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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!

Mar 29, 2020

The comic strip adventures of Chester Gould's two-fisted super cop Dick Tracy thrilled readers across the country, and the detective soon made the leap to the big screen and to radio. Ned Wever stars as Tracy, a cop equally skilled in the crime lab and on the shooting range, in the serialized adventure "The Black Pearl...


Mar 25, 2020

After a few weeks of quarantine and social distancing, I could use a few laughs and I bet you could too. So enjoy a midweek comedy break with two of the radio era's funniest shows. Listen as Jack Benny opens a new season of his program (originally aired on NBC on September 29, 1946). Then, as Our Miss Brooks, Eve Arden...


Mar 22, 2020

From 1955 until 1960, Bob Bailey starred as Johnny Dollar - "America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator" - and gave radio one of its all-time great detectives. Bailey first played the gumshoe in a series of five-part nightly serials before the series reverted to a weekly 30 minute format for the rest of its...


Mar 15, 2020

Dana Andrews starred in the sensational spawn of Red Scare paranoia I Was a Communist for the FBI. Loosely inspired by the real-life exploits of undercover operative Matt Cvetic, the series pit Andrews against dastardly Russian forces working to topple the US of A. We'll hear three of his radio adventures: "A Riot Made...


Mar 8, 2020

We're back in Los Angeles for the grandfather of all police procedurals - Dragnet. Jack Webb is Sgt. Joe Friday and Barton Yarborough is Sgt. Ben Romero in two cop dramas on the streets of the City of Angels - "The Big Bomb" (originally aired on NBC on July 13, 1950) and "The Big Couple" (originally aired on February...