Adam Graham
230 episodes listed below
Cold cases from radio's golden age.
The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio presents classic crime and adventure dramas with Adam Graham setting the table from Boise, Idaho. Episodes move from detective parody to police headquarters, private-eye trouble, shipboard intrigue, and rare pilots from radio's golden age.
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The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio is an archive-minded crime drama feed with a steady hand on the door. Adam Graham introduces vintage detective, police, and adventure programs from Boise, Idaho, then lets the old broadcasts do their work. The format is simple and useful. A short frame sets up the series, the performer, the original air date, or the reason for an encore, and then the listener is dropped into staged danger. The cases come with sharp corners. A brunette walks into a detective office with a pearl-handled revolver, a police lineup places suspects under cold lights, and a shipboard story turns suddenly toward fog, loss, and conspiracy. Other episodes reach beyond the usual file drawer. The show brings in rare pilots, little-known treasures, comedy-tinged detective riffs, and specials that trace the careers of radio actors across different roles. Barton Yarborough Week gives that archival habit a clear shape, using encore programs to follow a performer through supporting parts, sidekick work, and villain turns. Graham's commentary is conversational, but the main attraction remains the preserved rhythm of radio drama. Scenes turn on phone calls, rooms, notes under doors, sudden entrances, and voices that know how to throw a threat across a room. The tone can be dry. It can also go grave in a hurry. That range is part of the appeal, because these stories treat ordinary objects as evidence and ordinary rooms as places where someone may be lying. Fans of Dragnet, Johnny Dollar, Richard Diamond, The Line Up, and similar series will find familiar procedural bones. Listeners newer to old-time radio get enough context to follow why a cast member, pilot, or production detail matters. The feed also has the practical fingerprints of a long-running independent archive, including listener support notes, social links, encore notices, and warnings that old offers may no longer apply. Those housekeeping pieces are part of the texture, not the case itself. At its best, the show feels like a well-labeled evidence box from the golden age of radio. Open it, and the shadows still know their lines.
Made for: Best for listeners who enjoy vintage detective fiction, radio theater, detective banter, police procedure, and archive context. It also suits fans who like hearing how performers and series connect across old broadcasts.
What sets it apart: The show pairs full old-time radio dramas with Adam Graham's practical introductions, making the archive easier to navigate without turning it into a lecture. Its rotating anthology structure keeps familiar detectives beside rare pilots, encore themes, and performer-focused weeks.
The great ones are back in action.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Adam Graham pairs vintage detective dramas with concise historical framing that clarifies their performers, surviving runs, and shifting styles.
Podcast - The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio presents vintage detective broadcasts with Adam Graham as a knowledgeable guide. His introductions supply original air dates, explain gaps in surviving runs, and place performers such as Barton Yarborough within the week's…
Dragnet's gang scare or a detective's losing battle with a fence: your kind of radio night?
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A Chicago radio oddity turns detective-show cliches into the case.
Adam Graham uses a Sunday archive slot as a lighter detour from the regular Monday-through-Saturday detective run. Framed as the 2300th episode special, the show has room to wander past the usual daily case before settling into a Sam Spade office bit: Aziza Muffet arrives with a…
Sugar-company intrigue, shipboard unease, and a fogbound tragedy give Christopher London's story its force.
Christopher London opens on a business dispute involving a rival sugar refining company selling below cost, then shifts onto a ship where flirtation, menace, and a few humorous notes under the door keep the pressure moving.
A brisk, smoky radio mystery with Lee Tracy, steady suspense, and a clipped period feel.
This Proudly We Hail installment, hosted by Lee Tracy, leans into hardboiled mystery with a shadowy pace and a detective voice that keeps each move measured.
A housing fight turns into a clipped old-radio dispute over 45 homeowners and one developer.
Counterspy's housing racket feels like a neighborhood fight with hard edges: 45 homeowners, one developer, and a pressure campaign that only works if the neighbors stay united.
A juvenile-gang warning told in the clipped, hard-edged style of vintage police radio.
Dragnet: The Big Juvenile Division turns a rumor of an incoming war between juvenile gangs into a tight police warning, with officers trying to head off a clash before it starts.
A wealthy man's reckless bet turns into a Broadway murder.
Broadway's My Beat centers on a strange murder tied to a Halloween party: John Howard is found dead, and the case moves through a reckless bet, a widow who seems to hold part of the night back, and Danny Clover trying to piece together what was said, what was missed, and what…
Restored broadcasts, sharp shadows, bright old voices.
The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio presents a Sunday Encore of Cloud Nine, a fantasy radio drama from July 21, 1950, originally sponsored by Wrigley's Spearmint Gum and broadcast on CBS from Chicago.
This episode features an unaired 1949 pilot called '3-4 Adventure' titled 'The Story of Roundhouse Rosie and the Siamese Cats' from the golden age of radio.
This is an encore presentation of the old-time radio detective show 'Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar' featuring Barton Yardboro, originally aired in 1950, focusing on the S.S.
This is an encore presentation of a classic 1951 old-time radio detective episode titled 'The Senile Slugging Case' from the series 'The Line Up', featuring Barton Yardboro.
This episode is an encore presentation of a true crime story about the Richard Diamond: Hatpin Murder Case, featuring Barton Yardboro as part of Yardboro Week on the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio podcast.
This encore episode of Great Detectives of Old Time Radio features Barton Yarborough in the Jeff Regan series, exploring its origins as Joe Canto and Yarborough's role in Dragnet.
Adam Graham opens Barton Yarborough Week from Boise and treats the run as a look at Barton Yarborough's range on radio.
Adam Graham opens the 4,950th episode special by placing Proudly We Hail in its shifting radio history and introducing the late-1950 Lee Tracy era.
May 1948 brings Counterspy back to a housing racket.
Adam Graham opens the show.
Danny Clover takes on the death of John Howard, a wealthy man whose story starts at a Halloween party and ends with poisoned booze.
This episode discusses a lost episode from the Bob Bailey era of 'Yours Truly Johnny Dollar', which introduced the character Betty Lewis and is interconnected with the current story.
A man witnesses a car explosion near a dam, leading to a presumed death as the body is swept away by the river.
This episode is a listener appreciation special for the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio podcast, featuring the Screen Guild Theater production of 'The Glass Key' and thanking long-term Patreon supporters.
This episode presents a 1942 old-time radio detective adventure titled 'The Case of the Gasoline Barge' from the series Counterspy, focusing on espionage and mystery.