Cloak and Dagger
One of my favorite movies as a child was a movie called Cloak and Dagger, so naturally when I saw a Old time radio program with the same name I was instantly interested. Cloak and Dagger first aired on May 7th, 1950, on the NBC network. Based on the book called "Cloak and Dagger: The Secret Story of the OSS" by Corey Ford and Alastair MacBain, this program told fictional stories about a secret agent that went on dangerous missions during World War II (Old Time Radio Researchers Group, 2011).
Because Cloak and Dagger was about spies, I think the intended audience was people who were interested in adventure, life and death struggles, and international conflicts. World War II was recently over, and the Cold War was on everyone’s mind. A look into this exciting and dangerous world provided a way to escape ordinary life.
My experience while listening to this program was a little unexpected. When first reading about this assignment I knew it would be interesting, but it was a lot more enjoyable than I was expecting. It was the podcast of its time. I can imagine people planning their night around the broadcast time or talking about the latest episode.
For me it was quite a bit different from modern day entertainment. Mostly because of the radio experience was limited to only sound and had to rely on creative sound effects to help tell the story. The scratchiness of the audio and the unique instruments used to create sound effects added to the experience. It gave me the feeling of family sitting around a big radio unit impatiently waiting for the program to start, almost like Ralphie in The Christmas Story (TBS, 2013).
The content was suited for radio because of how it was told. The theme music, script, sound effects, and actors were geared to communicate in a way that provided the best experience for a program that relied on sound alone to tell the story.
Right away a large advantage of radio as an entertainment medium is the low production cost. Since only sound is used to tell the story. Another advantage would be that it offered a way to communication to many people at once over a wide area. When radio first was introduced, this was a major technology advancement.
Disadvantages of radio medium would be that it’s limited to sound and relied on the audience imagination more than other visual forms like TV and movies. Radio also required the audience to have a receiving unit.
Overall, I enjoyed listening to this Old Time Radio program and helped give a perspective into how entertainment world of my grandparent’s era. I actually ended up sending the archive link to my parents and they remembered hearing about many of the programs.
References
Old Time Radio Researchers Group. (2011, January 1). The Trap. Cloak and Dagger [Audio episode ]. https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Cloak_and_Dagger_Singles/Cloak_and_Dagger_50-07-23_ep11_The_Secret_Box.mp3
TBS. (2013, December 20). A Crummy Commercial | A Christmas Story | TBS [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_XSShVAnkY
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