Witch's Tale
Australian commercial radio
Australian commercial radio · 1930–1960
24 EpisodesTwice weeklyPGSince 1930
The run
- Network
- Australian commercial radio
- Years active
- 1930–1960
- Surviving broadcasts
- 24
- Genre
- horror
A Collection of Aussie Radio Shows No 53 Witches Tale Australian Version The original American series of The Witch’s Tale was significant as the earliest horror program produced for radio. It was first heard in May 1931 out of radio station WOR in New York City and was created by Alonzo Deen Cole, who wrote, produced and also acted in the series. Old Nancy the Salem Witch introduced a different story each week alongside her cat, Satan. The Brisbane Telegraph described the program in 1947 as ‘not the sort of radio program the timid would enjoy listening to when alone in the house after nightfall. This, obviously, is the Witch's aim, and this is the grizzly old lady's achievement.’ The opening Public-domain transfers from the Internet Archive.
Source collection
Internet Archive audio collections
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
7 dated broadcasts across 97 years on the air, with 96 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 2026, in original transmission order.
- 1. Signal at Midnight · 24 Feb 2026
- 2. The Last Train Out · 3 Mar 2026
- 3. Night Broadcast · 10 Mar 2026
A Room Above the Street
4 Aug 2026 · 22 min
The one everybody argues about.
The Long Silence
28 Jul 2026 · 37 min
Short, complete and unexpectedly devastating.
Dead Air
21 Jul 2026 · 52 min
The episode listeners keep sending to people who never listen to podcasts.
Sign Off
14 Jul 2026 · 15 min
A quiet beginning that turns, halfway through, into something else entirely.
The Case of the Missing Hour
7 Jul 2026 · 30 min
The one everybody argues about.
Night Broadcast
30 Jun 2026 · 45 min
Recorded on location, with the room left in.
The Last Train Out
23 Jun 2026 · 1h 0m
New tape, a reluctant witness, and a timeline that finally stops making sense.
Signal at Midnight
16 Jun 2026 · 23 min
We go back to the beginning and read everything again.
Also on Australian commercial radio
Australian commercial radio in 1930–1960
Other series the network carried while Witch's Tale was on the air.
Same seasons
horror on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
Vintage
Beyond Midnight
PG57 EpisodesTwice weekly
Turn the lights out. That was always the instruction.
Vintage
Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde
PG52 EpisodesWeekly
Turn the lights out. That was always the instruction.
What it became
The anthology of dread
A voice, a creaking door, and a self-contained story designed to frighten you in half an hour. Suspense and Lights Out built the grammar every horror anthology still uses.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of Witch's Tale
Modern series carrying this form forward.
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