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 These were fact-based dramas that told the story of FBI
cases from the agent's point of view. Producer/director
Jerry Devine had previous radio experience on the show
Mr. District Attorney,
which was a solid and responsible pro-law enforcement
radio drama.
Text on OTRCAT.com ©2007 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved-Reproduction is prohibited. J. Edgar Hoover himself endorsed Devine's development
of the new show, and obviously the FBI's story would be
told in the best possible way. Divine worked with the
FBI in Washington, DC, planning programs to highlight
the latest developments in criminal laboratory and surveillance
techniques worked in to solid, exciting old time radio shows.
Crackdowns on organized crime, and well-known criminal
cases of the day were featured, as well as stories of
individual lawbreakers. A fictitious agent, Jim Taylor,
handled West Coast cases involving fraud, petty crime
and professional crooks. The stories shifted during the
half-hour between the criminal's actions and the agent's
account of the investigation follow-up.
Text on OTRCAT.com ©2007 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved-Reproduction is prohibited. A narrator profiled the action along the way. Frank Lovejoy
did it early in the show's run, then Dean Carlton. Lovejoy,
also a well-known film and TV actor, starred in the radio
drama Nightbeat.
This is Your FBI had counterparts on the other
networks. The FBI in Peace and War also told stories
of the FBI, although some were not authentic. Earlier
on, Gangbusters,
and the previously mentioned Mr.
District Attorney gave the authentic crime treatment
to their stories. And Dragnet,
and Tales of the Texas Rangers,
took the idea on as well. Crime, especially true crime,
was a genre in the magazines early on, with the Police
Gazette and its predecessors in England printing lurid
true crime stories prior to radio. This is Your FBI
took the idea, and made it realistic, exciting and even
informational.
For more law enforcement excitements see Nightwatch
and Police Headquarters.
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