FROM THE AIRWAVES
Dead Father Consults on Grapefruit-Sized Aneurysm in Vintage Radio Drama
A 1978 episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater, rebroadcast by Weird Darkness, places a ghostly physician beside the fire in 1957.
THE AIRWAVES — A young surgeon of 1957 discovers an aneurysm the size of a grapefruit on the chest X-rays of the man his sister is about to marry, according to the description of a radio drama newly offered to listeners by the podcast Weird Darkness.
That same night, the program's synopsis states, the surgeon's dead father sits down across the fire from him to talk the case through. The synopsis does not say what advice the departed gentleman offers, nor whether the operation of the title proves possible.
The drama, titled "The Exploding Heart," was first broadcast on CBS Radio Mystery Theater on December 8, 1978, and appears as the lead item in a #RetroRadio compilation running a little over five hours, according to the listing. The program notes that certain episodes have been remastered or cleaned up by Weird Darkness for easier listening.
Other offerings on the bill include "Death By Proxy" from ABC Mystery Time in 1956, "Pit And The Pendulum" from Appointment With Fear in 1943, and Arch Oboler's "Mr. Payle" from 1945, the latter marked as low quality. A BBC Radio 4 ghost story, "Laura," from 1987 is also listed, along with several crime and detective broadcasts.
The collection is available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio and other podcast applications, according to the post. It is, by its own account, a work of dramatic fiction, though the father's opinion on the aneurysm remains unrecorded here.