Sit down, close your eyes and let your mind form the images as you relive the golden age of radio programs. Each week we'll feature a different and exciting program in MP3 format. Just click on the radio image below to be transported back in time.

This Week

 

Gang Busters

 

The Case Of The Red Evening Dress

September 22, 1945

 

This "best remembered" of all the crime stoppers shows was billed as "the only national program that brings you authentic police case histories." Phillips H. Lord, already in radio, was looking for a new show concept.

He hit upon the angle doing a crime show, like the gangster films of the early 1930s, but making it the real thing, about the real criminals and cops and the FBI. A cross between the newspapers and the movieswhat an idea! He went right to Washington, and got the tacit approval of J. Edgar Hoover himself to develop a show that used only closed cases (thus getting a good outcome) and had a solid law-enforcement slant.

Lord wrote his first episode right in the Justice Building in Washington.The show began on NBC as "The G-Men," with Chevrolet as sponsor.

Changing to Gangbusters the show came on strong right from the start and was a radio sensation. The pace was fast, the action was real and sometimes violent, the crimes and criminals were acted doing what was written about in the papers.

Working his way through the major crimes and criminals, Lord turned to accounts of lesser known, but often more interesting true crime cases.The sound effects were great, and the hard-hitting tales were told with all the thrills of a good gangster movie.It followed that, like the notices in the Post Office, he could relay real wanted poster information on the show as well. During Gangbusters, alerts were broadcast for real criminals wanted by the police or FBI, and teasers called "Crime Buster Clues" were given as teasers to keep the audience ready for more!

  Huntington Beach News