The run
- Network
- CBS
- Years active
- 1953–1956
- Surviving broadcasts
- 107
- Genre
- detective
Broadcast from July 7th 1953 through November 1st 1956 on the CBS network. 21st Precinct was a very dramatic police drama. CBS decided to use New York City as the backdrop for this series and to focus on the happenings in an actual police precinct.
Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files
Source collection
Old Time Radio Researchers Group
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
17 dated broadcasts across 4 years on the air, with 1 year where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1954, in original transmission order.
- 1. The Purse · 1 Dec 1954
- 2. The Jump · 8 Dec 1954
- 3. The Loser · 15 Dec 1954
The Red Tiger
6 Sep 1956 · 26 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 6 September 1956. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
The Ledge
30 Aug 1956 · 26 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 30 August 1956. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
The Glass
16 Aug 1956 · 26 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 16 August 1956. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
The Bottle
9 Aug 1956 · 26 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 9 August 1956. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
The Fall
12 Jul 1956 · 27 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 12 July 1956. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
The Foundling
28 Jun 1956 · 28 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 28 June 1956. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
The Brother
21 Jun 1956 · 26 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 21 June 1956. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
The Books
14 Jun 1956 · 25 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 14 June 1956. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Also on CBS
CBS in 1953–1956
Other series the network carried while 21st Precinct was on the air.
Same seasons
detective on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
The private eye at the microphone
First-person narration, a case that walks in the door, and a city that talks back. Marlowe, Sam Spade and Johnny Dollar turned detection into a listening form.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of 21st Precinct
Modern series carrying this form forward.
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