"Hello out there in Radio Land!"
The introduction opens an afternoon with voices from the past - voices that may include Vincent Price, Bing Crosby, Lucille Ball, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. The man issuing the greeting is Radio Hall of Fame broadcaster Chuck Schaden, a man who has been "stepping out of his hall closet with a 'trunkful' of memories" since 1970 to bring old-time radio to all of Chicagoland.
Schaden's four-hour Saturday afternoon program "Those Were the Days," currently running on 90.9 FM, has outlasted many of the other radio shows from the golden age of radio it features.
"Never did I think when we started this, we'd last longer than most of the shows we broadcast," Schaden said in an interview.
He noted that out of the variety of shows he plays, including "The Lone Ranger," "Little Orphan Annie" and "Dragnet," only Don MacNeal's "Breakfast Club" has lasted longer, with a run of 35 years.
"I am proud of the fact that we have been able to be on the air all these years," Schaden said. "In a small way, I've extended the life of those shows, the variety of the programs. And I love doing it."
Schaden said he has always had an interest in radio.
"As a youngster, I grew up listening to radio when it was on the air every day," Schaden said. "That was our primary means of entertainment. Then TV came on the scene, radio changed and I missed it."
Schaden said he began buying, selling and trading tapes of old shows in the 1960s. He soon found people coming over to his home on Saturday nights to listen to his growing collection of programs. He said listening to the radio works far better when done personally than in a group, so he started broadcasting his collection.
"I want the audience to feel like they're listening to the program ... not in front of the radio, but envisioning the studio," Schaden said.
Schaden has a contagious enthusiasm for the shows he broadcasts. His philosophy is to share the programs he loves to give old-time radio the wider audience he believes it deserves.
"I'm so excited to listen to these shows again," he said. "I enjoy planning the material as much as performing it."
Schaden said it makes him proud to hear people say they enjoy not just the programs he broadcasts, but also the nostalgia and insight he offers on the shows.
"Nostalgia is forgetting the bad things and rose-coloring the good things," Schaden said. "And that's where the audience relates. I really love to connect with the audience. If I were in a vacuum and not getting any audience response, [I would not continue to do it]. As long as people care, it's worth it."
Accomplishing this vision of sharing the programs he loves with others has sometimes proved challenging because of the genre's select audience and changing tastes in radio that do not include nostalgia, he said.
Schaden now broadcasts "Those Were the Days" from WDCB 90.9 FM at the College of Dupage in Glen Ellyn. However, he has been relocated from two stations in his career, first Evanston's WLTD 1590 AM and then, after 25 years, from WNIB 97.1 FM and its sister station WNIZ in Zion, Ill. These stations eventually changed to formats that no longer complimented the show's programming.
In selecting material for his broadcasts, Schaden views himself as a representative of the audience. He finds that many audience members share a similar taste in programming with him.
"I love Jack Benny," he said. "I think his material has held up so well over the years."
He also said "Lux Radio Theatre" and "Suspense" are two of his favorite programs. In fact, Schaden said if he were limited to hearing only one program, he would choose the Lux program.
"It's a one-hour program with all the elements of radio - the story, the stars and supporting players," Schaden said, also noting the variety of genres represented in the program, including comedy, drama, westerns and more. "Lux Radio Theatre" was a series sponsored by Lux Soap and ran from the 1930s to the 1950s.
"Fibber McGee and Molly" is another of Schaden's favorites. He recalled with pleasure that he had the opportunity to meet and befriend one of the show's stars, Jim Jordan, before Jordan's death.
"After [Jordan] passed away, his wife donated all of the scripts [to the Museum of Broadcast Communications]," Schaden said.
He said conducting interviews with great radio personalities such as Jordan and Benny has been the icing on the cake of his radio career.
He also said interviews have contributed to sophistication among his listeners by helping them to understand better the people behind the voices they hear over the airwaves.
"When you listen to the radio you get an image of a person," Schaden said. "When I talk about a program in advance, it may be just a few sentences ... but over the years the listeners to the 'Those Were the Days' program have become more sophisticated than a listener in 1947."
Schaden said he hopes to continue doing what he is doing for a long time.
"I'm a neat and orderly kind of a person," Schaden said. "It wouldn't be in my way of thinking to end on anything but a round number of years."
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