Creaking Door, The

Glenn, a long time friend of RUSC, wrote to me once with some history of the Springbok Radio. Here's what he wrote...

I am a South African and I remember The Creaking Door which aired on Springbok Radio beginning in the 50's, as I recall, very well. My brother who is nearly six years older than I am would switch on the radio in the room we shared to listen, and I would be scared out of my wits! Of course, he would listen in the dark while we should have been sleeping. I would immediately jump into his bed and hold tightly on to him! I have 25 episodes, but unfortunately the South African Broadcasting Corporation in those days never archived any of their productions, and soon over-taped them, so only what was recorded by fans remains today.

Springbok Radio continued into the early 80's and aired a lot of local drama. It was only on January 6, 1976 that television came to this country, so our radio drama by that time was very sophisticated. It was very sad for us all to witness the eventual demise of the station; it was so orientated to drama that there was no way it was going to make the transition to the more modern form of radio, as there were already such stations in existence. My father especially never ever made the adjustment to television and remained a radio listener until his death in August 1976.

Fortunately, Springbok Radio survived him, and he continued to enjoy their broadcasts until he died.