The Haunting Hour Radio Program

• According to Billboard Magazine (Dec. 22, 1945), The Haunting Hour was "locally produced and acted" in the Philadelphia area, at NBC affiliate, KYW. That would have post-dated the Tucson run immediately below.
• The Haunting Hour was airing in Tucson, Arizona over KVOA as early as June 8, 1945 (a Friday), at 7:30 p.m.. We refer to that date and time as the premiere over KVOA since the previous week, The Shadow had occupied that timeslot for the remainder of that previous year and there were no previous listings of The Haunting Hour prior to that date.
• Another complete run of The Haunting Hour premiered over Winnipeg's CKRC, September 5, 1945 (a Wednesday), at 7:30 p.m., sponsored by Daytons, Ltd, and ran through September 11, 1946 (a Wednesday), which represented a theoretical full run of fifty-two episodes.
• The Philadelphia, Food Fair-sponsored, KYW Run premiered on December 9, 1945 to air for a contracted, full 52-week run. In practice the series was discontinued after 25 broadcasts.
• The Haunting Hour was airing in Zanesville, Ohio over WHIZ as early as March 18, 1946 (a Monday), at 7:30 p.m., for a full run (note the premiere announcement in the sidebar at left).

The series went on into syndication and rebroadcasts for the following thirty years over the Armed Forces Radio and Television service and as featured 1940s Radio retrospectives over various FM Radio stations as late as the 1970s.

The Haunting Hour spot ad from April 22nd 1945 for Thrifty Drug Store
over KECA


A few months later The Haunting Hour had moved to Sundays over KFI for Thrifty Drug Stores

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

There is as yet virtually no verifiable information for all fifty-two episodes of this transcribed, syndicated series--none. The series originated locally from at least two affiliate stations. No advertiser records have yet surfaced. No information is forthcoming from the Library of Congress--as yet. The AFRTS exemplars in collectors' hands have no titles--just episode numbers. Most extant provenances are spotty at best. Dates for the initial 1944-1946 runs and 1974 Syndicated Rebroadcasts were either interpolated or extrapolated from known broadcast dates. Though most of the circulating titles announce the title shortly after the organ intro, some five or six of the circulating recordings have been vandalized to eliminate that key provenance.

What remains historically indisputable is the fact that there were unquestionably fifty-two scripted recordings transcribed for The Haunting Hour syndication. No more, no less. Any references whatsoever to rebroadcasts are simply unhelpful. This was a syndicated, transcribed set of fifty-two scripted programs that did air somewhere during the syndication's initial broadcasts. Any 'rebroadcast' annotations are simply more commercial otr gimmickry.

OTRisms:

As to the alleged 1944 audition of The Haunting Hour, titled Homicide House, there is no verifiable means of identifying the circulating exemplar as an audition. Indeed, the alleged exemplar of Homicide House currently circulating is exactly 25:00 minutes long--as is the circulating alleged broadcast version of Homicide House. They are unquestionably the same, identical recording. Neither provides any hint as to an audition, and both cite no hint as to air checks, or other identifying information.

With the exception of the few cited titles provenced below from contemporaneous newspaper listings, no other previously cited dates can be supported or substantiated for this series. Certainly not the multitude of apocryphal dates in circulation for the past 40 years.

NBC, for its part, felt sufficiently proud of the production to include it in their huge Billboard magazine spread of 1946, celebrating their Silver Anniversary (see sidebar, left).

There is no title, Lonesome Heart. It's completely apocryphal.

We challenge anyone in the vintage Radio community--otr or otherwise--to step forward and substantiate--once and for all--their misrepresentations about the run sequence and air dates for this series over the past 40 years. Countless thousands of vintage Radio collectors and archivists have been sent down the disingenuous rabbit hole of misrepresentations regarding this series. The closest anyone's previously come to accurately representing the run sequence for The Haunting Hour is the radioGOLDINdex log. Unfortunately--and unaccountably--the radioGOLDINdex duplicates at least three of their alleged transcriptions numbers. We also publish our findings right here on the page.

What you see here, is what you get. Complete transparency. We have no 'credentials' whatsoever--in any way, shape, or form--in the 'otr community'--none. But here's how we did it--for better or worse. Here's how you can build on it yourselves--hopefully for the better. Here are the breadcrumbs--just follow the trail a bit further if you wish. No hobbled downloads. No misdirection. No posturing about our 'credentials.' No misrepresentations. No strings attached. We point you in the right direction and you're free to expand on it, extend it, use it however it best advances your efforts.

We ask one thing and one thing only--if you employ what we publish, attribute it, before we cite you on it.

We continue to provide honest research into these wonderful Golden Age Radio programs simply because we love to do it. If you feel that we've provided you with useful information or saved you some valuable time regarding this log--and you'd like to help us even further--you can help us keep going. Please consider a small donation here:

We don't pronounce our Golden Age Radio research as 'certified' anything. By the very definition, research is imperfect. We simply tell the truth. As is our continuing practice, we provide our fully provenanced research results--to the extent possible--right here on the page, for any of our peers to review--or refute--as the case may be. If you take issue with any of our findings, you're welcome to cite any better verifiable source(s) and we'll immediately review them and update our findings accordingly. As more verifiable provenances surface, we'll continue to update the following series log, as appropriate.

All rights reserved by their respective sources. Article and log copyright 2009 The Digital Deli Online--all rights reserved. Any failure to attribute the results of this copywritten work will be rigorously pursued.

[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]

The Haunting Hour Series Log

AFRTS END-780 'The Haunting Hour' (1964-1969) Log

The Haunting Hour Series Log -- All Known Circulating Titles

The Old, Old Men