About ten years ago I made a solo fifteen-hour drive home from Florida. Most of the trip took place during a summer's night, which was fine by me. On a lonely, two lane, Mississippi highway about halfway through my journey my haul of snacks from the last 24-hour travel plaza ran out so my attention shifted to the radio dial. I scanned through swarms of static until a faint announcer's voice pushed through. His tone was earnest yet friendly and I could instantly tell it wasn't a modern broadcast. I was disappointed to hear that he was finishing up what sounded like an extremely interesting tale. The bumper music that followed was some freaky mix of random beeps and percussion with some horn blasts thrown in. I smacked the steering wheel. Aw Jeez! I was so bummed to have just missed this thing, whatever it was. But after a silence I heard something that perked me up. It was a different voice, a more spooky sounding one, and it proclaimed "Truth is stranger than fiction and this is the proof! This is Ripley's Believe It... or Not!" then I welcomed back the other spokesman who had returned with a fresh, far-out factoid. A couple stories later I realized I was amid a whole collection of one-minute Ripley clips played back to back to back! This went on for another chill-inducing half hour and I sat there grinning in the light of the dashboard, totally enraptured and totally thankful for this mysterious gift from the starry heavens.
Last week I found four hundred and sixteen of these Ripley's audio shows online. Take a listen to a sample. If you like that one then perhaps you too would enjoy populating your itunes with seven hours worth of these intriguing segments. I made up a digital "album cover" (seen above), bundled all the tracks together and uploaded them for your pleasure...
New Upload at Mediafire
416 MP3s, 32 kbps
102 MB Zipped file
The sound quality is pretty low and varies from clip to clip (I've heard skips in a few episodes) Although it's probably not too far from the way they sounded when they originally aired. But I'm more concerned that excessive exposure to the nightmarish introduction will lead to madness. Anyway, this stuff is truly magnificent.
Believe it.
Is there anything cooler than Ripley's? After a decade-long drought, I recently came into ownership of a slew of old Believe It Or Not! paperbacks and hardcovers, and I love them today like I did when I was 10. Those sensational illustrations and fonts still make me feel like I'm in on something super-secret and cool.
ReplyDeleteThese are amazing! Thank you soo much!
ReplyDeletecommunist dp- The answer is no, there is nothing cooler. You are a fortunate man to possess those books. I am less fortunate as those are something that I only wish I possessed. I know that feeling though. The only books in the elementary school library that came close were those old Alfred Hitchcock storybooks. The art on the inside covers was enough to scare me for weeks.
ReplyDeleteanonymous- you're quite welcome. I'm glad you're enjoying them!
Thanks for the downloads! Now it's time to fire up the old ipod and imagine I'm in the 1930's!
ReplyDeleteI bet you've visited and enjoyed the official Ripley's website. They've done a swell job and I've been enjoying their retro radio and oddcasts!
http://www.ripleys.com/retro-radio.php
Ripley's... the one and only!
ReplyDeleteJust came across this collection & looking forward to many hours of "laughs". Big thank-you for your dedication in putting together these custom collections.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome to the max, Anonymous!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you were close to a low-power transmitter for one of their museums, judging by the continuous episodes you heard. Thanks for the goodies!
ReplyDeleteThank you soooo much for putting together this collection. Really neat stuff. And the "cover art" is very fitting. Very much appreciated!!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous- you're soooo welcome. Good to know somebody's still enjoying this (and appreciating the cover!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteThe link is still holding up. :)