Ed. Note: A Look Back is a brand new column recalling the history of our neighborhood.

If you do remember the golden age of radio, you may recall a time when the room may have been illuminated only by the light of the radio dial and coming from the loudspeaker, the greatest names in comedy, such as Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Edgar Bergen , Jimmy Durante , Abbott and Costello and others.

These names may evoke a rosy glow of nostalgia for you. Or perhaps you are one who is more in the mood for a good mystery with Sherlock Holmes or a great radio spine-tingling thriller with the likes of the ever-popular radio classics Escape and Suspense!

Hear great stories like "The Time Machine" or "The Invisible Man" by H.G. Wells, or "Three Skeleton Key" where three men are trapped in a lighthouse surrounded by thousands of rats who are trying to claw their way in.

If this is too intense for you, try the comedy antics of Eve Arden as Madison High's favorite English teacher in "Our Miss Brooks." For Further hilarity, hear Phil Harris and Alice Faye or The Great Gildersleeve.

These all time favorite radio situation comedies can be enjoyed as much today as they were back when they first aired on network radio.

Also, hear the biggest stars from the golden age of Hollywood: Carey Grant, Jimmy Stewart, James Cagney. All appearing on these classic programs!

Radio was and is tremendous entertainment. Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound (REPS) are sharing the fun as they seek to preserve and protect the best of the past, and to seek the best of radio and audio entertainment today.

The mission of REPS is to collect, preserve and celebrate historic radio content (often referred to as the Golden Age of Radio) and to encourage contemporary audio theater content as well as educate, inform and entertain the public through its libraries, public programs, events, publications and online resources.

REPS, a nonprofit, can trace its origin back to the fall of 1990 when a few radio enthusiasts in the Pacific Northwest got together to share their hobby.

In January 1991, membership was first offered and the club began to grow.

February of that same year was a big turning point for REPS. It was discovered that John Archer, who briefly played the Shadow in 1944 and 1945, was living in town. John agreed to be the special guest at the February meeting.

Flyers, notices and press releases were distributed, and on the day of the meeting, the Queen Anne library was packed.

Everyone had come to see the voice of the invisible Shadow, and new members were signing up left and right and from all walks of life. Overnight, REPS became a fully fledged old-time radio club.

Today, they meet on the first Saturday of the month at the Norse Home on Phinney Avenue. Guests are always welcome, and there are free CDs to take home, with a radio show, usually highlighting the theme of the day.

In the age of the Internet, with thousands of old-time radio shows offered for your listening pleasure right over your computer and old-time radio groups and reference materials also available, some may wonder if REPS is still relevant today?

The answer is most certainly yes!

The next REPS meeting will be at 2 p.m. on Feb. 6 at the Norse Home, and the guest, via telephone conversation, will be Stuart Canin.

It was during an unscripted 15-minute segment of Fred Allen's "Town Hall Tonight" called "The Town Hall Varieties" on Dec. 30, 1936 that a young man named Stuart Canin appeared.

He was a 10-year-old violinist who played Shubert's "The Bee" masterfully. Fred Allen commented, "A little fella in the fifth-grade at school and already he plays better than Jack Benny."

It was enough to inspire Jack to spend much of the first half of the Jan. 10, 1937 show panning Fred Allen.

This started a heated comedic feud that would last, more or less, until Allen's death 20 years later. During that time, Jack and Fred always remained each other's friend and admirer.

Ted Pedersen lives in Ballard. He is the author of "Seattle’s Greenwood-Phinney Neighborhood." He can be contacted at timetrek2009@live.com.