I begin a new series of podcasts focusing on radio’s “Lady Detectives.� First up is Candy Matson, probably the best of the lady detectives on radio. There are extensive sound bytes from my interview with Jack French (right) who authored Private Eyelashes, a book which looks at radio’s female detectives. Candy Matson was a production for the West Coast coming out of San Francisco beginning in 1949.

Music under is Johnny Mercer singing “Candy.�

Part two of a look at the police procedurals of radio drama. While Dragnet was the “daddy� of procedurals, 21st Precinct was probably an example of almost pure procedure. Dragnet had characters listeners could care about. 21st Precinct was much dryer in tone even forsaking opening and closing music and musical bridges to maintain a sense of a documentary style approach. The opening voice was always the desk sergeant mostly portrayed by veteran radio and television actor, Harold Stone (right).

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Beginning a new theme - police procedurals. The detective genre’s most recent sub-genre is the police procedural. Radio followed suit with the introduction of Dragnet in 1949 created by Jack Webb (right) and its influence both on radio detectives as well as the printed word continues to be felt. I’ll provide examples of what makes a story a police procedural. Next week I’ll continue the theme.