The old time radio espionage and thriller, David Harding Counterspy, was brought to life by radio legend Phillips H Lord. Lord was an old time radio powerhouse, responsible for such shows as Gangbusters, Mr. District Attorney, We the People, and many more.
Airing on the NBC Blue radio station (later becoming ABC) and the Mutual Network from 1942 to 1957, this show helped fill the need of radio listeners who wanted some WWII and post-WWII espionage. David Harding was the chief of US Counterspies, a fictional organization. US Counterspies was involved in all sorts of espionage and counter-espionage against Japan’s Black Dragon, and Germany’s Gestapo.
It has been hinted at, but not proven that Phillips Lord was involved in some sort of espionage, or government work himself. But that is just a rumor. What is true though is that Lord had unique access to the inner workings of our countries crime and intelligence agencies. This came about because of the cozy arrangement he had while doing the Gangbusters radio show. Gangbusters had had J. Edgar Hoover’s blessing and help, and he had a good relationship with the mysterious Hoover. It’s believed that through Phillips, some of the stories came about.
At the beginning of David Harding Counterspy the main enemies were Germany and Japan. But after World War II ended, David Harding got to tangle around a bit with the commies. David Harding Counterspy also solved crimes here in the US, from stolen car rings to drug smuggling, and everything in between.
The main character of David Harding was played by four different actors through the run of the show, and the main recurring character is Harry Peters, who was played by three different old time radio actors.
David Harding Counterspy had numerous sponsors over the years including Gulf Oil, Kraft Foods, Ex-Lax, etc., but the longest and most memorable is Pepsi-Cola. This old time radio espionage thriller had no problem getting sponsors. The scripts were good, and Counterspy was noted for the quality of the sound effects used. It also brought up some pretty interesting schemes, such as giving our cattle germs to spread disease. Another was putting a bomb in a dog’s collar.
There were over 800 episodes of David Harding Counterspy produced, but sad to say, there are only 67 episodes left for us to listen to today. There was also a movie, David Harding Counterspy, that was released in 1950. If you get a chance to see it, it runs true to the old time radio series.
This synopsis is with the permission of www.eddiesotr.com
NOTE: Replaced with Version 1902 files (13-Jan-2020)
From the Old Time Radio Researchers Group. See "Notes" Section below for more information on the OTRR.
It contains the most complete and accurate version of this series in the best sound possible at the time of creation. An updated version will be issued if more episodes or better sounding ones become available.
This is the Single Episodes Page. The Certified Set includes extras not found here. It is located at OTRR Certified Set. This Single Episodes page is provided in case you want to sample the shows.Note that in many cases, file names have been modified from the original OTRR names to conform to archive.org naming requirements.
If you are interested in preserving Old Time Radio (OTR), you may wish to join the Old Time Radio Researchers Group at Facebook and Groups.io.
Relax, listen, and enjoy!
OTRR Definitions:
OTRR Maintained Set -- This set contains all known episodes in the best available audio condition with the most accurate dates and titles known to be in general circulation and based on current research at the time of release. Replaces OTRR Certified Accurate and OTRR Certified Complete.
OTRR Non-Maintained Set -- A collection of shows that has not gone through the OTRR Maintenance process.
Pre-2019 OTRR Definitions:
OTRR Certified Accurate -- A series that was "Certified Accurate" indicated that all the episodes were properly identified and labeled based on current information but that the series did not contain all known extant episodes.
OTRR Certified Complete -- A series that was "Certified Complete" achieved the highest level of certification available under the OTRR Certified Standards. This certification level implied that all the files in the series were "Certified Accurate" and also indicated that the series was as complete as possible and included all circulating episodes.
OTRR Non-Certified -- A collection of shows that has not gone through the OTRR Certification process.
Also, beginning in 2019, the version numbers of our OTRR releases changed format -- instead of v1.0 or v2.1, we are now using a version number that reflects the year and month the set was released. The format used is a two-digit year followed by a two-digit month. For example, "v1906" indicates a set that was released in June 2019, or "v1910" indicates a set released in October 2019.
NOTE: There are no passwords for any of our ZIP files. If you are prompted for a password, before downloading the file again, try unzipping the file into a shorter full folder path name -- for example, unzip to "C:\" instead of "C:\Documents and Settings\your_Windows_ID\some_other_folder\". Sorry, some of our releases contain long folder and file names, which sometimes manifests itself on the Windows platform as prompting for a password for the ZIP file. Or try renaming the ZIP file itself to a shorter name before unzipping.
