First Tune - It's Heck to Bum in Texas When it Rains: Red Horse Ranch

Red Horse Ranch, old-time radio on Stupid Potato

“First Tune - It's Heck to Bum in Texas When it Rains” is an episode of Red Horse Ranch, the old-time radio show that aired in 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato: no sign-up, no app.

Play Red Horse Ranch free: the episodes out so far, or subscribe in any podcast app.

What happens

Red Horse Ranch follows young Dov Dawson and his companions, who are searching for buried loot that trigger Dawson hid shortly before he was killed. The men hope to find the rest of a strange map at an Indian mound along the Roaring River, but they discover that someone has reached the site first and taken it. The crew sings and bickers while packing up camp, with cookie struggling to load the pots and pans onto the wagon. Alabama and Idaho study the torn map, working out the missing letters in its words and tracing a line through the landmarks it shows, Sentinel Rock, Mono Cairn and Twin Peaks, toward the river.

The Roaring River area in Texas, at an Indian mound and then on the trail back from it

Characters: Dov Dawson, Alabama, Idaho, Cookie, Tex, Arizona

Listen for: Alabama and Idaho working out the missing letters on the map and where the two trails might meet at the big X on the river

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.