Suspense: Tales Well Calculated - Volume 5

By: CBS Radio Network

Narrated by: full cast

Suspense went through several major phases, characterized by different hosts, sponsors, and director/producers. Formula plot devices were followed for all but a handful of episodes: The protagonist was usually a normal person suddenly dropped into a threatening or bizarre situation; solutions were "withheld until the last possible second"; and evildoers were usually punished in the end.

This is the most comprehensive collection of the great series. This show really keeps the listener in suspense! Enjoy!

©2015 BN Publishing (P)2015 BN Publishing

The best

I loved the Suspense radio show I listen almost every day, it’s still fresh and scary, the best out there!

Quality Varies From Episode To Episode

I LOVE the CBS Radio series SUSPENSE. The stories are intriguing and usually have an unexpected twist at the end.

I started out with the other SUSPENSE volumes the ones with the stars featured prominently in the ad, entered usually around a theme like “sins,” and lasting between 6-9 hours. Those were fine.

I chose this one SUSPENSE VOL 5 because I was hoping these would be from the later broadcasts with better quality. I listened to a sample of the earlier VOLUMES and it wasn’t very good. I also wanted to hear more from this program so the sample I heard for Vol 5 sounded okay, but alas it wasn’t carried throughout.

On VOLUME 5 the audio quality on some episodes are TERRIBLE! The sound is either so muffled you can’t understand what is being said or it sounds like you’ve landed right in between two radio stations so you’re hearing two different things. It’s frustrating!

There are many that are of fine audio quality but the other ones will work nerves. And quality isn’t determined by air dates either because I heard one from the 40s that sounded fine, while one from the 60s (you can tell by the slang like “groovy” and “dig it”) were muffled and hard to hear.

I’ll probably ask for a refund for this one and I’ll stay away from the earlier volumes.

It’s really a shame because if this is the one you start listening to you’ll think that the other volumes of SUSPENSE are the same way and you’d be missing these brilliant radio plays.

My advice is to get the ones with the stars featured on the ad since they’ve either been restored properly, we’re given the care required for storage and maintenance to not degrade, or were kept pristine because of an actor/actress gaining fame on TV/Film after doing these plays.