If you're enjoying or not enjoying this content, or just have comments, please feel free to contact me at host@dailytimemachine.com. Also if you could rate and subscribe that would be great! If you'd like to go above and beyond, support the podcast here (https://anchor.fm/drpsdailytimemachine/support) to further improve audio quality and collect some special recordings on some unique formats to share with you all. The first supporter will get a special one of a kind archive of certain episodes of their choice on minidisc, cassette, or CD with custom artwork. I'll try to work out some unique benefits or physical gifts/giveaways down the road if we continue to find success.
This is what I would consider one of the most interesting and different old time radio shows of the time. Today we listen to what was one of the earliest versions of reality entertainment. Some even refer to it as a precursor to the TV show COPS, just 35 years beforehand.
It is called “Nightwatch”, which aired from 1954-1955. Similar to Dragnet, which also featured real cases (with the names changed to protect the innocent), Nightwatch also follows real cases, except with a very important difference, the crimes are recorded as they are happening. Recorded by host Donn Reid alongside Sgt Ron Perkins on the shift from 6pm to 2am. The show was recorded in Culver City, California, which was experiencing a population boom at the time, almost doubling over the last decade. With that came an increase in crime, and the majority of that crime was committed during these 6-2 hours.
Nightwatch has received some criticism for sounding like sections are scripted, and no doubt some of the internal discussions seem to feature nervous and short conversations; however this show is very real, in fact the host Donn Reid was shot at and stabbed during the recording of this show. Other issues refer to the unique presentation of the show. It is presented without music and the sound can be at times difficult to understand but gets better after the first minute or so. Due to recording limitations at the time, editing had to be performed by literally cutting the physical tape to take out profanity and other content from the tape.
I won’t spoil any specifics about this particular episode, but it is called Nude Prowler from April 5th 1954. It tells the tale of a peculiar arrest and a grizzly murder, but is everything as it seems? Sit back, close your eyes, and be transported back 68 years to the back of a police car as it starts… the Nightwatch.
