NEW SERIES: Calling All Cars

The show that most people associate with police procedural radio drama is Dragnet, but sixteen years before Hal Gibney first spoke those immortal words “Ladies and gentlemen … the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent” another radio show had already walked the same path.

Calling All Cars was one of the very first police shows to be broadcast. The format was similar to Dragnet in many ways. It was based in California, it dramatized true crime stories, and it included interviews with real officers. However, for all the similarities Calling All Cars was very much a B-movie in comparison to Dragnet's blockbuster status. The incredible lengths that Jack Webb went to when researching Dragnet and the attention to detail throughout the whole of the series put Dragnet in a different league to shows such as Calling All Cars, but that does not mean these other shows are not enjoyable in their own right.

Calling All Cars was never broadcast nationwide. It was only heard by listeners in areas where Rio Grande Gasoline was sold. Rio Grande sponsored the program through its six year run and used the air-time to convince listeners that by using its “cracked” gasoline their car would run like a police car – advice which I am sure was taken on board by every crook in the vicinity.

The first of many Calling All Car episodes appears today (that's Thursday) and I'll put another one up tomorrow and Saturday. Then it will go to one a week, probably on a Thursday. Today's episode is the second ever broadcast. Despite my best efforts I could not track down the first show, but if I do come across it later I'll make sure to get it up on the site.

It will be seventy years on November 29, 2003, since the show was first broadcast. I am sure that the writer and director of the show, William N. Robson, would be a proud and happy man to know that people are still enjoying the show almost three quarters of a century later.

Happy listening my friends