The Pinkerton National Detective Agency, usually shortened to the Pinkertons, is a private U.S. security guard and detective agency established by Allan Pinkerton in 1850. Pinkerton became famous when he claimed to have foiled a plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln, who later hired Pinkerton agents for his personal security during the Civil War.

In the 1850s, Allan Pinkerton met Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in a local Masonic Hall and formed the North-Western Police Agency, later known as the Pinkerton Agency.

Historian Frank Morn writes: "By the mid-1850s a few businessmen saw the need for greater control over their employees; their solution was to sponsor a private detective system. In February 1855, Allan Pinkerton, after consulting with six midwestern railroads, created such an agency in Chicago."

History Of The Pinkerton Agency - The First Private Eye

Bierce’s ghost stories are not among the best-written but they are unusual and distinctly ‘modern’ in their definition of what constitutes a ‘ghost’. They enjoy a popularity today that eluded them during Bierce’s lifetime, perhaps because the late twentieth century reader is more prepared to accept his psychological approach to the genre. The stories resist neat classification, no conclusions are offered. Whatever the true nature of the entity in The Damned Thing, Bierce offers no tidy answer. One of the protagonists offers his theory but it is no more than that and you are left with the feeling that perhaps the entity wanders the earth to this day and that Bierce merely recorded one episode of its existence.

It's hard not to feel ambivalent about The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams. Yes, it does give us an opportunity to hear previously unreleased lyrics by one of the greatest songwriters country music has produced. But Williams didn't write the music that accompanies his words, and as sincere as these performers are, none of the words are framed the way Williams would have, had he completed the songwriting process. Would Hank, for example, have set "The Love That Faded" to a waltz beat, as Bob Dylan has done with it? I like Dylan's performance, the way I like so many of his latter-day, gargling-with-Drano vocal turns. Dylan doesn't try to capture the sound of Hank Williams, and that's a good strategy. But so is Alan Jackson's, in "You've Been Lonesome Too," and if anything, Jackson sounds like an uncannily well-rested, well-preserved version of Hank Williams himself.

One of the greatest gifts of this project is to hear Williams at his most heartless, bitter and vengeful. The legend spent much of his career balancing songs of heartache with songs of faith. But I was thrilled to hear the dark Hank Williams presented by Vince Gill and Rodney Crowell in their stark version of a great, ruthless lyric, "I Hope You Shed a Million Tears." Instead of heartache, heartlessness — dismissals don't get much more decisive than that. Dylan was the first artist contacted to interpret this material, and the album has been released on his Egyptian Records imprint for Columbia Records. The stone-cold words in "I Hope You Shed a Million Tears" can't help but remind me of the harsh Dylan of "Like a Rolling Stone" or something from Blood on the Tracks. Similarly, Patty Loveless takes another face-slap lyric, "You're Through Fooling Me," and brings it to full crimson passion and beauty. It's interesting to see the words of one song as printed on the CD jacket of The Lost Notebooks, and to listen to where the line-breaks occur in the singing of the others. Williams usually wrote here in quatrains, each verse a direct ABAB rhyme scheme. Keeping the structure simple allowed him to speak directly yet artfully.

There's a flaw in this collection, however. Too frequently, the invited stars err on the side of caution, applying pallid, even rudimentary melodies to the lyrics, resulting in the washed-out backgrounds of songs covered by, for example, Sheryl Crow, Lucinda Williams and Jakob Dylan. Then there's Jack White's labored impersonation of the wrong Hank — he sounds more like Hank Williams III, the wobbliest member of the Williams family to trade on the great man's name. Overall, however, The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams is catnip for anyone familiar with Williams' greatest hits. A couple of these songs could have been crafted by the man himself into important additions to his canon. As it stands, we have these reverent, and sometimes inspired, interpretations of words that ring with graceful candor. [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]

Breathing New Life Into Hank Williams' Lyrics

10 Cool Gadgets for Your Pet:

Pets are awesome, and sometimes they require a bit more maintainance than we can offer at the moment. Saying that some inventors have created a few cool gadgets that you can use to help you save time and have your pet leaving satisfied.

1. Remote Pet Feeder

This pet feeder runs on and feeds your pet according to your schedule. It also allows you to watch your pet through the Internet while it's enjoying its meal.

2. Canine Treadmill

For those who don't want to walk their dogs, their dogs can now walk themselves, for a price of course. Various sizes are available for different sized pooches.

3. Pet Emergency Evacuation Jacket

This jacket is made of flame-retardant material and comes with a carrying handle with pockets filled with pet necessities (food bowls, muzzles, odor control bags, rain hoods, rain boots, freezer packs, a bell, and a waterproof pet ID). Of course it has emergency tools for you too: granola bars, Band-aids, aromatherapy oil to calm you down, gloves, a radio, and emergency whistle.

4. Puppy Tweets collar

Now you can add your dog to your Twitter followers. This gadget sends Tweets based on an analysis of what your dog is doing (licking, biting, eating, etc.)

5. Cats Attack Scratching Post

Turn your kitten into Catzilla with this city-scape scratching post.

6. Tennis Ball cannon

The name pretty much gives it all away. This toy shoots out tennis balls to your pup, and when it senses that the dog has placed the ball back, it sends another one its way.

7. Dog shower

This shower for your pup has 16 jet-nozzles and an extendable showerhead. It is both practical for you and relaxing for your dog.

8. Pet Peek

The Pet Peek is pretty much a porthole for your fence. It allows your dog to look around without running loose. Necessary? Not at all. But it is kinda cool.

9. Litter Robot

This robot waits seven minutes after your cat leaves the litter box and begins to clean out the clumps of kitty litter. It collects the waste in a small compartment that can be removed and emptied once full.

1

0. Coffee Table Cat Hammock

Just in case your cat can't find another place to curl up, you can purchase a $2,400 coffee table with a built-in cat hammock. It has all the function of an actual coffee table, plus a cozy fabric hammock for your feline friend.

The Lives of Harry Lime (original British title The Adventures of Harry Lime) was an old-time radio program produced in London, England during the 1951 to 1952 season.

Orson Welles reprized his role of Harry Lime from the celebrated 1949 film adaptation of Graham Greene's novel The Third Man. The radio series is a "prequel" to the film, and depicts the many misadventures of con-artist Lime in a somewhat lighter tone than the character's villainy in the film.

Most episodes would begin with "The Third Man Theme" being played, abruptly cut off by an echoing gunshot. Then Welles would speak:

"That was the shot that killed Harry Lime. He died in a sewer beneath Vienna, as those of you know who saw the movie The Third Man. Yes, that was the end of Harry Lime ... but it was not the beginning. Harry Lime had many lives ... and I can recount all of them. How do I know? Very simple. Because my name is Harry Lime."

Although often cited as a BBC production, the series was one of a number produced and distributed independently by the prolific Harry Alan Towers. Only sixteen of the episodes were acquired and broadcast by the BBC in the UK. It was the first time that the BBC broadcast episodes of a dramatic series that it did not produce. The full series was syndicated to radio stations in the U.S.

All  The Lives of Harry Lime (HQ Set).zip

Singles

Harry_Lime_51-08-03_01_Too_Many_Crooks.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-08-10_02_See_Naples_and_Live.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-08-17_03_Clay_Pigeon.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-08-24_04_Ticket_to_Tangier.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-08-31_05_Voodoo.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-09-07_06_Bohemian_Star.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-09-14_07_Love_Affair.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-09-21_08_Rogues_Holiday.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-09-28_09_Work_of_Art.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-10-05_10_Operation_Music_Box.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-10-12_11_Golden_Fleece.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-10-19_12_Blue_Bride.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-10-26_13_Every_Frame_Has_a_Silver..>
Harry_Lime_51-11-02_14_Mexican_Hat_Trick.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-11-09_15_Art_Is_Long_and_Lime_Is_..>
Harry_Lime_51-11-16_16_In_Pursuit_of_a_Ghost.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-11-23_17_Horse_Play.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-11-30_18_3_Farthings_for_Your_Tho..>
Harry_Lime_51-12-07_19_The_Third_Woman.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-12-14_20_An_Old_Moorish_Custom.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-12-21_21_Its_a_Knockout.mp3
Harry_Lime_51-12-28_22_Two_Is_Company.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-01-04_23_Cherchez_La_Gem.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-01-11_24_Hand_of_Glory.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-01-18_25_Double_Double_Cross.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-01-25_26_5000_Pengoes_and_a_Kiss.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-02-01_27_Dark_Enchantress.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-02-08_28_Earl_on_Troubled_Waters.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-02-15_29_Dead_Candidate.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-02-22_30_Its_in_the_Bag.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-02-29_31_Hyacinth_Patrol.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-03-07_32_Turnabout_Is_Foul_Play.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-03-14_33_Violets_Sweet_Violets.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-03-21_34_Faith_Lime_and_Charity.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-03-28_35_Pleasure_Before_Business..>
Harry_Lime_52-04-04_36_Fools_Gold.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-04-11_37_Man_of_Mystery.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-04-18_38_The_Painted_Smile.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-04-25_39_Harry_Joins_the_Circus.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-05-02_40_Suzies_Cue.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-05-09_41_Vive_Le_Chance.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-05-16_42_Elusive_Vermeer.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-05-23_43_Murder_on_the_Riviera.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-05-30_44_Pearls_of_Bohemia.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-06-06_45_A_Night_in_a_Harem.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-06-13_46_Blackmail_Is_a_Nasty_Wor..>
Harry_Lime_52-06-20_47_The_Professor_Regrets.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-06-27_48_The_Hard_Way.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-07-04_49_Paris_Is_Not_the_Same.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-07-11_50_Honeymoon.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-07-18_51_The_Blue_Caribou.mp3
Harry_Lime_52-07-25_52_Greek_Meets_Greek.mp3

From 1931 to 1955, the Lum and Abner radio show brought the town of Pine Ridge (Montgomery County), into the homes of millions of listeners across the country. During World War II, Armed Forces Radio took Lum and Abner around the world.

Chester “Chet” Lauck and Findley Norris “Tuffy” Goff, two young comedians from Mena (Polk County), created the characters when they were invited to appear on a statewide flood relief broadcast over KTHS radio in Hot Springs (Garland County) on April 26, 1931. Seconds before being introduced, they created the names Lum Eddards for Lauck and Abner Peabody for Goff.

The two old codgers (Lauck and Goff were actually in their late twenties) ran the Jot ‘Em Down General Store in Pine Ridge. Lum was a bachelor with an eye for women, and his ego usually got in the way of common sense. Abner was a hen-pecked married man, and his gullibility was enormous. They were civic-minded merchants who never seemed to have any money in the cash register. Their schemes for grandeur always brought them to the brink of tragedy.

Additional characters were created for later broadcasts. Lauck portrayed Cedric Wehunt, and nosey Grandpappy Spears, while Goff became Dick Huddleston (the real store keeper in Waters, the town upon which Pine Ridge was based), schemer Squire Skimp, shy Mousey Gray, Mose Moots the barber, town-meany Snake Hogan, and many others. Each character was based on a composite of old friends from Waters and Mena.

The Lum and Abner show was set in the Jot ‘Em Down Store in Pine Ridge. On April 26, 1936, the citizens of Waters changed the town’s name to Pine Ridge in honor of Lum and Abner.

Their humor was clean and honest, reflecting small town life and human nature. The stories had universal themes that have not become dated, and therefore Lum and Abner continues to be popular with old-time radio fans.

KTHS groomed the young talent on Sunday broadcasts for just a few months, and then they auditioned in Chicago for a network show on NBC radio. Lum and Abner was picked up immediately and continued for almost twenty-five years, including 5,800 daily live fifteen-minute programs. A series of contracts saw them on the air for four radio networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, and Mutual), sponsored by such major companies as Quaker Oats, Ford Motor Company, Horlick’s Malted Milk, Alka Seltzer, General Foods, and General Mills.

Lum and Abner was the first network program broadcast from Radio City in New York in 1933, the first to do a marathon charity broadcast, and the first to make a transatlantic “simulcast,” with Lauck in London and Goff in Chicago. Their promotions of war effort causes during World War II were especially successful. Their sponsors offered premiums that are now collectibles.

As a result of their radio popularity, Lum and Abner broadcasts moved to Hollywood studios in 1939 in order for the actors to pursue careers in motion pictures. The pair made six movies during the 1940s: Dreaming Out Loud (1940), The Bashful Bachelor (1942), So This is Washington (1943), Two Weeks to Live (1943), Going to Town (1944), and Partners in Time (1946). Lum and Abner Abroad (1956) was made in Europe as a television pilot, with the two characters as Hollywood personalities. Lauck and Goff did not like the result, and it was not released to theaters; it is now sought-after piece of Lum and Abner history.

Lum and Abner began as a lark in Mena, traveled to Hot Springs, and grew in Chicago and other cities. Hollywood fulfilled the dreams of two small-town boys. Early broadcasts were carried by local sponsors, but soon, nationwide sponsors reached into millions of homes. After nearly twenty-five years of radio, television made inroads into audiences, and the programs were again locally sponsored. By 1955, the two were ready to quit, as Norris Goff had been in poor health for many years. Their concept has been copied on such programs as Beverly Hillbillies and by the comic strip “Li’l Abner,” which is often confused with Lum and Abner, but the original has never been equaled.

Lum and Abner made a small town in Arkansas world famous. Today, Pine Ridge is home to the Lum and Abner Museum. The National Lum and Abner Association was founded in 1984 and has 600 members nationwide. (Encyclopedia Of Arkansas)

L&A 480926 A Surprise Party For Lum And Abner

L&A 481003 The Store Is Pratically On Someone Elses Property

L&A 481010 Baby Cedric The Mind Reader

L&A 481017 Lum Fakes A Broken Leg

L&A 481024 Lum Becomes The Substitute Postmaster

L&A 481031 Lum Takes Up Surrealist Painting

More radio shows here

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The Jack Carson Show first appeared on CBS radio for Campbell Soups, on June 2, 1943. The show ran for about four years until 1947 when Carson became the M.C. on The Sealtest Village Store.

The Jack Carson Show centred around Jack’s hectic home life at 22 North Hollywood Lane and his encounters with a variety of strange relatives, friends and neighbors. As in their vaudeville days Dave Willock was the sidekick playing the part of Carson’s nephew Tugwell. Eddie Marr was Jack's press agent, Arthur Treacher his butler.


Biography

John Elmer Carson was born in Carman, Manitoba on 27 October 1910 to Elmer and Elsa Carson. Shortly afterwards the family moved to Milwaukee, which he always thought of as his home town. He attended high school at Hartford School, Milwaukee and St. John's Military Academy, Delafield - but it was while attending Carleton College, Northfield that he got a taste for acting Jack Carson, because of his size - 6ft 2" and 220lbs had his first stage appearance as Hercules in a college production. During a performance he tripped and took half the set with him. A college friend, Dave Willock, thought it was so funny he persuaded Carson to team with him in a vaudeville act - Willock and Carson, and a new career began. In 1936 they decided to try their luck in Hollywood - and landed at RKO where they were able to work in bit parts. Jack Carson quickly qot on the RKO treadmill through a gruelling series of films, sometimes changing costumes four times a day. Willock and Carson meanwhile got their big radio break on the Bing Crosby Kraft Music Hall program in 1938, and it was that appearance that lead to a string of other radio appearances and hosting opportunities which would culminate in his own radio show in 1943. (Jack Carson Fansite)

Jack_Carson_Show_47-02-12_20_Fixing_a_Radio.mp3

There is a excellent set of the shows in the OTR Archives, all HQ 128-44 except for two.

My Favorite Husband began as a radio sitcom on CBS Radio, with Lucille Ball and Richard Denning as Liz and George Cooper (Cugat in a very few early episodes, until bandleader Xavier Cugat was said to be edgy about the radio couple sharing the name). The couple lived at 321 Bundy Drive in the fictitious city of Sheridan Falls, and were billed as "two people who live together and like it." The main sponsor was Jell-O, and an average of three "plugs" for Jell-O were made in each episode, including Lucille Ball's usual sign-on, "Jell-O, everybody!" It would start as:(1948 radio version).

The program initially portrayed the couple as being a well-to-do banker and his socially prominent wife, but three new writers — Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and Jess Oppenheimer — took over the writing, changed the couple's name to Cooper, and remade them into a middle-class couple, believing average listeners would find them more accessible.

Lucille Ball was asked to do a television version of the show (with Jell-O remaining as sponsor) and CBS insisted on Richard Denning continuing as her co-star, but Ball refused to do a husband-and-wife television show without real-life husband Desi Arnaz playing her on-screen husband. The network reluctantly agreed, reworking the concept into I Love Lucy after Ball and Arnaz took a show on the road to convince the network audiences would respond. But Jell-O dropped out of the show in favor of Philip Morris for television.

Carroll, Pugh, and Oppenheimer agreed to do the switch to I Love Lucy. They subsequently reworked a few My Favorite Husband episodes into I Love Lucy episodes, especially early in the TV show's run. For example, the 1948 radio episode entitled "Giveaway Program" inspired the I Love Lucy episode called "Redecorating," with some lines being exactly the same. Many of the actors who had done My Favorite Husband radio show also appeared on I Love Lucy, sometimes in episodes where they reprised their roles using a reworked Husband script.


Here is a cartoon made from an Old Time Radio episode of My Favorite Husband from Christmas 1949. Really very well done.

 Life with Luigi was a radio comedy-drama series which began September 21, 1948 on CBS, broadcasting its final episode on March 3, 1953. The story concerned Italian immigrant Luigi Basco, and his experiences as an immigrant in Chicago. Many of the shows take place at the US citizenship classes that Luigi attends with other immigrants from different countries, as well as trying to fend off the repeated advances of the morbidly-obese daughter of his landlord/sponsor.

Luigi was played by J. Carrol Naish, an Irish-American. Naish continued in the role on the short-lived CBS television version in 1952 and was later replaced by Vito Scotti when the series was briefly revived in the spring of 1953. With a working title of The Little Immigrant, Life with Luigi was created by Cy Howard, who earlier had created the hit radio comedy, My Friend Irma. Other characters on the radio show included Pasquale (Alan Reed), another Italian-American who was always trying to set Luigi up with his daughter Rosa; and Shultz (Hans Conreid), a German immigrant and fellow student in Luigi's citizenship class.

The show was sometimes regarded as the Italian counterpart to the radio show The Goldbergs, which chronicled the experience of Jewish immigrants in New York.

Life_with_Luigi_48-12-21_014_Antique_Colonial_Silver_Cup.mp3

Visit show page HERE

The Loner was an American western series that ran for less than one season on CBS from 1965 to 1966, under the primary sponsorship of Philip Morris. This is a great western series that is over-looked. Great acting and stories with lots of popular guest stars. The series was conceived and written by none other than Rod Serling, fresh off the successful network run of his legendary Twilight Zone series.

The show was set in the years immediately following the American Civil War. Lloyd Bridges played the title character, William Colton, a former Union cavalry officer who headed to the American west in search of a new life. Each episode dealt with Colton's encounters with various individuals on his trek west.

Here is an episode titled THE VESPERS with guest star Jack Lord. You may remember him, Jack went on to star in the TV series Hawaii Five-O.

Airdate September 25, 1965
Written by Rod Serling
Directed by Leon Benson
Film Editor: George Gittens

CAST
Jack Lord...........Reverend Booker
Joan Freeman............Alice Booker
Ron Soble.......................Deneen
Bill Quinn........................Doctor

Sworn to avenge his brother's death, a hood
comes gunning for a small town's local minister.
When Colton arrives to warn his old friend
and ex-soldier, he finds the man unwilling
to resort to violence to protect himself
and his pregnant wife.

Hear It Now, an American radio program on CBS, began in 1950 and was hosted by Edward R. Murrow and produced by Murrow and Fred W. Friendly. It ran for one hour on Fridays at 9 pm.

Go to Hear It Now page

If you’re ready to enjoy some great audio, take a look at Times Past member Bill Hollweg's website BrokenSea Audio Productions. What are they about? I quote from the site "We are a keen group of audio drama fanatics who create podcast and free download stories in audio format. Included in our line up is original fantasy, sci-fi, horror, drama, comedy and fan-works and audio versions of great films (like Planet of the Apes and Logan’s Run)."

I take my hat off to all the participants from BrokenSea in producing these fine audio productions. 

Dashiell Hammett's SAM SPADE is surely one of the most important figures in the entire private eye genre. He made his debut in 1929 in the pages of Black Mask, in the serialized first part of The Maltese Falcon, and the genre has never been the same. He's a "hard and shifty fellow," a partner in the Archer and Spade Detective Agency of San Francisco. He doesn't particularly like his partner, and he's not above sleeping with his wife, but when Miles is murdered, he swings into action, and ends up mixed up with a quest for a priceless statuette, a rara-avis, called the Maltese Falcon.

The Story of Sam Spade

Three film adaptations were based on it in 1931, 1936, and 1941. The first two were not all that great, but the third time was the charm. The Maltese Falcon, released in 1941 by Warner Brothers, written and directed by John Huston, and starring Humphrey Bogart as Spade was an amazing, powerful piece of work.

And in the forties, Spade was a staple of the airwaves, thanks to The Adventures of Sam Spade, a popular radio show, featuring Howard Duff in the lead role, and sponsored by Wildroot Hair Oil. In fact, a series of single-page comic strip/hair tonic ads appeared in magazines, newspapers and comic books, featuring Spade shilling for Wildroot Hair Oil. (The ads were drawn by Golden Age artist Lou Fine, who later went on to do the Peter Scratch comic strip.)

In fact, the only real sequel to The Maltese Falcon was not produced for either prose or film, though, but for radio. Both The Adventures of Sam Spade and the great mystery anthology show Suspense were both produced by the same man, William Speir. During the first year or two that Sam Spade was on the air, Suspense was an hour show, hosted by Robert Montgomery. To get fans of Suspense listening to Sam Spade, Speir produced a special one-hour Spade episode called "The Kandy Tooth Caper" and aired it on Suspense.

"The Kandy Tooth" from the popular old time radio series "Suspense." aired January 10, 1948 on CBS starring Howard Duff as Sam Spade. Based on characters created by Dashiell Hammett. The story of the return of the "Fat Man!" A sequel to "The Maltese Falcon," with "Joel Cairo," Wilmer's younger brother, and other characters from the film. This time, it's a search for a treasure worth more than the "Maltese Falcon!" William Spier speaks after the drama. 

Suspense 48-01-10 (279) The Kandy Tooth (HQ)

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The Lone Ranger is an American radio and television show created by George W. Trendle and developed by writer Fran Striker.

The eponymous character is a masked Texas Ranger in the American Old West, originally played by Paul Halliwell, who gallops about righting injustices with the aid of his clever, laconic Indian sidekick, Tonto. Departing on his white horse Silver, the Ranger would famously say "Hi-yo, Silver, away!" as the horse galloped toward the setting sun.

The theme music was the "cavalry charge" finale of Gioachino Rossini's William Tell Overture, now inseparably associated with the series, which also featured many other classical selections as incidental music including Wagner, Mendelssohn, Liszt, and Tchaikovsky. The theme was conducted by Daniel Perez Castaneda.
Classical music was used because it was in the public domain; thus allowing production costs to be kept down while providing a wide range of music as needed without the costs of a composer. While this practice was started during the radio show, it was retained after the move to television in the budget-strapped early days of the ABC network.

The first of 2,956 episodes of The Lone Ranger premiered on radio January 30, 1933 on WXYZ radio in Detroit, Michigan and later on the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network and then on NBC's Blue Network (which became ABC, which broadcast the show's last new episode on September 3, 1954). Elements of the Lone Ranger story were first used in an earlier series Fran Striker wrote for a station in Buffalo, New York.

On radio, the Lone Ranger was played by several actors, including John L. Barrett who played the role on the test broadcasts on WEBR during early January, 1933; George Seaton (under the name George Stenius) from January 31 to May 9 of 1933; series director James Jewell and an actor known only by the pseudonym "Jack Deeds" (for one episode each), and then by Earle Graser from May 16, 1933 until April 7, 1941. On April 8, Graser died in a car accident, and for five episodes, as the result of being critically wounded, the Lone Ranger was unable to speak beyond a whisper, with Tonto carrying the action. Finally, on the broadcast of April 18, 1941, deep-voiced performer Brace Beemer, who had been the show's announcer for several years, took over the role and played the part until the end. Fred Foy, also an announcer on the show, took over the role on one broadcast on March 29, 1954, when Brace Beemer had a brief case of laryngitis. Tonto was played throughout the run by actor John Todd (although there were a few isolated occasions when he was substituted with Roland Parker, better known as Kato for much of the run of sister series The Green Hornet), and other supporting players were selected from Detroit area actors and studio staff. These included Jay Michael (who also played the lead on Challenge of the Yukon aka Sgt. Preston of the Yukon), Bill Saunders (as various villains, including Butch Cavendish), Paul Hughes (as the Ranger's friend Thunder Martin and as various army colonels and badmen), future movie star John Hodiak, Janka Fasciszewska (under the name Jane Fae), and others. The part of nephew Dan Reid was played by various child actors, including Bob Martin, James Lipton, and Dick Beals.

The last new radio episode of the Lone Ranger was aired on September 3, 1954.