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Welcome to Down These Mean Streets, a weekly trip back to the Golden Age of Radio where we rub elbows with the era's greatest private eyes, cops, and crime-fighters. Since 2013, I've been podcasting everything from cozy mysteries to police procedurals, spotlighting characters ranging from hard boiled gumshoes to amateur sleuths. 

Be sure to tune in each Sunday for adventures of a radio detective and the behind-the-scenes stories of their shows. Join me as we spend time with Sam Spade, Johnny Dollar, Sgt. Joe Friday, and more!

Jun 28, 2015

One of radio’s men of a thousand voices, Paul Frees was heard all over the dial during the Golden Age of Radio, as Boris Badenov on television, and as the ghostly host at Disney’s Haunted Mansion. In honor of this versatile, talented actor’s birthday, we’ll hear him in two episodes as The Green Lama, the pulp...


Jun 21, 2015

Reformed jewel thief Boston Blackie was a debonair detective in his years on radio. Along with his girlfriend Mary Wesley and sidekick Shorty, Blackie used his underworld know-how to catch more unscrupulous thieves and scoundrels. Racing against Blackie to crack the case first was Inspector Farraday of the police,...


Jun 14, 2015

When Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar came back to the airwaves in 1955 after a brief hiatus, it was reenergized by a new nightly serialized format and a new star in Bob Bailey. Bailey made the role of “the man with the action-packed expense account” his own in rich, complex scripts that could play out five nights a week...


Jun 7, 2015

Jack Webb is back as Sgt. Joe Friday in a two-part episode of Dragnet. Join Friday and his partner Frank Smith (Ben Alexander) as they pursue criminals and try and keep the streets of Los Angeles safe in this king-sized story from official police files. We’ll hear “The Big Mask” (Part 1 originally aired on NBC on...