The Fourth Tower of Inverness

Way back in the Spring of 1975 I was a wide-eyed lad of nineteen living in my first apartment in beautiful downtown Batavia, NY. I used to listen to the college radio station from the State University of New York at Geneseo, and every day for several weeks they played an episode of a wacky radio serial called ‘The Fourth Tower of Inverness‘.

The ‘Fourth Tower’ was a six-hour audio adventure created in 1972 by some people at ZBS Media, which you will see by following the link, is still going strong almost forty years later and producing tons of groovy, entertaining and enlightening audio content. But back to 1975: The Fourth Tower of Inverness was a delightfully 70’s New Age adventure that I have incredibly fond memories of to this day. It was broadcast in seven minute installments, and I loved tuning in each day.

In 1975 I was in the thick of my own quest for knowledge and spiritual awakening, so this show was right up my alley. And I really enjoyed the old-fashioned radio serial feel of it. I was enchanted by the idea of a purely audio drama, and the cast and crew of ‘The Fourth Tower’ were wonderfully creative. A year earlier when I was still in high school I used to listen to ‘CBS Radio Mystery Theater‘ hosted by E G Marshall. So I was no stranger to the enchantment of sitting in a comfy chair at night (preferably by candlelight) letting the voices and sound effects create fantastical adventures in my mind. To this day I still want to create my own audio play, something I bet our kids would have a lot of fun with!

So, a few years ago I discovered the ZBS website and bought ‘The Fourth Tower of Inverness’ on CD. I have never had the chance to listen to the entire serial since then, so two days ago I brought out the CDs and started listening from the beginning with the kids. And by golly, Arthur is really digging ‘The Fourth Tower’! The kids have enjoyed listening to some audio books from the library, so I thought this would be neat. Even Fiona likes it, though I doubt she understands half of the metaphysical stuff. But it’s also a funny story with some very wacky characters. We’re having a blast!

I remember NPR broadcast the second of the Jack Flanders adventures, called ‘Moon Over Morocco’, in the early eighties, which I also loved. And a few years later they broadcast ‘The Adventures of Ruby; Galactic Gumshoe’ also by ZBS. So check out the ZBS website above for lots more wild and interesting adventures, as well as other divers audio content.

The Fourth Tower of Inverness MP3

The Fourth Tower at Amazon.com

Roger Gregg of Ireland’s Crazy Dog Audio Theatre talks to Tom Lopez of ZBS

CBS Radio Mystery Theater to Download