Starring Frank Lovejoy (12 half-hour episodes / 6 hours via digital download)
There were several newspaper-based dramas during radio’s golden age including “Big Town,” “Casey, Crime Photographer”, “Box 13”, and “Let George Do It” but "Night Beat" was a cut above. It was the story of Randy Stone, hard-nosed Chicago Star newsman and his quest for the human-interest story behind the headlines. It starring Frank Lovejoy as Randy Stone, who came to vivid life thanks to expert scripts by Russell Hughes, E. Jack Neumann, John Michael Hayes (who would later write the Hitchcock film classics "To Catch a Thief" and "Rear Window"), and Larry Marcus. Lovejoy's distinctive voice and approach to the role, combined with top performances by veteran radio actors gave "Night Beat" a radio noir style that listeners loved. The stories ran the gamut from lighthearted to tragic and through it all, Randy Stone, in a hard-boiled yet sensitive portrayal by Frank Lovejoy, would narrate the story and comment on it from beginning to end -- often with a hard-edged cynicism. “Night Beat” aired on NBC radio from 1950 to 1952 and, for a time, was sponsored by Wheaties.
