Before television shows, like ours, families used to gather around the radio and listen not just to music but to stories acted out live in a studio, like listening to a play right in your living room.

That history is being brought to life again right here in Kentucky.

So, don't touch that dial because we are tuning in to old-time radio.

[static] Kentucky Educational Television is proud Kentucky Educational Television is proud to bring you this look back at the golden age of radio.

Starting in the 1920s and ranging until the early ‘60s, old-time radio, as it's also called, hit its peak in the ‘40s and '50s.

Television shows like Dragnet, Gunsmoke, and Our Miss Brooks all made their debut first as radio dramas during this time.

KCAL Old-Time Radio is a theater troupe that has been performing these classic programs and more for over 10 years.

Instead of broadcasting over the airwaves, they recreate the shows live in their theater in downtown Nicholasville.

In 2014, they began as a part of the Jessamine County Creative Art League, hence the CAL in their call letters.

And though that art league closed down in 2018, KCAL kept the name and kept performing.

KCAL is on air.

KCAL is a step back in time.

KCAL is a step back in time.

We try to do, recreate old-time radio shows that would look like if you were in a studio.

[group singing] What a dude face.

[group singing] What a dude face.

It's a rather a hybrid of old-time radio in that we add a little theatrics, we add some lighting and things like that to make our audience have a better experience than just, you know, sitting here watching us read and, you know, hum, you know.

Holy cow!

This is wholesome entertainment.

This is wholesome entertainment.

You could bring your four-year-old grandchild to our show and not be embarrassed by it.

You could enjoy it, have a good time.

We have people here, our oldest person, as far as I know, is around 90.

And of course, some of the people that are up in their 70s, 80s, and 90s used to listen to some of these old-time radio shows as a child.

So, it brings back a lot of good memories.

But on the other hand, some of these younger people are seeing things the way it used to be.

We have a lot of people come in and they'll say, “I used to sit at the radio with my grandmother and listen to this show.” Or, “When I was a kid, I listened to that and I waited every Saturday night.

We'd all sit around the radio.” And I think it does bring back a time of simpler times and families together because, you know, everybody's so busy now and they're here, there, and yonder, and it was a simpler time and people, they just enjoyed doing simpler things.

You know, sitting around the radio was an exciting thing to do on a Saturday night.

So, we just try to bring back that old-fashioned feel of nostalgia and family.

No exterior accessory could conceivably veil such loveliness.

Walter, would you go steady with the girl in the blue glasses?

Frankly, I wouldn't be caught down with one.

I like to think of this as theater of the mind.

And I didn't coin that phrase by any means.

But to me, radio, when you can close your eyes and you imagine things that you're hearing, it's different than watching.

Listening, you have to be a little more creative in and of yourself.

You're not just watching what's going on and being told by your eyes and your ears what's happening.

You have to listen and then use your mind a little bit to think about it.

Now, we do, like I say, we do some acting and some theatrics here.

But we also, we always like to ask our audience just for a moment throughout the night, a couple times, just close your eyes and listen.

Don't watch, just listen.

Let your mind take over because the sound effects are gonna be there.

You'll hear the footfalls when someone's going down the hallway in their role or what have you.

We reproduce things as much as we can.

We read the scripts like they would have.

We do sound effects like they would have and try to make it as much as we can like they used to do.

New Signal gasoline.

And now, back to the whistling.

[whistling] Yes, jealousy is a strange thing, Pamela.

It's been there deep inside for as long as you can remember.

We have no compensation for any of our members.

We just do it because we enjoy it.

But we wanna give back, and we feel like if people are that good to us, we oughta try to do our best to help others.

And what would a radio program be without its sponsors?

The group is a nonprofit supported by ticket sales and donations from their community.

So, to give back, every year they put on an event to raise money for local children affected by homelessness.

You would be so surprised how many homeless children there are in our county.

People that, I mean, that are on their own, children that are on their own.

And the numbers, when we heard them, we were just astounded at the number of children that needed help.

So, we got a hold of the school and have almost taken them on as like our project almost.

So, I gathered a bunch of people in our community who sing gospel music.

We go to a local church.

We have free admission.

And one night, we put on about a three-hour show.

We passed the plate.

And all that money, all that money goes straight to the kids.

They've raised over $37,000 for the Jessamine County Schools Homeless Education Program and have no plans of stopping.

All of us really love our community.

We really enjoy Jessamine County.

We love the people here.

We love the county.

And we just enjoy meeting and talking to people, meeting new people or talking to old friends.

And so, anything that we can do to help our community, we're very interested and very willing to participate.

[sneezes] [inaudible] If someone were to ask me, how long will we continue?

Until the tickets stop selling.

You know, I won't miss a show.

This is KET, The Kentucky Network.

applause