“Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders” was a kid’s radio show set in “the modern West.”  Bobby was a 12-year-old who had inherited a Texas cattle ranch, the B-Bar-B.  He and his ranch hands struggled against rustlers and other sorts of appropriately western, but mid-20th-Century, hazards.  This episode prominently features a young Don Knotts playing crusty old-timer Windy Wales.  In Windy, you’ll hear the roots of Knotts’ Nervous Man character, who eventually morphed in Deputy Barney Fife on “The Andy Griffith Show.”  Then Bing Crosby hosts the “The Kraft Music Hall,” the radio program that solidified his place in radio history.  Crosby hosted the variety show for a decade, singing standards and popular tunes of the day as well as cracking wise with plenty of guest stars.  This time, he hosts young Donald O’Connor, who’s about to go into the Army.  Bing open with the post-war classic “San Fernando Valley,” then he and O’Connor mix it up with “Small Fry.”

Episodes

Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders

“The Killer Wales”

December 28, 1949

4:32

The Kraft Music Hall

“Guest Donald O’Connor”

February 24, 1944

34:21

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