Various Authors
500 episodes listed below
Old radio trouble, neatly lit.
Drama - Nighttime Radio is a rotating shelf of scripted radio stories, from crime cases to brisk theatrical comedy. It suits listeners who like old broadcast texture: clipped calls, worried secretaries, expense accounts, moral setup, and trouble arriving before anyone has finished explaining it.
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Drama - Nighttime Radio is a broad anthology feed of scripted radio pieces, stitched together from crime shows, theater presentations, comic vehicles, and sponsor blocks. It has the feel of a dial being turned after dark. One moment, a city room is being dragged into a murder controversy by a woman with a gun and absolute faith in her husband. The next, Johnny Dollar is itemizing bus fare, plane fare, and the cost of walking into another insurance mess. The stories like practical details. A prison record, a confession, a bullet, a burned schoolhouse, a pleasure boat policy, a phone call to a club bar: each arrives as a small object with a fuse attached. The crime material is sharpest when it lets people argue themselves into the open. Pauline Liggett's defense of Johnny is not treated as a neat clue board; it is pressure, panic, loyalty, and denial in a room too small for all four. Radio City Playhouse brings a different polish. Its introductions name writers, stars, attractions, and moral intent with old theatrical ceremony before the play snaps into immediate business. Wayside Theater and the sponsor-heavy segments preserve the commercial world around the drama as much as the drama itself. That can mean long stretches of motor club copy, chewing gum pitches, and public-service-style announcements. For the right listener, that is not dead air; it is part of the artifact. Maisie adds a welcome comic gear, with a Brooklyn performer turned traveling saleslady measuring steady employment against the more urgent matter of eating. Her jokes land fast because the situation is already miserable enough to earn them. The feed's strength is variety inside a consistent old-radio grammar. Cases begin quickly. Characters speak under strain. Exposition usually comes wrapped in a phone call, a bill, a boast, or an accusation. The production may carry duplicated intros or ad-heavy excerpts, but the core pleasure survives: voices building rooms, streets, offices, jails, clubs, and sidewalks out of timing alone. Drama - Nighttime Radio is for listeners who want compact dramatic machinery rather than modern commentary. It rewards patience with the creaks of archived broadcast material, then pays it back with sudden turns, hard little images, and dialogue that knows how to raise the temperature.
Made for: Best for listeners drawn to vintage scripted audio, crime cases, theatrical introductions, and comedy with a practical bite. It also fits anyone who enjoys archival broadcast texture, including sponsor copy and formal cast credits.
What sets it apart: The feed keeps the surrounding broadcast world in frame instead of presenting only polished drama excerpts. That gives the stories a museum-piece quality: crime plots, comedy setups, ads, credits, and pacing all arriving together.
Offers dramatic narratives that delve into human emotions and experiences, each story crafted to resonate with listeners on a personal level.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
A varied collection of radio plays that preserves the performances, production framing and distinct dramatic rhythms of their original broadcasts.
Drama - Nighttime Radio lets vintage radio drama retain its original machinery: announcer introductions, sharply defined performances, musical cues and closing production credits.
A taxi mystery, a gaslit husband, then Maisie hustling a banquet: choose your vintage escape.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A newsroom dispute turns into a sharp old radio argument over guilt, framing, and loyalty.
Randy Stone gets pulled into a newsroom dispute that moves quickly from accusation to moral pressure. Johnny Liggett is either guilty or being set up, and Pauline Liggett makes the case for the latter with a gun, a hard edge, and no patience for polite doubt.
A missing millionaire, a California oil patch, and a detective who keeps the trouble moving.
This Johnny Dollar outing begins with a missing policyholder and quickly shifts into California oil country, where youthful millionaire Alec Jefferson has vanished after an oil deal that may not be what it seems.
A missing-12-cabs case that shifts from expense-account banter to a very polite threat.
Johnny Dollar turns the disappearance of 12 Apex cabs into a tight, tense run from expense-account banter to a scream in the dark. The garage search, the calm stranger, and the strange politeness around a drawn gun give it real bite.
A domestic quarrel, a missing wristwatch, and a lie that keeps spreading.
This Radio City Playhouse drama opens on a hard domestic argument: Myra refuses to live with Caleb, while Jeff insists he has been cured after four years in the Air Force and two in a nut house.
True crime with blunt reactions and dark edges.
Scarce radio crime, case by case.
True crime with blunt moral focus.
Political scandal, history, and sharp receipts.
Crime stories told through lived memory.
Randy Stone is pulled off deadline by a clipping in the Pierce's Gazette that calls him a killer.
The Chicago Motor Club opens the Wayside Theater by claiming 78,000 member families, 33 years of service, and AAA affiliation across 1,000 automobile clubs.
Radio City Playhouse presents the play 'Correction' by Charles Lee Hutchings, starring John Larkin, which combines moral themes with entertainment.
Edmund O'Brien plays Johnny Dollar, who files a $134 plane fare to Omaha and a bus trip to Manhattan, Nebraska, while addressing expense account paperwork for Mr.
This episode features advertisements for LegalShield's affordable legal services for estate planning, MassGolf membership benefits in Massachusetts, and FindMassMoney.gov for claiming unclaimed funds.
Maisie Revere from Brooklyn, a former theater worker turned traveling saleslady for a novelty company, struggles with hunger and sparse sales opportunities while on the job.
A classic radio drama episode titled 'Deadline' about a secretary urgently trying to reach her boss.
A classic radio drama episode featuring insurance investigator Johnny Dollar as he takes on a new case involving pleasure boat policies and liability claims.
A classic radio drama episode featuring insurance investigator Johnny Dollar investigating a case involving a missing husband.
A classic radio drama featuring Orson Welles as Harry Lyme, recounting a tale of a giant diamond and his adventures.
A radio drama about a factory worker named Martha Hillman, exploring the dehumanizing nature of repetitive labor.
Bob Douglas gives Johnny Dollar a fast California assignment.
Johnny Dollar is sent to investigate the disappearance of 12 Apex cabs.
Myra is done.
The Adventures of Maisie - Mrs Hargraves Banquet follows Maisie Revere as she travels by hitchhiking to a charity banquet at Mrs.
A classic radio drama episode featuring the character Maisie, who recounts her adventures stranded in London.
A classic radio drama featuring Orson Welles as Harry Lyme in a tale about the Panama Canal.
A classic radio drama episode featuring a story about a woman daydreaming while waiting for a cab.
A classic radio drama episode from Radio City Playhouse, featuring a full-cast narrative.
A classic radio drama adaptation of Corey Ford's story about a man who becomes famous overnight.
A classic radio drama episode featuring insurance investigator Johnny Dollar going undercover as a seaman on a ship.
A classic radio drama episode featuring insurance investigator Johnny Dollar investigating the disappearance of a bank messenger.
A classic radio drama episode featuring insurance investigator Johnny Dollar looking into a shooting case.
A classic radio drama episode of 'Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar' about an insurance investigator looking into a husband's disappearance.
Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar is called to New York to investigate a suspicious fire at a delicatessen.
A radio drama episode titled 'Madcap Princess' presented by the Chicago Motor Club's Wayside Theater, featuring a romantic comedy about marksmanship and blue-blooded targets.
A freelance insurance investigator recounts a case that begins with a fire alarm and leads to a dangerous game in Cairo and Calcutta.
Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar begins a new case involving a missing man with a large insurance policy.
Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar is assigned to check on a suspicious insurance application for singer Kate Bellamy.
A classic radio drama episode featuring freelance insurance investigator Johnny Dollar investigating a suspicious claim on a tuna fishing boat.
This episode appears to be a podcast about fear, possibly with a historical or cultural angle, interspersed with advertisements for MassGolf membership and Massachusetts financial recovery services.
Orson Welles narrates a chilling introduction to Scotland Yard's Black Museum, focusing on a silencer used in a murder and discussing its sinister nature.
This episode of 'The FBI in Peace and War' dramatizes a story about juvenile crime and police intervention, beginning with officers confronting a man in a park.
Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar is hired to protect wealthy client Carl Baskerville, who suspects his brother William is plotting to kill him despite naming him as beneficiary.
Maisie, played by Ann Southern, finds herself in a mysterious situation after leaving a nightclub job due to an anonymous threatening note.