Originally broadcast on NBC, 11 October 1953. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
The run
- Network
- CBS
- Years active
- 1942–1955
- Surviving broadcasts
- 488
- Genre
- suspense
You're walking alone on the street at night, but then you hear another set of footsteps and a haunting tune being whistled by an unseen stranger. Fritz Lang used an similar premise in his 1930s German movie with Peter Lorre playing M , a psychopathic murderer of children.
1955 · 51954 · 221953 · 121952 · 271951 · 24
Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files
Clean transfer · 53 of 90Listenable · 23 of 90Rough but complete · 14 of 90
Source collection
Old Time Radio Researchers Group
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
Every broadcast below carries its own provenance sheet — transfer quality, file source and rights.Archive record: OTRR_Whistler_Singles
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
38 dated broadcasts across 14 years on the air, with 9 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
JFMAMJJASOND
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
Clean transferListenableRough but complete No surviving recording
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1951, in original transmission order.
- 1. Tall Thin Man · 3 Jun 1951
- 2. Law of Physics · 10 Jun 1951
- 3. The Man in the Trench Coat · 17 Jun 1951
The Havana Lee
4 Aug 1955 · 21 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 4 August 1955. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Whistler ep678 A Woman's Privilege
9 Jun 1955 · 24 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 9 June 1955. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Incident at Chalk Point
21 Apr 1955 · 24 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 21 April 1955. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
The Ambassador
31 Mar 1955 · 20 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 31 March 1955. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Bright Boy
24 Feb 1955 · 24 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 24 February 1955. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Last Request
17 Oct 1954 · 30 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 17 October 1954. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Stolen Letter
3 Oct 1954 · 24 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 3 October 1954. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Song Team
19 Sep 1954 · 23 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 19 September 1954. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Same night on the air
11 Oct 1953
Everything else the archive still holds from the night of 11 Oct 1953.
Originally broadcast on CBS, 11 October 1953. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Originally broadcast on NBC, 11 October 1953. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
The Comic Weekly Man
CWM ep338 Riddle - Add Ten to Nothing, First Comic - Bringing Up Father
11 Oct 1953 · 28 min
Originally broadcast on Syndicated, 11 October 1953. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Originally broadcast on NBC, 11 October 1953. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Also on CBS
CBS in 1942–1955
Other series the network carried while The Whistler was on the air.
Same seasons
suspense on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
The anthology of dread
A voice, a creaking door, and a self-contained story designed to frighten you in half an hour. Suspense and Lights Out built the grammar every horror anthology still uses.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of The Whistler
Modern series carrying this form forward.
If you liked this
More to explore
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