This is an appreciation of the popular radio series that ran from 1942 to 1955. Primarily a west coast program, it had movie and television spinoffs and other regional radio productions that brought the character to national attention. It was a top-notch effort that featured radio's best actors and scripters and did not rely on Hollywood star power for its reputation. The Whistler was known for its surprise endings for characters who trapped themselves in their nefarious deeds.

NEW! A blog devoted to The Whistler, "Many Strange Tales," is highly recommended

A blog by Whistler enthusiast and researcher Elizabeth Tankersley debuted in November 2025. It is available at https://manystrangetales.blogspot.com/ It covers series history and backstories, its personnel, and individual episodes.

Presentation Video "13 Notes About the Whistler" by Karl Schadow and Joe Webb delivered at MANC 2019 is Available at YouTube

Click the red play button that appears when you mouse over the image.

MP3 Audio of presentation 128kps (50MB click here) OR 64kps (25MB click here)
PDF Download of slides (click here)
MP4 Video file (really big 470MB; click here)
Learn more about researcher Karl Schadow in this 14 minute interview (MP3, click here). Karl is known for his authorship of booklets for Radio Spirits CD sets, presentations he makes as an active member of the Metro DC OTR Club, and for his professional media research in copyrights and history. He was profiled at the Library of Congress blog (click here).

Log of "The Whistler" Now Available (updated as of May 7, 2023)

A PDF document of the log is now available. CLICK HERE to download. NOTE: The online spreadsheet will ALWAYS be more up to date with the latest research.

This updated log of The Whistler series is available as a Google Sheet workbook (click here). It is in the form of a spreadsheet workbook and can be downloaded in many formats such as Microsoft Excel. (Please note that some formatting may not be retained in the download and minor adjustments might be necessary to duplicate the on-screen formatting; the data are unaffected).

These are the individual pages of the workbook:

Main series (through its history as a sustained, then Signal Oil sponsored, then sustained series)
WBBM Chicago
Summer 1946 replacement for The Jack Carson Show
Household Finance Corporation series
All episodes by date
All episodes by alphabetical
Missing episodes
TV syndicated series (NEW!)

Circulating episodes are identified as network, AFRS, USAFE, and Audio Arts syndications; there are notes for unclear or quirky characteristics, AFRS numbers, and a few programs for which two recordings exist that have different openings.

Please contact me regarding errors and oversights, and of course additional information about recordings that may not be in the collection that this log represents. (suspenseotr@gmail.com)

For background on the series, please view the 2019 presentation from the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, available at YouTube. The information in this log is more-up-to-date based on additional research that corrects and enhances some of the information there.

This log is regularly updated as new information is acquired.

NOTE (added 10/27/2025): Based on continuing research, J. Donald Wilson is usually credited with creating the series. The initial idea, however, might have been with someone else, probably at CBS, possibly in the script department. We may never know for sure. It is clear, however, that it was Wilson who executed the concept and format, crafting the idea into what would be come one of radio's biggest successes.

Timeline of The Whistler in all of its media formats

"The Whistler" Information and other Resources

RadioGoldindex page (click here)
RadioSpirits available CD sets (click here)
Radio Spirits' download site sets (Radio Classics) (click here)

The Whistler television series

Many of the 1954-1955 The Whistler television episodes at YouTube (click here)
Most all of the TV episodes have survived -- many of them are home VHS recordings that were recorded from a local station in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Details about these episodes and the radio scripts that were adapted to television are now included in the series log.

The Whistler movies

Superb reference book about the movie series by Dan Van Neste (2011) (click here for publisher site); also at Amazon and other booksellers
Academic paper about the techniques used in The Whistler movies by Frank Krutnik (excellent) (click here)
The Whistler (1944) (click here)
The Mark of the Whistler (1944) (click here)
The Power of the Whistler (1945) (click here)
The Voice of the Whistler (1945 ) (click here)
Mysterious Intruder (1946) (click here)
The Secret of the Whistler (1946) (click here)
The Thirteenth Hour (1947) (click here)
The Return of the Whistler (1948) (click here)

How Many Radio Episodes of The Whistler have Survived?

NOTE: Updated on September 23, 2022 to reflect additional recordings found since the September 14, 2019 presentation and the chart presented there. Surviving figure includes network, AFRS/AFRTS, USAFE, airchecks, syndicated, and other recordings. Many episodes have survived in multiple formats, but each episode is counted only once.

Recently Located "Missing" Episodes

Click title to listen to program

Star Shadow 1944-07-22: This is a home recording of a Signal Oil broadcast that was in very bad condition (severe hum). It was recovered to be listenable through modern sound processing techniques. A sample of the original sound can be heard in the previously cited YouTube presentation. (Soundcloud)

'Til Death Do Us Part 1944-07-30: This is an episode from the Signal Oil series, edited to become part of AFRS Mystery Playhouse. This title was used three different times on The Whistler but each was a unique storyline. The main character in this episode is named Royce Pargill. (Soundcloud)

The Incident at Hemsley 1948-05-26: This is an AFRS version from the Signal Oil series. It is in some logs as "The Incident at Homsuey" which is incorrect, likely a matter of transcribing notes that were in unclear handwriting. On the same date, the East and Central zones were hearing Bird of Prey under the Household Finance sponsorship. (Soundcloud)

The Great Zantini 1948-09-08: From AFRS disc #38 from the series, and stars Joseph Kearns. This is extracted from the Signal Oil broadcast; the HFC broadcast which starred Frank Lovejoy is still missing. (YouTube)

NEWLY AVAILABLE! (October 2020) Many of the mid-1950s episodes have been available only as home recorded airchecks broadcast over Armed Forces Radio and sponsored by USAFE for its educational programs for service personnel. These were 1960s rebroadcasts of Whistler programs. Better copies have recently become available and they have been audio processed for better sound. The audio quality is still not the best, but it is an improvement. They are available at archive.org and may be listened to or downloaded from there. That page has additional background information about this era of the series. There were new episodes discovered in this collection of recordings:

1954-07-11 Out of the Past USAFE home microphone recording (very low quality)
1954-09-12 Landslide USAFE
1955-03-03 Alibi USAFE
1955-03-17 A Matter of Odds USAFE
1955-04-07 Search for an Unknown USAFE
1955-05-19 A Case for Mr Carrington USAFE (now in addition to the AFRS version)
1955-06-23 The Cliffs of Wayrum USAFE
1955-09-08 Design for Murder USAFE (now in addition to the AFRS version)

If you're not familiar with how to download files from archive.org, download a helpful PDF file that illustrates the process.

The Three Early TV Broadcasts

In the 1940s, television was a local enterprise, with many experimental productions that were seen only by that specific city's audience. That audience was small, just because only a small percentage of households could afford them. Broadcast executives knew that TV was going to be their future, but they were unsure about what would be broadcast and were still developing production techniques, mostly by trial and error. They naturally thought about bringing radio programs to television. The successful radio series had TV spinoffs, with the earliest and most successful in this mystery genre being Suspense, which started in 1949 and ended in 1954. The Whistler would not become a television series until 1954. These three "pilots" were adaptations of radio scripts. The first two were New York productions. Lucky Night was a Chicago production, and included Everett Clarke, who played the part of "The Whistler" in the WBBM radio series. Note that Beulah Zachary was the producer of the Chicago broadcast. New media offered new opportunities for women, and she would become nationally known as the producer of the successful children's program Kukla, Fran, and Ollie. She unfortunately perished in the 1959 American Airlines flight 320 crash. All three productions had generally positive reviews, but did not garner enough interest to turn The Whistler into a regular series. That would not happen until the mid-1950s for 39 syndicated episodes. No recordings of these three 1940s broadcasts are available, and it is possible that no kinescopes were made of the broadcasts because that technology was still in development at the time.

WCBS-TV New York, November 21, 1946

from Variety, November 26, 1946

WCBS-TV New York, January 16, 1947

from Variety, January 22, 1947

WBKB-TV Chicago, June 27, 1948

from Variety, June 30, 1948

Recreations of missing episodes

Project Audion offered a recreation the missing 1952-01-13 Man from the Morgue in 2021. It's worth listening to it on YouTube and then watching the video of the actors and sound effects artist as they create the performance.

American Radio Theater recreated two missing episodes. In 2013, they performed The Gingham Elephant (click here) of 1949-03-06, and in 2010 The Necklace was Incidental (click here) from 1948-06-09.

"The Whistler" Was a Popular Song? Sure Was!

Click here to listen at The Internet Archive! OR click here to listen on YouTube!

Details about the recording (click here)

The Record

That's The Whistler's call, and he knows it all

So remember that he's checking on you.

When the sins begin, that's when he drops in

So look out for him whatever you do.

Oh he knows about him, and he knows about her

And he knows about this and that

Every big guy in the FBI

Says he never whistles through his hat.

If you've got some clues to the latest news

Will you do a little favor for me?

Mr. Whistler, can you tell me where my baby can be?

That's The Whistler, that's his call

So remember that he's checking on you.

The Modernaires

That's The Whistler, knows it all

Look out whatever you do.

Mr. Whistler, what you see?

Can you tell me where my baby can be?

Oh he knows about him, and he knows about her

He knows about this, knows about that

Every big guy in the FBI

Says he never whistles through his hat.

If you've got some clues to the latest news

Will you do a little favor for me?

Mr. Whistler...

Tell me, tell me, tell me...

Tell me where my baby can be!

Other Versions of the Song

Sam Donahue and His Orchestra, with vocal by Shirley Lloyd, recorded a slightly different version that can be accessed at YouTube.

Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra recorded a very good big band version of the song that can be accessed at archive.org.

Hat tip to Ed Martin at the OTRR Facebook page for this info 2020-11-28

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