Radio Drama · Old Time Radio Researchers · Mystery & crime

Stand By for Crime

Episodes
26

STAND BY FOR CRIME

More about it

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. Also in on the capers is Morgan's "Gal Friday", Carol Curtis, played by Adele Jurgens. The three meet all types -- mostly on the shady side of the street. In real life, Glen and Adele were husband and wife, the two marrying in 1949. They had met on the movie set of The Treasure of Monte Cristo. On the show, the repartee between the two is strictly old school and quite enjoyable. The dialogue is solid and makes the most of the plots. Unheralded and left for dead, Stand By for Crime is well worth your time. From the Old Time Radio Researcher's Group. See "Note" Section below for more information on the OTRR.

Episodes, in broadcast order

  1. The Communist Menace

    No date given · No. 1 · 50 min

  2. Luke Larson's Murder

    No date given · No. 2 · 48 min

  3. Mark Adams Murder

    No date given · No. 3 · 49 min

  4. Marijuana Mystery

    No date given · No. 4 · 48 min

  5. Queenie's $10,000 Alibi

    No date given · No. 5 · 49 min

  6. Prisoners Of The Revolution

    No date given · No. 6 · 49 min

  7. The Tennant Jewels Stolen

    No date given · No. 7 · 49 min

  8. Baby Betsy's Mother

    No date given · No. 8 · 49 min

  9. The Black Hand

    No date given · No. 9 · 50 min

  10. Trixie's Bank Heist

    No date given · No. 10 · 50 min

  11. Gladstone Smith Murder

    No date given · No. 11 · 48 min

  12. Displaced Into Danger

    No date given · No. 12 · 49 min

  13. Lonely Hearts Club Of Doom

    No date given · No. 13 · 49 min

  14. The Kidnapper's New Shoes

    No date given · No. 14 · 50 min

  15. Eddie Flore's Frame-UP

    No date given · No. 15 · 49 min

  16. Hollywood Love Triangle

    No date given · No. 16 · 49 min

  17. Mr Hendrick's Mines Of Murder

    No date given · No. 17 · 48 min

  18. The Wetback Murders

    No date given · No. 18 · 48 min

  19. A Spy Ring In June

    No date given · No. 19 · 49 min

  20. Quintion McClean's Fortune

    No date given · No. 20 · 48 min

  21. The Clueless Crime Spree

    No date given · No. 21 · 49 min

  22. The Sniper

    No date given · No. 22 · 48 min

  23. Naomi Needs An Operation

    No date given · No. 23 · 49 min

  24. Subversive Activities

    No date given · No. 24 · 49 min

  25. Death On The Tracks

    No date given · No. 25 · 50 min

  26. The Light

    No date given · No. 26 · 49 min

Where it comes from 1

The archive items its episodes are played from, best first, with each one’s rights as its archive states them. An episode two sets both hold is played from the first.

  1. Stand By for Crime - Single Episodes

    Old Time Radio Researchers · Old Time Radio Researchers Group · 26 episodes here · archive.org (opens in a new tab)

    CC BY-NC-ND 2.5: CC BY-NC-ND 2.5, as its uploader states it at the Internet Archive.

A set by the Old Time Radio Researchers Group (otrr.org), at the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio collection.

More Mystery & crime

Radio drama, old-time radio and historic broadcasts from the Internet Archive (its Old Time Radio collection with the Old Time Radio Researchers' sets, WWII Era Audio Recordings, the Pacifica Radio Archives, the Radio Haiti Archive, German radio plays and listeners' uploads), Wikimedia Commons (with the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision's broadcasts) and the Library of Congress. Every episode plays from its archive, which this site does not copy; rights are as each archive states them. Nothing here is called public domain on this site's say-so. In the United States, sound recordings first fixed before 15 February 1972 have federal protection under the Music Modernization Act of 2018, for most until 2067 at the latest, so most American radio of the 1930s to the 1950s is not in the public domain there. Each set shows the licence, mark or statement its archive gives, and says whose it is. Horror, crime, war and westerns are for teenage and adult profiles, racist caricature for adults only, and children’s profiles hear what was made for children. More about these archives.