Radio Players Present ‘Ghastly Ghost Stories’

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The Good Humor Radio Hour will return with a chilling Halloween themed show.

“Haunted Youngstown – Ghastly Ghost Stories,” a series of four short radio plays, will be performed at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 29 and 30 at the Butler Institute of American Art North building, 524 Wick Ave. Admission is free but tickets must be secured in advance by calling the Youngstown State University Theatre box office at 330 941 3105.

Based at YSU’s communications department, The Good Humor Radio Hour is a live performance that features actors on old-time radio microphones, performing dramatic audio stories that utilize sound effects and music.

Directed by YSU adjunct faculty member Randall Brammer, “Haunted Youngstown” features a cast of area stage and technical talent, as well as YSU students as voice actors, Foley (sound effect) artists, sound engineers and musicians. They include Kira Walker, Zander Markman, Brenda Zyvith, Katie Gennaro, David Robich, David Leach, Michael Hill, Bill Ploskodniak, Tom Patton, Douglas Campbell, Jay Lilley, Gary Rhamy, Aaron Graneto (music) Michael Houy (sound effects), Meredith Pallo (sound effects) and Alex Marker. 

During the 1930s and 1940s, in the days before television, American radio networks perfected the radio drama through a variety of half-hour productions such as “Inner Sanctum,” “Fibber McGee and Molly,” “The Shadow” and “The Lone Ranger.”

Here is a look at the four stories that comprise “Haunted Youngstown:”

“Ghost Hunt”

A woman is trying to flip a house but no one wants to buy it because it is rumored to be haunted. As a marketing ploy, her real estate agent enlists a radio DJ and a parapsychologist to spend the night in the house to see if it really is haunted and broadcast their experience for the listeners. The results are terrifying when the owner and her agent come back the next morning to check on the men and see things have gone terribly wrong.

“The Ghost Who Came To Dinner”

A woman has been invited to a dinner party at a house on the outskirts of Youngstown, and has hired a driver to take her there. They become detective partners of sorts when they end up stumbling upon a murder in the spooky looking house. The question is, was the murderer a human or a ghost?

“The Dark”

A doctor and paramedic are called to a house to help someone who has been hurt. It is seemingly another routine night but once they get inside, they discover horrors no one imagined and must find a way to get out alive.

“Halloween Sound Story”

The sound effects crew and orchestra present an auditory ride through a haunted house. The audience will hear sound effects from the characters and creatures that inhabit the house. 

Pictured: Foley artist Meredith Pallo, left, and voice actor Tom Patton are two of the performers in The Good Humor Radio Hour’s “Haunted Youngstown – Ghastly Ghost Stories.”

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.