Thanks. I was not aware of the radio version. I liked Conrad as an actor.
Gunsmoke was one of my favorite tv shows, and my Dad’s. My mother and sister couldn’t get into it. They loved Bonanza!
I never got into radio except while driving until Rush came on his show and I was hooked. There was one exception.
My roommate in college and my best friend from high school to now, listened to the Rest of the Story at noon everyday. He got the other room mate and I addicted to that show. We would fix lunch, eat it and listen to the Rest of the Story with Paul Harvey.
The other roommate’s dad owned a Chevy dealership, and he had a big Chevy Convertible. Sometimes on nice days, we would go to the local fast food drive in, order and then listen to Paul with the top down on the convertible.
We often had small coveys of other listeners. They would bring their lunch sacs over and listen. None of us ate in the car. We lunched while sitting/leaning on the fenders or a curb.
A 50 cent lunch, a new Chevy convertible and listening to Paul Harvey with good friends was a great break in our study routines.
Often we had some great discussions on that lesson of the day.
Episodes of “Gunsmoke,” (the radio version) air regularly on Sirius/XM “Radio Classics” (Channel 148). If you don’t subscribe, they occasionally have free periods where the channels are open to anyone with a receiver in their cars, or through the website/app.
Give the radio version of Gunsmoke a try. Easily the best western in the medium’s history and one of its finest dramas. Conrad gives Matt Dillion a slightly different spin, and the same can be said for the rest of the cast in their roles.
Sound effects (or sound patterns, as they were listed in the show’s credits) were truly outstanding. The sound department at CBS was very good at creating multi-dimensional audio (in a day when everyone was listening on “mono” AM stations, and really couldn’t appreciate their efforts). For an indoor scene at the Long Branch, you’d hear the main actors talking in the foreground, background conversation suggesting other patrons, and the sound of the bar’s piano beyond that. The radio version of Gunsmoke ran until 1961, and was one of the last network dramas to leave the air.
Paul Harvey was appointment radio for 50 years. BTW, the “Rest of the Story,” was created by his son, Paul Jr., who wrote those segments for decades, and they were compiled in at least two books. Paul Jr. was also the announcer for his father’s 7:25 am newcast.