Horror Radio - Awake at Midnight

The Best and Worst of Scary Old Time Radio

Old Time Radio Thrills! Frights! Shocks! The scariest and the best stories to listen to in the dark– Find out what to track down and what to avoid! Perfect for sleepovers and Halloween parties!

Plot Summaries by Title

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Scariest Old Time Radio Shows	Old Time Radio Downloads
Ratings Guide	Common Motifs

Chet Chetter’s Tales from the Morgue

Ratings Guide

This is a classic. The audio drama has scary, imaginative properties that reflect the best of Old Time Radio storytelling.

This is a quality show that is better than average. Play this for a friend or at a Halloween party and you won’t be disappointed.

Fun to listen to, but the twist ending is not especially imaginative, nor do the sound effects set it apart from the rest. Most fall in this grade.

Not fun to listen to. Plot inconsistencies make the listener strain to comprehend the story or a lack of creativity makes it just plain old boring.

I want the half hour of my life back! Why did someone bother to save this on reel-to-reel, much less convert it to digital?

Common Motifs for Old Time Radio, Horror Comics & Scary Short Stories

Murder and revenge are common, even expected scenarios in horror and crime fiction, but these angles are replayed ad nauseum in old Time Radio.

A false scenario is meant to drive the protagonist insane (or kill them) so the instigator can get the inheritance money. The gaslighting deception usually backfires.

It’s the cops screwing with a criminal to elicit a confession.

A severed hand comes for revenge.

Instead of a werewolf, a woman becomes a were-cat!

The narrator was dead the whole time.

Folk magic gets revenge for the powerless and wronged.

A nagging wife gets her comeuppance.

Treasure is stolen from an ancient temple in the jungle and a curse befalls the thieves.

A doll (or ventriloquist’s dummy) has a life of its own.

The King’s Executioner, or a hangman, lives up to his reputation.

Bet you a thousand bucks you can’t spend a night alone in the haunted room!

Help me retrieve the treasure or I’ll tell the cops what you did!

An accidental death is staged for the life insurance pay out. But there’s always a snag!