Good evening and a huge welcome back to the show, I hope you’ve had a great day and you’re ready to kick back and relax with another episode of Brett’s old time radio show.

Hello, I’m Brett your host for this evening and welcome to my home in beautiful Lyme Bay where it’s lovely December night. I hope it’s just as nice where you are.

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A huge thankyou for joining me once again for our regular late night visit to those dusty studio archives of Old Time radio shows right here at my home in the united kingdom.

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The Man Called X

An espionage radio drama that aired on CBS and NBC from July 10, 1944, to May 20, 1952. The radio series was later adapted for television and was broadcast for one season, 1956–1957.

People

Herbert Marshall had the lead role of agent Ken Thurston/"Mr. X", an American intelligence agent who took on dangerous cases in a variety of exotic locations. Leon Belasco played Mr. X's comedic sidekick, Pegon Zellschmidt, who always turned up in remote parts of the world because he had a "cousin" there. Zellschmidt annoyed and helped Mr. X.

Jack Latham was an announcer for the program, and Wendell Niles was the announcer from 1947 to 1948. Orchestras led by Milton Charles, Johnny Green, Felix Mills, and Gordon Jenkins supplied the background music. William N. Robson was the producer and director.

Stephen Longstreet was the writer.

Production

The Man Called X replaced America — Ceiling Unlimited on the CBS schedule.

Television

The series was later adapted to a 39-episode syndicated television series (1956–1957) starring Barry Sullivan as Thurston for Ziv Television.

Episodes
Season 1 (1956)

1 1 "For External Use Only" Eddie Davis Story by : Ladislas Farago
Teleplay by : Stuart Jerome, Harold Swanton, and William P. Templeton January 27, 1956
2 2 "Ballerina Story" Eddie Davis Leonard Heideman February 3, 1956
3 3 "Extradition" Eddie Davis Ellis Marcus February 10, 1956
4 4 "Assassination" William Castle Stuart Jerome February 17, 1956
5 5 "Truth Serum" Eddie Davis Harold Swanton February 24, 1956
6 6 "Afghanistan" Eddie Davis Leonard Heidman March 2, 1956
7 7 "Embassy" Herbert L. Strock Laurence Heath and Jack Rock March 9, 1956
8 8 "Dangerous" Eddie Davis George Callahan March 16, 1956
9 9 "Provocateur" Eddie Davis Arthur Weiss March 23, 1956
10 10 "Local Hero" Leon Benson Ellis Marcus March 30, 1956
11 11 "Maps" Eddie Davis Jack Rock May 4, 1956
12 12 "U.S. Planes" Eddie Davis William L. Stuart April 13, 1956
13 13 "Acoustics" Eddie Davis Orville H. Hampton April 20, 1956
14 14 "The General" Eddie Davis Leonard Heideman April 27, 1956

Season 2 (1956–1957)

15 1 "Missing Plates" Eddie Davis Jack Rock September 27, 1956
16 2 "Enemy Agent" Eddie Davis Teleplay by : Gene Levitt October 4, 1956
17 3 "Gold" Eddie Davis Jack Laird October 11, 1956
18 4 "Operation Janus" Eddie Davis Teleplay by : Jack Rock and Art Wallace October 18, 1956
19 5 "Staff Headquarters" Eddie Davis Leonard Heideman October 25, 1956
20 6 "Underground" Eddie Davis William L. Stuart November 1, 1956
21 7 "Spare Parts" Eddie Davis Jack Laird November 8, 1956
22 8 "Fallout" Eddie Davis Teleplay by : Arthur Weiss November 15, 1956
23 9 "Speech" Eddie Davis Teleplay by : Ande Lamb November 22, 1956
24 10 "Ship Sabotage" Eddie Davis Jack Rock November 29, 1956
25 11 "Rendezvous" Eddie Davis Ellis Marcus December 5, 1956
26 12 "Switzerland" Eddie Davis Leonard Heideman December 12, 1956
27 13 "Voice On Tape" Eddie Davis Teleplay by : Leonard Heideman December 19, 1956
28 14 "Code W" Eddie Davis Arthur Weiss December 26, 1956
29 15 "Gas Masks" Eddie Davis Teleplay by : Jack Rock January 3, 1957
30 16 "Murder" Eddie Davis Lee Berg January 10, 1957
31 17 "Train Blow-Up" Eddie Davis Ellis Marcus February 6, 1957
32 18 "Powder Keg" Jack Herzberg Les Crutchfield and Jack Rock February 13, 1957
33 19 "Passport" Eddie Davis Norman Jolley February 20, 1957
34 20 "Forged Documents" Eddie Davis Charles Mergendahl February 27, 1957
35 21 "Australia" Lambert Hill Jack Rock March 6, 1957
36 22 "Radio" Eddie Davis George Callahan March 13, 1957
37 23 "Business Empire" Leslie Goodwins Herbert Purdum and Jack Rock March 20, 1957
38 24 "Hungary" Eddie Davis Fritz Blocki and George Callahan March 27, 1957
39 25 "Kidnap" Eddie Davis George Callahan April 4, 1957

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The Golden Age of Radio

Also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the early 1920s and lasted through the 1950s, when television gradually superseded radio as the medium of choice for scripted programming, variety and dramatic shows.

Radio was the first broadcast medium, and during this period people regularly tuned in to their favourite radio programs, and families gathered to listen to the home radio in the evening. According to a 1947 C. E. Hooper survey, 82 out of 100 Americans were found to be radio listeners. A variety of new entertainment formats and genres were created for the new medium, many of which later migrated to television: radio plays, mystery serials, soap operas, quiz shows, talent shows, daytime and evening variety hours, situation comedies, play-by-play sports, children's shows, cooking shows, and more.

In the 1950s, television surpassed radio as the most popular broadcast medium, and commercial radio programming shifted to narrower formats of news, talk, sports and music. Religious broadcasters, listener-supported public radio and college stations provide their own distinctive formats.

Origins

A family listening to the first broadcasts around 1920 with a crystal radio. The crystal radio, a legacy from the pre-broadcast era, could not power a loudspeaker so the family must share earphones
During the first three decades of radio, from 1887 to about 1920, the technology of transmitting sound was undeveloped; the information-carrying ability of radio waves was the same as a telegraph; the radio signal could be either on or off. Radio communication was by wireless telegraphy; at the sending end, an operator tapped on a switch which caused the radio transmitter to produce a series of pulses of radio waves which spelled out text messages in Morse code. At the receiver these sounded like beeps, requiring an operator who knew Morse code to translate them back to text. This type of radio was used exclusively for person-to-person text communication for commercial, diplomatic and military purposes and hobbyists; broadcasting did not exist.

The broadcasts of live drama, comedy, music and news that characterize the Golden Age of Radio had a precedent in the Théâtrophone, commercially introduced in Paris in 1890 and available as late as 1932. It allowed subscribers to eavesdrop on live stage performances and hear news reports by means of a network of telephone lines. The development of radio eliminated the wires and subscription charges from this concept.

Between 1900 and 1920 the first technology for transmitting sound by radio was developed, AM (amplitude modulation), and AM broadcasting sprang up around 1920.

On Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden is said to have broadcast the first radio program, consisting of some violin playing and passages from the Bible. While Fessenden's role as an inventor and early radio experimenter is not in dispute, several contemporary radio researchers have questioned whether the Christmas Eve broadcast took place, or whether the date was, in fact, several weeks earlier. The first apparent published reference to the event was made in 1928 by H. P. Davis, Vice President of Westinghouse, in a lecture given at Harvard University. In 1932 Fessenden cited the Christmas Eve 1906 broadcast event in a letter he wrote to Vice President S. M. Kinter of Westinghouse. Fessenden's wife Helen recounts the broadcast in her book Fessenden: Builder of Tomorrows (1940), eight years after Fessenden's death. The issue of whether the 1906 Fessenden broadcast actually happened is discussed in Donna Halper's article "In Search of the Truth About Fessenden"[2] and also in James O'Nea...