This week, we return after a couple of weeks away, and we can't wait to tune around the old radio a bit, listening to those old serials of 1932. This week's episodes: Si and Elmer, episode 52; Tarzan of the Apes, episode 4, from September 19, 1932; Family Doctor, episode 34, in which the doctor buys a new suit; and World Adventurers' Club, this time taking us to India, and with a particularly condescending story.

So, suspend your 21st century expectations for a while, relax with a cup of tea, and enjoy this week's Radio Journeys.

Radio Journeys is the only OTR show that presents original serials and network shows in their original order and in their entirety, piecing together surviving recordings. This week, those bumbling, yet vaguely competent sleuths Si and Elmer return, in episode 51. Then Tarzan once again, as heard on September 15, 1932. The Family Doctor gets roped into some politics, and the World Adventurers' Club gives us the weird tale of the "Black Hand." Plus, we take a look at the newspaper radio schedules of September 15, 1932, to learn a bit more about how these shows were scheduled.

Radio Journeys is the only OTR show that presents original radio serials in their original order and in their entirety, and in as authentic a manner as possible. This week, two more episodes of Chandu and Tarzan , both originally broadcast on Wednesday, September 14, 1932. Plus, everyone's favorite Family Doctor learns the hard way about the value of housework, and the World Adventurers' Club--one of the quirkiest serials of all--takes us into "The Land of Darkness."

This week, we continue the Tarzan/Chandu double feature, with episodes of  these two serials both originally broadcast on September 13, 1932. But first, we take a look at the marketing ingenuity of Edgar Rice Burroughs, who may have invented the concept of the "tie-in," and in grandiose style, too.

Plus: The good Family Doctor goes shopping and makes a mess of it; and the ever stranger World Adventurers' Club takes us to a village where the women kill all the men.

This week on Radio Journeys, we start cycling through the earliest radio serial with a name that remains iconic today: Tarzan of the Apes. We begin by taking a brief look at how the serial started--with more insight on the way in the coming weeks--and the very first episode of the serial, about the birth of Tarzan. Plus, Chandu The Magician returns, after a hiatus of several months. Tarzan and Chandu together make the first time that we have a long line of serials with the same date of original broadcast; both of this week's episodes were originally broadcast on September 12, 1932, and this block of programming will continue for several months.

Then, it's time for another delightful visit with the Family Doctor, and the sixth installment of the alluring World Adventurers' Club.

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This week on an extended edition of Radio Journeys, we mark National Women's History Month with a special look at the Boswell Sisters... the innovators of "close harmony" female singing groups, with a sound that sparked a musical genre, and that influences female vocal groups even today. They were sensations on record and on the radio in the 1930s, and we'll hear two rare recordings of syndicated radio shows from April 1930--important historically not only because they are the earliest known recordings of the Boswells on the radio, but because they are some of the earliest known recordings of music produced for the radio. Then, we'll sample some of the Boswell Sisters' other radio appearances, through 1936.

Then, it's time for another episode of Ed Wynn in the Texaco Fire Chief, this one from August 30, 1932.

It's an eventful hour-plus, rare and historic, this week on Radio Journeys.

Here's the missing episode: Radio Journeys 76. Production was started, but not completed, until now! But all things work out for the best, and this week, a mistake becomes a special podcast... a double-feature, this week on Radio Journeys, with episodes 76 and 77 posted in the same week. Enjoy not one, but two hours of radio serials from 1932.

Radio Journeys is the only OTR show that presents original serials from the early '30s in their entirety and in original order. Journey with us to 1932, as we hear the latest episodes of the Redbook Dramas (from August 25 of that year), the Family Doctor (episode 29), Si and Elmer (episode 50), and the World Adventurers' Club (episode 5). A radio time capsule, every podcast, on Radio Journeys.

Yes, more of the serials of 1932, this week on Radio Journeys, the only OTR show anywhere that presents all known series in their original order and as completely as possible. This week's episodes: Redbook Magazine Dramas from August 11, 1932; The Family Doctor, episode 27; Si and Elmer, episode 28; and The World Adventurers' Club, episode 3, the Pancho Villa Adventure.

This week, we hear the second surviving episode of Ed Wynn's Texaco Fire Chief, as heard on August 9, 1932. But first... the strange tale of "Amalgamated," the radio network that very nearly "was." And, of course, the next installments of Family Doctor and Si & Elmer.

This week, the serials of '32 are back, with another episode of the Redbook Dramas, Family Doctor, Si and Elmer, and the World Adventurers' Club (program ad pictured at right). But first, one last look at early radio history, with a little more consideration of the first broadcasters--what were the "other" firsts in early radio?

It's been one of the most hotly contested titles in broadcasting: "The First Radio Station." At least four stations in North America have tried to claim it. The most famous of these, and perhaps the most widely accepted, is KDKA Pittsburgh, whose broadcast of election returns on November 2, 1920, has long been thought of as the inauguration of broadcasting. But history is more complex than that. There is WWJ in Detroit, whose amateur predecessor (The Detroit News' 8MK) had a daily schedule three months before KDKA. There is CFCF in Montreal, which received a government broadcasting license in May 1920. And then there is KCBS San Francisco, which traces its lineage to KQW and the early broadcasts of Charles Herrold, as early as 1909.

This week, in the third and final special on the origins of radio and broadcasting, we hear from two of these stations--KDKA and KQW--each asserting that it was the first. We hear KDKA's argument through an episode of "Adventures in Research," originally broadcast on December 30, 1944; and from KQW through a special local program presented on November 10, 1945, marking, ironically, the 25th anniversary of KDKA's purported "first."

It's a case of dueling radio stations, a tustle on the vintage airwaves, this week on Radio Journeys.

This week, Radio Journeys continues its special look at the origins of radio and broadcasting. In a unique, extended episode, we hear one of the most historic of all radio recordings: The earliest known recording of a complete radio program, a broadcast from 1924. This broadcast was also pioneering in many ways, most importantly as the first trans-continental network broadcast, with a chain of stations from Boston to San Francisco linked by AT&T telephone cable. It is significant as a document of general American history, as well. To find out why, have a listen. Radio of the most historic caliber, for New Year's, on Radio Journeys.

This Christmas Eve, 2006, is the 100th Anniversary of broadcasting... the 100th anniversary of the very first transmission of voice and music. This week, in a special, unusual presentation, we commemorate the man who invented radio as we know it today, Reginald Fessenden. In an exclusive interview, we talk with Dr. John Belrose, one of the foremost experts on Fessenden, and we hear Belrose's technical simulations of Fessenden's first voice transmissions. We ask the question, "Who was really the 'Father of Radio,' Marconi, as is commonly assumed, or Fessenden, who was for many years forgotten, but is now being reassessed?"

Then, we continue peeking into the very origins of radio, listening to the oldest known recording of a radio transmission... a bit of spark-gap radio from 1910.

It's a once-in-a lifetime Christmas this year... a chance for radio enthusiasts to reflect on the origins, and we do it here, exclusively on Radio Journeys.

This week, we inaugurate a new serial. Listen to find out which one we've chosen! Plus three serials continue: Redbook Dramas, with an episode dated July 28, 1932; Family Doctor, episode 24; and the return of Si and Elmer with a "new" adventure.

This week, the second episode of the Ziegfeld Follies from 1932, as we continue our special look at this seminal radio program. We feature the origins of "Baby Snooks," who first appeared on the radio through the Ziegfeld Follies. Plus, the last installment of Kay Kyser's orchestra, and another episode of the Family Doctor.

Radio Journeys returns after a two-week break for a much-needed studio upgrade. And this week, we pay tribute to Florenz Ziegfeld, the master promoter who only tasted radio fame in the last few months of his life. In the first of two podcasts focusing on Ziegfeld, we take a long look at his career, and the enormous legacy he left to American entertainment in general, and to radio in particular. Then, after installments of Kay Kyser and the Family Doctor, we hear the very first episode of Ziegfeld Follies of the Air, which sadly had only a very brief run in 1932.