Pulprack

Link and Listen

Listening to music while reading has always been a double pleasure to me. I expect there are others out there who can claim the same. So it made sense to add a list of online radio links to the site.

WFPK & WUOL
While you check out The Pulp Rack, or while you read some dandy pulp fiction, you may want to tune in to WFPK radio, which also broadcasts its programming over the Internet via streaming audio. It's a public radio station, so your ears aren't burdened with a lot a commercial breaks.

WFPK is an Americana-friendly station with an eclectic programming mix that includes jazz shows as well as bluegrass and country. I like to listen to the Roots & Boots and the Sunday Bluegrass with Berk Bryant shows on Sunday nights while reading a good western. And the extensive jazz programming during the rest of Sunday is a great backdrop for reading some adventure fiction from Talbot Mundy, Harold Lamb, H. Bedford-Jones, or Frank Packard.

And if you prefer your reading soundtrack to be classical -- and on occasion, I do -- you'll find a complete classical line up at WFPK's sister station, WUOL.

Click here for WFPK. And click here for WUOL.

WSM
I grew up in a small Kentucky town located about one hour's drive north of Nashville, Tennessee. So it wasn't unusual for our family's evening trips in the car to be accompanied by the tunes of the Grand Ole Opry vibrating from the dashboard radio.

You can listen online to WSM, the radio station that originated The Opry. The show broadcasts live, and if you miss it, you'll find a link to the recorded version. And you can also revisit past broadcasts -- both of the Opry and the Opry Warm Up -- by browsing through the Opry's archives. Plus, there are archived broadcasts of "The Early Bird Gets the Bluegrass" show. It's all great fun for the ears.

Click here to visit the WSM website. An easy-to-navigate menu near the top of the site will direct you to audio links.

The Mercury Theatre on the Air
Along with the pulps, nostalgia for the pulp fan probably pulls toward Old Time Radio (OTR, for the initiated). Radio dramas were devoted to pulp-based heroes -- The Shadow had his genesis there -- and pulp-influenced stories. But perhaps the most renowned radio drama set its sights higher: The Mercury Theatre on the Air. Formed by the legendary Orson Welles and John Houseman and featuring an impressive array of talents, including Agnes Moorehead, Bernard Herrmann, and George Coulouris, the show today is famous for its War of the Worlds broadcast. All of the surviving Mercury Theatre shows are available from the Mercury Theatre page in RealAudio format (some are also in MP3 format) -- including the first broadcast, which adapted Bram Stoker's Dracula. Play one of these shows as background sound while reading a pulp story from the same period!

Click here to visit the Mercury Theatre on the Air website. You'll find a complete listing of shows, a brief history, and more.

September 21, 1939: WJSV
"On September 21, 1939, WJSV, an AM radio station in Washington, D.C., recorded the entire 19 hours of its broadcast day." So you can play the shows from this site and recreate an authentic atmosphere for reading your pulp magazines or reprints. Click here to check out this day in radio.

The Big Broadcast
Another pulp-era broadcast that you can access online is a show called The Big Broadcast on WAMU. Featuring "programming from radio's golden age," the show is broadcast Sunday nights. However, you can listen to the show online. A typical program: The Abbott & Costello Show, Lum & Abner, Vic & Sade, Gunsmoke, The Life of Riley, Lux Radio Theater, and so forth. Click here to find out more about the show.