A longtime WHAV tradition continues tonight with extended Christmas programming.
It all begins after the 6 p.m. local news with the reading of “The Night the Wolves Came to Christmas,” written by Georgetown author Richard F. Zapf. The story will also be repeated following the 9 a.m. local news Christmas morning.
Holiday music follows until old-time radio favorites begin at 8 p.m. with comedian Fred Allen portraying Santa Claus who is discouraged by commercialism on “Town Hall Tonight” from 1937. The show also features faux rival comedian Jack Benny.
Incidentally, Allen has a Haverhill connection. He became good friends with Haverhill industrialist Louis B. Hamel when both their families met while vacationing summers at the posh Belmont Hotel in East Harwich on Cape Cod. At Hamel’s urging, Allen, Hamel and other prominent business people performed private “radio” shows for guests at the hotel.
Jimmy Stewart returns at 9 as George Bailey in the radio adaptation of the 1948 movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” When Stewart regrets ever being born, his guardian angel grants his wish on Christmas Eve.
Another movie-turned-radio play, “Miracle on 34th Street” airs at 10 with the stars of the classic 20th Century Fox 1947 movie, Maureen O’Hara, John Payne and Edmund Gwenn.
At 11 p.m., Lionel Barrymore plays Ebenezer Scrooge in Orson Welles’s Mercury Theater on the Air’s production of Charles Dickens’ timeless story, “A Christmas Carol.”
There is a special Christmas on the radio message at midnight followed by a repeat of all Christmas Eve programs.