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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!

Dec 22, 2021

It's a star-studded, super-sized holiday bonus episode to close out 2021! We'll hear Tallulah Bankhead as mistress of ceremonies for the Christmas Eve 1950 broadcast of NBC's The Big Show. Listen as Ms. Bankhead welcomes Ed Wynn, Jimmy Durante, Margaret O'Brien, Bert Lahr, and more.


Dec 19, 2021

It's our annual holiday bonanza! We'll hear four old time radio detectives doing some seasonal sleuthing. First, Special Agent Taylor searches for Santa in "The Return of St. Nick" on This is Your FBI (originally aired on ABC on December 24, 1948). Next, George and Brooksie find mystery in the department store in...


Dec 12, 2021

Before he was an Oscar nominee for Broken Arrow, Jeff Chandler was a busy radio actor in supporting and lead roles. He was oblivious to the romantic overtures of Eve Arden on Our Miss Brooks, and he was one of radio's toughest shamuses in The New Adventures of Michael Shayne. We'll hear him in two Shayne syndicated...


Dec 5, 2021

With Frank Sinatra's birthday right around the corner, it's the perfect time to revisit Rocky Fortune - Ol' Blue Eyes' six-month stint as a radio detective. We'll hear Rocky bounce between jobs and find trouble everywhere he goes in a pair of episodes: "Carnival One Way" (originally aired on NBC on December 8, 1953) and...


Nov 28, 2021

We're saluting John Dehner - the Disney animator and award-winning radio news editor who became one of the radio era's best actors and a great big and small screen character actor from the 50s to the 80s. He found his biggest radio fame in a pair of westerns - Frontier Gentleman and Have Gun - Will Travel - but he was...