Saturday Night Radio Drama - The Columbia Workshop

 The Columbia Workshop 333 Episodes

I'm a skeptic of any time being declared a golden age.  Especially when that golden age is in earlier periods of art or music or theater.   I don't think any such period exists.   That term for radio drama isn't any different, referring to the era when radio was the major form of commercial electronic media and radio drama was most produced.  I've given links to recordings of radio dramas that were recorded in that period but I much prefer newer radio and audio plays to most of that.   Though I don't have anything against people who like the older stuff as much or better. 

Here's a large collection of the famous Columbia Workshop program, which featured some of the work of one of the really superior writers of that period,  Norman Corwin,  the often cited 26 by Corwin which are listed in at this site, if you want to look for them.   I'l point out one of them iI sampled today s a short radio opera Esther with music by the movie and TV composer Lyn Murray, to give you some idea of how much they put into one of the plays presented there.   Another one in Soliloquy To Balance The Budget.  

The first episode begins with an announcement of the series then the first play ever written for radio,  A Comedy of Danger by Richard Hughes, which I didn't listen to for long because it takes place in a mine people are trapped in and it set off my extreme claustrophobia.   It wan't especially naturalistic acting by modern standards but it was enough to do that.   I don't know if that's the power of radio, as the announcement would have it,   or my neurosis but I am telling you the truth of that.   The same episode had another short play, The Finger of God by Percival Wilde presented as an experiment in broadcasting a live performance on stage.   Experimenting with new materials and other things is what radio and audio drama are better than most visual presentations because, even with those production values, it's far less expensive. 

Wikipedia has a more detailed listing of the episodes of the original Columbia Workshop, there was a revival after the first series ended but I haven't looked at that.