Exploring Tomorrow (1957)
35 videos • 525 views • by Old Time Radio Researchers OTRR-maintained set v2410 for Exploring Tomorrow (1957), all available episodes. Exploring Tomorrow was a science fiction radio series originating from New York on WOR and airing on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Debuting on December 4, 1957, and airing on Wednesdays and Fridays until June 6, 1958, Exploring Tomorrow was hosted by the editor of Astounding Science Fiction, John W. Campbell, Jr., and produced by Sandford Marshall. A typical 25-minute episode opened with a Campbell monologue that introduced the episode, another between acts, and a closing where Campbell waxed philosophical on the story's meaning while the song “As Time Goes By” played in the background. While some original stories were written for the series, most were previously published and often from Astounding—though there was no official connection between the magazine and the radio series. Robert Silverberg, one of the more prolific contributors to the series, indicated that he was paid $100 per script which was not a bad sum, given that at the time his five-room apartment in Manhattan was $156 a month. Other well-known science fiction authors whose stories were heard on the series included Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Gordon R. Dickson, and Randall Garrett. In late May 1958, Mutual announced that effective June 9, they were eliminating their mystery-drama block that had been on the air since 1955. Exploring Tomorrow was one of those casualties, along with most of their original commercial entertainment shows. Of the maximum 54 episodes that were aired, over half of them have survived, though many are in poor condition with the commercials and portions of the opening and closing removed. Image used is from the October 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, a painting by Frank Kelly Freas.