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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!

Oct 28, 2015

Turn down the lights and enjoy the annual "Down These Mean Streets" Halloween special. Just in time for trick or treating, enjoy a chiller from Suspense - "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." Orson Welles stars in "Donovan's Brain," a two-part story originally aired on CBS on May 18 and May 25, 1944.


Oct 25, 2015

In October 1930, Sherlock Holmes began his long career as a radio sleuth. In honor of the great detective's anniversary on the airwaves, we'll hear two of his adventures with John Stanley as Holmes and Alfred Shirley as Dr. John Watson. The game's afoot in "The Case of the Well-Staged Murder" (originally aired on Mutual...


Oct 18, 2015

Enterprising ex-GI George Valentine embarked on a career as a troubleshooter for hire with a newspaper ad offering his services for any job - no matter how dangerous. From 1946 to 1954, clients in trouble decided to Let George Do It. Bob Bailey stars as George, with Frances Robinson as his girl Friday Brooksie, in...


Oct 11, 2015

A lawyer turned wartime spy turned post-war private eye, Frank Race traveled the world on investigations risking his life and limb for adventure. In a syndicated series, Race and his sidekick Mark Donovan foiled domestic and foreign evildoers in their travels as Race used his OSS training to stay a few moves ahead of...


Oct 4, 2015

Frank Sinatra is on the job as Rocky Fortune. Footloose, fancy-free, and frequently unemployed Rocky bounces from job to job but he finds danger wherever he punches a clock. Old Blue Eyes brings his signature charm and swagger to the role in this single-season radio mystery series. We'll hear him in "A Hepcat Kills the...