"The Big Broadcast" Live Sunday 4/11 7-11pm est

"The Big Broadcast is a Sunday night tradition for families throughout the WAMU listening area. Each week, Big Broadcast host Ed Walker offers listeners priceless recordings of popular radio programs from the '30s, '40s and '50s. Priceless, especially, for a man whose first sentence as a child was, 'Turn the radio on.' "

Happy Sunday Night. Classic Radio Time.

Early Ping as I'm traveling.

07:00 p.m. Johnny Dollar
11/11/56 #513 The Big Scoop Matter (Sus.) (CBS) (24:48)
07:30 p.m. Dragnet
08/31/54 #263 Big Office (NBC) (24:56)
08:00 p.m. Gunsmoke
08/07/60 #435 Old Fool (CBS) (23:56)
08:30 p.m. Fibber McGee & Molly
04/14/42 Spring Festival Parade (Johnson's Wax) (NBC) (29:48)
09:00 p.m. Father Knows Best
02/04/54 Telephone Mix-up (Sus.)(NBC) (29:30)
09:30 p.m. Tales of the Texas Rangers
11/04/51 #51 Helping Hand (Sus.) (NBC) (29:54)
10:00 p.m. Casebook of Gregory Hood
06/24/46 #4 The Beeswax Candle (Petri Wines) (MBS) (29:24)
10:30 p.m. Whistler
09/10/45 #173 Phone Call From Death (Signal Oil) (CBS) (29:55)

The Whistler is on at 10:30pm. I’m excited.

April 11, 2010 (WARNING: Contains Spoilers)

07:00 p.m. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
11/11/56 #513 "The Big Scoop Matter" (Sus.) (CBS) (24:48) Bob Bailey, Virginia Gregg (Joan Wesley), Russell Thorson, Barney Phillips (Detective Lt. Restelli), Stacy Harris (Cooper), Larry Thor, Parley Baer (clerk), Les Tremayne ; Writer - Robert Ryf ; Producer/Director - Jack Johnstone ; Musical Supervisor - Amerigo Marino ; Announcer - Dan Cubberly ; Expense Account Total = $187.40 ; Joe McNabb, Northeastern Indemnity, calls Johnny. New York City reporter Art Wesley, insured for $100,000 by his newspaper, has had several attempts made on his life since he has been investigating a hot story about a national gambling syndicate. The beneficiary is his separated wife. Johnny is sent to check on his safety. He meets with Art at "Tony's Bar", then he talks with Joan Wesley, and then Detective Lieutenant Restelli. Later Johnny gets a call from Art who says he is going out of town. Dollar finds out that Art went to his Lake Watika lodge. Dollar heads there in a heavy rain storm. He finds Art dead in his doorway. Local Sheriff Thompkins says that it appears Wesley was shot dead between 10:30 and 11:00 PM. Dollar arrived about 11:45, about 30 minutes after the rain stopped. Johnny checks out the guests at the Lake Watika Inn, six miles from Wesley's lodge. Two guests have recently checked in - Mr. Cooper and Mr. Buckley. Johnny talks to Cooper. Back in New York Dollar learns that Joan just had her car washed because it was muddy. Restelli says that someone named Cooper is involved in the gambling syndicate. Dollar says that Art had told him that he had the name of the killer in a safe deposit box. Johnny goes back to the Lake Watika Inn and talks again to Cooper. Restelli calls and says that had located the safe deposit box, and the name inside is Cooper. Johnny accuses Cooper of killing Wesley, but the clerk says that that is impossible because he brought a drink to Cooper's cottage at 10:40 and chatted with him for at least 15 minutes. Sheriff Thompkins tracks down Buckley, and he is sure that he is just a traveling salesman. Johnny goes back to Wesley's lodge. He sees the sugar bowl. Back at Cooper's cottage he finds a bullet hole in the bedroom wall. Johnny confronts Cooper. He says that he killed Wesley at his cottage. The corpse was in the bedroom while he chatted with the clerk. At the Wesley lodge he fired a second bullet to make it look like the murder was committed there. It was directly over the sugar bowl, and no rain had gotten to the sugar. Johnny bluffs the gambler that he has a gun on him under the table. CBS Radio Network, promo for Better Schools, 9 E. 40th Street, NY, 16, NY, and CBS Radio News promo CBS News
07:30 p.m. Dragnet
8/31/54 "The Big Office" (NBC) (24:56) "The Big Office" ; Program# 263 ; Jack Webb (Joe Friday), Ben Alexander (Frank Smith) ; Writer - John Robinson ; Announcer - George Fenneman ; Friday and Smith spend the night working in the police business office. Interesting panorama of the many kinds of crimes (170 in 24 hours) handled by the cops.
08:00 p.m. Gunsmoke
08/07/60 "Old Fool" (CBS) (23:56) Program #435 William Conrad (Matt Dillon), Parley Baer (Chester Proudfoot), Howard McNear (Doc Adams), Georgia Ellis (Kitty Russell), Virginia Gregg, Joseph Kearns (Hannibal Bass), Sam Edwards (Dunc Hedgepeth), Peggy Webber ; Director/Adaptation - Norman Macdonnell ; Writer - John Meston ; Music Composed and Conducted - Rex Koury ; Announcer - Roy Rowan ; Hannibal and Della Bass have been married for 45 years. The old couple have a lovely farm that they built up from nothing. When young Dunc Hedgepeth a nester from 20 miles north tries to steal a pig from the Bass' farm, Old Hannibal is led down the garden path. He confronts Dunc's widowed mother, Elsie, with the attempted theft and she responds by stealing his heart. Hannibal returns with free supplies for the widow and her son. Della confronts Elsie, accusing her of just wanting Hannibal's worldly goods and not him. When Elsie won't back off Della unloads a shot into the heel of Elsie's shoe. Matt and Chester investigate based on an arrest warrant signed by a judge when Elsie traveled into Dodge to make a complaint. She explains the situation and that Hannibal is even then over at the widow's place. Matt and Chester head over there. He orders then to come with him to the Bass farm where they will hammer out the situation. When they arrive, the house and barn has been burnt to the ground. Elsie now doesn't want to marry Hannibal.
08:30 p.m. Fibber McGee & Molly
4/14/42 "Spring Festival Parade" (Johnson's Wax) (29:48) Program #321 ; Jim Jordan (Fibber McGee), Marian Jordan (Molly McGee), Isabel Randolph (Abigail Uppington), Harlow Wilcox, Gale Gordon (Mayor LaTrivia), Bill Thompson, Frank Nelson ; Announcer - Harlow Wilcox ; Music - Billy Mills and His Orchestra, The King's Men ; From Hollywood ; NBC ; Sponsor - Johnson's Wax ; Fibber and Molly will be leading the Wistful Vista parade on horseback!
09:00 p.m. Father Knows Best
02/04/54 "Telephone Mix-up" (Sus.)(NBC) (29:30) Robert Young (Jim Anderson), Dorothy Lovett (Margaret Anderson), Helen Stroam (Kathy Anderson), Ted Donaldson (Bud Anderson), Rhoda Williams (Betty Anderson), Parley Baer (Ted Hodges); Sponsor - Post 40% Bran Flakes, Instant Postum caffeine free drink ; Transcribed in Hollywood ;
9:30 p.m. Tales of the Texas Rangers
11/04/51 #51 "Helping Hand" (Sus.) (NBC) (29:54) Joel McCrea ; Producer/Director - Stacy Keach ; Technical Advisor - Captain M. T. "Lonewolf" Gonzalez of the Texas Rangers ; Transcriber/Adaptor - Charles E. Israel ; Announcer - Hal Gibney ;
10:00 p.m. Casebook of Gregory Hood
06/24/46 #4 "The Beeswax Candle" (29:24) Gale Gordon (Gregory Hood), Art Gilmore ; Announcer - Harry Bartell ; Writers - Denis Green & Anthony Boucher ; Music Composer/Conductor - Dean Fosler ; Producer - Ned Bliss ; Director - Lee Bolen ; Sound Effects - Arthur Fulton & Art Surrence ; Sponsor - Petri Wines ; Mutual Broadcasting System ; . "An empty house that screams, a Packard covertible and Harry James" (just a few of the in-jokes). Sanderson "Sandy" Taylor, sidekick of San Francisco importer and amateur sleuth Gregory Hood, loses his wife in the Berkeley fog. A good story with several unexpected twists.
10:30 p.m. Whistler
09/10/45 #173 "Phone Call From Death" (CBS) (29:55) Elliott Lewis ; Announcer - Marvin Miller ; Music - Wilbur Hatch ; Writer - Lesley Edgely ; Sponsor - Signal Oil ; A woman's best friend is murdered while she's on the phone with the woman...or was she? The program has a good double-surprise ending!

Safe travels.

Early Ping as I'm traveling.

I'm glad each show is archived for a week. I'm leaving shortly to go to a friend's house to watch some hockey, but I'll catch tonight's programs at my convenience during the week.

A splendid array. But if they'd done their homework they could have included the original on-air audition (part of CBS's Forecast, which ran in the spring and summers of 1940 and 1941 and existed specifically to audition potential radio series) of one of the genuine all-time comedy greats:

CBS Forecast: Duffy's Tavern.

Maybe you should email Ed and tell him that.

Thanks. On a business trip in NYC. Just had a lovely evening.

Great. Stay safe in Nanny Bloomberg land. I hear it's starting to get wooly in that town again.

Yea I read a couple stories on recent racial attacks.

Robert De Niro has a restaurant, tribeca grill. Check it out if you come, get the short rib.

Last time I was there (between Christmas and New Years, 1997 or so), my first wife and I had dinner at a pizza joint a few blocks off of Times Square, which used to be the first Comedy Club opened in town. Couldn't remember the name if you tried to choke it out of me after all these years. Good thin-crust pies, though. LOL