Coming up this week on the old-time radio snack wagon, it's done, I killed as any man would have killed, I run as any man would run, it's done, I killed as any man would have killed, with my embroidery scissors, listen to the old-time radio snack wagon, snack wagon.net or wherever you get your podcast.

Welcome to the great detectives of old-time radio.

From Boise, Idaho, this is your host, Adam Graham, if you have a comment, email it to me, box 13 at greatdetectives.net, follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives and become one of our friends on Facebook.

Today's program is brought to you by the financial support of our listeners. You can support the show on a one-home basis at support.greatdetectives.net or become one of our ongoing Patreon supporters for as little as $2 per month and just go to patreon.greatdetectives.net.

Well, I want to begin by, first of all, thanking Clarence Gilliard who recorded a lovely promo for us and for a starting tales of the Texas Rangers on the great detectives of old-time radio.

I didn't know exactly how it would work, but in terms of people enjoying the ad and responding favorably to it, it was way more successful than I could ever have imagined.

And I hope some folks are listening to this podcast who might not have been, if not for the ad.

Clarence Gilliard was an actor whose work I first encountered when he was playing Conrad McMaster's on Matlock.

But to great many people, the role that he will forever be remembered for was the role that came after that when he played Ranger Jimmy Sravatt on Walker Texas Ranger.

Tales of the Texas Rangers first came to radio in 1950. It was one of several series that was launched after the groundbreaking success of Dragnet.

In 1949, prior to Dragnet, it's safe to say that the hottest genre for radio dramas was the hard-boiled detective and it had been for a few years.

And certainly it would not go away with the launch of Dragnet, but what became truly hot in radio for the next several years were realistic crime shows.

And we've heard a few of them in recent months, such as Squadroom, which was pitched as focusing on interrogations, the lineup, which was pitched as focusing on police lineup.

And despite the distinctions that the show's tried to stake out, the case with many of these urban crime dramas, if you'd heard one and liked it, you would probably like another when it came to Dragnet clones, unless it wasn't particularly well done.

I'll kind of blend if you're not paying too much attention. Yet some found a way to stand out. We played The Silent Men recently, which was unique for its focus on a variety of different federal ages.

And then we have Tales of the Texas Rangers. The show's producer, Stacey Keats Senior, managed to persuade the Rangers who were a little bit hesitant about publicity that the show would actually be a good idea.

The Texas Rangers became officially involved in the series in the same way that the LAPD was involved in Dragnet, or the FBI was involved in This Is Your FBI, with stories that were based on actual case files from the Texas Rangers from between 1928 and 1948.

Of course, before the series could make it to air, an audition had to be recorded and presented to the networks.

So we're going to go ahead and take a listen to this audition recording. The audition date is April 10th, 1950. Let's take a listen.

The Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers

First to advance, last to retreat. Texas, more than 260,000 square miles.

...