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Thriller

Whistler, The

1901–1955 · 200 episodes · 928 listens

The Whistler was an American radio mystery drama series that ran from May 16, 1942, until September 22, 1955, on the west-coast regional CBS radio network. The show was also broadcast in Chicago and over Armed Forces Radio. On the west coast, it was sponsored by the Signal Oil Company.

Each episode of The Whistler began with the sound of footsteps and a person whistling the show’s haunting signature theme tune, composed by Wilbur Hatch and featuring Dorothy Roberts whistling with an orchestra. A character known only as the Whistler was the host and narrator of the tales, which focused on crime and fate. He often commented directly upon the action in the manner of a Greek chorus, taunting the characters, guilty or innocent, from an omniscient perspective.

The stories followed a formula in which a person’s criminal acts were typically revealed either by an overlooked but important detail or by the criminal’s own stupidity. An ironic ending, often grim, was a key feature of each episode, though on rare occasions, the plot’s twist of fate caused the story to end happily for the protagonist.

The Stars

The title role of the Whistler was portrayed by several actors over the course of the series, with Bill Forman having the role for the longest period of time.

Others who portrayed the Whistler at various times included Gale Gordon, Joseph Kearns, Marvin Miller (the announcer for the show, who occasionally filled in for Forman and played supporting roles), and Bill Johnstone (who had the title role on radio’s The Shadow from 1938 to 1943).

Key Dates 

  • The Whistler debuted on May 16, 1942.
  • It ran until September 22, 1955, a span of over 13 years.
  • There were also two short-lived attempts to form east-coast broadcast spurs: one from July 3 to September 25, 1946, sponsored by the Campbell Soup Company, and another from March 26, 1947, to September 29, 1948, sponsored by Household Finance.

Other Information

The program was adapted into a series of eight film noir movies by Columbia Pictures, starting in 1944. These films starred veteran actor Richard Dix in the lead role, with a different character in each film, ranging from mild-mannered sympathetic heroes to flawed and forceful villains. After Dix’s retirement, Michael Duane took over the lead role in the eighth film.

In 1954, a syndicated TV version of The Whistler was produced and aired for a brief period, with Bill Forman reprising his role as the Whistler from the radio series.

The show was also parodied in an episode of The Jack Benny Program in 1964, titled “I Am the Fiddler,” which was an expanded reboot of an earlier, like-named, audio-only Benny parody that aired during the October 20, 1946, episode of his radio show.

Additionally, the opening narrative of The Whistler can be heard on the car radio in the 1990 film The Two Jakes, set in Los Angeles in the late 1940s.

Cast & Crew

EElliott LewisActorJJack WebbActorJJohn DehnerActorPPaul FreesActorLLurene TuttleActorCCharles SeelActorBBerne SurreyEEverett ClarkActorSSherman MarksDirector · ProducerWWilbur HatchMusicBBill FormanActorDDorothy RobertsMusicGGene TwomblySSterling TracyDirector · ProducerGGeorge AllenDirector · ProducerMMarvin MillerActor · AnnouncerVVariousActorJJack MoylesActorHHoward CulverActorCCharlotte LawrenceActorHHy AverbackActorMMary ShippActorDDoris SingletonActorJJoe KearnsActor

Ratings & reviews

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Episodes

Apr 1, 1946 · 28:29
Lydia Hunter stood alone in the kitchen watching the coffee bubble in the electric percolator. She knew Gerald would…
Apr 1, 1951 · 29:30
“It began with little things didn’t it Vance. Little bits of conversation that were cut short and abruptly changed…
Apr 10, 1949 · 25:23
From the porch of the old grey house on the hill Victoria Crane peered through the low morning haze that hovered over…
Apr 14, 1947 · 29:30
It was mid morning when Elaine left Nancy’s apartment in the suburbs and began the unbearable taxi ride across the city…
Apr 14, 1948 · 29:22
The first 5 minutes of this is a broadcast by President Truman encouraging us to buy US Security Bonds. Although not…
Apr 15, 1946 · 29:40
Fifteen minutes after Verna had called him on the phone Steve Carson was walking in to the entrance of her apartment.…
Apr 15, 1951 · 29:34
Ted Wilkins stopped walking in the lights of the entrance over a small apartment building highlighted on the words El…
Apr 16, 1945 · 29:43
When in the editorial offices of the Cincinnati Gazette the news was received that killer Carter the gang murderer had…
Apr 16, 1950 · 29:16
Vicky and Gill Hallister were plotting to kill his stepmother to prevent her from spending anymore of his inheritance.…
Apr 17, 1949 · 30:25
A few months before Jean would have dismissed the whole idea of having her fortune told as ridiculous but with marriage…
Apr 18, 1954 · 22:03
Roseanne Wixom’s suppressed anger increased inner fury as she sat in the law office of Ralph Hamilton listening to the…
Apr 2, 1945 · 29:33
It’s almost midnight behind the dark walls of the state penitentiary. The wards man McLaughlin and Father Maloney had…
Apr 2, 1947 · 29:30
The Atkins Clayton affair was unusual for two reasons. In the first place of course, it involved a pair of famous…
Apr 2, 1950 · 30:42
It was almost midnight when Joe Cannon drove his car in to the parking lot and got out and walked around to the…
Apr 21, 1947 · 29:31
They sat at the table in silence the dinner almost over George Turner on one side and his wife Jan opposite him. George…
Apr 21, 1948 · 29:30
For 15 years George Malcolm had been a reader for the Latimer publishing company. 15 years plowing through the tangled…
Apr 21, 1955 · 24:42
Chalk Point is a tiny strip of land that extends into the Pacific. At it's land's end stands Jager House, a large and…
Apr 22, 1946 · 30:03
Like all murders it had a vague intangible beginning. As Elaine walked home from the trial that afternoon she tried to…
Apr 22, 1951 · 29:24
Grant Adamson leans back in the heavy leather chair behind the broad mahogany desk set diagonally across the corner of…
Apr 23, 1945 · 29:45
1915 was a big year for a lot of people in New York City Herman Arnold for instance. Herman Arnold the gambler was…
Apr 23, 1950 · 29:27
It was a quiet wedding in a small church in San Diego, but everyone who counted considered it one of the most important…
Apr 24, 1949 · 28:36
Jim Kinsella couldn’t seem to fix the beginning in his mind, if there was a beginning it was all too confused like…
Apr 25, 1954 · 24:00
Nola Norton has gone to Chuck Williams’s apartment to pick up his gossip column for the Chronicle newspaper. But Chuck…
Apr 27, 1952 · 29:35
The attractive girl at the reception desk Pat remarked to the young intern Dr Layton that he looked like there’s…
Apr 28, 1947 · 29:36
Paul had looked forward to the opening night in Philadelphia for months and if anything it had exceeded his brightest…
Apr 28, 1948 · 32:40
The white thatched community sat quietly sweltering under a broiling South American sun as a battered taxi swerved off…
Apr 28, 1955 · 24:25
A newly released convict finds himself entangled in a clever scheme involving forged historical documents. As he…
Apr 29, 1946 · 29:11
There’s a man who sits at the bar of a waterfront saloon in New England tonight, a man you’d pass on the street and…
Apr 29, 1951 · 28:57
The happenings here at Clayton House are a nerve-racking strange experience. She’s never liked or understood this odd…
Apr 3, 1949 · 28:25
The girl sitting alone at the bar paid for her drink and then counted what little she had left. Marilyn Millington’s…
Apr 30, 1945 · 29:49
There’s an old adage about letting sleeping dogs lie but sometimes that’s not so easy, sometimes they won’t lie still,…
Apr 6, 1952 · 29:22
An interesting and sometimes dangerous part of living is the unexpected, the oddity of chance, circumstances beyond our…
Apr 7, 1947 · 30:36
Friday was the climax of a terrible week for Willard Ralley. It was a week of decisions, and in all of his 45 years,…
Apr 7, 1948 · 29:54
Murder is a peculiar affair. It’s the darkest most despicable of all crimes. Yet it strikes most frequently among the…
Apr 8, 1946 · 28:27
Fear can become a terrible thing gangrenous, disintegrating, warping, twisting, and gnawing at a man’s mind until he’s…
Apr 8, 1951 · 29:28
It’s a terrible moment for Carl when Jenny his secretary describes a composition she corrected for her sister who…
Aug 1, 1954 · 24:18
The late afternoon sun a red bal of fire lingered on the rim of the distant mountain and long shadows were creeping…
Aug 10, 1952 · 21:48
A meeting was taking place in the offices of the Cuban Sugar Growers Association and they discovered that $60,000 was…
Aug 11, 1948 · 26:14
It came to Martin Forbes as a terrible shock. During the year since the death of his wife Margaret he had buried…
Aug 11, 1955 · 20:47
The man standing in the open door of the swiftly moving box car looked incongruous, out of place somehow. Certainly…
Aug 12, 1946 · 30:00
Ken Braderick and Tom Barton had grown up together and were fast friends until Ken married Helen Johnston. Helen had…
Aug 12, 1951 · 29:49
Phil Alexander slammed the phone receiver down angrily and ignored the puzzled look on Elaine Clyde’s face and slowly…
Aug 13, 1943 · 29:12
A tale of revenge unfolds as a wronged woman seeks justice for her husband's wrongful conviction. The story takes…
Aug 13, 1945 · 26:41
Murder is a peculiar affair. All it needs in many cases is the right pressure; the right set of circumstances, the…
Aug 13, 1947 · 30:30
She sat at the big Chinese table nervous fighting a closed in feeling that made it hard for her to breathe sensing…
Aug 14, 1949 · 30:00
The conversation and the cocktails were in full swing at the fashionable Brentwood Gallery. Everyone present appeared…
Aug 18, 1948 · 25:13
Surveying his own reflection in the glass door entrance to the apartment house Harry Simpson was pleased with what he…
Aug 18, 1955 · 24:15
The spotlight subtly changed from white to a delicate blue, and the small nightclub orchestra slid into three quarter…
Aug 19, 1946 · 29:28
The hot afternoon sun wilted his stiff collar and the sidewalks sizzled under his feet but Philip Linden didn’t notice…
Aug 20, 1945 · 30:47
If it hadn’t been for a simple housewife named Mimi Cass and her idea the police might never have solved the case at…
Aug 20, 1947 · 29:51
It was in a small but very special way a moment of triumph for Alma Germane. On the surface of course the matter was…
Aug 20, 1950 · 30:16
The rehearsal of Ned Wilson’s new Broadway musical had been in progress for several hours. On stage the spotlight held…
Aug 21, 1946 · 29:13
This is a gripping episode of psychological suspense as Arnold Stanton, a seemingly respectable businessman, grapples…
Aug 21, 1949 · 29:25
The group around Dr Roark’s bed moved away as he beckoned with his last remaining breath indicated that he wanted to be…
Aug 22, 1942 · 28:50
The long black car with the handsome man at the wheel with a woman beside him returns to the highway and speeds on…
Aug 22, 1954 · 26:32
Standing in the lobby of the Hotel Continental in Pisa, Italy with a group of some twenty other tourists, twenty-five…
Aug 24, 1952 · 24:10
Anna’s marriage to Stanley Craig was all part of a plan to enter the country as the wife of an American to help her to…
Aug 25, 1948 · 29:24
For ten years she had been Mark Hardwick’s private secretary. Then now in the wings of the small town auditorium Miriam…
Aug 25, 1955 · 22:34
It was night and it was Panama City and the few passengers from the Augusta Queen were waiting for the big freighter to…
Aug 26, 1946 · 29:21
The thought had first occurred to him six months ago and of course he’d shuddered a little and cast it out, of course.…
Aug 26, 1951 · 29:47
Mona had determined that her parting from her husband Gerald Stanton, was to be gay, and as she put it 'civilized'.…
Aug 27, 1945 · 29:10
Hate can be a weapon to use against the world or it can be a slow and deadly poison that shrivels the human heart. For…
Aug 27, 1947 · 26:06
Somehow standing there at the bar, glass in hand, Martin Elliott found himself thinking that even his wife Julia had…
Aug 27, 1950 · 30:17
The sea was calm and the ship the SS Java Queen out of Vancouver for San Francisco was moving calmly through it…
Aug 28, 1949 · 29:35
It was neither the best side of town nor the best cocktail bar but Danny Fort’s pocket book wasn’t in a very choosy…
Aug 29, 1942 · 28:54
Hans Minkler the young biologist only half heard the speech of the leader of the seven scientists for Hans was dreaming…
Aug 29, 1954 · 22:24
Jeffrey doesn’t want his aunt to tear down the old wall, the wall that has been on his mind for the past 5 years. It is…
Aug 3, 1952 · 24:30
Ernie went to Stauffer’s Island because he knew a quarter of a million dollars was buried there. Then he learns that…
Aug 4, 1948 · 29:30
The terrible truth underlying it all didn’t come to Carol Randolph as a bolt out of the blue; rather it came slowly…
Aug 4, 1955 · 21:38
Whilst Havana's tourists were at play on that cool summer morning, a meeting was taking place behind the panel glass…
Aug 5, 1946 · 30:04
The country’s largest news magazine wrote him up under crime described him as massive, soft spoke and methodical.…
Aug 5, 1951 · 29:49
The trio in the big car weaving its way through the evening traffic seemed typical of almost any group on the way to a…
Aug 6, 1945 · 28:38
You can live too long did you know that? Oh yes, especially if you have money, a lot of it and heirs like Helen…
Aug 6, 1947 · 30:08
The feeling of foreboding Al Parker had felt when he’d entered the fortuneteller’s tent was stronger than ever when he…
Aug 6, 1950 · 30:18
It was a summers evening quiet calm matching the gentle atmosphere of the quaint artist town of Cypress Point on the…
Aug 7, 1949 · 29:26
'Trigger Man' draws you in with a quiet dread as rising attorney Martin Lang discovers the cost of easy victories. A…
Dec 10, 1945 · 29:31
There was murder on Ronnie Hatfield’s mind long before he discovered the cistern in Round Valley but the discovery more…
Dec 10, 1947 · 30:31
It wasn't according to the rulebook but somehow Christine didn't care. Here on the day before the wedding the groom had…
Dec 10, 1950 · 29:33
After a dismal breakfast Joe Brill stood silently smoking a cigarette staring through the narrow window of his prison…
Dec 11, 1944 · 28:27
To a man who lives by matching wits with the hardened criminals who deal in narcotics the threat of violence is always…
Dec 11, 1949 · 29:44
The setting for murder can be anywhere. Perhaps it seems more at home in a dark alley or on an isolated dark road or…
Dec 12, 1948 · 30:18
As Kitty stood at the window of her husband's office nineteen floors above the street she could have seen the black…
Dec 12, 1954 · 29:49
The courtroom was tense now assistant District Attorney Philip Graham was beginning to summarize for the prosecution in…
Dec 13, 1942 · 29:09
Gambling and family squabbles lead to a terrible situation, which culminates in a junior banker realizing his worst…
Dec 16, 1951 · 25:39
Greed and desire set off a murder on the high seas resulting in a daring flight through a storm by the killer.
Dec 17, 1945 · 27:08
The man lying dead in the alley following a hit and run accident marks the beginning of a story, a very important story…
Dec 17, 1947 · 30:42
Elbert Taylor was two people. To the café society crowd in Miami he was the charming young husband of a silver fortune…
Dec 17, 1950 · 30:12
There was almost complete darkness around the parked car on the lonely road on the outskirts of Seattle and the man at…
Dec 18, 1944 · 28:50
Sometimes it’s hard to believe what a difference a few days can make in a man’s life or even less than that, an hour or…
Dec 18, 1949 · 29:46
Paul Wilson moved about his studio adding the final touches of preparation for two expected guests, two very important…
Dec 19, 1943 · 29:14
Death Demands a Payment is a tale of avarice and greed and the awful price John Hendricks paid for selling his soul to…
Dec 19, 1948 · 30:39
It was boredom that got Lee Ryan in to it in the first place. His train out of Chicago for the west coast was moving…
Dec 2, 1946 · 29:20
Steve was in his glory never in his wildest dreams had he ever believed a thing like this could come to pass. Here they…
Dec 2, 1951 · 29:10
It was night on Fountain Avenue in Hollywood but the darkness was pierced with shafts of light from police car…
Dec 20, 1953 · 23:55
Beautiful with a cool precise mind and in he late twenties Anne Barrie was unhappy with her position as private…
Dec 23, 1946 · 29:32
For three hours straight now Johnny Hale had sat at his desk shuffling through the stories and articles piled in front…
Dec 23, 1951 · 29:55
Christmas was only a few hours away and Mary Winston couldn’t help but marvel that its spirit could reached down and…
Dec 24, 1947 · 29:29
It would have been far more logical had it happened in the spring time in April perhaps with the rhododendrons blooming…
Dec 24, 1950 · 29:22
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Even…
Dec 25, 1944 · 29:44
NOTE: Announcer MISTAKENLY gives the program title as: "LIE OR CONSEQUENCES". This is definitely CHRISTMAS BONUS!…
Dec 25, 1949 · 29:38
Set on a quiet Christmas night in a small coastal hospital, this taut holiday tale turns a single letter into a moral…
Dec 26, 1948 · 30:41
Christmas was really over for it was one o’clock in the morning at Pete’s Cantina a top little nightspot on the…
Dec 27, 1942 · 29:19
It is Christmas eve in the big lonely city of New York. Outside, the snow falls in huge floating flakes. Inside an…
Dec 27, 1953 · 21:54
As the lights of the heavy truck pierce the darkness illuminating the lonely highway far ahead, the driver watched the…
Dec 3, 1945 · 29:24
“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation,” said Henry David Thoreau. How well that little Alferd Smithers who never…
Dec 3, 1947 · 29:31
John Strickland had finished his lunch and was on his way out of the Barrister's club, when Latima sidled up to him at…
Dec 3, 1950 · 30:24
It was only three in the afternoon but the hotel cocktail lounge near the railway depot at Omaha was buzzing with…
Dec 30, 1946 · 29:47
The murder on Rourke Island had its curious beginnings there was no hatred in Keith Brandon’s mind, no anger, no…
Dec 30, 1951 · 28:14
Until the night watchman on the bridge construction job dropped in Carl thought he was in the clear. He was certain…
Dec 31, 1945 · 35:18
No one knew better than Eddie Stacco that it would take a miracle to save him this time. He’d been up on murder counts…
Dec 31, 1947 · 29:02
The story of Lydia Winters falls naturally in to two parts separated by exactly one year almost to the minute. Her…
Dec 31, 1950 · 29:13
Only a few days before in the midst of the Christmas Season Dave Leonard had told himself that there was no place quite…
Dec 4, 1944 · 29:13
From the street it looked innocent, just a plain ordinary two story dwelling. There’s a sign over the entranceway, it…
Dec 4, 1949 · 23:01
The crowd in the waiting room of the New York airport hardly noticed the slender man in the trench coat standing near…
Dec 5, 1948 · 26:29
It was a strange meeting; two men brought together on a lonely Arizona highway Paul and Joe Morvello. Joe a fugitive on…
Dec 6, 1953 · 23:41
When travelling artist Steve Neil saves rich and old Mr Jameson from an armed bandit who is holding him up Mr Jameson…
Dec 9, 1946 · 26:36
Although it was past four the Florida sun was hot and blinding and Christine wished for the twentieth time that she…
Dec 9, 1951 · 29:48
As he turned the brass knob of the heavy oak door and stepped in to the lobby Clint Markham realised that the doctor…
Feb 10, 1947 · 29:26
It was a calm night, almost too calm with a thick mist hanging low over the ocean. In the distance the occasional wail…
Feb 10, 1952 · 29:45
It’s tantalizing to Larry, the question mark that surrounds Julie Frazier. He knows that she killed a man in a back…
Feb 11, 1946 · 28:58
Thursday night was the climax. Every element in the marriage of George and Pricilla Haines came to a sharp focus on…
Feb 11, 1948 · 30:13
Some people spend more time scheming how to get money dishonestly than it would take to earn it honourably. Frank…
Feb 11, 1951 · 29:39
Chuck Williams tragic fall from the balcony of his apartment all seems a long time ago for Nola. It was judge…
Feb 12, 1947 · 21:21
The Atkins Clayton affair was unusual for two reasons. In the first place of course, it involved a pair of famous…
Feb 12, 1950 · 29:10
The small cabin plane pursues its course high above the Mexican desert. It’s midnight and a full moon bathes everything…
Feb 13, 1949 · 30:48
The company's engagement at the opera house in Los Angeles had two weeks to run, but Oriann Danotti, whose beautiful…
Feb 13, 1955 · 21:11
An interesting and sometimes dangerous part of living is the unexpected - the oddity of chance, circumstances beyond…
Feb 14, 1943 · 29:15
It was ten years ago that Henry Mitchell, formerly a biologist, married Martha Hollerston, the widow of a wealthy…
Feb 17, 1947 · 31:08
In the drawing room of a palatial home in Newport hang a pair of priceless oil paintings one of an Italian nobleman the…
Feb 17, 1952 · 29:49
The concert was progressing successfully, brilliantly, as Denise Barrett listened closely. The young artiste, Pamela…
Feb 18, 1948 · 24:03
It was in a drab room in a commercial hotel in Chicago that Frank Reynolds finally made up his mind and in a curious…
Feb 18, 1951 · 29:47
The storm with its heavy rainfall has swollen the river near Groves Landing to the point where the town is seriously…
Feb 19, 1945 · 29:50
A disgraced businessman hatches an elaborate scheme to fake his own death and exact vengeance on his former partner...…
Feb 19, 1950 · 28:48
It began simply with a telephone call, a five-cent call. Private investigator Scott Howell made his report to attorney…
Feb 20, 1949 · 25:57
The young attractive dark-haired girl looked out through the dirty windowpane of the old bookshop. She watched the rain…
Feb 20, 1955 · 23:43
It’s a terrible puzzling thing for Chris, the events on shipboard, the discovery that someone, a stranger, was posing…
Feb 21, 1943 · 29:23
"My plan is sound, mathematically sound, it cannot fail, it's perfect…" "Three months from now I will be worth $50,000.…
Feb 24, 1947 · 30:47
At three o’clock that afternoon Danny Bryan had been riding high the top crime reporter in San Francisco with a nice…
Feb 24, 1952 · 29:44
Time was of the essence for Russ Logan. He had always been a most meticulous man. Minutes meant money, and appointments…
Feb 24, 1955 · 24:33
Though inwardly he was raging, outside he looked as cool as a piece of ice. Steve Carson's ten years as a private…
Feb 25, 1946 · 30:14
Albert Taylor was two people. To the café society crowd in Miami he was the charming young husband of a silver fortune…
Feb 25, 1948 · 29:53
On February the 25th the final edition of the Daily Bulletin was a sell-out ten minutes after it hit the streets.…
Feb 25, 1951 · 29:32
The darkness of the deserted road was exaggerated by the shroud of trees lining wither side. Larry Simms bending over…
Feb 26, 1945 · 29:40
It's too bad in a way that old Horatio Alger isn't grinding out dime novels anymore because he could have grabbed off…
Feb 26, 1950 · 30:00
Valerie Ellis had a gambling problem and had gambled their $7000 savings bonds away. On top of that she also owed the…
Feb 27, 1949 · 26:26
From the parlour window Harriet Eldridge watched the postman wheel his bicycle down the tree-shaded street saw him turn…
Feb 28, 1954 · 25:17
Daryl Martin finds himself in a Southern California town hundreds of miles from the prison where he first knew Joe…
Feb 3, 1947 · 21:27
The Anthony Clayton affair was unusual for two reasons in the first place of course it involved a pair of newspaper men…
Feb 3, 1952 · 29:45
Ben Lindquist infatuated as a schoolboy and surprisingly the slick smooth Paul Jessum actually in love with her. When…
Feb 4, 1946 · 29:14
It was a quiet night for San Francisco almost too quiet. The fog drifting in from Leora had been on Kent Buckley’s mind…
Feb 4, 1948 · 29:38
He had all summer in which to do nothing and that’s what he was doing driving north along the coast to New York…
Feb 4, 1951 · 29:44
It’s not going well for Cliff, he still owes Burma Charlie $5000 and Dave Cummings his co-pilot has refused to lend him…
Feb 5, 1945 · 30:17
A famous lawyer's perfect crime unravels in unexpected ways, keeping listeners on the edge of their seats. Madeleine…
Feb 5, 1950 · 25:15
The mountain lodge was almost obscured by the fury of the snow storm, and the car heading toward the lodge, up the…
Feb 6, 1949 · 30:00
It seems incongruous to James Mathews that he should be in Mexico City for five months and yet know so little of the…
Feb 7, 1943 · 29:18
Thomas Norfolk was a very busy man, a marine architect and a wealthy ship builder. By the summer of 1940 he found…
Feb 7, 1954 · 24:00
A thick dark grey fog has descended over the city. As Laura Ames former American now of London hurries along the…
Jan 1, 1901 · 30:00
It didn't take Lloyd Miller very long to learn one bitter fact that a bankroll when subjected to a steady pummeling…
Jan 1, 1945 · 29:05
It’s strange isn’t it how a man can live his life through several decades, simply, quietly, in peaceful obscurity and…
Jan 1, 1950 · 28:44
Rumor no matter how idly begun may often come to a violent conclusion. Its pernicious content can often twist the…
Jan 10, 1943 · 29:26
The location is a large sinister railway station. A dark silent man and a beautiful blond woman watch the crowd of…
Jan 10, 1954 · 22:17
The questioning by the Hong Kong police was brief. The suspect's guilt was clear, but even though conviction was a…
Jan 13, 1947 · 31:23
When the door of his office opened Mark Falon didn’t have to turn away from the window to know that it was Harry Cheng…
Jan 14, 1946 · 23:15
The Pacific hung lazily over the city’s streets at first then settled down thicker and thicker blotting out everything.…
Jan 14, 1948 · 30:17
As he stood on the platform watching the trains pull out Matt Robertson was thinking a little bitterly now of the days…
Jan 14, 1951 · 28:09
Johnny Larson had spent the last five years in jail because of a double crossing dame and from now on he planned to…
Jan 15, 1945 · 30:00
It was an old house set back in the trees a little way from the lake and it had a miserly look about it. You could…
Jan 15, 1950 · 30:00
As the pistol shot shattered the stillness of the night along the waterfront the figure of a man appeared suddenly…
Jan 16, 1949 · 25:47
His eyes swept over the deserted beach. It was January and Larry Evans told Marty Lindquist that he was likely to…
Jan 17, 1943 · 29:20
Katherine Ford sits in the library of the Ford mansion and ponders over the past. For 12 years now, Katherine has been…
Jan 2, 1949 · 30:17
Eddie Welch was a young man who enjoyed his work. He loved every moment of it as he sat before the microphone high on…
Jan 20, 1947 · 27:10
The company’s engagement at the opera house in Los Angeles had two weeks to run but Orianne Demarti whose beautiful…
Jan 20, 1952 · 29:45
The cold rain whipped the windshield of the slowly moving car. At each turn the face of the driver grows bitterer with…
Jan 21, 1946 · 29:00
If it were possible somehow to stand at some point in the distant future and look back at the life of Robert Bolton…
Jan 21, 1948 · 29:45
Ralph Winston was painting his twelfth portrait of Marcia and it would be his last for he planned to kill her and make…
Jan 21, 1951 · 29:13
Martha was not prepared to let Cecile Dumar ruin her by reporting her thefts of company funds to the head of the…
Jan 22, 1945 · 28:39
The Atlantic coastline was a treacherous one, an ever present threat to the thousands of vessels which have for…
Jan 22, 1950 · 26:50
The conversation in the parked car matched the surroundings low, quiet and honest in keeping with the isolated…
Jan 23, 1949 · 29:23
The crowd in the waiting room at the New York airport hardly noticed the small slender man in the trench coat standing…
Jan 23, 1955 · 26:40
Though it was only 8 o’clock in the evening it was quite dark and the houses along the tree lined suburban street were…
Jan 24, 1943 · 29:22
A weird tale of telepathy, deceit, disappearing family members, strange noises, freshly dug graves and blood curdling…
Jan 24, 1954 · 21:51
The opening night for the play Bleak House Light was a gay and festive time for the Broadway first nighters crowding…
Jan 27, 1947 · 30:05
Marshall was nervous his hands shook as he dialled Helen’s number on the phone in the drugstore a block away from the…
Jan 27, 1952 · 29:48
“It’s strange isn’t it Craig that the very moment it became clear that your position with the paper in London meant…
Jan 28, 1946 · 28:34
The three Randall girls were as different from each other as day and night. Even the people of Newton who had watched…
Jan 28, 1948 · 28:42
She was a newspaperwoman and a good one. Words came easily to her, fresh new interesting ways to say what she saw, felt…
Jan 28, 1951 · 29:16
Looking in to the future life of Robert Bolton and then back at the portion he’s already lived we find it neatly…
Jan 29, 1945 · 30:22
Fred Wallis is writer and a gambler. In Florida he met Leita Martin and her friend wealthy widowed Vera Durante. She…
Jan 29, 1950 · 25:00
Warren Coates would never forget Manuel Romeros as he played his farewell scene very well and now Warren was in his car…
Jan 3, 1943 · 29:54
A gripping tale involving the spineless son of the District Attorney, a spurned lover, an unfortunate "accident", and…
Jan 30, 1949 · 27:04
Maxine had sung the words “Why should he make a fool of me” in the nightclub night after night over and over but…
Jan 31, 1943 · 29:27
The courthouse walls of a county in an eastern state have echoed for many years the vibrant, persuasive voice of…
Jan 31, 1954 · 24:00
Paul Fernley, half owner of a small but successful nightclub in Nevada, has come away to LA to be alone and to think of…
Jan 6, 1947 · 29:56
It was a strange meal they had together that evening full of long awkward silences both of them making useless attempts…
Jan 6, 1952 · 30:00
Sandra was a rich widow when her husband Paul married her for her money. Sandra also paid a monthly allowance to her…
Jan 7, 1946 · 29:56
It’s a thin line that separates infatuation from hate. So thin and fragile that one can change in to the other in a…
Jan 7, 1948 · 29:42
John Deyner had been a successful actor until he lost control of his drink habit but now he was going to make a…
Jan 7, 1951 · 29:19
Hilary Gains and Mildred had been planning this moment for months, the moment that she would leave her husband once and…
Jan 8, 1945 · 30:00
On the docks of the bay outside the Jim Mars Sky Land Club the beautiful Monica Lee’s body came to the surface and was…
Jan 8, 1950 · 29:00
It was midday in the tiny Mexican village of Riondo the air was still and quiet and the streets a glaze of white-hot…
Ned, your old-time-radio guide
Ned · your guide to the archive

Ah, Whistler, The — a fine choice. Let me set a few more down beside it that I think you'll take to.

Clock, The
Both use an all-knowing narrator to frame crime and thriller stories around the concept of inescapable fate
Mysterious Traveler, The
Both use a distinctive, ironic omniscient narrator to introduce stories of crime, fate, and dark irony
Sealed Book, The
Both present crime stories framed by an omniscient narrator who knows the fates of all the characters
Suspense
Both are premier anthology thriller programmes with exceptional atmosphere and consistently gripping stories
Unexpected
Both present crime stories built around ironic fate and the unexpected, dark consequences of human choices