A second track of the outstanding western, Hopalong Cassidy. Do you know why he was called "Hopalong" Cassidy... you will find out in the background intro to the story track. This series was the most popular western on film, radio, and television all at the same time. An amazing backstory... do a search on Ebay for Hopalong Cassidy lunch boxes and other memorabilia and you will see how popular he was to a very large group of Baby Boomers.... and the shows are good too!

Here is a track of one of the most popular westerns on film, radio, and television in the late 1940's and 50's.... William Boyd stars as Hopalong Cassidy. The episode is from January 5, 1952 and is entitled "The Westrels of Juarez." This track includes a 6 minute intro with lots of interesting background on the show and the star, William Boyd... he was an amazing business man and turned a $300,000 investment into 70 million by marketing Hopalong Cassidy.

Bob Chester Orchestra... part of the Armed Forces Radio Service broadcast to our troops overseas during WW II. This show was broadcast live from the Panther Room of the Hotel Sherman in Chicago, IL. on Oct. 8, 1944. Bob Chester recorded several hits on the Bluebird label and was a popular band leader in the era of dance and later swing bands. This show features mostly swing music with some vocals.

This reality police show was the first of its kind as Police Reporter Donn Reed rides along with the Culver City, CA police in their squad car as they are on Nightwatch. There are no actors, no script, no sound effects... Donn Reed recorded all the encounters during the Nightwatch and the audience hears the events as they actually took place. The small tape recorder was hidden in a duffel bag and the microphone was hidden in a flashlight casing. Note: This program was recorded before the Miranda Act... so no one is read their rights. This show was the precursor to the television series "Cops". On this track here two events, one is entitled "Bleeder" and the other "Safe". Aired on November 25, 1954... go on the Nightwatch.

On Oct 12, 2005 while host of Audio Theatre on Portsmouth Community Radio - WSCA-LP (something I did from 2004 to 2016) thanks to Lars Trodson our then News Director, I had the opportunity to do a live phone interview with Norman Corwin from his home in LA. It was the highlight of my radio life to speak with a true pioneer in radio programming, especially during WW II. Google "Norman Corwin" and learn about this incredible talent. He was 95 at the time of the interview and lived until 2001, passing away at the age of 101.

A documentary film on Corwin's life, A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin, won an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Feature) in 2006. Les Guthman's feature documentary on Mr. Corwin's career,

1941 was the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. President Franklin Roosevelt asked Norman Corwin, a man who was renowned for his achievements in the art of radio drama, to create a special radio broadcast to celebrate the anniversary. Corwin wrote the script, assembled an outstanding cast of major stars, and commissioned Bernard Herrmann to create the original symphony orchestra score. Eight day before the scheduled broadcast, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the USA was at war. There were some extensions to the text and the program went on the air on Dec. 15, 1941. It was a live performance from coast to coast. Corwin's portion originated in Hollywood, then FDR from the White House... then from New York, Leopold Stokowsky conducted the NBC Symphony in the National Anthem. Well over 60 million listeners tuned in... the largest audience in history for any dramatic presentation. This recording is fascinating for its historical aspects, but it is also a brilliant display of the principles on which the United States was founded... and now given the politics of our time... more than ever as intensely relevant some 76 years after this broadcast.

From December 5, 1947 comes the comedy show "Can You Top This?... an "unrehearsed carousel of jokes." The three guests do not know what jokes have been chosen by the audience until the host, Peter Donald, tells them on the air. The three "gagsters" have no script and rely on memory and ability to switch jokes and make them fit the subject. This show ran on NBC from the mid 1940's to the mid 1950's.

Tom Conway as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as his confidant and partner in crime investigation... Dr. Watson. This series ran in 1946 for only 39 episodes as American audiences had tired of nearly 20 years of Sherlock Holmes stories, films, and over 200 episodes on radio starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes. He basically tired of being typecast as Holmes and left the series. Tom Conway sounded very much like Rathbone and hence got the job. "Black Angus" from Oct. 19. 1946.

Coming from Detroit's WXYZ... the station that originated The Lone Ranger and Challenge of the Yukon... comes The Green Hornet. Disguised as a publisher during the day, at night Britt Reid becomes the crime fighter Britt Reid and with his faithful companion and valet, Kato, works his way into crime syndicates until they trust him enough to give him all the information and evidence he needs to bring the strong arm of the law upon them! Fighting crime to protect America was what the Green Hornet did... and did it very well for over a decade on radio.

Crime Classics was a very popular mid 1950's historically accurate radio program that told the stories of some of the most famous crimes in the history of the world. This show is about the death of a well-known Civil War General William Scott Ketchum who died at the hands of a high society serial killer, Mrs. Elizabeth Wharton of Baltimore, MD in the summer of 1871. Mrs. Wharton was believed to have murdered about 6 people, several members of her own family and military people who were friends of her husband. Our narrator, Thomas Hyland tells the story of how Mrs. Wharton killed General Ketchum...