Escape - The Fall of the House of Usher, I Saw Myself Running, Ancient Sorceries, Three Skeleton Key

General Electric Stereo Drama/Theater - The Turn of the Screw (rare recording starring Agnes Moorehead)

The Hall of Fantasy - The Dance of the Devil Dolls, The Marquise of Death, The Shadow People

The Hermit's Cave - The House of Purple Shadow, The Professor's Elixer

Inner Sanctum Mysteries - The Devil's Workshop, Murder Mansion, The Vengeful Corpse, Twice Dead

Lights Out - A Knock at the Door, Murder in the Script Department, Poltergeist, What the Devil

Molle Mystery Theater - Burn, Witch, Burn; The Creeper; Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper

Mystery in the Air - The Black Cat, The Queen of Spades, The Horla

Quiet, Please - Northern Lights, The Thing on the Fourble Board

Suspense - The Devil's Saint, Ghost Hunt, The Hitch-Hiker, The House in Cypress Canyon

Escape - "Designed to free you from the four walls of today for a half hour of high adventure!" This enticing pitch followed by an excerpt from Night on Bald Mountain really gets you in the mood for a good ol' pulse-quickening yarn. The focus is on thrillers and solid production, and even the episodes I don't particularly enjoy are well-acted and well-made despite the lower budget. Escape contains many American and British story adaptations from authors such as Rudyard Kipling, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edgar Allen Poe, H.G. Wells, Algernon Blackwood, and more. You can't go wrong with Escape and its sheer quantity of excellent and well-preserved shows.

General Electric Stereo Drama/Theater - I don't know much about this program. From what I can gather it was the first big move to stereo broadcasting and featured a lot of prominent actors playing roles in American literature transcriptions, however it appears that all of the reels except for the first broadcast (The Turn of the Screw) were not preserved. I can't find an info lead anywhere. There's a similarly named show called General Electric Theater (hosted by Ronald Reagan himself, no less) but it's not the same radio show. Regardless, this is one of Agnes Moorehead's best radio performances (and maybe that's because The Turn of the Screw is one of my favorite Gothic horror novels, but it's certainly a well-done rendition.)

The Hall of Fantasy - A dark fantasy production specializing in "the supernatural, the unusual and the unknown." John Dunning, a radio historian, had this to say about the show: "The difference between this program and its competitors was that here, man was usually the loser. The supernatural was offered as something respectable, awesome, sometimes devastating and always frightening." Sadly, about 150 to 200 episodes are lost for good, leaving about 40-ish circulating today. It's a damn shame since this show contains some very unique and classically spooky tales with fitting performances.

The Hermit's Cave - "Ghost stories, weeeird stories... And murders, too!" In tandem with the dogs howling and the unnamed hermit's laughter, the atmosphere of this show is perfect for Halloween. While the hermit may come across as stereotypical nowadays, the stories he tells certainly aren't. Out of the 800+ broadcast for The Hermit's Cave, only 28 are available now, and many of them are torture on the ears. Still, it's a good and scary show. (I can't help but think of the hermit from the original Scooby Doo series, a parody for sure. Also, The Witch's Tale is a similar horror show that began in 1931—6 years prior to The Hermit's Cave—and features a cackle-prone witch host that also wants you to "turn out of the lights.")

Inner Sanctum Mysteries - Mystery and the supernatural, an excellent combo. Raymond—the dark-humored host with a slew of macabre puns at the ready—always gets a laugh or two out of me whenever he does his bit. But don't let that fool you, some of these episodes are veritably shocking, suspenseful and contain clever twists. And that infernal yet amusing "Bromo Seltzer" ad fits right at home here. The overall sound effects used are especially enjoyable and add a lot to the atmospheric experience.   

Lights Out - This show does not pull any punches, and often uses "gross" sound effects to magnify the gruesomeness of the scripts. First created and directed by Wyllis Cooper, the torch was handed to Arch Oboler who then ran a marathon with it (The Devil and Mr. O., a "best of" syndication that ran during the early '70s, featured 24 of Oboler's episodes with introductions done by Oboler himself). If you're looking for a freaky and disturbing horror show that you won't easily forget, this is it. (Note: Oboler also wrote some more serious episodes, even a Christmas story. They're pretty good but feel out of place amid such a twisted bunch of stories). 

Molle Mystery Theater - A great mixed bag. Mystery, thriller, horror or the supernatural—and sometimes all four—are what you'll find here. Molle is often conflated with the "Mystery Theatre" umbrella categorization, which is erroneous. I believe this confusion arises since it was the similarly titled "NBC Mystery Playhouse" that rebooted/continued Molle in 1943 (and later it was broadcast on AFRS, the Armed Forces Radio Service). This rerun was introduced and curated by Peter Lorre, who gathered a solid lineup of hair-raising tales. The audio quality of Molle is hit and miss but it is certainly worth checking out.

Mystery in the Air - Starring Peter Lorre (famous for his role in the 1931 German mystery/horror film M.) Of the original 25 episodes only 8 have survived (with Agnes Moorehead also playing a part in one, "The Lodger"). They're of good quality and intense. Lorre's psychotic acting sounds like the real deal; he makes a good fit whether its in a fantastical role or a crime noir one.

Quiet, Please - A horror favorite for many, also created by Wyllis Cooper. When you hear that melancholic organ playing in the beginning you know you're in for something special. QP was an ambitious show that brought something more subtle yet powerful compared to other OTR horror shows. There's a forum dedicated to the preservation/discussion of the show, as well as some amateur reenactments of lost episodes (the manuscripts are intact). Sadly, much of the surviving audio is fubar, and I wanted to include more from the series in this mod but ultimately settled on two due to audio issues. 

Suspense - "Radio’s outstanding theater of thrills. Stories well calculated to keep you in… Suspense!" One of the most famous old-time radio shows. Suspense specializes in suspense thrillers of all kinds, mostly crime, but also branches out into psychological and supernatural horror. It features many prominent actors and actresses of the time, including Orson Welles, Cary Grant, Lucille Ball, James Stewart, and many more. Agnes Moorehead—a very talented actress closely associated now (and then) with Suspense—appeared the most on Suspense compared to her peers. After she first starred in "Sorry, Wrong Number" she was dubbed "the first lady of Suspense" and went on to perform the same drama 8 more times throughout Suspense's run. There was even an hour long version of "Sorry, Wrong Number" performed for Lux Radio Theater Australia starring Miriam Hopkins.

Rod Serling himself drew a lot of inspiration from both Escape and Suspense for The Twilight Zone, even recreating some of them like "The Hitch-Hiker" for TV (he also cast Moorehead as the woman in "The Invaders" (1961). Other Suspense episodes such as "Ghost Hunt" and "The House in Cypress Canyon" (featured in this mod) are also famous in their own right. "Ghost Hunt" was certainly ahead of its time, although I won't spoil the concept if you'd rather hear it yourself first. Needless to say, Suspense is a quality show; it ran for two decades and still has over 900 episodes intact and listenable online.