Radio Rides the Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929-1967

This is a comprehensive encyclopedia to the more than 100 radio programs portraying the American West, in fact and fiction, heard by generations of listeners from the Great Depression through the Cold War era. The book includes both the popular and lesser known series, as well as would-be offerings that never made it past the audition stage. Each entry describes the series, the extent to which it was based on actual facts, the audience it was written for, and its broadcast history. The descriptions also examine how the programs reflected society’s changing social and cultural attitudes towards racial and ethnic minorities and the role of women. The availability of surviving audio copies and original scripts is noted. An extensive bibliography and several appendices provide additional sources of information about Western programming during the Golden Age of Radio.

Jack French, a retired FBI agent, has researched vintage broadcasting for over 40 years. He edits Radio Recall and is the author of Private Eyelashes: Radio’s Lady Detectives, which won the Agatha Award. Inducted into the Radio Once More Hall of Fame in 2011, he lives in Fairfax, Virginia. The late David S. Siegel collected golden age of radio broadcasts, scripts, magazines, books and ephemera for 50+ years and had one of the largest radio archives in private hands. He was the editor, author or coauthor of seven books about old time radio and lived in New York.