Spoiler : I first heard this program in the late 1960's when it ran on AFN-Europe (the American Forces Network-Europe radio station in Germany). Many years later I met William Conrad and asked about why he wrote and recorded this program as it was my very favorite of all the programs I had ever heard him do on radio. He smiled, kissed my hand and said I had exquisite taste it was also his very favorite of all the programs he had ever done. It was because, he said, that he and William Paley (founder of CBS) had an argument about the use of cliches - Paley didn't want them because they were "trite" but Conrad argued that the cliche was "a truism" that had stood the test of time and had value. He told Paley, "Give me a half hour of air time and I'll prove it. I'll do the most cliche thing imaginable - I'll read poetry...and I'll give you a program you'll never forget." Paley gave him the time, and Conrad came up with "1489 Words." With original music composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith, this program is incredible. "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes has to be the most visually evocative poem I have ever heard - especially when read by Conrad with Goldsmith's music behind it. As a writer I have always loved the way words are used in "Of Time And The River" and, of course, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's love poetry, but my very favorite line of the entire show is the ending entitled "Silence": "The butterfly sleeps on the temple bell."