Medical File

On May 1st, 1950, Springbok Radio became South Africa's first radio station, issuing shows in both English and Afrikaans. It would stay in operation until New Year's Eve, 1985. In 1969, the station introduced one of its more unique programs, Medical File. As its introduction boasted, each story was, "a true story, taken from an actual, medical file." Each episode contained two such stories from doctors who left their practices to serve in the war.

Medical File ran from 1969 to 1973 and then again from 1975 to 1979. With titles ranging from, "Beauty in Distress", "Snake in Grass" and "Operations were Successful, Patients Died", the show did a tremendous job of blending hospital-based drama with legitimate suspense. Pioneers of South African Radio, Kenneth Hendel and David Gooden wrote and produced many episodes, respectively. Stories cross the spectrum. The Amazing Mr. Dover, for example, tells the story of a doctor who traded in his traditional life on land for the life of a buccaneer (one of the main characters, Alexander Selkirk, later the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe). An Affair of the Heart, on the other hand, simply documents the ailments of a young man brought on by his upcoming nuptials.

In 1976, television came to South Africa. Commercials weren't far behind, appearing in 1978. Without commercial revenue coming in, Springbok Radio was forced to close on December 31, 1985. Though Medical File would go with it, dozens of its episodes still survive to this day.

See also: The Doctor Fights, Medicine USA, Doctor John Brinkley (Medical Quack), Quack Doctors in Old Time Radio, Vaccines and Plagues, and Cancer and Tumors.