Q: Is that your real voice?
A: Yes.
Q: Where did your accent come from? Where did you grow up?
A: My accent has been influenced by a variety of factors. My parents were both born in Washington State, but my father traveled extensively in the military and spent a lot of time down South, which influenced his accent and mine in turn.
Until, I was four and a half, we lived on an isolated goat ranch in the Yaak, an area of Montana near Coeur d’Alene, ID. Between the time I was four and a half and eleven, my dad was an itinerant preacher. I don’t think we stayed in one place for more than four months during this time. Our travels were mostly throughout the West, however, we also did an extensive tour of the South. Starting when I was eleven until I was almost twenty-three, I lived almost exclusively in Northwest Montana (except for two months when I was fifteen), spending several years in Kalispell and two other small towns. I moved to Idaho just before my twenty-third birthday.
Q: I’d like to dedicate an episode to a loved one. How can I do that?
A: First, be aware of our recording schedule. Currently, our Tuesday program, and Yours Truly Johnny Dollar record ten days in advance, all other shows record nine days in advance. Thus you would need to contact me no later than in the morning or early afternoon ten days before you want the dedication to be aired.
Second, you’d need to send a $20 donation either through Paypal, Zelle, or mail. Full information on how to donate is on our Listener Support page.
Q: What is the theme music?
A: Symphony Number 1 (Opus 10) by Dmitri Shostakovich. It is from the second movement, Allegro – Meno mosso. (Thank you to Tim Vanderwall for providing the detailed information.)
Q: I’m a podcaster and want to promote your podcast. Do you have a trailer I can listen to?
A: Yes, we have a 30 Second Trailer and a 60 Second Trailer
that you can include in your podcasts.
Q: I find a particular episode, program, or detective offensive. Will you pull it from the rotation?
A: It’s important to keep in mind that, as it has been said, the past is another country. And like other countries, people in the past had very different attitudes, behaviors, views, and ways of doing things.
Some of these were clearly wrong and we can be glad that society has moved forward. Other attitudes are merely different. However, all of them were part of the culture in which old time radio programs were created and cannot be neatly excised.
In my opinion, old time radio detective programs contain minimal offensive content. In fact, many programs have positive aspects that were trying to address societal problems such as public service annoucements that condemned racial bigotry, well-written and capable female characters like Brooksie on Let George Do It, Candy Matson, and Irene Delroy from The Airmail Mystery.
However, due to the times in which they were made, there are episodes that will contain elements that will offend some modern sensibilities. And because different listeners have different concerns, it’s simply not feasible to try to pull any program that might have an episode or element that offends some listeners. To do so would effectively mean ending the podcast as someone is going to take offense at something in any series we might choose to do.
As host of the program, I take it as read that listeners to the podcast are adults or have an adult in their life who is listening to the program with them. I also take it as understood that adult listeners know what is appropriate in today’s world and can understand that something that may have been acceptable at the time a program aired may be wrong and/or out of bounds in today’s society. I also think that adults are capable of advising younger listeners if they find anything that’s problematic or to answer children’s questions about content.
If listeners find a particular program or characterization, consistently bothersome, I’d encourage listeners not to listen to that series. And if they’d like to download another program in the place of the one they find offensive, they can check out our extensive archive.
Q: I find your voice irritating or your commentary annoying. Could you abandon the way you’ve been doing the podcast for more than a decade and change your format to cater to my whims at once?
No. However, if you don’t like my voice, commentary, or way of doing the podcast, there are many places where the files I use for the program can be downloaded off the Internet for free. The Internet Archive, Radio Echoes, Old Time Radio Downloads, and Old Time Radio Researchers Library among them.