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Does anybody here know anything about The Witching Hour? It was supposedly a 1925 horror anthology made by Willis Cooper (of quite please fame). It it was really 1925, that would beat out The Witches Tale by six years (as first horror series on the radio. Has anyone heard it or know anything about it?

Jay Hickerson's excellent book, The (Revised) Ultimate History of Network Radio Programming states the following:

The Witching Hour
Stars: John Dailey & Bess Johnson
Writer: Willis Cooper
Sponsor: Breethem Breath Tablets
On Air: 1/23/32 - 3/5/32
CBS, Sat, 5:30PM, 15 min
Theme: "The Witching Hour"


The Witch's Tale
Stars: Alonzo Deen Cole
On Air: 5/28/31 - 6/13/38.
Various times
WOR and Mutual

So, it appears The Witching Hour was not older than The Witch's Tale.

More info on Jay's book is here:
http://www.oldtime.us/sponsors/hickerson.html

Thanks Lou, I had seen the 1932 date one other place, so I thought the 1925 date might have been off. It seems the later date has more support. I still wish I could find out more information about this series, was there a host, if so, who? How did they open it, and all the rest. There's also another similar series called "THE WITCH OF ENDER" which I haven't heard anything about. Any details apprecaited.

The Witch of Ender was by Carlton E. Morse
Broadcast: 4/11/32 - 6/20/32, on NBC
10:00 PM Mondays (West Coast)

Hickerson does not show any available recordings of either Witch of Ender or Witching Hour.
There are apparently 35 Witch's Tale shows available.

That's a pity. It was Wyllis Cooper's very first horror show... and his second one, Lights Out, also has no recordings of his stories surviving. They all seem to be later episodes by Arch Obler (although some of Coopers scripts may have been recycled). At least we have all nearly all the Quiet Please shows though, and should be plenty thankful for that. For decades, everyone thought there were just 12 that survived. The other surfaced in the last decade or so.