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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!

Feb 28, 2016

Head back to the Great White Way and the crime behind the bright lights and buzz of the city in Broadway is My Beat. Detective Danny Clover walks “the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world” in two episodes of one of radio’s finest police procedurals. First, Anthony Ross stars as Clover...


Feb 24, 2016

Just in time for the Academy Awards, "Down These Mean Streets" presents a bonus episode featuring a trio of Oscar-winning radio detectives. First, Frank Sinatra is Rocky Fortune in “Shipboard Jewel Robbery” (originally aired on NBC on October 20, 1953). Then, Van Heflin is Raymond Chandler’s Philip...


Feb 21, 2016

Short, stout, and wielding only an umbrella, G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown may be the unlikeliest of detectives. The parish priest uses his insight into human nature - and his understanding of the evil side of that nature - to uncover the truth and bring the guilty to justice. Karl Swenson stars as the kindly and...


Feb 14, 2016

February 14th isn’t only Valentine’s Day. It’s also the birthday of radio’s most famous comedian, Jack Benny. The perpetually 39 year old Benny was born February 14, 1894. His landmark radio program was a popular hit for over two decades, and he remains one of the most influential comedians of the twentieth...


Feb 7, 2016

In 1960, CBS moved production of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar to New York. Longtime leading man Bob Bailey stayed behind, and the network tapped another Bob - Bob Readick - to fill the shoes of the man with the action-packed expense account. Readick, an actor since childhood, starred as Dollar from December 1960 to June...