"The Big Broadcast" Live Sunday 1/2 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...

Happy 2011! No playlist has been posted yet.

Hello, Vision and everyone! Happy New Year! We’re ready for some good radio.

Good evening. Five part Johnny Dollar on the XM right now. For a time, JD was on the radio five days a week - XM 164 plays them all in sequence.

The Chesapeake Fraud Matter. It’s a very good one.

Hello. Everyone's New Years was good?

The Chesapeake Fraud Matter

Love that title. I'm still tickled by the show that had the name of the street I live on.

New Year’s Eve was mostly uneventful, other than some Democrats across the railroad tracks firing a shotgun toward the empty field right next to our house. The knew they could get away with one shot, but not two, and they got in their car and left a few minutes after the shot. I was this close to calling the police but didn’t.

It really is cool to hear your home town or street mentioned in a show or other broadcast.

We heard two of our towns mentioned on a book on tape that my husband and I listened to on the long drive back from Texas last week. The Ted Dekker novel “The Boneman’s Daughters” mentioned my hometown of Abilene, TX and also the town where I now work, Biloxi, MS.

We got more Johnny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xed9LiMf1Qg&feature=player_embedded

When I was a youngster in the early '60s in the Pittsburgh area I liked to tune my radio around the dial looking for interesting stations. I listened to many St. Louis Hawks (with star Bob Petit) NBA basketball game radio broadcasts out of KMOX. CKLW from Windsor Ontario, WABC DJ Cousin Brucie Morrow from The Big Apple, WBZ in Boston.

My favorite find was WMBS, a small station out of Uniontown, PA, and that is where I heard first run episodes of Johnny Dollar and Suspense. By that point in time in the early '60s the large stations within my radio's reach weren't carrying the network dramas.

As Johnny Dollar ground to a halt finally on 9/30/62, writer Jack Johnstone seemed to pepper his scripts with tributes to what may have been the last few stations carrying Johnny Dollar, and so on 4/2/61 in "The Wrong Sign Matter" Johnny visits the Tri-Mutual Insurance Company in the Fayette Title & Trust Building in Uniontown, which, coincidentally we are told, houses radio station WMBS. My ears perked up at that.

“They shot one of his boys...”

“He’ll never be missed.”

Gotta love it.

LOL. Did you catch the name of this episode?

Looks like "The Primrose Matter".

Oh, that was swell!

It must’ve been sad for the radio actors and writers to watch television replace the wonderful radio shows. Sad, indeed.

Happy New Year, SteelYourFaith!

That plane landing was hair-raising!

Happy New Year to you WXRGina.

Looks like Ed is rebroadcasting the 1/10/10 show:

January 10 (WARNING: Contains Spoilers)

07:00 p.m. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
10/05 & 10/08/56 "Picture Postcard" Pt.5 Bob Bailey, Lucille Meredith (Ilsa Shaffer), Victor Perrin (Tom Wilkins), Forrest Lewis (Anton the gunman), Stan Jones (Otto Weider), Ben Wright (Jeffrey Harris) ; Writer - Robert Ryf ; Producer/Director - Jack Johnstone ; Announcer - Roy Rowen ; Musical Supervision - Amerigo Marino ; Expense Account Total - $1723.00 ; "Well, they say that diamonds are a girl's best friend. But I wonder - when they are a motive for murder." Tom Wilkins, Global Casualty, Hartford, reports that $100,000 of insured, uncut, diamonds have been stolen in the Zurich airport from a courier. The only lead is a letter which arrived from someone named Sebastian, in Zurich, who offers information on the theft. Johnny travels to Zurich, and goes to the Polo Hotel, as specified by Sebastian. He shares a cab with an attractive woman named Ilsa Shaffer. Two blocks later she quickly leaves, kissing him, after she hears Johnny's name, but leaves her purse. At the Hotel a big man sticks a gun in his ribs and orders him back outside into a car. The man saw the incident and believes that Ilsa passed the diamonds to him in her purse. Johnny breaks away. He goes back to his Hotel and waits for Sebastian to show. Eventually, Sebastian approaches Dollar and asks about the reward. He says he will arrange for the return of the diamonds for $25,000. He passes a picture postcard to Dollar, which is part of the key to the location of the diamonds. The picture is of the Klibach Inn, an Alps resort, and was sent by F. Grunner. He also leaves his newspaper which has his address written on one of the inner pages. He asks Dollar to meet him at his apartment in two hours. Sebastian was floating face down in the bathtub. Inspector Honeger, Zurich Police, calls Dollar the next day. Dollar's theory is that Sebastian was part of the team that robbed the courier and his efforts to return it are to benefit him, while double-crossing his cohorts. Johnny goes to the Klibach Inn. Otto Weider, the inn-keeper of the Klibach Inn, checks Dollar in. Otto claims not to have heard of Sebastian. Soon knocking on his door is Englishman Jeffrey Harris, who had a friend back in London named John "Bunny" Dollar. Johnny shakes Harris off when he sees Ilsa at the bar. She thanks him for turning in her purse. She claims to come to this resort often, but Otto says he had never seen her before. Johnny arranges to go skiing with Ilsa. While on the ski trail they become the targets of rifle fire. Honeger sends Dollar another picture postcard that had been sent to Sebastian. It is of a chalet for skiers. Ilsa admits that Sebastian had told her to get into Dollar's cab, to throw off Sebastian's confederates. Ilsa was to meet Sebastian here for some skiing. Otto says that Harris had gone out mountain climbing at the same time that Dollar and Ilsa had gone skiing. Dollar finds the chalet of the second postcard. He sees Harris in the vicinity. The chalet is a ski hut on the ridge, and inside it has been torn apart. Police Inspector Honeger arrives in Klibach. They discuss the case over coffee. Dollar is sure that the stones are in Klibach. Johnny finds a recently fired rifle, with a telescopic site, in Harris' closet. Johnny goes into the village with Ilsa. Johnny sees a suspicious character following then, and so he and Ilsa split up, and she is to go back to the Hotel. Then another man falls from a window and dies. Ilsa recognizes him as Grunner, the last of Johnny's known leads. Ilsa and Johnny go to the room Grunner fell from. It is empty. They hear something down the hall. They break open the door to that room and see an open window leading to the fire escape. Looking out the window Johnny thinks he sees the big man who had him at gunpoint in Zurich. They go back to the Inn and Dollar runs into Harris, who denies he has a rifle. Otto gives a third postcard to Dollar of the village square. Dollar suspects that the diamonds may be located in the spot where the three postcard pictures can be seen. Dollar goes there and starts to dig, and finds the diamonds. Dollar is jumped by Anton, the gunman from Zurich, but Dollar overpowers him. He is working for Otto. Otto shows up with a gun, but gets distracted, and Johnny gets the gun. Otto could not figure out where the diamonds were so he had given the postcard to Dollar hoping that he would lead him to the stones.
07:15 p.m. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
"Primrose Matter" Pt. 1 (Sus.)(CBS) Bob Bailey, Marvin Miller (Brad Taylor), Junius Matthews, Herb Ellis, B.J. Thompson (Mrs. Bardell), Herb Butterfield, Tony Barrett, Barbara Eiler (Jenny Bardell) ; Writer - Les Crutchfield ; Producer/Director - Jack Johnstone ; Musical Supervisor - Amerigo Marino ; Announcer - Roy Rowan ; Expense Account Total = $ 914.15 ; "There's uranium, they say, in the Arizona Hills. There's also a killer with three victims behind him, and he's looking for another." Brad Taylor, Mid-States Industrial Insurance Company, Hartford, calls America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator about the Nitzen Gang who committed a $100,000 payroll robbery of an armored car in Kansas City. The payroll was insured. They Tommy-gunned two bank guards in the stick-up. The gang includes Gipper Nitzen, Bledsoe and two unknowns. Dollar goes to Tucson where he meets with state highway police Lieutenant Cal Mervyn. His partner was killed at a roadblock on the Nogales Road by the Nitzen gang, but the cops killed Bledsoe immediately and wounded another. Johnny poses as uranium prospector. He goes into Jake's Bar & Grill where he talks to Jake Meagher, and gets directions to get himself lost. Jake tells him about the Primrose Tourist Camp, fourteen miles up a dead-end road. It is a series of tourist cabins and a service station run by talkative Pop Bardell. Jake says that Pop has a new helper, a nephew from Tulsa. (...continued next week...)
07:30 p.m. Dragnet
06/15/54 "Big Cat" (AFRS) (26:02) Program #252 Jack Webb (Joe Friday), Ben Alexander (Frank Smith) ; Writer - John Robinson ; Announcers - George Fenneman & Hal Gibney ; A man reports a deadly black panther has been stolen from his carnival and is loose somewhere in the city.
08:00 p.m. Gunsmoke
05/08/60 "Wrong Man" (CBS) (24:50) Program #422 William Conrad (Matt Dillon), Parley Baer (Chester Proudfoot), Howard McNear (Doc Adams), Georgia Ellis (Kitty Russell), Harry Bartell, Sam Edwards, Lawrence Dobkin, Vic Perrin, Jack Moyles ; Director - Norman Macdonnell ; Writer - Marian Clark ; Music Composed and Conducted - Rex Koury ; Announcer - Roy Rowan ; Old Man Wydell and his son Ruff have settled outside of Dodge City. Wydell's other son, Jim, is a wanted outlaw whose stock and trade is his handy use of a knife. Sheriff Blair arrives in dodge with information regarding the fugitive. When a sweet talking "Jack Norman" glides into town and into Miss Kitty's favor, Matt soon realizes that he fits Jim Wydell's description. Matt arrests Wydell, much to the consternation of Kitty, and awaits Blair's return to identify the suspect.
08:30 p.m. My Friend Irma
01/26/48 "The Lonely Hearts Club" (Swan) (CBS)(29:35) Marie Wilson (Irma Peterson), Cathy Lewis (Jane Stacy), Hans Conreid (upstairs neighbor Professor Kropotkin), John Brown (Irma's boyfriend Al), Gloria Gordon (Mrs. O'Reilly), Allen Reed (Irma's boss Mr. Clyde), Lief Erickson (Jane's boss Richard Rhinelander III) ; Producer/Director - Cy Howard ; Writers - Cy Howard & Parke Levy ; Announcer - Frank Bingman ; Sponsor - Lever Brothers makers of Swan Soap ($100,000 fur contest), Spry ; Irma gives up on Al and joins a Lonely Hearts club. The script was subsequently used on "My Friend Irma" on January 27, 1952
09:00 p.m. Nick Carter
04/27/47 "Case of the Luminous Spots" (MBS) (26:30) Lon Clark (Nick Carter) ; Writer - Alfred Bester ; Sponsors -Old Dutch Cleanser, Delrich Margarine ; One of the boys in Nick's "Downtown Boys Club" has been murdered...a new chemical provides the clues.
09:30 p.m. Tales of the Texas Rangers
09/30/51 #46 "Death Shaft" (Sus.)(NBC) (29:53) Joel McCrea (Ranger Jace Pearson), Ken Christy (Sheriff Benson)Tony Barrett, Bill Johnstone, Lamont Johnson, Ken Christy, Betty Lou Gerson (Mrs. Madden), Brad Browne ; Creator/Producer/Director - Stacey Keach, Sr. ; Radio Adaptation - Bob Ryf ; Technical Advisor - Captain M. T. "Lonewolf" Gonzaullas, the program features a tribute to "Lone Wolf", who is retiring after thirty-one years with the Rangers. ; Transcribed/ Adapted - Charles E. Israel ; Announcer - Hal Gibney ; NBC ; It is 11/18/41 in the Big Bend country of West Texas. J. C. Wilford of the Bureau of Mines and Fred Blaisedale are winding up a dirt road to Blaisedale's abandoned mine in Black Hawk Canyon. The mine's lock has been switched. A cheap one is now on it. Upon breaking the lock a skeleton is found inside the mine with the skull bashed in. Sheriff Benson calls in Jace Pearson to investigate. Papers on the body suggest that he may be Gilbert W. Madden. Blaisedale says he didn't know Madden. Pearson notes that the cheap lock is not rusty and it looks new. Madden's wife, Clara, says that her husband, a mine broker, has been missing 8 months. "Old Willie", an eccentric, looks like the prime suspect. Clara says that Old Willie lives in Black Hawk Canyon somewhere. When she was visiting relatives in Kansas, the last letter she got from Gilbert in March said that Old Willie had been pestering him again. Upon first going to Black Hawk Canyon Old Willie became angry with Gilbert in the small general store there because he wouldn't look at his mine and so Old Willie accused him of being a spy for the big companies who all want his mine. Jace Pearson confirms this confrontation with the store owner who also gives Pearson and Benson directions to find Old Willie. Jace Pearson and Sheriff Benson go out to "Old Willie's" shack. Among a group of rusty keys, Pearson sees a new key hanging on the outside door that is of the same manufacture as the cheap lock at Blaisedale's mine. Back at Benson's office they try the key into the padlock. It fits. Benson books Old Willie. Pearson has his doubts that Old Willie is the perpetrator. He feels that the key was planted at Old Willie's. In Madden's papers they find a cancelled check for $2000 made out to "Cash" with pencil marks in the corner that it was for expenses going to Blaisedale to evaluate his mine. Thus, Blaisedale lied when he said he didn't know Madden. Pearson and Benson keep an eye on Madden's wife. They follow her when she goes to Blaisedale. Upon confrontation, Blaisedale admits he killed Madden.
10:00 p.m. Broadway is My Beat
07/24/50 "Celia Jordan" (Wrigley's Gum) (CBS)(29:29) Episode #62 Larry Thor (Detective Lieutenant Danny Clover), Charles Calvert (Detective Gino Tartaglia, but not in this episode), Irene Tedrow, Joyce McCluskey, Jack Kruschen (Detective Muggavan), Earle Ross, Jack Edwards, Tom Holland ; Producer/Director - Elliot Lewis ; Music Composed & Conducted- Alexander Courage ; Writers - Morton Fine & David Friedkin ; CBS ; Announcer - Bob Stevenson ; Sponsor - Wriggley's Spearmint Chewing Gum ; A ransacked apartment with bloodstains. Paul Chelsea is nagging Clover. There is no body but Chelsea says that someone has killed pretty 22 year old Celia Jordan. He had a date with her tonight. He has a date with her almost every night. He is 51. He met her in a cake three years ago at a company banquet. Her old boyfriend Cliff Moore was discharged from the service for mental reasons, and Chelsea is sure that he is the culprit. Later, Muggavan says that someone in a bar named Charlie has recognized a picture of Celia Jordan. He says she and a young man were at the bar and then went to eat. At the restaurant, a steak joint on Second, the waiter identifies Celia and said she was with a nervous young man. Afterwards they take a Yellow Cab to the girl's apartment on 63rd. The man had him wait two hours, and then he took the man alone to his apartment of Suffolk Hotel on 71st. Clover knocks on Cliff's door. Cliff thinks Paul Chelsea must have beaten her up. Back at the police station, Muggavan offers Danny some ice tea with lemon to fight the heat. The phone rings. She is Celia Jordan, calling from room 2412 of the Amsterdam Hotel on 34th Street. She says that she is fine. Clover goes there. She is wearing a sunsuit so she can show that she has no marks. However, she says that since she called she has been having a bad pain inside. She dies of poison. Later, Dr. Sinski confirms to Clover that she was killed by a poison that takes 3 hours to act, with the final 5 minutes a terrible pain. Clover calls Muggavan and tells him to pick up Cliff Moore. Clover goes to the Chelsea home and meets the plump Mrs. Chelsea, who is in her late 40s. She says that Paul doesn't think she knows about Celia, but she does. She hates her husband because of Celia. By listening over the phone extension she learned that Celia was blackmailing Paul for $50,000. Leaving the Chelsea residence, Clover goes looking for Paul Chelsea. He wasn't at his office, club, or bar around the corner, so he went to the apartment where he first met Chelsea. There he found the battered body of Chelsea, beaten to death with an andiron. He had a bandaged cut under his arm so he had staged the original blood-stained ransacked apartment. Danny leaves for Cliff Moore's apartment where Muggavan, who has been observing from outside, says that Moore hasn't stirred. Clover goes into Moore's room and intends to charge him with Chelsea's murder. However, Moore is unable to lift his arms because of injuries from a live mine during his time in the service. He says that he can't even open a door, so how could he beat a man to death with an andiron? Cliff does admit that the blackmail idea was his. Clover goes back to Mrs. Chelsea's residence. He gets a confession out of her that she killed her husband. Paul had killed Celia.
10:30 p.m. Inner Sanctum
04/09/46 "Lady with a Plan" (CBS) (25:48) Paul McGrath (host), Jackson Beck, Elspeth Eric, Santos Ortega, Luis Van Rooten ; Writers - Michael Sklar & Richard Manoff ; The wife of a prison warden uses one of the inmates to kill her husband. She then double-crosses the convict who is machine-gunned in a graphic scene.

“Head of lettuce - seventeen cents”

I love the little details that the writers toss in

Did he mention the decision to repeat the series? I might have missed it.

lol

As Johnny Dollar ground to a halt finally on 9/30/62, writer Jack Johnstone seemed to pepper his scripts with tributes to what may have been the last few stations carrying Johnny Dollar, and so on 4/2/61 in "The Wrong Sign Matter" Johnny visits the Tri-Mutual Insurance Company in the Fayette Title & Trust Building in Uniontown, which, coincidentally we are told, houses radio station WMBS. My ears perked up at that.

Cool.

Somehow I missed that; was finishing up a few dishes. Will have to catch the rerun.