Tough Guy: The Whistler (April 28, 1948)

The Whistler, old-time radio on Stupid Potato

“Tough Guy” is an episode of The Whistler, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 28, 1948. Listen free on Stupid Potato: no sign-up, no app.

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What happens

Larry Sands, a Pacific Airways supervisor, returns to a South American town to oversee construction of a new airfield. Unsettled by a photograph of himself and a woman he once knew, he is convinced someone in the hotel is watching him. Looking out over the plaza, he recalls his time as a young hired pilot there during the revolution of 1938, when the government's pilots were being murdered on the ground. The episode is from The Whistler, first broadcast on April 28, 1948, and features David Ellis and Harry Bartell in the cast.

A small South American town during a revolution, and the same town ten years later

Characters: Larry Sands, Fernando Paranta, Antonio Barrios, Terecita, Romero

Listen for: The hotel manager's uneasy questions and the photograph left on the table in Larry's room

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.