Melody Ranch: “Uncle Billy Harlow First Song - Make The San Fernando Valley My Home”, first broadcast on September 19, 1948. Old-time radio western.

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Gene Autry, a former cowboy, is in a small Oklahoma town working as a railroad depot telegraph operator and ticket seller, looking for something more out of life. His old friend Tex, who used to ride the range with him, finds him at the depot and asks him to return to the ranch. Gene explains that he wants to test himself in the wider world before going back. A customer at the window hears Gene play his guitar and sing, and urges him to try show business in New York. Melody Ranch is a Columbia Broadcasting System program, presented in this promotional episode for Doublemint gum dealers, and this recording dates from January 1940.

With Gene Autry, Tex, Ken, Will Rogers.

Listen for: Gene's guitar and his song 'Back in the Saddle Again' at the depot window, and the stranger's advice to go to New York.

First aired on January 4, 1940.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

Free, complete and restored, no modern ads. A new episode every week: Melody Ranch on Stupid Potato, every episode so far and the episode guide.

Stupid Potato restores classic radio and TV audio and runs 60 free 24/7 channels and 188 podcasts: old-time radio westerns, detectives, comedy, science fiction and suspense, vintage TV, Saturday-morning cartoons, Halloween and Christmas. No modern ads. Listen free at stupidpotato.com.

Gene Autry hosts a Sunday variety program at Melody Ranch, with songs from Johnny Bond, the Cass County Boys and Julie Lou Crosby. Gene's sidekick Lou and the cowhand Johnny trade jokes over a poem about the Fourth of July, which they read aloud. Gene then tells a tale from his days with the Bar-S Ranch, under boss Jim Slater, about a fierce paint bronc called Sky Ball Paint. At the Carterville rodeo, Gene draws the horse and is thrown hard, and Slater later offers a cash prize to any cowboy who can stay on it. Riders keep falling off, and the story follows the rivalry that grows around the horse.

With Gene Autry, Lou, Johnny, Jim Slater, Blackie, Hank, Slim Brian, Sky Ball Paint.

Listen for: Gene's account of his first ride on Sky Ball Paint at the Carterville rodeo, and the rivalry with Blackie

First aired on June 29, 1947.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

Free, complete and restored, no modern ads. A new episode every week: Melody Ranch on Stupid Potato, every episode so far and the episode guide.

Stupid Potato restores classic radio and TV audio and runs 60 free 24/7 channels and 189 podcasts: old-time radio westerns, detectives, comedy, science fiction and suspense, vintage TV, Saturday-morning cartoons, Halloween and Christmas. No modern ads. Listen free at stupidpotato.com.