30 or more years ago, our parents and grandparents would gather around the radio to listen to their favorite programs like The Lone Ranger and Johnny Dollar; today, Focus on the Family has brought this classic family time back for the next generation through Adventures in Odyssey.

Odyssey follows the lives of John Avery Whittaker (but you can call him “Whit”), his friends Tom Riley, Bernard Walton, Connie Kendall and Eugene Melsner and the many children running in and out of their lives and Whit’s soda shop, Whit’s End.

Each episode teaches children, young adults and parents alike valuable lessons through the gang’s unique adventures through the Imagination Station-a ride which takes you anywhere you want to go and puts right in the middle of all the action-KYDS, Kids Radio-and the Twi-Life Zone-or through Whit’s many plays and stories or simply through every day life.

As life in Odyssey continues, characters will grow up and move on, others will come and join in on the fun, mysteries will be solved and cases closed, spy agencies will invade and adventures will take the characters across the country and even around the world, all while remembering one thing: no matter what happens and no matter where you are, God is always right there with you.

Created to give families a safe entertainment alternative to secular TV and radio, Adventures in Odyssey is a fun radio drama, filled with action and adventure, romance and humor; it’s innocent enough for a five year old, yet also being aimed at families and adults.

It would amaze you at how children, even a child who finds himself easily bored, will sit and listen to Adventures in Odyssey for hours. While moving to Idaho, my three year-old sister and my two year-old self did nothing but listen to Adventures in Odyssey. My cousin, who cannot remove himself from in front of the TV or Wii, will listen to Odyssey all the way to Georgia. This series is enjoyable, humorous and not the least bit “kiddy-ish”.

So, for long trips in the car or airplane, ditch the DVD player and pick up a couple sets of Adventures in Odyssey and get ready for, well, an adventure.

*Hal Smith played Whit. Before playing Whit, he played drunkard, Otis, on The Andy Griffith Show.