Kids' Radio

Brad Dillard has a big idea: Odyssey needs a radio station just for kids, and the dusty old broadcasting equipment upstairs at Whit's End is exactly the place to start. The other kids cheer, a name is picked - Kids Radio - and Whit even gets the mayor to grant a license. But when the work begins, the helpers vanish, leaving Brad and Sherman, the boy everyone laughed at, to fix ancient machines and run the whole show themselves. The first broadcast is a glorious mess of dropped records, a bicycle-crash traffic report, and weather calling for highs in the lows of the uppers... and five hours in, nobody has come to relieve an exhausted Brad. Whit goes on the air to announce the station may go silent, inviting anyone truly committed to show up the next day - and nobody does. Then a stranger walks in: the program director of Odyssey Radio, who has been listening all week and wants Brad and Sherman on his station every Saturday morning. Kids Radio signs off for now, but Whit promises it will be back.

Found on The Wildest Summer Ever Album 02 · 12 episodes

The run See every episode

0030 Honor Thy Parents When a sixth-grader's carefully planned graduation party threatens to expose the parents she's ashamed of, she learns how little she really knows about them.

1 of 2 0031 Family Vacation A family road trip to Florida tests the Barclays' patience with backseat battles, breakdowns, and a mysterious gift that can only be opened at peak boredom.

2 of 2 0032 Family Vacation When their car breaks down in a tiny town far from home, the Barclays discover that a ruined vacation might turn out to be the best part of the trip.

0033 The Day Independence Came A history-loving boy's quest to retrieve a book about Benjamin Franklin lands him in the middle of America's fight for independence.

0034 Stormy Weather A restless Connie, convinced she has no real friends in Odyssey, plans an escape to California - just as a violent storm bears down on Whit's End.

0035 V.B.S. Blues A young Sunday school teacher's big theatrical debut is in jeopardy when the three lead roles in his Bible sketch fall to the last kids anyone would trust on a stage.

0036 Kids' Radio When every station on the dial disappoints him, a kid with radio in his blood convinces Whit to help launch Odyssey's first station run by kids, for kids.

1 of 2 0037 Camp What-A-Nut A small-for-his-age boy hoping to escape his tormentor's nickname arrives at summer camp only to find the bully in his own cabin - and the wilderness holds bigger dangers than either of them.

2 of 2 0038 Camp What-A-Nut While Mr. Whittaker helps young Donny cope with being the smallest kid at Camp What-A-Nut, a walk in the woods turns into a wilderness ordeal - and back at camp, a skunk, a mysterious carved heart, and a boy bent on revenge stir up trouble of their own.

1 of 2 0039 The Case of the Secret Room A dropped transistor at Whit's End reveals a hidden basement door - and behind it, a forty-year-old mystery someone would rather stay buried.

2 of 2 0040 The Case of the Secret Room When a skeleton and a decades-old bank robbery surface behind his basement wall, Whit refuses to let a forty-year-old case stay closed - even as someone tries to scare him off the trail.

0041 Return to the Bible Room A quick detour into the Bible Room at Whit's End sweeps two children off their feet and into the storm-tossed story of a prophet who thought he could outrun God.

0042 The Last Great Adventure of the Summer When a mysterious stranger corners a boy and his boring shoe-salesman father outside Whit's End, a dull summer's final weekend erupts into a chase that reveals his dad is not who he claimed to be.

Featured characters

John Whittaker Hal Smith

Minor characters & crew 7 more roles

7 supporting roles

Boy Actor Unknown Brad Dillard Donald Long Sherman (b) Joseph Cammarato Benjamin (a) Steve Wunch Leonard (a) Chad Reisser Ralph Adams Jim Custer Mr. Dillard Chuck Bolte

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Paul McCusker Writer · Director Phil Lollar Director Bob Luttrell Sound Designer · Producer Steve Harris Producer Chuck Bolte Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 2 min

Brad Dillard loves radio. His grandfather produced programs back in New York and gave him recordings of the old shows, and his father owns a station over in Connellsville. The trouble is that when Brad spins the dial at Whit's End, he cannot find a single thing worth hearing. Everything is too old, too silly, or too loud. What Odyssey needs, he tells John Avery Whittaker, is a radio station made just for kids. Whit points out that such a thing is easier said than done, then leads Brad to a back room stacked with dusty equipment. A small station once broadcast from an upstairs room of the building, the only one in town from the late thirties until television arrived, and its tower still stands out near Gowers Field.

Brad calls a meeting and the other kids cheer. He plans auditions for disc jockeys and asks everyone to bring in records, though Leonard wants to know who put him in charge. When Brad asks whether anybody understands electronics, the only volunteer is Sherman, and the room laughs at him. Whit steps in to say that Sherman has helped with his own inventions and knows a great deal, so Sherman gets the job. Somebody shouts out a name for the station - Kids Radio - and it sticks.

Two weeks later Brad has finished the auditions, but Sherman is still wrestling with the ancient equipment almost by himself, since the helpers who promised to show up keep drifting home. Working beside him at last, Brad admits he had written Sherman off as a geek and apologizes, both for that and for flattening him in gym class. Then Whit arrives with good news: the mayor has approved the station and arranged a temporary license, so long as they broadcast only between sunrise and sunset with Whit as sponsor. Saturday morning, Big Brad goes on the air.

The first day is a comedy of dropped records, wobbly turntables, a traffic report about a bicycle crash, and weather that predicts highs in the lows of the uppers. Brad also refuses, on principle, to play a nasty song that was requested. Five hours in, nobody has come to relieve him, and the only fill-in he can find treats the town to a saxophone solo.

That night Mr. Dillard comes to Whit's End. He loves Kids Radio, but he cannot watch his son run it single-handed and wear himself out. Whit finds Brad asleep at the microphone, then goes on the air himself to announce that this may be the last broadcast. He praises Brad and Sherman for doing the work wholeheartedly when no one else would, and invites anyone willing to truly commit to come the next afternoon at three.

Nobody comes. Brad is sure they have failed. Then a stranger walks in: Ralph Adams, program director of Odyssey Radio, who has been listening all week and wants the two of them on his own station every Saturday morning, doing exactly what they have been doing, traffic and news and Bible verses and all. Kids Radio goes quiet for now, but Whit promises that when the time is right, it will come back.