious Traveler, “It’s Only Money” (January 08, 1952)04:14:43.412 = Mystery House, “Death Passed My Window” (March 31, 1946) ***WD04:40:59.457 = Night Beat, “Sanctuary” (June 22, 1951) 05:08:08.740 = 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/WDRR0658

A curving Mississippi lake road after sundown, a wedding present on the passenger seat, and a quiet island resort across the water where the ferryman takes fifty cents — exact change only.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 Island on Silvertree Lake” (October 19, 1977) 00:46:15.152 = Lights Out, “the Projective Mr. Drogan” (January 26, 1943)01:15:39.621 = Lux Radio Theater, “Return of Peter Grimm” (February 13, 1939)02:17:22.687 = Macabre, “Crystalline Man” (January 01, 1962) ***WD02:45:43.599 = Philip Marlowe, “Bid For Freedom” (January 21, 1950)03:14:29.567 = Results Inc, “Mummy’s Walk” (December 03, 1944)03:42:38.776 = Black Mass, “Shidah And Kuziba” (October 16, 1973) ***WD03:56:34.198 = Michael Shayne, “Date At Cliff House” (April 16, 1945)04:26:13.554 = Beyond Midnight, “Marble Room” (September 26, 1969) ***WD04:53:52.211 = 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/WDRR0657

Two travelers seek refuge from a thunderstorm in a forbidding old house — where a mad woman's laughter, a warning to stay away from the bookcase, and a corpse that crumbles at a touch are only the beginning of what waits in the dark.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, “Return Engagement” (October 17, 1977) ***WD00:45:14.749 = Harry Lime, “Too Many Colors” (August 03, 1951)01:10:16.188 = Haunted Tales of the Supernatural, “The Lamp” (July 07, 1984)01:35:55.862 = The Haunting Hour, “Ptolomey’s Grave” (April 14, 1945) ***WD02:00:46.453 = Hermit’s Cave, “The Vampire’s Desire” (July 17, 1941)02:25:28.357 = Mystery Is My Hobby, “Death Writes An Epitaph” (January 28, 1948) ***WD02:51:08.798 = Sherlock Holmes, “The Grand Old Man” (December 21, 1946)03:20:24.671 = House of Mystery, “Gift From The Dead” (August 03, 1947) ***WD03:50:07.476 = Incredible But True, “Only A Miracle” (1950-1951)03:53:45.337 = Inner Sanctum, “The Skull That Walked” (April 15, 1944)04:21:32.456 = The Key, “Chicken” (1956) ***WD04:45:52.876 = (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/WDRR0656

An archaeology professor fixates on a stranger across the restaurant, his wife admits to a skill she's kept hidden for the twenty years they've been married, and what the two of them overhear at the man's table suggests he isn't from this planet. 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 Mystery Theater, “The People of Sissora” (October 14, 1977)00:45:53.743 = Murder By Experts, “It’s Luck That Counts” (August 29, 1949)01:15:23.858 = Exploring Tomorrow, “Speak No More” (May 07, 1958)01:34:57.034 = Faces In The Window, “Pit And The Pendulum” (January 24, 1953) ***WD02:05:56.415 = Dark Fantasy, “Convoy For Atlantis” (March 27, 1942)02:28:30.890 = BBC Fear on 4, “Survival” (March 19, 1989)02:57:27.374 = Future Tense, “Tunnel Under The World” (May 22, 1974) ***WD03:24:06.381 = BBC Ghosts From The Past, “Mortmain” (April 22, 1992)04:08:08.795 = Ave Maria Hour, “St. Benedict of Nursia VS Poison And Witchcraft” (1939)04:31:51.450 = Hall of Fantasy, “Death In The Bayous” (March 06, 1947)05:01:47.886 = 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/WDRR0655

Based on the story, "The Strange Burial of Alexander Jordan" from the #RetroRadio episode, "The Burial of Alexander Jordan: The Coffin Bell That Rang Six Nights After the Funeral."  Find more music from Static Wax at https://weirddarkness.com/music. Old Alexander Jordan, terrified of being buried alive during one of his cataleptic fits, rigs a bell from his crypt to his nephew's bedroom — so that if he wakes inside the coffin, he can ring for help. But his nephew Ramsey has been waiting a long time to inherit the Jordan place, and a bell that rings in the dead of night can be silenced more than one way.ABOUT THE SONG: "The Dead Man's Bell" is a smoky funeral blues in the 1944 tradition — minor key, mournful muted trumpet, weeping clarinet, walking upright bass, brushed drums, and a tolling brass bell threaded through the arrangement like a second heartbeat. The narrator lays the tale out from a detached, knowing distance, the way a bartender or an undertaker might tell it across a quiet room after the lights go down. It's a song about a man who built his own escape hatch from the grave, the wicked nephew who silenced it, and the ironic fate that sealed them both inside a stone vault no living soul could open.ABOUT THE EPISODE" The song is drawn from Creeps by Night — "The Strange Burial of Alexander Jordan," originally broadcast July 13, 1944, on the Blue Network and hosted by the anonymous "Dr. X." This episode starred celebrated English character actor Edmund Gwenn — who would later win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Miracle on 34th Street — in the role of Ramsey, with Everett Sloan as Alexander Jordan, Abby Lewis as Martha, and Gregory Morton as Dr. Rutledge. The story turns on one of the oldest human fears — premature burial — and the elaborate precautions a wealthy old man takes to make sure it never happens to him. Whether those precautions save him, doom him, or do something stranger still, you'll have to listen to find out. The full original episode airs on Weird Darkness Retro Radio.ABOUT STATIC WAX: Static Wax is a music project from Weird Darkness, where every track is an original song written and produced in the musical style of the era that produced the vintage radio episode it draws from. A 1944 horror drama gets a 1944-styled funeral blues. A 1955 tale gets doo-wop or rockabilly. A 1968 episode gets garage rock. The songs aren't covers, parodies, or pastiches — they're original compositions designed to feel like records that could have been pressed the same year as the broadcast they honor.ABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS RECORDS: Static Wax is one of several music projects produced under Weird Darkness Records, the music arm of Marlar House Productions and the Weird Darkness brand. Sister projects include Dark Weirdness (modern dark music in a punk-pop-rock style), Crossroads Haint (Southern gothic and Americana ghost songs), and Incorruption (Christian rock). All Weird Darkness Records releases are available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and every other major streaming platform — search "Weird Darkness Records" or any band name to find the full catalog.

Old Alexander Jordan, terrified of being buried alive during one of his cataleptic fits, rigs a bell from his crypt to his nephew's bedroom — so that if he wakes inside the coffin, he can ring for help. But his nephew Ramsey has been waiting a long time to inherit the Jordan place, and a bell that rings in the dead of night can be silenced more than one 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 Case of the Chateau-Margaux” (October 12, 1977) ***WD00:45:49.691 = Creeps By Night, “Strange Burial of Alexander Jordan” (July 13, 1944)01:15:20.185 = The Crime Club, “Cupid Can Be Deadly” (October 16, 1947) ***WD01:43:49.472 = Danger Dr. Danfield, “Mad Men Strike Swiftly” (January 05, 1947)02:08:13.766 = CBC Deep Night, “Birth” (July 08, 2005)02:39:10.152 = The Devil and Mr. O, “Vacation With Death” (November 26, 1971) ***WD03:07:52.353 = Diary of Fate, “Joe Mattuck” (March 16, 1948) ***WD03:36:20.390 = Dimension X, “Potters of Firsk” (July 28, 1950) ***WD04:03:51.650 = The Strange Dr. Weird, “Stand-In For Death” (December 26, 1944) ***WD04:15:18.925 = The Eleventh Hour, “Bad Day for Big Ben” (1960’s – Early 1970’s) ***WD04:45:09.364 = Escape, “The Day The General Died” (April 16, 1949)05:14:36.099 = 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/WDRR0654

Based on the #RetroRadio episode of the same title about a lineman who gets a strange call on a dead phone line while working on a telephone pole... a call from himself... from the future!

When telephone lineman Sam Yoder picks up an impossible call from himself ten days in the future, the tips start paying off — until future Sam steers him straight into the middle of a bank robbery he's told to watch, but not stop.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 Actress” (October 10, 1977) ***WD00:46:36.193 = X Minus One, “Sam This Is You” (October 31, 1956)01:15:29.980 = Zero Hour, “An Arms Length” (May 13, 1940) ***WD01:32:52.045 = ABC Mystery Time, “The Tale” (1956-1957)01:56:19.779 = Strange Adventures, “Malay Magic” (1945) ***WD01:59:34.349 = Appointment With Fear, “The Clock Strikes Eight” (May 18, 1944) ***WD02:28:21.070 = BBC Radio4 Ghost Story, “Lost Hearts” (October 29, 1978)02:42:35.566 = Beyond The Green Door, “Frederick Morton” (1966)02:46:35.493 = The Man In Black, “The Price Of The Head” (February 02, 1952) ***WD03:01:20.239 = Barry Craig, “Ghosts Don’t Die In Bed” (September 07, 1954)03:29:53.534 = Box 13, Double Right Cross” (November 28, 1948) ***WD03:56:39.464 = CBC Mystery Theater, “Mr Higginbothom’s Catastrophe” (1967) ***WD04:25:34.811 = The Clock, “The Hunter And The Hunted’ (November 22, 1955) ***WD04:51:37.696 = 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/WDRR0653

All songs by Crossroads Haint can be found at https://hyperfollow.com/crossroadshaint.  All music from Weird Darkness Records can be found at https://weirddarkness.com/music. I forgot to finish up this song a few days ago after I posted the Retro Radio episode, "Pennsylvania Turnpike" so here it is now!  Better late than never?I typically only include songs by Static Wax in this RetroRadio podcast, but the versions of this song I created for that project just did not sound right to me.  They might've been authentic to the time, but I did not like the results.  I have found that Crossroads Haint has a great feel for dark storytelling though, so I used this as my backup plan and I kinda like the result.  I hope you do as well!  

Get all songs from Static Wax at https://hyperfollow.com/staticwax.  All songs from Weird Darkness Records can be found at https://weirddarkness.com/music. This song is based on the title story from the Retro Radio episode, “Flying Saucers” Three Thousand Years of Operatives Walking Among Us" from May 7, 2026: https://weirddarkness.com/wdrr0652/ 

A New Mexico missile chief and his secretary discover the flying saucers over White Sands aren't curious neighbors — they're a recall notice from something that has been parked on the dark side of the moon for three thousand years, and it has come for them.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 Sea Nymph” (October 05, 1977) ***WD00:45:37.293 = Tales Of The Frightened, “Dr. Harvey Cushing” (1957) ***WD00:49:57.029 = The Creaking Door, “Imposter” (July 20, 1964) ***WD01:16:50.797 = The Saint, “Missing Angel” (July 08, 1951) ***WD01:45:36.247 = Theater Five, “A Brand New Life” (November 12, 1964) ***WD02:05:44.156 = 2000 Plus, “Flying Saucers” (August 23, 1950) ***WD02:34:51.114 = The Unexpected, “Counterfeit” (October 10, 1948) ***WD02:46:34.747 = Unsolved Mysteries, “The Witch Doctor” (1936) ***WD03:01:30.997 = Dark Venture, “Chase” (August 03, 1946) ***WD (LQ)03:29:50.533 = Weird Circle, “Goblet” (April 01, 1945)03:57:06.111 = The Whistler, “Murder On Paper” (January 29, 1945) ***WD04:28:30.820 = Witch’s Tale, “Boa Goddess” (May 21, 1931) ***WD (LQ)04:53:37.621 = 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/WDRR0652

In late-1800s Paris, an eighteen-year-old artist's model named Trilby suffers from headaches no doctor can touch. The cure, when it finally arrives, comes from the eyes of a strange musician named Svengali — and her friends are convinced she should never have let him near her.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 Mystery Theater, “Trilby” (September 30, 1977)00:47:17.842 = Radio City Playhouse, “Mother” (September 11, 1949)01:17:06.447 = Max Haines Mystery, “Arthur Gusy” (Mid 1940’s)01:40:56.965 = The Sealed Book, “Escape By Death” (April 15, 1945) ***WD (LQ)02:11:50.125 = The Shadow, “The Man Who Lived Twice” (February 09, 1941)02:35:04.740 = Sleep No More, “Death of Oliver” and “Fishhead” (December 26, 1956) ***WD03:04:24.816 = BBC Spinechillers, “Cupboard Beneath The Stairs” (April 2006)03:18:28.728 = Strange Wills, “Treasure To Starboard” (July 13, 1946)03:48:08.450 = Strange, “Captain Robinson” (1955)04:01:53.644 = Suspense, “Suspicion” (April 03, 1948)05:00:47.763 = 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/WDRR0651

A deckhand has just put his captain over the rail in ten fathoms of empty gulf and called it an accident. He thinks the worst is behind him, but he never accounted for the captain’s dog.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 Solitary” (September 29, 1977) ***WD00:45:58.396 = CBC Nightfall, “Walter’s Dog” (April 01, 1983) ***WD01:15:07.573 = Obsession, “The Silver Cord” (December 18, 1950) ***WD01:38:20.761 = Origin of Superstition, “Lose Baby’s First Pair” (1935) ***WD01:52:39.682 = Pat Novak For Hire, “Mysterious Set of Books” (August 10, 1947) ***WD02:21:26.963 = Peril, “Wheelchair” (June 14, 1947) ***WD (LQ)02:45:54.810 = Mystery Playhouse, “Adventure of Fallen Angels” (June 14, 1946) ***WD03:10:54.656 = Philip Morris Playhouse, “Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse” (September 18, 1951)03:40:22.498 = Price of Fear, “Family Album” (June 13, 1983) ***WD04:07:31.598 = Adventures of Ellery Queen, “Foul Tip” (July 15, 1944) ***WD04:34:28.750 = Quiet Please, “Summer Goodbye” (January 23, 1949) (LQ)05:03:20.329 = 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/WDRR0650

The dead girl from Frank Baring's woods comes back every night with the same request, and he's running out of ways to refuse her.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 Wintering Place” (September 27, 1977)00:45:49.645 = Tonight At Nine-Thirty, “Black Market Murders” (March 16, 1945)01:15:18.993 = Mystery In The Air, “Queen of Spades” (September 11, 1947)01:42:18.316 = Molle Mystery Theater, “Alibi For Murder” (March 22, 1946)02:11:55.779 = Mr. Keen, “The Moonless Night” (January 06, 1944)02:41:42.870 = Murder at Midnight, “The Line Is Dead” (April 07, 1947)03:08:09.496 = Black Museum, “Length of Sash Cord” (September 02, 1952) ***WD03:31:35.718 = Mysterious Traveler, “Christmas Story” (December 25, 1951)04:00:12.369 = Mystery House, “Nothing But Proof” (January 27, 1946) ***WD04:23:00.581 = Night Beat, “Otto, Music Man – aka Old Baldy” (June 15, 1951) ***WD04:51:18.305 = 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/WDRR0649

When an airline president comes to the investigator Saladin after a black magician's extortion threat brings down one of his planes in mid-flight, the two old enemies meet again across a battlefield of stolen corpses, radio waves, and a cockpit where the pilot is already dead.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options 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 Guy De Maupassant Murders” (September 26,1977)00:46:24.618 = The Key, “Bank Robbery” (1956)01:10:49.539 = Lights Out, “Battle of the Magicians” (July 27, 1946)01:40:35.719 = Macabre, “The Avenger” (December 18, 1961) ***WD02:09:24.535 = Philip Marlowe, “Covered Bridge” (January 14, 1950)02:38:54.225 = Ranger Bill, “Abominable Snowman” (1957)03:07:55.179 = The Black Mass, “Judgment” (November 16, 1970) ***WD03:32:03.065 = Michael Shayne, “Haunted House” (April 09, 1945) ***WD04:01:34.428 = Beyond Midnight, “The Man Who Sold His Soul” (June 20, 1969) ***WD04:32:38.046 = MindWebs, “Apple” (September 02, 1979)04:58:16.689 = 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/WDRR0648

When Elaine begins seeing a hulking shape that only appears in darkness and dissolves the instant a light comes on, an aging scholar of the supernatural warns her fiancé that something ancient has marked her — and is methodically removing everyone standing between it and her.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options 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 Burning Whirlwind” (September 23, 1977)00:45:38.236 = Arch Oboler’s Plays, “History Of A Mug” (August 09, 1945) ***WD01:14:43.988 = Hall of Fantasy, “The Shadow People” (September 21, 1953) ***WD01:39:00.254 = BBC Haunted Tales of the Supernatural, “Mists of Memory” (May 22, 1982)02:05:59.803 = The Haunting Hour, “Old Old Man” (April 07, 1945) ***WD02:30:49.195 = Hermit’s Cave, “It Happened On Sunday” (1940) ***WD02:54:04.404 = Mystery Is My Hobby, “Death is 1 3” (December 31, 1947)03:21:36.414 = Sherlock Holmes, “The Elusive Emerald” (December 14, 1946)03:50:53.749 = The House of Mystery, “The Ghost Who Forgot Halloween” (October 27, 1945) ***WD04:22:15.259 = Incredible But True, “Heads Up” (1950-1951)04:25:51.553 = Inner Sanctum, “Death Across The Board” (June 06, 1943) ***WD04:54:26.682 = 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/WDRR0647

A filling station on a lonesome stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, an old man paying with colonial gold, a red-haired traveler asking directions to a town nobody has heard of, and a hitchhiker who has been waiting a hundred and eighty years for a ride.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options 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 Plan” (September 22, 1977)00:45:54.201 = The Strange Dr. Weird, “White Pearls of Terror” (December 19, 1944) ***WD00:57:33.290 = The Eleventh Hour, “Agent” (1941-1946)01:19:17.165 = Escape, “When The Man Comes, Follow Him” (April 09, 1949)01:48:43.375 = Murder By Experts, “Dig Your Own Grave” (August 15, 1949)02:18:39.103 = Exploring Tomorrow, “Cold Equations (The Stowaway)” (April 30, 1958) ***WD02:36:18.577 = Faces In The Window, “Lightning Rod Man” (January 17, 1953) ***WD (LQ)02:59:58.903 = Dark Fantasy, “Pennsylvania Turnpike” (March 20, 1942)03:26:58.808 = BBC Fear on 4, “Green and Pleasant” (1990)03:55:36.858 = Future Tense, “The Old Die Rich” (May 21, 1974) ***WD04:24:30.858 = BBC Ghosts From The Past, “The Boat Hook” (April 15, 1992)05:07:58.359 = 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/WDRR0646

A radiation-scarred inventor has built a submarine that burrows through solid bedrock, parked it beneath the city, and aimed its torpedoes at the fault line — and the planets are sliding into position to help him pull the trigger.Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options 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 Tunnel Man” (September 20, 1977)00:45:40.665 = CBC Mystery Theater, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” (January 1968) ***WD01:14:57.979 = Chet Chetter’s Tales From The Morgue, “Elmer Meets Death” (1990-1992) ***WD01:43:03.330 = The Clock, “The Hunter and the Hunted” (November 22, 1955) ***WD02:09:06.215 = Creeps By Night, “The Final Reckoning” (July 12, 1944) ***WD02:37:03.067 = The Crime Club, “Sentence of Death” (October 09, 1947) ***WD03:05:59.992 = Danger Dr. Danfield, “Case of the Counterfeit $10 Bills” (December 22, 1946) ***WD03:31:06.412 = The Devil and Mr. O, “No Escape” (November 19, 1971) ***WD03:56:48.974 = Diary of Fate, “Trina Crowley” (March 09, 1948) ***WD04:25:17.920 = Dimension X, “Beyond Infinity” (July 21, 1950) ***WD04:54:28.084 = 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/WDRR0645

A dollar at a dusty curio shop buys a mummified foot — and the thirty-century-old princess who comes with it.Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options 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 Wind And The Flame00:46:57.579 = The Weird Circle, “Possessive Dead” (March 25, 1945)01:14:18.931 = The Whistler, “Seascape” (January 22, 1945)01:42:56.945 = Witch’s Tale, “Altar of Hate” (November 08, 1933) ***WD02:08:42.316 = X Minus One, “Pictures Don’t Lie” (October 24, 1956)02:36:06.053 = The Zero Hour, “The Violation” (May 10, 1974) ***WD02:53:37.216 = ABC Mystery Time, “Suicide Club” (June 07, 1956) ***WD (LQ)03:15:19.752 = Strange Adventure, “A Matter of Salvage” (1945)03:18:35.175 = Appointment With Fear, “Speaking Clock” (April 13, 1944)03:45:58.687 = BBC Radio 4/7 Ghost Story, “Lost Hearts” (December 28, 2007)04:00:13.483 = Beyond The Green Door, “Dillingsworth Diamond Corp” (1966) ***WD04:04:21.110 = The Black Book, “Vagabond Murder” (March 02, 1952) ***WD04:18:50.973 = The Avenger, “The Subway Ghost” (March 07, 1946)04:48:49.580 = Box 13, “Diamond In The Sky” (November 21, 1948) ***WD05:15:38.566 = 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/WDRR0644

An accountant on his first field assignment is the only man who can stop a catastrophe, and the project director has a debriefing schedule designed to bury him until it's too late.Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Death On Project X” (September 16, 1977) ***WD00:46:12.808 = BBC Radio 4 Spinechillers, “Metballs Are Murder” (November 08, 2006)00:59:57.050 = Strange Wills, “Prince of Broadway” (July 06, 1946)01:29:44.479 = Suspense, “Suspicion” (February 10, 1944)01:59:15.319 = Tales of the Frightened, “Don’t Lose Your Head” (December 17, 1957)02:03:46.026 = The Creaking Door, “Cat Woman” (December 14, 1964) ***WD02:32:10.595 = The Saint, “Cowboy” (July 01, 1951)03:00:57.876 = Theater Five, “World Enough And Time” (November 10, 1964)03:23:02.258 = Theater 1030, “Two Little Punctures” (July 12, 1953) ***WD03:50:03.008 = Two Thousand Plus, “Veteran Comes Home” (July 05, 1950) ***WD04:18:09.269 = The Unexpected, “Two Of A Kind” (1947-1948) ***WD04:29:57.657 = Unsolved Mysteries, “Rue Morgue Mystery” (June 17, 1942) ***WD04:44:51.349 = Dark Venture, “Ten Dollar Bill” (August 14, 1945)05:13:49.213 = 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/WDRR0643

In a storm-bound country sanatorium, a brilliant scientist driven mad by one fatal mistake insists the immortal Count Cagliostro speaks to him from beyond the grave — guiding his hand toward an experiment that has already killed once before.Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Passport To Freedom” (September 15, 1977)00:45:51.080 = Peril, “Undivided” (early 1950s) ***WD01:08:41.986 = Mystery Playhouse, “Female of the Species” (June 07, 1946) ***WD01:33:50.352 = Philip Morris Playhouse, “Murder Need An Artist” (May 06, 1950) ***WD02:00:25.283 = Adventures of Ellery Queen, “Dead Man’s Cavern” (April 15, 1944) ***WD02:25:41.142 = Quiet Please, “Is This Murder” (January 16, 1949)02:54:03.552 = Radio City Playhouse, “Unguarded Moment” (August 29, 1949)03:22:02.393 = It’s Murder, “Picture Wire Murder” (August 10, 1944)03:36:41.570 = The Sealed Book, “Ghost Makers” (September 09, 1945)04:06:11.396 = The Shadow, “Nightmare at Gaelsbury” (February 02, 1941)04:30:25.714 = Sleep No More, “The Storm” (December 19, 1956) ***WD04:57:35.046 = 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/WDRR0642

A scholar returns from the Indian jungle carrying a bronze idol, a borrowed god, and a body count that will follow him across an ocean. | #RetroRadio EP0641Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options 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 Way To a Duty Death” (September 13, 1977) ***WD00:45:52.224 = Mr. Keen, “Young Husband Who Thought His Wife Failed Him” (April 17,1941)01:00:40.882 = Murder at Midnight, “Death’s Worshipper” (March 10, 1947)01:27:00.036 = The Black Museum, “The Raincoat” (1952) ***WD01:55:52.412 = Mysterious Traveler, “Hide Out” (December 11, 1951) ***WD02:26:11.998 = Mystery House, “Murder In Paradise” (November 18, 1945) ***WD02:52:38.153 = Night Beat, “Search For Fred” (June 08, 1951)03:20:14.930 = CBC Nightfall, “Private Collection” (March 18, 1983)03:49:10.159 = Obsession, “A Question of Personality” (December 11, 1950)04:12:05.964 = Origin of Superstition, “Sing Before Breakfast” (1935) ***WD04:26:26.474 = Pat Novak For Hire, “Johnny Brown Gambling Ring” (August 03, 1947) ***WD04:55:45.899 = 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/WDRR0641

When a geologist proved that human grief and human joy were being siphoned to the stars as fuel for somebody else's machine, the world spun into cults and suicides and small wars — but the professor had a wooden crate, a Cumberland cottage full of secrets, and a private answer he wasn't ready to share with the man writing the checks. | #RetroRadio EP0640Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “First Childhood” (September 12, 1977)00:46:21.651 = Philip Marlowe, “Torch Carriers” (January 07, 1950)01:15:58.500 = Pursuit, “The Loch Ness Killer” (ADU) ***WD01:40:29.807 = The Black Mass, “Bartleby the Scrivener” (September 14, 1965) ***WD02:14:04.032 = Michael Shayne, “Meet Me AT Oakland Depot” (April 02, 1945)02:43:45.557 = Beyond Midnight, “The Locked Room” (1969) ***WD03:13:19.062 = MindWebs, “The Machine In Shaft Ten” (1975-1984) ***WD03:41:42.191 = The Humphrey Bogart Theater, “Dead Man / Pilot Episode” (September 17, 1949)04:12:46.534 = Mystery in the Air, “Mask of Medusa” (September 04, 1947) ***WD04:41:44.987 = Molle Mystery Theater, “Red Wine” (March 08, 1946)05:11:00.140 = 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/WDRR0640

For seventy years the woman in the green silk dress hung quietly in an old man's house — long enough, as it turned out, to learn how to step down off the wall. | #RetroRadio EP0639Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options 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 Woman In The Green Dress” (September 09, 1977)00:46:22.185 = The Haunting Hour, “Bird of Death” (March 31, 1945)01:11:12.112 = Hermit’s Cave, “The Spirits of Vengeance” (March 16, 1947)01:35:56.698 = Mystery is My Hobby, “Death Has a Hot Foot” (December 24, 1947)02:00:49.021 = Sherlock Holmes, “The Coptic Compass” (December 07, 1946)02:30:00.596 = The House of Mystery, “Haunters And Haunted” (June 13, 1945) ***WD02:44:21.540 = Incredible But True, “Death Has a Will” (1950-1951)02:48:07.969 = Inner Sanctum, “Black Seagull” (March 07, 1943)03:17:50.145 = The Key, “Alexis” (1956) ***WD03:44:01.024 = Lights Out, “Poltergeist Gravestone” (October 20, 1942)04:09:27.539 = Macabre, “Midnight Horseman” (December 11, 1961) ***WD (LQ)04:36:36.346 = 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/WDRR0639

She rented the house for the view — for the ageless, indifferent sea outside every window, for the poems she planned to write, for the phone calls to the men she used to love. But the housekeeper wasn't a housekeeper. The groundsman wasn't a groundsman. The little pink pills weren't vitamins. And somewhere out past the fog, a great white ship was drifting closer to shore… carrying the one man she'd been waiting fifteen years to kill.ABOUT THE SONG: "Those Little Pink Pills" is a slow 6/8 waltz in the style of late 1960s orchestral chamber pop — the territory of Scott Walker's Scott 3 and Scott 4, Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra's duet work, Serge Gainsbourg's most cinematic arrangements, and the psychological gravity of early Leonard Cohen. The song splits its narrative between two voices: a female lead carrying the verses in a breathy, close-miked, dreamlike register, and a male baritone delivering the choruses with cold clinical certainty. She sings from inside the delusion. He sings from outside it. The listener sits in the gap between them, knowing what she does not. The chorus catalogues the quiet lies surrounding her — the housekeeper who isn't a housekeeper, the groundsman who isn't a groundsman, the voices on the phone that were never really there — and lands each time on the small pharmaceutical instrument keeping her fifteen-year delusion intact. The arrangement is all strings, harpsichord, vibraphone, and muted low brass swelling like a distant foghorn. No rock drums. No electric guitar. No major-key resolution. The style was chosen because the source story is a Roman poet's thesis dressed in 1970s clothes — I hate and I love, and I am in torment — and that sentence needed a setting that could carry both the romance and the rot without flinching. Chamber pop circa 1968 was the only room big enough.ABOUT THE SOURCE EPISODE: The song is drawn from "Silent Shock," a 1977 episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater written by Elspeth Eric, directed by Himan Brown, and starring Mercedes McCambridge as Catherine Gunther. Catherine has rented a beautiful oceanside house — the kind of place, she says, where a woman can finally get her life together. She walks the beach, copies down poems about the sea from Shakespeare and Coleridge and Byron, and collects flat stones for skipping. Between the poems she telephones the men from her past: Larry, the lover she once ran off with, and John, the husband she left behind. A patient groundsman named Casper tends the shoreline. A kindly housekeeper named Harriet brings up dinner and little pink capsules from the kitchen. And one foggy evening, Catherine sees a great white ship drifting toward her through the mist — the ship, she is certain, that will finally bring her father home. Nothing at the oceanside house is what Catherine believes it to be. Harriet is not a housekeeper. Casper is not a groundsman. The pink capsules are not vitamins. The phone calls to Larry and John connect to no one. The man who quietly runs the place is a psychiatrist, and every kindness in Catherine's pleasant afternoons is a figure borrowed from her unraveled memory. When her doctor arrives to say her father has at last come — by airplane, not by ocean liner — he must prepare her gently, because the father she has waited on for fifteen years has come for only one reason: the bills have grown too steep. Fifteen years earlier, during a quarrel in a motel room, Catherine shot Larry dead. Her father, unable to stomach the scandal, boarded a white ship and sailed for London, leaving his daughter to the care of Edgeworth Sanitarium and a monthly check. Now she waits for him on the beach, beside the little heap of skipping stones she has been saving. When the old man walks into view, she does not weep, and she does not run to him. She picks up the stones, one by one, and hurls them at his head — traitor, deserter, betrayer — while the doctor pulls her back from the water and Catullus, dead two thousand years, supplies the only fitting epitaph: I hate and I love, and I am in torment.ABOUT CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER: CBS Radio Mystery Theater ran from January 1974 to December 1982, broadcasting nearly 1,400 episodes over nine seasons. Hosted by E.G. Marshall (and later Tammy Grimes), the series was created and produced by Himan Brown, a radio drama veteran whose career stretched back to the 1920s. CBSRMT was a deliberate throwback — an attempt to revive the theater-of-the-mind tradition in an era when television had long since claimed the American living room. The show drew on horror, suspense, mystery, science fiction, and psychological drama, adapting classic literature alongside original scripts from writers like Elspeth Eric, Sam Dann, and Ian Martin. Its cast rotated through the finest voice actors of the era, including Mercedes McCambridge, Agnes Moorehead, Fred Gwynne, Tony Roberts, Sarada Farrow, and dozens more. Each episode opened and closed with the signature creaking door and Marshall's literary invocations, bookending stories that ranged from supernatural horror to urban noir to quiet psychological devastation. CBSRMT remains one of the most ambitious and enduring artifacts of American radio drama's late twilight.ABOUT STATIC WAX: Static Wax is a music project from Weird Darkness that takes stories from vintage radio drama — the horror, mystery, suspense, and psychological fiction of old-time broadcasting — and reimagines them as songs in the musical styles of the eras the stories originally aired in. Each track is drawn from a specific broadcast, matched to a period-appropriate musical register, and built to stand on its own as a piece of music while also honoring the source material. Whether the original story came from Lights Out, Suspense, Quiet, Please, CBS Radio Mystery Theater, or any of the other great American and British radio programs of the 20th century, Static Wax treats the source as both tribute and transformation — grooves pulled from broadcasts that faded decades ago.Learn more and hear the full catalog at https://weirddarkness.com/staticwax

“Silent Shock”: She rented the house for the view — for the ageless, indifferent sea outside every window, for the poems she planned to write, for the phone calls to the men she used to love. But the housekeeper wasn't a housekeeper. The groundsman wasn't a groundsman. The little pink pills weren't vitamins. And somewhere out past the fog, a great white ship was drifting closer to shore… carrying the one man she'd been waiting fifteen years to kill. | #RetroRadio EP0638CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Silent Shock” (September 07, 1977)00:45:58.247 = Everyman’s Theater, “Cat Wife’ (October 18, 1940)01:14:57.244 = Murder By Experts, “The Big Money” (July 25, 1949)01:44:22.965 = Exploring Tomorrow, “Secret That Cannot Be Cracked” (April 23, 1958)02:04:00.956 = Faces in The Window, “Black Cat” (November 22, 1952) ***WD02:27:40.978 = Dark Fantasy, “Superstition Be Hanged” (March 13, 1942)02:51:54.169 = BBC Fear on 4, “Snowman Killing” (January 03, 1988)03:20:34.628 = Five Minute Mysteries, “Murder Under Tent” (mid 1940s)03:25:28.740 = Future Tense, “A Pail of Air” (May 20, 1974) ***WD03:52:41.177 = BBC Ghosts From The Past, “Black Stockings and Broken Mirrors” (April 08, 1992)04:36:22.865 = BBC Haunted Tales of the Supernatural, “Legal Rites” (May 15, 1982)05:04:21.055 = 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/WDRR0638

All songs are eventually released to major streaming platforms and music apps such as Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes, YouTube, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and most other services worldwide. Songs always appear here first before distribution elsewhere.Eight flawless pearls, six native divers, and a captain willing to do the math — the sea keeps better books than he does.ABOUT THE SONG: "Ghosts of the Nancy Hale" — Southern Gothic blues with Chicago and Bayou influence. Inspired by the Weird Darkness Retro Radio episode "Ghosts of The Nancy Hale: The Six Who Did Not Die" featuring the story from Creeps by Night — "The Six Who Did Not Die," originally broadcast July 11, 1944. Eight flawless pearls, six native divers, and a captain willing to do the math — the sea keeps better books than he does.Every track is inspired by the strange, the haunted, the historical, and the occasionally unspeakable stories covered on the Weird Darkness podcast — murder ballads, cursed places, restless spirits, and the kind of folklore that keeps front porch lights burning all night.ABOUT THE SOURCE EPISODE: "The Six Who Did Not Die" aired on Creeps by Night on July 11, 1944, on the Blue Network, and was rebroadcast on the Armed Forces Radio Service program Mystery Playhouse hosted by Peter Lorre. The story is set aboard the sloop Nancy Hale, anchored off the atoll of Mandariva in the Gambier Islands, and follows the captain's decision to murder his six native pearl divers rather than split the take from an unusually rich bed. When he returns for more, the sea is waiting with its own verdict.

“The Six Who Did Not Die”: Eight flawless pearls, six native divers, and a captain willing to do the math — the sea keeps better books than he does. | #RetroRadio EP0637CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Waiting Room” (September 05, 1977)00:45:54.440 = Creeps By Night, “Six Who Did Not Die” (July 11, 1944) ***WD01:13:28.398 = The Crime Club, “Cowhide” (October 02, 1947)01:42:49.458 = Danger Dr. Danfield, “Sam hardy Makes a Bet With Death” (December 15, 1946)02:07:46.457 = CBC Deep Night, “Bonehouse” (August 12, 2005)02:40:56.361 = The Devil And Mr. O, “Big Mr. Little” (November 12, 1971) ***WD03:09:13.902 = Diary of Fate, “Peter Drake” (February 23, 1948) ***WD03:38:40.669 = Dimension X, “The Man In The Moon” (July 14, 1950) ***WD04:08:22.837 = The Strange Dr. Weird, “Man Who Talked With Death” (December 12, 1944) ***WD04:20:55.067 = The Eleventh Hour, “Actor”04:47:27.492 = Escape, “Confidential Agent” (April 02, 1949)05:16:54.125 = 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/WDRR0637

All songs are eventually released to major streaming platforms and music apps such as Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and most other services worldwide. Songs always appear here first before distribution elsewhere.Based on the story, “Interface To Terror” from the April 21, 2026 Weird Darkness #RetroRadio marathon, “Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook: The Crucifix Was Just a Warning!” https://weirddarkness.com/wdrr0636/A quiet inventor, a bullying brother, and a homemade computer helmet that reaches a little deeper into the skull than advertised."The Lobometer" is a bluegrass murder ballad inspired by "Interface To Terror," an episode of Chet Chedder's Tales From The Morgue. A quiet inventor, a bullying brother, and a homemade computer helmet that reaches a little deeper into the skull than advertised. Static Wax takes the stories told on vintage radio broadcasts and reimagines them as era-appropriate songs — the way they might have sounded if they'd been written for the jukebox instead of the airwaves. Two brothers. One helmet. One second-story window.ABOUT THE SONG: "The Lobometer" sits in the fratricide branch of the American murder ballad tradition, a lineage that runs from "Banks of the Ohio" through "Pretty Polly" and on into the dark-comic corners of bluegrass storytelling. Clawhammer banjo leads, upright bass walks, mandolin chops the off-beats, and a lone fiddle takes the break. The narrator reports the grisly particulars the way bluegrass narrators always have — plainly, with a slight grin, letting the listener decide how horrified to be. The final verse pulls back into minor key as the quiet brother closes the door on the loan shark's men.ABOUT THE SOURCE EPISODE: "Interface To Terror" is a Chet Chedder's Tales From The Morgue installment in which an amateur inventor perfects the Lobometer — a helmet wired to a computer that transmits floppy-disk information directly into the human brain. His mob-adjacent brother sees the invention for what it is worth on the black market, and the two begin working their way through credit bureaus and card numbers. The partnership does not last.ABOUT CHET CHEDDER'S TALES FROM THE MORGUE: Chet Chedder's Tales From The Morgue was a syndicated horror anthology produced by M&J Audio Theatre in the early 1990s, hosted by a morgue attendant whose stories were pulled from the case files of his more unusual residents. Each episode dropped a listener into a self-contained tale of the strange, the violent, and the darkly comic, delivered with the classic host-narrator framing device that reaches back through Vincent Price, The Mysterious Traveler, and Lights Out.ABOUT STATIC WAX: Static Wax takes the stories told on vintage radio broadcasts and reimagines them as era-appropriate songs — the way they might have sounded if they'd been written for the jukebox instead of the airwaves. Each release is paired with its source episode on the Weird Darkness RetroRadio podcast and explored further on the Static Wax podcast and blog. All Static Wax releases eventually reach streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, and most other major services under Weird Darkness Records.

Inspired by the title story of the April 21, 2026 Weird Darkness #RetroRadio marathon, “Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook: The Crucifix Was Just a Warning!” https://weirddarkness.com/wdrr0636/A scholar pays pocket change for a priceless medieval scrapbook a terrified French sacristan was desperate to sell — and finds out that night what he actually bought.ABOUT THE SONG: "Two Hundred Fifty Francs" places the bargain and its consequences in the musical language of 1883, the year the story itself unfolds. The arrangement leans into the late-Victorian parlor ballad tradition — piano-driven, minor-key, measured, the kind of gaslit narrative song that might have sat on a music stand in any middle-class drawing room of the period. The form was tailor-made for tragic storytelling with a supernatural edge, and the song treats that form without irony or pastiche. No winks, no modern gloss — a straight gothic parlor ballad carrying a straight gothic parlor story. The chorus pivots on the absurdity of the price and the thing that came bound up with the pages. The tempo stays slow and mournful rather than frantic, letting the horror settle in the same way it would have on the quiet carriage ride away from St. Bertrand.ABOUT THE SOURCE EPISODE: An English archaeologist arrives at the cathedral town of St. Bertrand de Comminges in the French Pyrenees in 1883, intending to spend a day photographing and cataloging the ancient church. The sacristan who guides him is a small, wizened man who flinches at every sound, glances constantly over his shoulder, and weeps before a painting of a saint delivering a man from strangulation by the devil. When the tour ends, the sacristan hesitantly offers the scholar a folio he keeps at home — a priceless seventeenth-century scrapbook assembled by one Canon Albrecht de Maulion, full of illuminated manuscript leaves spanning nearly a thousand years of ecclesiastical art. At the very back of the book, two later sheets of paper bear a drawing of King Solomon enthroned, four soldiers frozen in terror, a fifth dead at their feet with his neck wrenched out of shape, and crouched among them a matted, skeletal creature with burning yellow eyes and a hate that is not human. The sacristan names a price that would shame a junk dealer. The scholar pays. The sacristan's daughter presses a silver crucifix into his hand as he leaves. That night, alone in his hotel room with his purchase, the scholar learns exactly what the sacristan was so desperate to be rid of — and why the silver cross around his neck is the only thing standing between him and the creature that has haunted Canon Albrecht's book, and every owner since, for almost two hundred years.ABOUT THE RADIO SHOW: Ghost Story was a BBC Radio strand devoted to single-voice readings of classic supernatural fiction, drawing heavily from the great British ghost-story tradition — M.R. James, Sheridan Le Fanu, E.F. Benson, Algernon Blackwood, and their literary heirs. Produced in the understated, atmospheric style that became a BBC hallmark, the series favored close-miked narration, spare sound design, and the kind of measured pacing that lets a well-told ghost story breathe. These broadcasts aired on BBC Radio 4 and were later repeated on BBC Radio 7, the network's spoken-word archive channel, where they continued to find new audiences long after their original transmission. The "Canon Alberic's Scrapbook" installment referenced here aired on December 29, 1997, in keeping with the longstanding British tradition — championed by M.R. James himself — of saving the very best ghost stories for the Christmas season.ABOUT STATIC WAX: Static Wax takes the stories told on vintage radio broadcasts and reimagines them as era-appropriate songs — the way they might have sounded if they'd been written for the jukebox instead of the airwaves. Each release is paired with the original source episode, discussed on the Weird Darkness RetroRadio podcast, and archived on the WeirdDarkness.com blog so listeners can follow the thread from vintage broadcast to new recording. All Static Wax releases eventually reach streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, and most other major services under Weird Darkness Records. Learn more and follow the series at https://weirddarkness.com/staticwax.

An English archaeologist talks a terrified French sacristan out of a priceless medieval scrapbook for pocket change — and finds out that night why the old man was so eager to sell. | #RetroRadio EP0636Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Olive Darling and Morton Dear” (September 02, 1977) ***WD00:46:14.207 = Appointment With Fear, “The Pit And The Pendulum” (September 18, 1943) ***WD01:13:21.641 = BBC Radio 4/7 Ghost Story, “Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook” (December 29, 1997)01:27:31.568 = Beyond The Green Door, “Edward Morse, Deep Sea Fishing, and Rats” (1966)01:31:14.101 = The Black Book, “My Favorite Corpse” (February 24, 1952) ***WD01:45:41.440 = The Avenger, “The Ghost Murder” (January 13, 1946)02:15:40.001 = Box 13, “Damsel In Distress” (November 14, 1948)02:42:26.663 = CBC Mystery Theater, “Champagne Safari” (April 28, 1967)03:51:55.215 = Chet Chetter’s Tales From The Morgue, “Interface To Terror” (1990-1992) ***WD04:19:42.714 = The Clock, “Aunt Emmy” (November 15, 1955)04:46:39.145 = 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/WDRR0636

“Physician Of The Dead”: A scientist in revolutionary Paris believed the severed head keeps thinking after the blade falls, and the night he finally proved it was the night he learned whose voice was waiting in the sack. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0635Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options 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 Reunion” (August 31, 1977)00:45:50.285 = The Unexpected, “Masterpiece” (September 26, 1948)00:57:56.320 = Unsolved Mysteries, “Indian Fakir” (February 17, 1944) ***WD01:11:34.960 = Nick Carter, “Death After Dark” (February 19, 1944) ***WD01:40:50.656 = Dark Venture, “Eclipse” (August 07, 1945)02:10:36.663 = The Weird Circle, “Pistol Shot” (March 18, 1945) 02:38:01.228 = The Whistler, “Murder Has a Signature” (January 15, 1945) ***WD03:09:43.726 = Witch’s Tale, “Physician Of The Dead” (November 08, 1934) ***WD03:38:45.995 = X-Minus One, “Soldier Boy” (October 17, 1956)04:06:38.672 = Zero Hour, “The Housecall” (May 09, 1974) ***WD04:23:53.977 = ABC Mystery Time, “Success Story” (1957) ***WD (LQ)04:47:55.048 = Strange Adventure, “South Of The Border” (1945) ***WD04:51:10.640 = 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/WDRR0635

She placed the ads, she made them rich, and she watched them starve to death in the morning papers — now she's singing about it, and she isn't sorry.ABOUT THE SONG"Come Home Rich" is a 1953 crime-jazz and orchestral noir fusion, sung in the voice of a femme fatale physicist calling men across time into the trap she built for them. The verses move in smoky street-level crime-jazz — walking upright bass, brushed drums, muted trumpet, minor-key piano — while the choruses lift into cinematic orchestral noir as the strings swell and the scale of her offer widens. The bridge destabilizes briefly, harp and bowed vibraphone threading through a harmonic dislocation, before the verse groove returns. The vocal reference points are Julie London and Peggy Lee in her Black Coffee era — cold, unhurried, conversational, the voice of a woman who doesn't need to raise it to get what she wants. The song was written in the style of its source year because the story lives in 1953, not in the future its villain peers into, and because a torch song is the one genre that can make a woman luring strangers to their deaths sound like the most reasonable proposition a man has ever been offered.ABOUT THE SOURCE EPISODEThe Old Die Rich aired in 1953 as an episode of Tales of Tomorrow, adapted from H.L. Gold's story in Galaxymagazine. Private investigator Mark Weldon has been chasing a pattern that refuses to make sense — elderly men turning up dead of starvation across the city, each with thousands of dollars sewn into their coat linings, each carrying a bank book whose entries date back decades but whose ink is only months old. When one victim survives just long enough to whisper a single name, the trail leads to May Roberts, a brilliant red-haired physicist living alone in a five-story brownstone on Eldridge Avenue. Her want-ads seek men with no social security numbers, no references, no families — men who will not be missed. Weldon infiltrates in disguise, is caught at gunpoint, and is forced into the truth behind her operation: a working time machine in her laboratory, a scheme that sends the desperate back twenty-two years with envelopes of cash, stock instructions, and rigged prize-fight bets. The old men come home rich. Then they die. When May asks Weldon to travel forward instead — seventy years into 2023 to retrieve the technical details of a revolutionary power device — she promises him love, partnership, and wealth on his return. What waits for him in the future is a mayor who knows his name, and private papers that reveal what she has really been doing, and what she has planned for the world once the device is in her hands. By the time Weldon understands the trap, he is the only man who can close it.ABOUT THE RADIO SHOWTales of Tomorrow was an anthology series that ran on ABC Radio and ABC Television in the early 1950s, bringing science fiction stories from the pages of Galaxy magazine and other sources into the homes of American listeners and viewers. The radio incarnation drew on the same talent pool as its television counterpart, adapting sharp, strange, occasionally unsettling tales of the future with full sound design and orchestral scoring. Hosted by "Omentor" — Raymond Edward Johnson, familiar to listeners from Inner Sanctum Mysteries — the program leaned into the darker, more paranoid corners of science fiction, where wonder and horror wore the same face.ABOUT STATIC WAXStatic Wax takes the stories told on vintage radio broadcasts and reimagines them as era-appropriate songs — the way they might have sounded if they'd been written for the jukebox instead of the airwaves. Each track is paired with the original episode that inspired it, bringing old time radio drama into conversation with the music of its own moment. All Static Wax releases eventually reach streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, and most other major services under Weird Darkness Records.

“The Old Die Rich”: They found him in an alley, dead of hunger, with seventeen thousand dollars sewn into the lining of his coat. He wasn't the first. He wouldn't be the last. Every one of them old. Every one of them starved. Every one of them carrying a bank book whose entries went back fifty years — in ink only months old. Private investigator Mark Weldon has chased the pattern across the city, and the pattern keeps leading back to a brownstone on Eldridge Avenue, and a beautiful red-haired physicist with ice-blue eyes and a want-ad that only hires men nobody will miss. Her name is May Roberts. Her laboratory hums behind a locked door. And the old men who walk through it come home rich — just in time to die. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0634Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “To Be a Rose” (August 29, 1977) 00:46:54.231 = BBC Spinechillers, “Inner Critic” (April 2006)01:00:50.698 = Stay Tuned For Terror, “Lizzie Borden Took An Axe” (July 23, 1945) ***WD01:13:48.186 = Strange Wills, “Lady And The Pirate” (June 29, 1946) ***WD01:43:28.483 = Suspense, “Sisters” (February 03, 1944)02:13:20.326 = Tales of the Frightened, “Deadly Dress” (1957)02:17:58.583 = Tales of Tomorrow, “The Old Die Rich” (March 26, 1953) ***WD02:49:45.547 = The Creaking Door, ‘Face To Face Music of the Spheres” (June 01, 1964) ***WD03:14:16.802 = The Saint, “Peter Great” (June 24, 1951)03:43:54.405 = Theater Five, “Nameless Day” (November 09, 1964)04:05:20.075 = Theater 1030, “Trespassers Will Be Experimented Upon” (1968-1971) ***WD04:34:07.590 = Tales From The Tomb, “The Raven” (1960s)04:43:33.852 = Two Thousand Plus, “The Brooklyn Brain” (June 21, 1950) ***WD05:12:14.545 = 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/WDRR0634

A watchmaker spends six weeks secretly building a bomb to kill his wife — but on the day he sets it to blow, two burglars tie him up in the very basement where the clock is ticking.ABOUT THE SONG"Three O'Clock" is an original Static Wax composition written in the style of a 1940s/50s pop crooner ballad — smooth, intimate, and deceptively dark. The song follows watchmaker Stapp through his meticulous six-week murder plot, his helpless terror as the clock ticks toward three, and the devastating irony waiting for him on the other side of consciousness. The vintage crooner style was chosen to mirror the era in which the source story was both written and broadcast, placing the listener inside the same cultural moment as the original audience.ABOUT THE SOURCE EPISODESleep No More — "Three O'Clock" — broadcast December 12, 1956 on NBC Radio Network.  A watchmaker named Stapp has spent six weeks secretly constructing a homemade bomb in his basement, convinced his wife is having an affair. Methodically smuggling in small amounts of explosive material and copper wire from his shop, he assembles the device inside a repurposed soapbox, wires it to an alarm clock set to detonate at 3:00 p.m., and plans to be safely at work when the blast obliterates his house — and his wife — inside it.On the day he completes the final connection, two burglars break in, catch him in the hallway, beat him unconscious, and tie him up with rope in the very basement where the bomb is ticking. Gagged and helpless, Stapp watches the minutes drain away, unable to warn anyone of the device just feet from him. A child briefly spots him through the basement transom window, but the mother dismisses it as impolite curiosity and pulls the child away.As the clock strikes three, Stapp loses consciousness — not to an explosion, but to sheer terror. He wakes hours later to his wife and a police officer standing over him. His wife casually mentions that she emptied the box that morning, using its contents as fertilizer in her backyard garden.The bomb was never a bomb at all. His meticulous instrument of murder had been quietly disarmed by the woman he intended to kill — without her ever knowing it existed.ABOUT SLEEP NO MORESleep No More was an NBC Radio Network anthology series hosted and narrated by Nelson Olmsted, featuring adaptations of suspense, horror, and mystery stories drawn from classic and contemporary fiction. Each episode opened with Olmsted's signature invitation to turn down the lights and settle into the darkness — a ritual that made the show one of radio's most atmospheric and beloved horror anthologies. Introduced by announcer Ben Grauer, the series brought some of the genre's finest short fiction to life through Olmsted's masterful narration. "Three O'Clock" was based on the short story by William Irish — the pen name of celebrated noir and suspense author Cornell Woolrich — and broadcast on December 12, 1956.ABOUT STATIC WAXStatic Wax is an original music project from Darren Marlar, the creator and host of Weird Darkness. Each Static Wax song takes a story told on a vintage radio broadcast and reimagines it as an era-appropriate original composition — the way it might have sounded if it had been written for the jukebox instead of the airwaves. The songs are written and produced to authentically reflect the musical styles of the golden age of radio, from crooner ballads and big band swing to early rock and roll and beyond. Static Wax is part of the Weird Darkness RetroRadio universe, where classic old time radio episodes are presented alongside original music inspired by their stories.

“Three O’Clock”: A watchmaker spends six weeks secretly building a bomb to kill his wife — but on the day he sets it to blow, two burglars tie him up in the very basement where the clock is ticking. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0633CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Area 13” (August 26, 1977) ***WD00:44:07.927 = Adventures of Ellery Queen, “Scarecrow And Snowman” (January 22, 1944) ***WD (LQ)01:12:50.567 = Quiet Please, “Portrait Of A Character” (January 09, 1949) ***WD01:42:07.113 = Radio City Playhouse, “Joey Was Different” (August 22, 1949)02:10:34.531 = Isn’t It Crime, “Speaking of Murder” (December 14, 1945)02:39:26.724 = Suspense, “Kandy Tooth Caper” (January 10, 1948)03:40:11.194 = The Sealed Book, “You Only Die Once” (September 09, 1945) ***WD04:09:41.616 = The Shadow, “The Ghost of Caleb Mackenzie” (January 26, 1941) ***WD04:39:15.305 = Sleep No More, “Three O’Clock” (December 12, 1956)05:08:21.289 = 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/WDRR0633

“The Leech”: When a desperate man kills his lover's husband to finally set them free, he discovers that getting rid of a body is far easier said than done — and the dead have a terrifying way of refusing to stay gone. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0632CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Return to Pompeii” (August 22, 1977)00:45:31.192 = Mystery House, “Murder For Laughs” (November 04, 1945) ***WD01:11:14.814 = Night Beat, “Will of Mrs. Orloff” (June 01, 1951)01:39:32.376 = CBC Nightfall, “The Undertaker” (March 11, 1983) ***WD02:09:07.798 = Nightmare, “The Leech” (April 07, 1954)02:31:47.256 = Obsession, “The North Wind” (December 04, 1950) ***WD02:54:53.372 = Origin of Superstition, “No News Is Good News” (August 11, 1933) ***WD03:08:44.467 = Pat Novak For Hire, “Dixie Gillian” (November 24, 1946)03:38:56.686 = Peril, “Three Hunted Men” (1953) ***WD04:02:00.913 = The Mystery Playhouse, “Witness For The Prosecution” (May 31, 1946) ***WD (LQ)04:27:10.238 = Philip Morris Playhouse, “Four Hours to Kill” (May 13, 1949) ***WD04:56:12.266 = 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/WDRR0632

"The Leech!" is a novelty doo-wop song inspired by "The Leech," a 1954 episode of the classic radio horror anthology Nightmare (April 7, 1954). When a desperate man kills his lover's husband to finally set them free, he discovers that getting rid of a body is far easier said than done — and the dead have a terrifying way of refusing to stay gone.Static Wax from Weird Darkness Retro Radio brings old radio drama back to life through original songs written in the musical style of the era each story takes place in. Every song is a standalone journey into a different time and a different tale.This one takes you to 1954 — and into an office where nobody can leave, least of all the man who should already be dead.

“Let Me See Your Face”: When a writer takes a room at a quiet Rouen hotel, a mysterious woman glimpsed alone in the moonlit garden at midnight awakens in him a fascination so powerful, no warning — and no fear — can stop him from seeking her face. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0631CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Instrument” (August 19, 1977)00:45:33.056 = The Black Mass, “Oil of Dog” and “Esme” (January 13, 1970) ***WD (LQ)01:08:35.158 = Beyond Midnight, “Let Me See Your Face” (April 14, 1969)01:37:02.139 = MindWebs, “The Last Ghost” (August 19, 1979)01:56:25.139 = The Croupier, “The Roman” (September 21, 1949) ***WD02:25:25.564 = Mystery In The Air, “Beyond Good And Evil” (August 28, 1947) ***WD02:54:15.922 = Molle Mystery Theater, “Last Night” (February 22, 1946)03:23:41.186 = Mr. Keen, “The Woman Who Wasn’t Needed” (June 05, 1940) ***WD (LQ)03:35:33.387 = Murder at Midnight, “Terror Out Of Space” (February 24, 1947)04:01:39.639 = Black Museum, “A Prescription” (August 19, 1952)04:26:43.639 = Mysterious Traveler, “Most Famous Man In The World” (November 20, 1951)04:56:37.582 = 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/WDRR0631

"Let Me See Your Face" is a 1920s Delta blues song inspired by ‘Let Me See Your Face’, an episode of Beyond Midnight — the South African horror anthology that aired on Springbok Radio from 1968 to 1970 — originally broadcast on April 14, 1969. Though the episode aired in the late 1960s, the story itself is set in 1920s, making Delta blues the natural musical language for this tale. When a writer takes a room at a quiet Rouen hotel, a mysterious woman glimpsed alone in the moonlit garden at midnight awakens in him a fascination so powerful, no warning — and no fear — can stop him from seeking her face.Static Wax from Weird Darkness Retro Radio brings old radio drama back to life through original songs written in the musical style of the era each story takes place in. Every song is a standalone journey into a different time and a different tale.Some doors are better left unopened. Some faces are better left unseen.

What if a classic radio story became a song — in the time it takes place? Static Wax reimagines featured RetroRadio stories as songs from their era."The Sound of the Old Man's Cane" is a 1930s-style big band number inspired by Dead Walk at Night, an episode of Inner Sanctum Mysteries originally broadcast on September 20, 1942. The story follows a man who murders his blind uncle to claim his inheritance and escape a life of servitude — only to find that the dead don't stay silent, and the sound of a tapping cane follows him long after the old man is gone. Static Wax from Weird Darkness Retro Radio brings old radio drama back to life through original songs written in the musical style of the era each story takes place in. Every song is a standalone journey into a different time and a different tale.  This one takes you to the 1930s — and into a darkened hallway where something is coming down the stairs.

“The Dead Walk at Night”: A man who murders his blind uncle to claim his inheritance thinks he has escaped justice clean — until the dead man's cane begins tapping its way down the darkened staircase toward his room. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0630Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “In The Fog” (August 17, 1977)00:45:07.870 = Incredible But True, “Requiem” (1950-1951)00:48:44.321 = Inner Sanctum, “Dead Walk at Night” (September 20, 1942) ***WD (LQ)01:12:44.381 = Lights Out, “Valse Trieste” (March 30, 1938) ***WD01:41:13.607 = Lux Radio Theater, “Ghost And Mrs. Muir” (December 01, 1947) ***WD02:38:50.504 = Macabre, “House In The Garden” (December 04, 1961) ***WD03:08:15.614 = Philip Marlowe, “The House That Jacqueline Built” (December 31, 1949) ***WD03:36:23.408 = Michael Shayne, “Case of the Bayou Monster” (August 20, 1949) ***WD04:02:29.149 = NBC Short Story, “Dr. Jekyll” (1952 – Never Aired) ***WD04:29:05.671 = NBC Short Story, “Frankenstein” (1952 – Never Aired) ***WD04:55:42.202 = 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/WDRR0630

"The Together Place" is an original Static Wax composition written in the style of a 1940s torch ballad — mournful, intimate, and quietly devastating. The song follows Rose Craven from her first whispered mentions of a sister named Lily, through the shared dreams and shared suffering that bind them across worlds, to the moment Rose closes her eyes and follows her twin into the unknown. The torch ballad style was chosen to mirror the era suggested by the story's atmosphere — a haunted, candlelit world of old houses, herb gardens, and women who carry their grief in silence — and to honor the aching tenderness at the heart of a story that is ultimately about a soul searching for the companion it lost before it ever drew breath.ABOUT THE SOURCE EPISODECBS Radio Mystery Theater — "The Together Place" — broadcast August 15, 1977. Written by Elspeth Eric. Starring Norman Rose. Dr. Ed Leahy, the sole physician of the small town of Corbett, enlists his retired nurse Mary Mahaffey to help care for two unusual patients: Mrs. Craven, confined to bed with a thrombosis, and her daughter Rose, a withdrawn young woman of mysterious ailment. When Rose casually mentions a twin sister named Lily — a sister no one knew existed — the doctor and nurse are drawn into something far stranger than a routine house call. Rose is utterly convinced that Lily is real, living in a realm she calls Kamaloka — the Together Place — a world adjoining our own where souls dwell between lives. She shares Lily's headaches, Lily's dreams, and eventually Lily's pregnancy. When Rose announces that Lily is gravely ill and near death, she herself takes to her bed and dies shortly after — her body wasting away as though in sympathy with her unseen twin. The truth, known only to Dr. Leahy, is that Rose did have a twin. A second child was born the same night — deformed and sickly, surviving only an hour — and laid next to Rose in the womb for nine months before the world ever saw her. Rose had carried the memory of that companion throughout her entire life, and in death, it seems, went searching for her. With Rose gone, grief pulls Mrs. Craven toward the same fading. It falls to the remarkable Mary Mahaffey to bring her back — not through medicine, but through the philosophy of Paracelsus: faith, cheerful courage, and hope. In the end, Dr. Leahy is left to set the story down on paper, as Mary Mahaffey requested with her dying breath, so that the lives of Rose Craven and her unknown sister would not pass unremembered. ABOUT CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATERThe CBS Radio Mystery Theater was an anthology drama series that aired from 1974 to 1982, produced by Hyman Brown and hosted by the distinctive voice of E.G. Marshall. Created as a deliberate revival of the golden age of radio drama, the series presented original mystery, suspense, and macabre stories five nights a week, earning a devoted audience and a reputation as one of the finest dramatic radio programs of its era. "The Together Place" was broadcast on August 15, 1977, written by Elspeth Eric, and starred Norman Rose, with a cast that included Mary Jane Higbee, Marion Seldes, and Rosemary Rice.ABOUT STATIC WAXStatic Wax is an original music project from Darren Marlar, the creator and host of Weird Darkness. Each Static Wax song takes a story told on a vintage radio broadcast and reimagines it as an era-appropriate original composition — the way it might have sounded if it had been written for the jukebox instead of the airwaves. The songs are written and produced to authentically reflect the musical styles of the golden age of radio, from crooner ballads and big band swing to early rock and roll and beyond. Static Wax is part of the Weird Darkness RetroRadio universe (https://weirddarkness.com/retroradio), where classic old time radio episodes are presented alongside original music inspired by their stories.Find more at https://weirddarkness.com/staticwax

“The Together Place”: A small-town doctor and his retired nurse are drawn into the haunting mystery of a young woman who speaks with absolute certainty of a twin sister no one has ever seen — and a place called Kamaloka, the Together Place, where the dead are never truly alone. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0629Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBSRadio Mystery Theater, “The Together Place” (August 15, 1977) ***WD00:45:53.828 = Exploring Tomorrow, “Planet of Geniuses” (April 16, 1958)01:05:19.307 = Dark Fantasy, “The Man With The Scarlet Satchel” (March 06, 1942) ***WD01:30:20.991 = 5 Minute Mysteries, “Trial By Fire” (1947-1950)01:35:12.778 = Future Tense, “Born of Man And Woman” (May 16, 1974) ***WD02:03:11.422 = Hall of Fantasy, “The Judge’s House” (April 03, 1947) ***WD02:29:50.345 = The Lives of Harry Lime, “Greek Meets Greek” (July 25, 1952) ***WD02:53:32.719 = BBC Haunted Tales of the Supernatural, “The Emissary” (May 08, 1982)03:20:27.175 = The Haunting Hour, “Murder Wears a Strange Mask” (March 24, 1945) ***WD03:45:17.215 = Hermit’s Cave, “The Search For Life” (April 12, 1942) ***WD04:09:56.301 = Mystery Is My Hobby, “Death Has Blue Eyes” (December 17, 1947) ***WD04:34:40.892 = Sherlock Holmes, “The Strange Death of Mrs. Abernetty” (November 30, 1946) ***WD05:03:51.697 = 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/WDRR0629

A cheerful housewife follows a hunch about her husband's biggest customer — and pulls on a thread that unravels a marriage, a murder, and a spy ring hiding in plain sight.ABOUT THE SONG"The Name On The Door (Means Nothing At All)" is an original Static Wax composition written in the style of a 1970s pop ballad — warm, melodic, and quietly devastating. The song follows Armina Saunders from the moment she steps off a diverted plane into a city she's never seen, through the unraveling of everything she thought she knew about her husband, her marriage, and the life they built together. The 1970s pop ballad style was chosen to mirror both the era of the original broadcast and the emotional register of the story itself — a song that sounds like it belongs on the radio in the background of a life about to fall apart.ABOUT THE SOURCE EPISODECBS Radio Mystery Theater — "For Want of a Nail" — broadcast August 12, 1977. Written by Sam Dan. Starring Betsy Palmer.A cheerful, sunny housewife named Armina Saunders is returning home from a trip to Hollywood when her plane makes an emergency landing in Marsden City, South Dakota. With an hour to kill, she decides to visit the Audley Company — her husband Ralph's biggest customer, a manufacturing plant she has always assumed was a major operation. But when her cab driver, Oscar Hogan, brings her to 1 Oliphant Avenue, they find not a factory but a seedy, rundown office building. The Audley Company is nothing more than a name on a frosted glass door — a mail drop renting desk space and a phone number.Unsettled but not yet alarmed, Armina returns home and confronts Jim Carroll, Ralph's business partner. Jim confesses that the Audley Company is a fiction he created — a phantom customer designed to cover his own laziness as a salesman. He had been routing the engines through a contact who moved them through unknown channels while fabricating business trips to justify expenses. Ralph and Jim settle the matter privately, and Armina resolves to forget the whole thing.Then a letter arrives from Oscar Hogan. The kindly cab driver has appointed himself an amateur detective, scouting around Marsden City on her behalf. Before Armina can write back to tell him the mystery is already solved, she calls the taxi garage — and learns Oscar has been shot and killed. The police rule it a robbery. But Oscar's wife Maude insists he was onto something.Driven by guilt, Armina impulsively flies back to Marsden City. She visits Maude Hogan, goes to the police — who dismiss her — and returns to the office building on Oliphant Avenue, where she confronts the woman behind the desk. Mid-confrontation, Ralph arrives. He flew out to bring her home. But the woman at the desk — Dolores — says one word: Mayday.The truth unravels fast. Ralph, Jim, and Dolores are foreign agents. The starter engine company was their front, and the phantom Audley Company was the mechanism their government used to funnel money into their operation. Oscar Hogan had gotten too close to the truth and paid for it with his life.Dolores, cold and decisive, declares that Armina cannot be allowed to live. Ralph refuses. In the struggle that follows, Dolores is shot and killed — but not before her bullet finds Ralph. He dies in Armina's arms, confessing that a spy who falls in love has signed his own death warrant. The police arrive to find a shattered espionage cell and a woman holding a man she never really knew.The episode closes with host E.G. Marshall explaining the title: the plane was forced down by a worn gasket — a 17-cent piece of fibrous material — setting in motion a chain of events that destroyed an entire espionage operation, killed three people, and changed one woman's life forever.ABOUT CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATERThe CBS Radio Mystery Theater was an anthology drama series that aired from 1974 to 1982, produced by Hyman Brown and hosted by the distinctive voice of E.G. Marshall. Created as a deliberate revival of the golden age of radio drama, the series presented original mystery, suspense, and macabre stories five nights a week, earning a devoted audience and a reputation as one of the finest dramatic radio programs of its era. "For Want of a Nail" was broadcast on August 12, 1977, written by Sam Dan, and starred Betsy Palmer.ABOUT STATIC WAXStatic Wax is an original music project from Darren Marlar, the creator and host of Weird Darkness. Each Static Wax song takes a story told on a vintage radio broadcast and reimagines it as an era-appropriate original composition — the way it might have sounded if it had been written for the jukebox instead of the airwaves. The songs are written and produced to authentically reflect the musical styles of the golden age of radio, from crooner ballads and big band swing to early rock and roll and beyond. Static Wax is part of the Weird DarknessRetroRadio universe (https://weirddarkness.com/retroradio), where classic old time radio episodes are presented alongside original music inspired by their stories.Find more at https://weirddarkness.com/staticwax

“For Want of a Nail”: When a woman's plane makes an emergency landing in a small South Dakota town, a quick visit to her husband's biggest customer leads her down a rabbit hole of lies, a fake company, and a murder — and the deeper she digs, the more dangerous the truth becomes. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0628Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “For Want of a Nail” (August 12, 1977) ***WD00:45:51.630 = The Clock, “Jungle Drums” (November 08, 1955) ***WD01:12:36.461 = The Crime Club, “No Time For Murder” (September 25, 1947) ***WD01:43:30.287 = Danger Dr. Danfield, “$100,000 Live Insurance Claim” (December 08, 1946)02:08:30.525 = The Devil and Mr. O, “Nature Study” (July 26, 1942) ***WD02:37:54.260 = Dimension X, “Mars Is Heaven” (July 07, 1950) ***WD03:06:34.469 = The Strange Dr. Weird, “Death In The Everglades” (December 05, 1944) ***WD03:19:05.506 = The Eleventh Hour, “Death of Elaine” (October 15, 1959) ***WD03:45:39.212 = Escape, “The Diamond As Big As The Ritz” (March 27, 1949)04:15:05.074 = Everyman’s Theater, “This Precious Freedom” (October 04, 1940) ***WD04:42:20.862 = Murder By Experts, “Murder By Prescription” (July 11, 1947)05:11:48.121 = 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/WDRR0628

“The Picture of Dorian Gray”: When a beautiful young man wishes that his portrait would bear the burden of aging and sin in his place, he is free to pursue a life of endless pleasure and cruelty — but the portrait keeping his terrible secret cannot stay hidden forever. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0627Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Case Closed” (August 10, 1977) ***WD00:47:29.369 = Witch’s Tale, “Knife of Sacrifice” (August 27, 1935) ***WD01:12:01.970 = X-Minus-1, “Colony” (October 10, 1956)01:40:40.845 = Zero Hour, “Fairs Fair You Know” (May 08, 1974)01:57:50.909 = ABC Mystery Time, “Picture of Dorian Gray” (1957) ***WD (LQ)02:21:51.144 = Strange Adventure, “The Dance of Death” (1945) ***WD02:25:07.056 = BBC Radio 4/Radio 7 Ghost Story, “A School Story” (November 28, 1980)02:39:35.347 = Beyond The Green Door, “Burt Simms, Bush Pilot” (1966)02:43:20.027 = The Black Book, “On Schedule” (February 17, 1952) ***WD02:57:49.195 = Author’s Playhouse, “Inexperienced Ghost” (December 04, 1944) ***WD03:25:39.040 = Box 13, “Triple Cross” (November 07, 1948)03:52:14.887 = CBC Mystery Theater, “A Perfectly Happy Life” (1968) ***WD04:21:54.961 = Chet Chetter’s Tales From The Morgue, “Interface To Terror” (1992) ***WD04:49:36.773 = 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/WDRR0627

“Haunted Hangman”: When the gallows mysteriously fail on the morning of his execution, a convicted murderer's claims of innocence force a desperate prison governor to question whether the real killer has been inside the prison walls all along. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0626Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Hope Springs Eternal” (August 08, 1977)00:46:14.384 = The Creaking Door, “Haunted Hangman” (May 25, 1964) ***WD01:14:51.392 = The Saint, “Train” (June 03, 1951) ***WD01:43:24.206 = Theater Five, “Living Credit” (November 06, 1964) ***WD02:03:28.560 = Theater 1030, “The Thing In The Hall” (1971) ***WD02:32:51.631 = Two Thousand Plus, “The Other Man” (June 07, 1950) ***WD03:03:25.093 = The Unexpected, “Silver Fox” (September 19, 1948)03:18:07.579 = Unsolved Mysteries, “Toll Bridge” (1936) ***WD03:32:33.909 = Dark Venture, “Pursuit” (July 31, 1945) ***WD04:02:18.917 = The Weird Circle, “Moonstone” (1945)04:29:30.760 = The Whistler, “Body Wouldn’t Stay In The Bay” (January 08, 1945)05:01:14.851 = 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/WDRR0626

“The Man In The Black Hat”: A gambler down on his luck gets the surprise of his life when a stranger with cold gray eyes hands him the keys to a brand-new car — no strings attached, no explanation given. From that moment on, nothing but good fortune follows him. But so does the man in the black hat. No matter where he goes, no matter what happens, that same gray-eyed figure keeps turning up — watching, waiting. Who is he? What does he want? And why can't anything seem to stop him? | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0625CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Thousand and First Door” (July 29, 1977)00:47:20.330 = Screen Guild Theater, “The Maltese Falcon” (September 20, 1943)01:15:59.326 = The Sealed Book, “Death Laughs Last” (September 02, 1945)01:45:34.035 = The Shadow, “The Shadow Challenged” (January 19, 1941) ***WD02:14:35.283 = Sleep No More, “Over The Hill” and “The Man In The Black Hat” (December 05, 1956) ***WD02:37:55.162 = BBC Radio 4 Spine Chillers, “Falling To Pieces” (April 2006)02:50:12.599 = Stay Tuned For Terror, “The Bogey Man Will Get You” (October 01, 1945) ***WD03:04:45.016 = Strange Wills, “Black Interlude” (June 22, 1946)03:34:37.800 = Strange, “The Ghost Train” (September 18, 1955)03:48:16.621 = Suspense, “Locked Room” (January 27, 1944)04:17:35.994 = Tales Of The Frightened, “Call At Midnight” (1957)04:22:22.192 = Tales of Tomorrow, “The Other Now” (January 22, 1953)04:52:16.501 = 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/WDRR0625

“Leona’s Room”: He thought he'd committed the perfect murder — until a blind woman on a vaudeville stage looked straight at him and told the audience exactly what he'd done. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0624CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Secret of Laurels” (July 28, 1977)00:46:11.039 = Pat Novak For Hire, “John St. John” (October 13, 1946)01:15:11.996 = Peril, “The Wonderful Deception” (1953) ***WD01:40:35.650 = Mystery Playhouse, “Turnabout” (May 20, 1946) ***WD02:03:08.197 = Philip Morris Playhouse, “Leona’s Room” (February 25, 1949)02:31:59.540 = Price of Fear, “William And Mary” (September 08, 1973) ***WD02:59:31.349 = Adventures of Ellery Queen, “Mischief Maker” (January 15, 1944) ***WD03:24:56.152 = Quiet Please, “The Time of the Big Snow” (October 02, 1949)03:53:50.734 = Radio City Playhouse, “Blackout” (August 15, 1949) ***WD04:22:11.886 = Hollywood Mystery Time, “Murder By Coincidence” (August 19, 1945) ***WD (Rare Mystery!)04:52:06.936 = 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/WDRR0624