The run
- Network
- Syndicated
- Years active
- 1940–1950
- Surviving broadcasts
- 26
- Genre
- detective
STAND BY FOR CRIME This show, from the early 1950s, is a good example of the true story style of delivery made popular in radio's classic crime shows Gangbusters and Mr. District Attorney . Of course, the best and most popular of the true crime shows was Dragnet -- the monotone, "just the facts" style demanded by Jack Webb in the show made two points at once: first, that the show wasn't a typical melodramatic crime show, as had been on radio since "the good old days", and more importantly, that we were along for the ride on another day at the office -- in this case, a policeman's “day at the office". Not a true crime show, as this is drama, but this show features Chuck Morgan, as played by Glen Langen, a very believable news anchor at KOP, a Los Angeles radio station. He is pals with Lieutenant Bill Miggs of the police force, who tips him off to hot crime news. Digitised by the Old Time Radio Researchers and streamed from the Internet Archive item “OTRR_Stand_By_For_Crime_Singles”; these recordings are in the public domain.
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
0 dated broadcasts across 11 years on the air, with 11 years 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 NaN, in original transmission order.
- 1. The Communist Menace · Date unknown
- 2. The Tennant Jewels Stolen · Date unknown
- 3. Displaced Into Danger · Date unknown
The Communist Menace
Date unknown · 49 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
The Tennant Jewels Stolen
Date unknown · 49 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Displaced Into Danger
Date unknown · 48 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
A Spy Ring In June
Date unknown · 49 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
The Clueless Crime Spree
Date unknown · 48 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Death On The Tracks
Date unknown · 49 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Queenie's $10,000 Alibi
Date unknown · 48 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
The Black Hand
Date unknown · 49 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Also on Syndicated
Syndicated in 1940–1950
Other series the network carried while Stand By for Crime 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 Stand By for Crime
Modern series carrying this form forward.
If you liked this
More to explore
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