The Town of Odyssey

So how did you discover Odyssey? Find it on the radio? Referred to it by a friend? Parents made you listen to it? Overheard a sibling?

I was like 10 and my neighbor's told me to borrow an album......been hooked since!

Hmm... I think my parents bought me a tape at the Christian bookstore. I collected maybe 3 individual tapes that I listened to many times. Then my grandmother gave me album 8 as a present (she doesn't even remember that now when I tell her) and I listened to that over and over. At some point we discovered we could listen to AIO regularly on the radio... my mom says that she first heard of AIO when she was driving to college and flipped on her radio. I'm thinking I must've heard that one time because I'm positive I heard "The Quality of Mercy" back then but I don't have that tape. Eventually we located the albums in a catalog and began purchasing them over time and now I have them all!
So I guess the first intro to AIO was through my mom's listening to it on the radio and buying me the tape... but the other factors of the first album and our hearing it every evening on the radio are equally important in getting me hooked so that I became a lifelong fan.

I was introduced to Adventures In Odyssey in 1991, on a local Christian radio station, in Central Illinois. I was not a Christian when I first started listening to AIO, but soon developed a fond appreciation for the program. My love for radio drama is what probably caused me to gravitate toward AIO. I was introduced to Old Tyme Radio back in 1982, when I was only 12 years old. This is also when I was introduced to Doctor James Dobson, via his radio program, Focus On The Family. I have loved AIO ever since!

I was intorduced to Odyssey probably in 1993 or 1994 through the church which we attended. Gotta love church libraries. Anyhow, they had several of the AIO albums (on cassette), and we would borrow them for the week, return them, and get a new one each time. Until there were no more new ones.

my parents listened to it.
my mom still remembers the first fp.

It was through my local Christian radio station. The lady who was the afternoon personality at the time mentioned that AIO was on the AM station and also stated that she listened to it. I decided to check it out and I was hooked and have been listening ever since. I do not remember the exact year.

In the mid 90's I got a tape with The Twilife Zone and What are we going to do about Halloween? on it. My parents also gave me a novel (I belive it was Danger Lies Ahead) and I saw several videos at an older couples house from our church (I consider them to be my grandparents even though we aren't related). About 2000 I also heard part of I Want My BTV on the radio. Hearing Jack Allen and not knowing much of the series gave me the impression that Whit was no longer on the show, and I wasn't planning on having anything to do with it.

Then in June of 2000 my family went on a 5000 mile road/camping trip. The Sunday before we left my 'grandparents' came to church and gave us album 8 to listen to on the road and I fell in love with the series. It was also on this trip that I visited Whit's End (I was 14 at the time).

My family liked it so much we started buying albums, starting with 13 and 19, two classics, and then started at one. In 2002 I first heard album 34 (which my sister got from our new church) and I was dismayed. Again, not knowing much about Odyssey gave me the impression that this was how Odyssey now was, and I stopped listening to the show for several months.

Then for Christmas 2002 I got album 10, and first heard Dr. Blackgaard. I once again fell in love with the series, and did a google search on Dr. Regis Blackgaard a few weeks later, finding aiohq. Within the next year and a half I bought every album, and hunted down every unreleased episode, also finding the TH in this process. And you all know the rest.

Sorry for the long story, but that's how it happened.

-Jonathan

I would listen to it on occasion on the radio when I was a kid, but I never really got into it until last year. I found it on the web and started listening to it again and I managed to get one of my friends hooked on it.

I started in approximately 95/6, when my mom obtained a tape somehow through her magical mom methods. (Still have it, actually... The Vow/Treasure of Le Monde. :D) I listened to that over and over until I found that yes, they did have it on a radio station. My dad set up an insanely complicated method of recording to tapes, which changed to MP3 format in about 99. I discovered AIOHQ, TTH, AIOD... and Oneplace.
So, here I am.

And we're glad you are, Sonuna.

Sonuna Hydris wrote:I started in approximately 95/6, when my mom obtained a tape somehow through her magical mom methods. (Still have it, actually... The Vow/Treasure of Le Monde. ) I listened to that over and over until I found that yes, they did have it on a radio station. My dad set up an insanely complicated method of recording to tapes, which changed to MP3 format in about 99. I discovered AIOHQ, TTH, AIOD... and Oneplace.
So, here I am.

I remember the days when we would record episodes off the radio . . . and also from off Oneplace onto tape cassettes. Not anymore. Gotta keep it all digital.

Aproximately a week after my 14th birthday I was in my room (grounded) spinning the dial on the radio when I came across what sounded like a cool comercial..........aka, the middle part of "Bernard and Esther" part I........I was devastated to hear Chris announce the two ways to find out what happend to Esther "tune in next time or read it in the book of Esther in your Bible"..........I remember thinking "Bible??? This is something Christian???" so I made the choice that I wanted to know what happened to Esther, but I wasn't going to touch a Bible, much less read one........therefore, I'd tune in "one more time" to find out what happened to Esther and I'd never listen again (that was in Jan of '96 BTW).

I tuned in the next day........by the end of "Bernard and Esther" part II I was hooked. I rationalized that a "stupid" Christian radio show wasn't going to influence me, so it'd be safe to keep listening cuz it was kinda cool........If I was going to leave AIO permanetly it wouldda been a few days later when I heard "Real Time" (Keep in mind I was an athiest).......but rather than be offended, I was in awe about how calm "the Christian guy" (I didn't have names down real good) stayed through the whole thing........and I knew I woudlda been freaking out like "the radio guy".

A few months later when school broke for the summer and my days got 20 times bussier with recreational activities, and competitions I dropped AIO.......It was mid-summer when due to circumstances beyond my control I was unable to participate in a skating competition (skating was my life at that time period)..........I flopped down on my bed and turned on the radio (which was STILL tuned to the Christian station) just as AIO was comming on (unintentionally)........it was "The Boy Who Cried Destructo" that night.........in less than 5 mins I was laughing my head off and had forgotten about my "major problem / crisis"...........I've been listening ever since.

Peace Out

-Gimp

Sonuna Hydris wrote:I started in approximately 95/6, when my mom obtained a tape somehow through her magical mom methods. (Still have it, actually... The Vow/Treasure of Le Monde. ) I listened to that over and over until I found that yes, they did have it on a radio station..

I have that tape too! My mom got that tape for me too and it was a long time until we got album 6 after that so we heard that tape a LOT of times.

I don't know how I first found out about it, but I do remember that my parents used to make me get up early on Saturday mornings to listen to it. At the time they were airing eps. about Eugene and Katrina's relationship. I thought they were disgusting. We did, however have the Treasure of Lemonde single, and I frequently listened to that. After DBD aired, I fell in love with the show and got the album for my b-day. I listened to the entire album at least once a day for over a year. Then I got busy and sort of forgot about Odyssey. I still liked it but didn't have time for it. Then one day I was online and happened to stumble across whitsend.org. I think I was looking for another album. I looked up my radio station and started listening again. It was during NovaCom. I've been totally hooked ever since.

I was so surprised to see my local library had AIO in their catalog as I had never heard of anyone listening top it before. A couple of years ago I asked her if they were going to be getting the new album in and she said that they had such a problem with theft of AIO albums that they weren't going to carry them anymore. She said out of everything in the library's history that AIO was the one thing they had ever had that much of a problem with. Was kinda surprising......

jessicado wrote:I was so surprised to see my local library had AIO in their catalog as I had never heard of anyone listening top it before. A couple of years ago I asked her if they were going to be getting the new album in and she said that they had such a problem with theft of AIO albums that they weren't going to carry them anymore. She said out of everything in the library's history that AIO was the one thing they had ever had that much of a problem with. Was kinda surprising......

That's very surprising. I doubt my library would carry AIO... what kind of library are you referring to? Is it a county public library?

Yeah! I was really surprised when I stumbled across it in their catalog...of course, like I mentioned since they are all ripped off, my enthusiasm was short lived. They still have all the movies....but in my opinion--they are not cool. Apparently, no one else though so either and felt they were worth stealing.

I actually checked out of curiosity a year or two ago, but at least one of my county library's as one or two albums. I was also surprised, but it's cool. Someone could rent it and wind up being witnessed to.

-Jonathan

That's what I thought!!! That's why I was kinda happy that they were being stolen...in a wierd way. It meant that they were reaching people....

I have an older sibling and older cousins who listened to AIO. So I just listened with them.

~OrigamiKid