I usually examine old-time radio programs from the 1940s and 1950s. By the 1940s, music cues and sound effects had been well-established. As well, more than a decade of experimenting through the 1930s had improve the quality of radio writing, acting and producing. 1930s radio programs have a certain modest charm to them because they're much simpler than the type of programs which succeeded them.
Take for instance the Air Mail Mystery. This was a syndicated serial that ran for only 13 chapters 1932. There was also a motion picture of that name the same year but they're not connected. The premise of the program - someone wrecking and robbing air mail planes - was a popular one in 1930s popular culture. I don't know how common it was in real-life (I'll guess not very common) but the concept of stealing from an airplane creates opportunities for drama and mystery that can't be exploited in tales of truck or train robberies - it's fertile ground for imaginative authors. Heck, it led to probably the best Mickey Mouse story of all time, "the Mail Pilot" (in Floyd Gottfredson's comic strip)!
The solution to the Air Mail Mystery might disappoint you because the culprit is... too obvious. Along the way the play is very melodramatic - lots of bits where characters repeat information to each other. Whenever a person is about to deliver a vital clue you can safely assume an unseen figure will try to kill them. Yet for all that, by the standards of 1932 dramatic radio it's pretty good. There are attempts at creating unusual sound effects in the play, such as the distorted voices that come through the air pilots' radios. And I heard a number of familiar voices in the play although I can't be certain about all of them; one sounds a lot like Frank Nelson and another might be Nicholas Joy.
The best playlist I've found for this series is this one at YouTube.
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