How to Sell a Ranch: Gunsmoke (April 1, 1956)

“How to Sell a Ranch” is an episode of Gunsmoke, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 1, 1956. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

Listen to Gunsmoke free, live around the clock: every episode, in the order it first aired. No sign-up.

What happens

Marshal Dillon visits Toph Quaver, a lonely old rancher on the Republican River, and learns he is selling his ranch for ten thousand dollars. A businessman named Wayne Rutman from Kansas City arrives and offers fifteen thousand dollars instead, insisting on depositing the money in the bank first before even seeing the property. Dillon grows suspicious of Rutman's unusual business methods and his eagerness to pay far above the asking price.

Dodge City and the surrounding ranching country, particularly Toph Quaver's isolated ranch on the Republican River

Characters: Matt Dillon, Chester, Toph Quaver, Wayne Rutman, Doc, Mr. Barkin

Listen for: Dillon's growing concerns about Wayne Rutman's suspicious eagerness to overpay for the ranch and his insistence on depositing money before viewing the property, suggesting a scheme to take advantage of the simple old rancher.

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.