January 20 TWTD honors George Burns on his Centennial birthday. As the beloved comedian reaches the
George Burns Centennial TWTD Radio Players
100-year-old mark, the program presents a special “Burns and Allen” script written by Ken Alexander and starring members of the Those Were The Days Radio Players.
March 2 Linda’s Silver Needle, needlework supplies, becomes a long-running sponsor of TWTD.
April 20 Don Roth’s Restaurant in Wheeling becomes a long-running sponsor and supporter of TWTD.
April 27 TWTD Twenty-sixth Anniversary program offers a repeat of the first show from May 2, 1970 and begins a 30-part audio course, “Please Stand By,” a history of radio’s development and programming. Instructors are Les Tremayne and Jack Brown and the series is offered in “semesters” through May, 1997.
September 7 After offering mostly consecutive episodes of One Man’s Family through the summer months for several years, TWTD concludes the run with an imagined “Finale.” Carlton E. Morse, the original creator and writer of the series, hadn’t written a conclusion to the long-running series because the program was cancelled without notice. Ken Alexander stepped in and provided a script called “Mother Barbour’s Wish” and members of the Those Were The Days Radio Players are cast as members of the Barbour Family to wrap it all up, in a way that, perhaps, even Mr. Morse would have approved.
October 19 TWTD presents a Salute to the Chicago Theatre on the 75th Anniversary of the famous Windy City showplace on State Street.
December 30 Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Feder, looking back at the “class acts” of the year 1996, writes,
There’s still no better way to spend a Saturday afternoon at home with your family than listening to Chuck Schaden’s “Those Were the Days” on WNIB-FM. The guru of old-time radio continues to keep the medium’s golden age alive with the same enthusiasm and expertise he has been sharing with listeners for more than 25 years.”
