The Badge: Gunsmoke (April 26, 1959)

“The Badge” is an episode of Gunsmoke, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 26, 1959. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Two outlaws ambush and shoot Marshal Matt Dillon on a remote road, wounding him in the shoulder. Obsessed with the marshal's badge, one of them decides to keep Dillon alive and drag him to an abandoned shack, planning to use him as insurance to get across the border before deciding his fate.

Dodge City and surrounding territory in the West; a remote area with rocks and an abandoned shack near the border

Characters: Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal, Augie, Rach, Doc, Kitty, Chester

Listen for: The tense confrontation between the outlaws over the wounded marshal, and Dillon's situation as a prisoner in the shack with his captors debating whether to keep him alive or kill him for his badge.

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.