It’s the early 1940s. The war is raging over in Europe. Brave American soldiers are already on the ground in Great Britain. All of America is listening for news...yes, listening! And in Central Texas, folks listened to VCRP, one of the jewels in the United Broadcasting Company’s crown of quality stations that stretched from the Pacific Coast to Arkansas and Louisiana. VCRP, an early pioneer in local and regional radio, was one of the rare studios across the country that produced radio dramas and other scripted shows and broadcast them out to a regional audience.

The UBC radio network thrived on such local programming. These shows were recorded over the wire from relay stations and rebroadcast later in other markets further away. Consequently, many of the shows coming out of the small, understaffed station in Austin, Texas, had a national following.

The UBC folded suddenly, with little warning, in 1949. The leveraged buyout took most of their radio affiliates with them.. Millions of fans across the country were stunned, but their impassioned letters were returned, unopened. It was as if the network never existed.

Until now.

The Violet Crown Radio Players invite you to come back in time with us to the glory days of the UBC and VCRP radio. Watch us perform radio plays just as they were produced in the 1940s and listen to the drama behind the drama. Welcome to the best old time radio you’ve never heard!