Old-time radio horror: "The Thing on the Fourble Board"

self | 10/31/17 | NewJerseyJoe

[NewJerseyJoe]

Want to listen to something creepy tonight? I have the answer for you....

Back in 1948, radios in American homes outnumbered televisions by about 900 to 1. Radio programs were very popular and covered every genre ... including horror. In August 1948, the radio program "Quiet, Please" broadcast an episode titled "The Thing on the Fourble Board." Many people familiar with the history of radio describe this episode as one of the best radio horror programs ever broadcast; some cite it as one of the best examples of radio drama as a whole.

It isn't gory or explicitly violent -- or particularly scary by today's standards. But the quiet voice and dialogue delivery of the main performer, Ernest Chappell -- along with minimal musical accompaniment, some periods of silence, and one guest voice which I won't spoil here -- make for a very creepy, unsettling presentation, with a twist ending that you won't see coming. This is worth 23 minutes of your time.

You can listen through the player on this page (https://www.quietplease.org/index.php?section=episode&id=60), or download the MP3 from the link there.

[AllAmericanGirl44]

Bkmk

[RobinOfKingston]

.

[GOPJ]

Thanks

[KittenClaws]

Thanks! This will be a fun listen tonight.

[Sam Gamgee]

Never heard of that one but my wife and I like to listen to the Lights Out, Detective Marlow, X minus One, ect...

[sparklite2]

Remember Inner Sanctum? The creaking door that opened the show gave me the willies more than any episode (that I was allowed to listen to) ever did.

[Sans-Culotte]

Bump for later.

[Oatka]

Radio was a tough medium

When I told my kids I used to listen to radio, they asked,"But WHAT did you watch while you listened?".

[Bob434]

when i was young, we didn’t have TV- but i don’t remember listening to the radio- I’m sure my folks had one, but we kids were always busy outside playing- we later got a TV that got maybe 5 channels at best- and you had to really work the antennae to get them to come in without too much ‘snow’ so you could see what was going on lol- I do remember messing with the antenna a lot- and later we got a ‘more sophisticated antennae’ that was only a little better lol-

[Sam Gamgee]

I remember it in the sense I grew up in the 1980s as a teenager. Every sat night the local radio station in my small town, would air an hour of old time radio shows. That is how I got into them. The way your imagination works listening to radio is pretty cool.

I forgot all about them until the 2000s, when I found you can find these things on the internet. My new wife and I would listen to them some nights together. Of course now one can podcast them.

But yes, totally recall inner sanctum.