When I am ill in bed for a long time, like I was last month with tonsilitis (yeah, in June, go figure), I read a lot. But sitting up in bed reading for long periods also tends to put my back out. To combat this, and because I enjoy it, I often listen to Old Time Radio (OTR)/Old Valve Radio (OVR). I am sure there are other ways to listen to these shows, but I type in OTR or OVR into the Winamp media player and find several channels that play the old original broadcasts of radio programs complete with the commercials. According to Wikipedia "The first radio news program was broadcast on August 31, 1920 on the station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan; owned by the Detroit News, the station covered local election results. This was followed in 1920 with the first commercial radio station in the United States, KDKA, being established in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The first regular entertainment programs were broadcast in 1922." For comedy, there is everything available from comedy with Groucho Marx's This is Your Life, The Great Gildersleeve, Bob Hope, to Amos & Andy and The Jack Benny Show. For adventure and mystery, the variety is tremendous, including: The Green Hornet, Dragnet, The Six-Shooter, Broadway is My Beat, Johnny Dollar (with the action-packed expense account), Gunsmoke, The Shadow, The Whistler, Sherlock Holmes, Escape!, X Minus One, Boston Blackie, Suspense, Murder at Midnight, The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid and Box 13. You can recognise quite a few voices of famous actors and actresses from before, or simultaneously with, their tv roles. Kind of opposite now, where big screen stars are now getting the big bucks voicing over cartoons. Companies, especially oil, soap and tobacco manufacturers were prominent sponsors of these shows; for example Fatima and Camel Cigarettes, Petri Wine and Lux soap. I suppose what I like best is the way listening to these shows sparks the imagination, how the film plays behind the eyes. I am very happy that Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion on National Public Radio is still going strong today and keeping such entertainment and imagination alive and well.