The The Even as television encroached as a new medium and the Golden Age entered its final decade,

Network radio continued to produce quality programs into the 1950s.

One of the best to come out of radio's twilight years was Nightbeat, an engrossing NBC drama about Chicago reporter Randy Stone

on the hunt for human interest stories on the city's darkened streets. Under promoted by NBC during its original run, Nightbeat has

been warmly embraced by the new generations of old-time radio fans thanks to its

poetic writing and superb characterization of the lead role by actor Frank Lovejoy.

In each episode, columnist Randy Stone went to work when the sun went down and set off through the city streets in search

of stories about people that had fallen through the cracks.

The human in human interest stories was of paramount importance to him, and like a night on a romantic crusade, Stone did his best to help the subjects of his stories

and ensure as much of a happy ending as he could for his column.

Randy Stone wasn't a detective.

He wasn't even an amateur sleuth like Box 13's Dan Holliday

or Casey crime photographer.

But he walked the streets of Chicago after dark,

and as a sucker for a hard luck story,

he frequently found himself in conflict with the mob,

gamblers and thieves, con men, and killers. He could be taken

in by a sob story or come around to discover a perceived villain had been wronged as badly

as the victim. Stone didn't carry a gun and he wasn't a fighter, but he

had a dogged persistence in chasing down a story to the end. It was the kind of persistence that

was finally honed from walking the streets and wearing out who knows how many pairs of shoes.

On May 19, 1949, an audition program for the series was recorded starring Edmund O'Brien as reporter Hank Mitchell.

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