The Author Meets the Critics
Originally broadcast on Mutual, 5 September 1948. Transferred from the Internet Archive's The Author Meets the Critics collection (public domain).
The run
- Network
- Mutual
- Years active
- 1943–1954
- Surviving broadcasts
- 150
- Genre
- detective
Nick Carter first made an appearance in a pulp novel in 1886. His popularity lasted over 100 years until the last Nick Carter-Killmaster book was published in 1990. The master detective first ventured into radio on April 11, 1943 on the Mutual Broadcasting System as The Return of Nick Carter , a nod to his pulp fiction history.
1948 · 81946 · 11945 · 11944 · 11943 · 1
Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files
Clean transfer · 39 of 40Listenable · 1 of 40
Source collection
Old Time Radio Researchers Group
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
Every broadcast below carries its own provenance sheet — transfer quality, file source and rights.Archive record: OTRR_Nick_Carter_Master_Detective_Singles
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
12 dated broadcasts across 12 years on the air, with 7 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
JFMAMJJASOND
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
Clean transferListenableRough but complete No surviving recording
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1943, in original transmission order.
- 1. Nick Carter The Echo of Death · 6 Jul 1943
- 2. Nick Carter Kidnapped for Sale, Part 5 · 21 Apr 1944
- 3. Nick Carter Poison with a Past · 4 Mar 1945
- 01
Nick Carter The Echo of Death
6 Jul 1943 · 29 min
Broadcast 6 July 1943. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
- 02
Nick Carter Kidnapped for Sale, Part 5
21 Apr 1944 · 14 min
Broadcast 21 April 1944. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
- 03
Nick Carter Poison with a Past
4 Mar 1945 · 29 min
Broadcast 4 March 1945. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
- 04
Nick Carter The Case of the Dictaphone Murder
4 Jun 1946 · 29 min
Broadcast 4 June 1946. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
- 05
The Case of the Devil's Left Eye
4 Jan 1948 · 29 min
Originally broadcast on Mutual, 4 January 1948. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
- 06
The Case of the Wandering Corpse
15 Feb 1948 · 27 min
Originally broadcast on Mutual, 15 February 1948. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
- 07
The Case of the Martyred Rat
28 Mar 1948 · 26 min
Originally broadcast on Mutual, 28 March 1948. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
- 08
The Case of the Salesman of Death
16 May 1948 · 25 min
Originally broadcast on Mutual, 16 May 1948. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Same night on the air
5 Sep 1948
Everything else the archive still holds from the night of 5 Sep 1948.
The Roy Rogers Show
Broadcast 5 September 1948. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
Box 13
Broadcast on Mutual. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Under Arrest
Broadcast 5 September 1948. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
Also on Mutual
Mutual in 1943–1954
Other series the network carried while Nick Carter, Master Detective 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 Nick Carter, Master Detective
Modern series carrying this form forward.
If you liked this
More to explore
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