The Chase Radio Program

"In the animal world, there's the hunter . . . and the hunted; Hounds and Fox, Hawk and Sparrow, Chicken and Worm. We, in the top-most species, have also joined the hunt. But who is to judge precisely which of us are hounds . . . or foxes . . . as we enter . . . The Chase!"

Background

The Radio programming of the 1950s was in transition. By 1948, popular Television was beginning to make inroads into Radio's market share. The major networks were dividing their resources between Radio and Television in an effort to maintain their own market share in both media. At the same time, competition with Television was driving down Radio costs.

From about 1946 on, Radio networks began making every effort to reduce both talent costs and production costs. During Radio's heyday, talent and production costs for a 30-minute program had reached as much as $17,000. Radio networks' attempts to drive down talent costs were part of the union busting push-back from efforts like the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Labeling virtually all labor-organizing entities as communist front groups, the effort had a chilling effect on artists' unions as well.

Having gradually reduced the talent and production costs for Radio, the networks continued to attempt to mount programming that could still compete with early popular Television. But with the increased emphasis on Television and its growing popularity, promotional budgets and ad and listing space in local newspapers began to dwindle for Radio programming. With respsect to Radio spot ads and synopses being replaced with Television programming, following or even finding favorite Radio programs and new offerings, illustrated Radio's decline.

By the time Television began to take off, many networks were hedging their media bets by airing both Radio and Television versions of some of their longest running staples. Great Radio programs like Suspense, The Jack Benny Program, Burns and Allen and Amos 'n' Andy made the jump to television concurrent with the last years of their Radio runs.

There was still interest in innovative new programming over Radio, well into the mid-1950s, but as the 1950s drew to a close, it was becoming obvious to the industry and public alike that Radio, long America's most popular medium had seen the last of its heyday.

The Chase tests the waters of Radio before Television

NBC first envisioned The Chase as a new Television feature. This was not uncommon during the later 1940s and early 1950s. Several Radio features straddled both media, with varying success. Developed as a psychological drama, the premise was that many life situations place their subjects in a 'chase' of one type or another. A chase for fame. A chase from peril. A chase to beat the clock. A chase to escape death. The added twist was the question of who is the hunter or the hunted in these situations.

The scripts were faced paced, starred quality east coast talent and were well written. The series' plots and themes focused primarily on predominantly fear inducing pursuits of one form or another. Thus most of the scripts were fraught with tension of one type or another. Whether mental tension, physical peril or a mix of both, the abiding theme throughout the series was the the contrasts between the 'hunter' and the 'hunted' in such Life situations.

NBC's Television version of The Chase was in production during May 1953. It was to star Doug Fowley as both narrator and performer. Apparently the powers to be eventually decided to abandon the production. It would also appear that the TV production was abandoned at about the same time the Radio version was pulled, to be replaced by NBC's prestigious NBC Summer Symphony series.

Any being gets weary of constantly being chased or pursued. It would appear that listening audiences felt the same after fifty-five installments of The Chase.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the log of the radioGOLDINdex and newspaper listings.

What you see here, is what you get. Complete transparency. We have no 'credentials' whatsoever--in any way, shape, or form--in the 'otr community'--none. But here's how we did it--for better or worse. Here's how you can build on it yourselves--hopefully for the better. Here are the breadcrumbs--just follow the trail a bit further if you wish. No hobbled downloads. No misdirection. No posturing about our 'credentials.' No misrepresentations. No strings attached. We point you in the right direction and you're free to expand on it, extend it, use it however it best advances your efforts.

We ask one thing and one thing only--if you employ what we publish, attribute it, before we cite you on it.

We continue to provide honest research into these wonderful Golden Age Radio programs simply because we love to do it. If you feel that we've provided you with useful information or saved you some valuable time regarding this log--and you'd like to help us even further--you can help us keep going. Please consider a small donation here:

We don't pronounce our Golden Age Radio research as 'certified' anything. By the very definition, research is imperfect. We simply tell the truth. As is our continuing practice, we provide our fully provenanced research results--to the extent possible--right here on the page, for any of our peers to review--or refute--as the case may be. If you take issue with any of our findings, you're welcome to cite any better verifiable source(s) and we'll immediately review them and update our findings accordingly. As more verifiable provenances surface, we'll continue to update the following series log, as appropriate.

All rights reserved by their respective sources. Article and log copyright 2009 The Digital Deli Online--all rights reserved. Any failure to attribute the results of this copywritten work will be rigorously pursued.

[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]