Using the concept of collision time (time delay) introduced by Eisenbud and Wigner and its connection to on-shell intermediate unstable states, we study mesonic resonances in ππ and πK scattering. The time-delay method proves its usefulness by revealing the spectrum of the well-known ρ - and K^∗- mesons and by supporting some speculations on ρ-mesons in the 1200 MeV region. We use this method further to shed some light on more speculative meson resonances, among others the enigmatic scalars. We confirm the existence of chiralons below 1 GeV in the unflavoured and strange meson sector.