Night Beat


(4.6 stars; 28 reviews)

Old Time Radio

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.

License

Chapters

The Ted Carter Murder Case(Audition) 30:03
The Elevator Caper (Audition) 20:52
Zero 54:59
The Night Is a Weapon 30:03
A World All of His Own 29:57
The Girl in the Park 29:51
Number 13 30:03
Am I My Brother's Keeper 29:42
The Man Who Claimed to Be Dead 29:30
Flowers on the Water 29:21
The Night Is A Weapon (Special Rebroadcast) 29:51
I Know Your Secret 29:55
World Of His Own (Special Rebroadcast) 30:28
Tong War 29:23
Girl In The Park (Special ReBroadcast) 29:27
Am I My Brothers' Keeper (Special Rebroadcast) 29:26
Mentallo, the Mental Marvel 29:39
Elevator Caper 30:21
The Night Watchman 29:24
I Wish You Were Dead 29:23
Harlan Matthews, Stamp Dealer 29:22
The Girl from Kansas 29:25
Football Player and the Syndicate 29:31
Vincent and the Painter 29:24
The Juvenile Gangster 29:24
Marty 28:47
Twill Be the Death of Me 29:19
Molly Keller 29:32
The Devil's Bible 29:18
City at Your Fingertips 30:23
Old Blind Pop 29:30
Gunner's Last Fight 29:10
Doctor's Secret 29:47
Old Home Week 29:27
The Hunter Becomes the Hunted 29:55
Wanna Buy a Story 30:21
A Case of Butter 29:50
The Kenny Day Amnesia Case 29:49
Elinar Pierce and Family 29:57
Judge Arnold's Daughter 29:30
The Doctor's Daughter 29:55
The Black Cat 30:06
The Slasher 29:36
Big John McMasters 29:28
Juke Box Romance 29:33
Fear 30:42
Will of Mrs Orloff 27:02
The Search for Fred 30:32
Otto, The Music Man 30:56
Sanctuary 28:58
Byline for Frank 30:07
Bill Perrin Amnesia Case 29:08
Antonio's Return 29:12
The City At Your Fingertips 28:32
They 30:58
Mr and Mrs Carothers 30:49
Lost Souls 31:08
Five Days off for Christmas 30:27
Expectant Father 29:09
Pay up or Die 28:26
Long Live the Clown 29:17
Death of Riley 30:04
Target for a Week 29:21
The Jockey Brothers 29:13
Marvelous Machine 30:27
Railroaded 29:22
Reformer 28:32
The Old Itch 29:48
Taste of Peaches 28:30
Flight from Fear 28:32
Sombody Stop Ann 28:23
His Name Was Luke 28:32
The Man with the Red Hair 28:07
Ellen 28:54
Larry the Understudy 29:23
Policy Wheel Racket 29:16
The Bug Killings 28:47

Reviews

Good Stuff, Evokes Its Era Nicely


(4 stars)

NIGHTBEAT was a very good series about a peripatetic newspaperman, Randy Stone, excellently portrayed by Frank Lovejoy. Some of the episodes are prosaic and predictable, others quite moving. The series doesn't quite reach the heights of its better known contemporary, DRAGNET, but it has a nice feel for big city life circa 1950, give or take a year or two, and some of the writing is first rate. The setting is Chicago, and the show "uses" the city effectively and realistically. Someone had clearly done his homework on this one. I wish the writers had reached a little higher, though, been more experimental, tried a little harder to be original. Still, on its own terms, NIGHTBEAT was a well above average series.

zip file incomplete


(0 stars)

Only contains three episodes! Update: downloaded all, most episodes corrupted for play on MP3 player. Track will play partway through but will skip at precise points to next track. You can scan past skip but track will skip again at the same points every time. Many files in the archive appear to be corrupted this way. They are playable if converted to .wav form and played in standard CD player, or if played on the computer... so possibly an issue with my Sansa Clip MP3 player? Not sure, but many series I've downloaded from this archive do it. Even so, I'm thrilled to have them. Wish I could listen to these all the way through.

Technical Quality


(4 stars)

These are good shows. But like a lot of archive.org shows, the technical quality varies widely. Usually, the first shows are muffled and are full of audio tape dropout. It's a shame that the person re-recording them couldn't have simply paid attention to the quality. I had to go to the tenth show before the quality got somewhat consistent. It's not enough to simply compile shows. The quality has to be there, too.

Misdated Shows


(0 stars)

Night_Beat_50_04_16_xxxx_World_Of_His_Own_Special_Rebroadcast_Certified_but_is_it.mp3 was actually was 50-04-10 I Know Your Secret (Randy Stone fishes Wanda Rhodes out of the river) The 50-04-16 broadcast was from a special repeat week and following the pattern of the other shows from that week should open with "The National Broadcasting Company wishes to call your attention to a program regularly heard on Monday evenings..." Night_Beat_51_07_20_0051_The_City_At_Your_Fingertips.mp3 was actually from 50-07-31 Night_Beat_52_06_26_0099_Reformer.mp3 was 52-07-03 The Old Itch Night_Beat_52_07_03_0100_The_Old_Itch.mp3 was 52-07-03 Reformer

nightbeat


(4 stars)

As a Sansa owner, I also had a problem listening to the episodes. I managed to listen to "Zero" on the otr blog, but other sites, even, have been uncooperative with downloading. Really too bad, as Zero was really good and pretty much exactly what I like in radio heroes. Any suggestions for downloading elsewhere??? REALLY want to continue on with the series!

Night Beat


(5 stars)

Night Beat has always been one of my favorite radio programs. Frank Lovejoy does a superb job as Randy Stone a likable news-reporter searching the big city streets of Chicago for a human interest story for his paper. What he finds are the little known dramatic events that happen in the lives of the people he meets.

Night Beat


(4 stars)

Previewed About 20 Of The Files And Yes There Not Perfect ! As Old As They Are It's Amazing They Even Survived ! It Is Ashame With Todays Technology Someone Hasn't Cleaned Them Up ! I For One Wouldn't Have A Clue ! Too Bad I Sure Would !

Quality


(4 stars)

Nightbeat was one of the better dramatic programs. Good stories, and Frank Lovejoys performance was great. True, some of the shows are not of the best quality soundwise, but the few I listened to were acceptable. As old as these shows are, you cant expect them to be perfect.