Episode from March 6, 1936
(Click to Play)
Friday, January 15, 2016
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
TERRY AND THE PIRATES
Terry and the Pirates was a comic strip created in 1934 by Milton Caniff and was the inspiration for the popular serialized radio drama of the same name. Storylines of action, high adventure and foreign intrigue, kept listeners enthralled for a dozen years.
The central characters were Terry Lee and Terry's friend and mentor Pat Ryan. Terry's far east entourage included Flip Corkin, Terry's flight instructor; Hotshot Charlie, Terry's best friend in the Army Air Corps; and Connie the Chinese man hired as a guide. And to keep things interesting - the beautiful Elita and Burma, who can throw their curves as well as punches. Throughout the Orient they encounter plenty of bad guys - most notably the pirates run by the beautiful Dragon Lady. For years the pirates have been the scourge of the orient, but in the 1940s things change a bit and Terry and his pals are plunged into the war effort to defend the Asian mainland against offshore invaders!
NBC's Red network was the late afternoon series home when it began airing on November 1, 1937. It was switched to NBC Blue on September 26, 1938 and continued until March 22, 1939. After a two year hiatus, interestingly it returned shortly before the Pearl Harbor attack and was heard in the mid-west on the Chicago Tribune's WGN five days a week from October 16, 1941 to May 29, 1942.
During the WWII years the series increased in popularity taking off and flying high on ABC Blue, where it aired for 15 minutes each weekday afternoon beginning February 1, 1943. In the post-WWII period following 1945, with "cold-war" villains outside the theater of operations and no "hot-war" villains for Terry and his gang to fight, ratings began to drop. The final episode aired on June 30, 1948.
The central characters were Terry Lee and Terry's friend and mentor Pat Ryan. Terry's far east entourage included Flip Corkin, Terry's flight instructor; Hotshot Charlie, Terry's best friend in the Army Air Corps; and Connie the Chinese man hired as a guide. And to keep things interesting - the beautiful Elita and Burma, who can throw their curves as well as punches. Throughout the Orient they encounter plenty of bad guys - most notably the pirates run by the beautiful Dragon Lady. For years the pirates have been the scourge of the orient, but in the 1940s things change a bit and Terry and his pals are plunged into the war effort to defend the Asian mainland against offshore invaders!
NBC's Red network was the late afternoon series home when it began airing on November 1, 1937. It was switched to NBC Blue on September 26, 1938 and continued until March 22, 1939. After a two year hiatus, interestingly it returned shortly before the Pearl Harbor attack and was heard in the mid-west on the Chicago Tribune's WGN five days a week from October 16, 1941 to May 29, 1942.
During the WWII years the series increased in popularity taking off and flying high on ABC Blue, where it aired for 15 minutes each weekday afternoon beginning February 1, 1943. In the post-WWII period following 1945, with "cold-war" villains outside the theater of operations and no "hot-war" villains for Terry and his gang to fight, ratings began to drop. The final episode aired on June 30, 1948.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
THE LONE RANGER
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture.
He first appeared in 1933 in a radio show conceived either by WXYZ radio station owner George W. Trendle or Fran Striker, the show's writer. The show proved to be a huge hit, and spawned an equally popular television show that ran from 1949 to 1957, as well as comic books and movies. The title character was played on radio by George Seaton, Earle Graser, and most memorably Brace Beemer.
The latest Lone Ranger movie featured Johnny Depp as the masked man's "faithful companion". Because of concerns regarding racism claims made against the movie, the Smithsonian magazine sent the director of the American Indian Museum and member of the Pawnee and Comanche tribes, Kevin Gover, to the movie. Here's what he thought: "I admit that I went to see 'The Lone Ranger' expecting to be disappointed and quite likely offended by the portrayal of Indians in the movie. … Johnny Depp’s Tonto isn’t offensive, just weird. Still, many of us were concerned that the movie would just be one more exercise in stereotyping Indians. Fortunately, “The Lone Ranger” does little harm in this regard, in my opinion. … The movie works self-consciously and a little too hard to overturn the old Hollywood stereotype of villainous Indians.”
But let's get back to radio. The first of 2,956 radio episodes of The Lone Ranger premiered on January 30, 1933 on WXYZ, a radio station serving Detroit, Michigan. Sources disagree on whether to credit station and show owner George W. Trendle or main writer Fran Striker with the concept. Elements of the Lone Ranger story had been used in an earlier series Fran Striker wrote for a station in Buffalo, New York.
In any case, the show was an immediate success. Though it was aimed at children, adults made up at least half the audience. It became so popular, it was picked up by the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network, and finally by NBC's "Blue Network", which in time became ABC.
The last new episode was broadcast September 3, 1954. Transcribed repeats of the 1952–53 episodes continued to be aired on ABC until June 24, 1955. Then selected repeats appeared on NBC's late-afternoon weekday schedule (5:30–5:55 pm Eastern time) from September 1955 to May 25, 1956.
He first appeared in 1933 in a radio show conceived either by WXYZ radio station owner George W. Trendle or Fran Striker, the show's writer. The show proved to be a huge hit, and spawned an equally popular television show that ran from 1949 to 1957, as well as comic books and movies. The title character was played on radio by George Seaton, Earle Graser, and most memorably Brace Beemer.
The latest Lone Ranger movie featured Johnny Depp as the masked man's "faithful companion". Because of concerns regarding racism claims made against the movie, the Smithsonian magazine sent the director of the American Indian Museum and member of the Pawnee and Comanche tribes, Kevin Gover, to the movie. Here's what he thought: "I admit that I went to see 'The Lone Ranger' expecting to be disappointed and quite likely offended by the portrayal of Indians in the movie. … Johnny Depp’s Tonto isn’t offensive, just weird. Still, many of us were concerned that the movie would just be one more exercise in stereotyping Indians. Fortunately, “The Lone Ranger” does little harm in this regard, in my opinion. … The movie works self-consciously and a little too hard to overturn the old Hollywood stereotype of villainous Indians.”
But let's get back to radio. The first of 2,956 radio episodes of The Lone Ranger premiered on January 30, 1933 on WXYZ, a radio station serving Detroit, Michigan. Sources disagree on whether to credit station and show owner George W. Trendle or main writer Fran Striker with the concept. Elements of the Lone Ranger story had been used in an earlier series Fran Striker wrote for a station in Buffalo, New York.
In any case, the show was an immediate success. Though it was aimed at children, adults made up at least half the audience. It became so popular, it was picked up by the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network, and finally by NBC's "Blue Network", which in time became ABC.
The last new episode was broadcast September 3, 1954. Transcribed repeats of the 1952–53 episodes continued to be aired on ABC until June 24, 1955. Then selected repeats appeared on NBC's late-afternoon weekday schedule (5:30–5:55 pm Eastern time) from September 1955 to May 25, 1956.
Monday, January 11, 2016
THE CHALLENGE OF THE YUKON - Bank Robbery
Episode from February 10, 1938
Featuring Sergeant Preston
(Click to Play)
Featuring Sergeant Preston
(Click to Play)
THE CHALLENGE OF THE YUKON
Challenge of the Yukon was a radio series that began on Detroit's station WXYZ (as had The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet), and an example of a Northern genre story. The series was first heard on February 3, 1938. The title changed from Challenge of the Yukon to Sergeant Preston of the Yukon in November 1951, and remained under that name through the end of the series and into television.
The program was an adventure series about Sergeant William Preston of the North-West Mounted Police and his lead sled dog, Yukon King, as they fought evildoers in the Northern wilderness during the Gold Rush of the 1890s. Preston, according to radio historian Jim Harmon, first joined the Mounties to capture his father's killer, and when he was successful he was promoted to Sergeant. Preston worked under the command of Inspector Conrad, and in the early years was often assisted by a French-Canadian guide named Pierre.
Preston's staunchest ally, who was arguably the true star of the show and indeed often did more work than he did, was the brave Alaskan husky, Yukon King. Typical plots involved the pair helping injured trappers, tracking down smugglers, or saving cabin dwellers from wolverines. Sgt. Preston's faithful steed was Rex, used primarily in the summer months, but generally Yukon King and his dog team were the key mode of transportation (as signaled by Preston's cry of "On, King! On, you huskies!." There is some confusion regarding King's actual breed. The writers seemed to use malamute and husky interchangeably. At least once, Preston answered "malamute" to the question from another character. In the early radio shows, the cry of "On, you huskies!" would alternate with "On, you malamutes" from show to show.
The theme music was Emil von Reznicek's overture to Donna Diana a now long-forgotten opera, though the overture remains a concert staple to this day. The shows episodes ended with the official pronouncement, "Well, King, this case is closed."
The program was an adventure series about Sergeant William Preston of the North-West Mounted Police and his lead sled dog, Yukon King, as they fought evildoers in the Northern wilderness during the Gold Rush of the 1890s. Preston, according to radio historian Jim Harmon, first joined the Mounties to capture his father's killer, and when he was successful he was promoted to Sergeant. Preston worked under the command of Inspector Conrad, and in the early years was often assisted by a French-Canadian guide named Pierre.
Preston's staunchest ally, who was arguably the true star of the show and indeed often did more work than he did, was the brave Alaskan husky, Yukon King. Typical plots involved the pair helping injured trappers, tracking down smugglers, or saving cabin dwellers from wolverines. Sgt. Preston's faithful steed was Rex, used primarily in the summer months, but generally Yukon King and his dog team were the key mode of transportation (as signaled by Preston's cry of "On, King! On, you huskies!." There is some confusion regarding King's actual breed. The writers seemed to use malamute and husky interchangeably. At least once, Preston answered "malamute" to the question from another character. In the early radio shows, the cry of "On, you huskies!" would alternate with "On, you malamutes" from show to show.
The theme music was Emil von Reznicek's overture to Donna Diana a now long-forgotten opera, though the overture remains a concert staple to this day. The shows episodes ended with the official pronouncement, "Well, King, this case is closed."
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