May 29, 2022
Radio Drama About Radio Talk Shows
Ethan Burrows Final Broadcast
Ethan Burrows was (is?) a radio personality who spent the hours from midnight until four in the morning debunking the supernatural and demeaning true believers. Until the day came when proof showed up on his doorstep.
Found audio from Earbud Theater.
Not Another Talk Show
A radio talk show with a full house of guests, including self-proclaimed terrorists. Verbal abuse takes it from teetering on the edge to WAY off the script.
Written by Jon Erik Villesvik and Dan Epstein, and starring Phil Proctor as “The Mouth That Roared.” From The Cabinet of Dr. Marconi.
The Radio Detective is s special breed. Dating back to the 1940s, when the framework was set, and continuing right up to today. The meme has changed along the way, and gone off in many fresh directions. They’re male and female. Hard-boiled and over easy. Human and alien. They are serious and dedicated, and they are entirely silly and even further out there. From Johnny Dollar and Sherlock Holmes to Johnny Raven and Bill Lizard, we’ll have at least two different takes on the genre each week, June through August. June 5, 2022
Last and First Detectives
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar in The Barbara James Matter
Johnny Dollar is an insurance investigator, so he is called in because Mrs. James has disappeared, and there is a large policy written on her.
Johnny Dollar, the man with the action-packed expense account, starred Edmund O’Brien from 1950 to 52. But the series continued with other stars and was the last of the Old Time Radio drama shows to go off the air, along with Suspense, in 1962, ending the Golden Age of Radio. Dollar’s later format was a single story taking five 15-minute episodes a week, but this is one of a pre-1955 incarnation, when it had the usual half-hour format.
Vince Washburn, New Age Detective in Penalty For Early Death
Vince is called in when a man’s daughter doubts his death was of natural causes, and he must search through several past lives to find the truth.
Written originally for KFAI’s own Shockwave show, the script won a contest at the Midwest Radio Theater Workshop, and this is the MRTW production from 1988. Written by yours truly, Jerry Stearns. Directed by Skip Pizzi.
Note the names of the characters, and see fi they don’t seem familiar to people living in Minneapolis. We’ll hear more from Vince later in this radio detectives series. June 12, 2022
Always on the Silly Side
The Further Adventures of Nick Danger, Third Eye
The most enduring character of the Firesign Theatre. This is his first radio adventure, Case No. 666, called Cut ‘Em Off at the Past. Filled with references and outright steals from Old Time Radio detective tales, and just as many fingers pointing at the Beatles. From the album How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All (1969).
(This and many other Firesign works are available for listening on YouTube.)
Lance Manley, Library Detective in The Case of the Caustic Cataloger.
Lance becomes suspicious when he is barred from doing the usual background check on the new employee. Surely something must be up.
The fourth tale in the recent series from the Icebox Radio Theater in International Falls, MN. Written by Jeffrey Adams.
The Locked Room Murder Mystery
If you can make any sense of this, then you weren’t really listening. Utter silliness from ZPPR Productions, written and directed by George Zarr.
June 19, 2022
A Sam Enchanted Evening
Crime of Passion
A My Gal Sunday tale by Mary Higgins Clark, featuring Amy Walker and Gary Sandy (WKRP), with Phil Proctor as the narrator. Performed live at the International Mystery Writers’ Festival 2008, in Kentucky. Adapted and directed by David Ossman.
Sam Blade, Private Eye
It’s all about metaphors as Sam Blade pursues another bewildering case, over on the silly side. Performed by Big Fun Radio Funtime, a project of Fearless Comedy Productions, here in the Twin Cities.
Sixty-Second Sam Spade
A “somewhat” shortened version of the classic Sam Space novel, The Maltese Falcon. From the Sixty-Second Radio Theater, in Tampa, FL. June 26, 2022
Old Time Radio Style, and Really Old Time Style
Harry Nile in Murder on a Rainy Night
A man gets lured to his death, and Harry has to solve the mystery or take the rap himself. One of the many Harry Nile stories from Imagination Theatre and Jim French Productions. Many available for listening on YouTube. Performed live in the Old Time Radio style.
The Case of the Prince Formerly Known as Hamlet
A Justin Thyme Mystery, where Justin says, “It ended like all my cases do, with everybody dead.” Justin is hired to figure out who killed the King. Written by Bruce Kane, directed by Glenn Carlson with the One Act Players of San Francisco. July 3, 2022
Out East and Outer Space
A Test For Murder
Former policeman, Captain Underhill, attends the opening of an Art Exhibit, but finds he has to practice his own art of detection instead. Another winner from the Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theater, written and directed by Stephen Oney. (Some of their excellent works are available via YouTube.)
Pete Moss, Space Detective
A young woman has been kidnapped and Pete is fired to hind her. (Which gives you an example of this play’s attitude.) Written by Brian Westley, and produced for a live audience by KFAI’s own SHOCKWAVE show. (Another episode available on Brian’s website.)
