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ExploreTraveler is a online travel blog.

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CHALLENGE OF THE YUKON – The Last Days of a Freight Line

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CHALLENGE OF THE YUKON
The Last Days of a Freight Line

Challenge of the Yukon was a long-running radio series that began on Detroit’s station WXYZ (as had The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet), and an example of a Northern genre story. The series was first heard on February 3, 1938.

The program was an adventure series about Sergeant William Preston of the Northwest Mounted Police and his lead sled dog, Yukon King, as they fought evildoers in the Northern wilderness during the Gold Rush of the 1890s. Preston, according to radio historian Jim Harmon, first joined the Mounties to capture his father’s killer, and when he was successful he was promoted to Sergeant. Preston worked under the command of Inspector Conrad, and in the early years was often assisted by a French-Canadian guide named Pierre.

Preston’s staunchest ally, who was arguably the true star of the show and indeed often did more work than he did, was the brave Alaskan husky, Yukon King. Typical plots involved the pair helping injured trappers, tracking down smugglers, or saving cabin dwellers from wolverines. Sgt. Preston’s faithful steed was Rex, used primarily in the summer months, but generally Yukon King and his dog team were the key mode of transportation (as signalled by Preston’s cry of “On, King! On, you huskies!.”

There is some confusion regarding King’s actual breed. The producers seemed to use malamute and husky interchangeably. At least once, Preston answered “malamute” to the question from another character. In the early radio shows, the cry of “On, you huskies!” would alternate with “On, you malamutes” from show to show.

Von Reznicek’s Donna Diana Overture was the pulsing theme music, and the episodes ended with the official pronouncement, Well, King, this case is closed.

Following the success of The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet, George W. Trendle, the station owner, asked for a similar adventure show, but with a dog as the hero. According to WXYZ staffer Dick Osgood, in his history of the station, Trendle insisted that it not be “a dog like Lassie because.. this must be an action story. It had to be a working dog.” Writer Tom Dougall, who had been influenced by the poems of Robert W. Service, naturally chose a Husky. The dog was originally called Mogo, but after criticism by Trendle, Dougall re-christened the canine King. Dougall likewise created Sgt. Preston and the French-Canadian guide. Fran Striker, who wrote for The Lone Ranger, also contributed scripts.

However, Trendle’s criticism of Dougall may have had another reason behind it. Shortly before the two Trendle series aired ( The Lone Ranger and Challenge of the Yukon), popular author Zane Grey had a book in circulation (Lone Star Ranger) about a Texas Ranger like The Lone Ranger and a comic book series in circulation (King of the Royal Mounted) about the adventures of Sgt. King, a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman like Sgt. Preston. It could be that Trendle borrowed both ideas from Grey’s work and wanted to retain the name “King” as a tribute to Grey, who died after a long illness one year following the first airing of Challenge of the Yukon.

Challenge of the Yukon began as a 15-minute serial, airing locally from 1938 until May 28, 1947. Shortly thereafter, the program acquired a sponsor, Quaker Oats, and the series, in a half-hour format, moved to the networks. The program aired on ABC from June 12, 1947 to December 30, 1949. It was then heard on The Mutual Broadcasting System from January 2, 1950 through the final broadcast on June 9, 1955. The title changed from Challenge of the Yukon to Sergeant Preston of the Yukon in November 1951, and remained under that name through the end of the series and into television.

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Please watch: “(34) Sycamore Tree In Ancient Israel – ExploreTraveler ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZuL3xcnBr0
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-

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Ports Of Call Wales

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https://www.spreaker.com/user/exploretraveler/ports-of-call-35-xx-xx-xx-wales_3

ExploreTraveler Presents
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Ports Of Call Wales

An obscure series from 1935 or 1936 in which each episode deals with a voyage to a different country where events of that country’s history are dramatized. They each begin with the low moan of a tramp steamer’s whistle and the announcement of the series title, followed by a musical interlude.

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Please watch: “(34) Sycamore Tree In Ancient Israel – ExploreTraveler ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZuL3xcnBr0
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-

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Adventure Ahead Episode 6 A Tooth for Paul Revere

Source:
https://www.spreaker.com/user/exploretraveler/adventure-ahead-44-09-09-06-a-tooth-for-

ExploreTraveler Presents
https://exploretraveler.com
ADVENTURE AHEAD!
Adventure Ahead Episode 6 A Tooth for Paul Revere

Adventure Ahead! was a brilliant Summer feature for 1944. Comprised of fourteen stirring adventure novels and stories from among America’s greatest fiction writers, its somewhat more masculine orientation may have kept some of the young females of the era listening to Frank Sinatra that summer instead of Adventure Ahead!.

But it was indeed billed as ‘famous stories for young people’, not ‘famous stories for young men’. And yet, how any rational programmer at NBC-Red could have construed the slant of this project to young people is anyone’s guess. There’s no discernible love interest, there are female protagonists, nor any female authorities or mentors for that matter. Of course this was the 1940s after all, still in the throes of the fight for equality on many fronts. It’s just quite obvious that NBC-Red programmers were simply completely out of touch with their era.

That having been said, each of these literary choices did have a uniting theme–defending Freedom, domestically and abroad. To be fair to NBC’s programmers, there were several jingoistic, over the top, almost fascist ‘public service programs’ geared toward every facet of domestic population at one time or another during the World War II years and the Cold War Years that followed. So overlooking the slant for the time being, let’s focus in on the selected stories and their themes.

Virtually all of these stories were male-oriented, ‘coming of age’ tales of one type or another. Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast was one of the books virtually any father would expect his son to have read by the time he was eleven. A stirring tale of independent thinking, the courage to act on it, and the satisfaction of correctly asserting one’s convictions is always a satisfying read for boy and man alike. For young ladies, even during the 1940s, not so much. All it would have conjured up was more of the status quo the Rosie the Riveters and their daughters across America were fighting against, sweating to defeat, and earning the right to overturn. Sadly this same theme can be set forth in the other twelve selections as well.

Suspending belief a bit further, The Arrival of The Lily Bean, ostensibly the one female oriented theme in the entire run, stems from Walter Dumaux Edmond’s compilation of short stories that appeared over several installments in The Saturday Evening Post and Atlantic Monthly entitled simply, Young Ames. The fact that this is one of the two exemplars of the series not in circulation doesn’t help. But from what I can recall from the Saturday Evening Post installment of the same name, The Arrival of the Lily Bean was yet another male coming of age story as well–but in the romantic arena.

T.B. Aldrich’s The Story of A Bad Boy–as adapted–was a greatly abridged version of the original novel, which basically traced the entire life of the author at various critical ‘coming of age’ junctures throughout his life. What survives in the Adventure Ahead! installment is a series of vignettes of the ‘bad behaviour’ of the protagonist. The ‘bad behaviours’ are a series inspired pranks which, in the final analysis were instigated with the best of intentions. It’s just that most of them backfired in one way or the other.

Inside The FBI is a stirring tale of the inner workings of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Clearly fascinating fodder for the imagination of any young male. Reportedly blessed by J.Edgar Hoover himself, it doesn’t take much thought to imagine how the piece is slanted. With most of the emphasis on FBI scientific procedure and analysis, there’s plenty here to fire the imagination of any young man.

Robinson Crusoe is a classic of American literature. Even abridged, it’s easy to understand how naturally this selection sprang to mind when developing the project. Daniel Defoe’s classic exists here in skeleton form only, but it’s a good listen to this day. And if it prompts you to reach for your own copy from the library shelf, so much the better. It’s an amazing read–and re-read.

A Tooth for Paul Revere is one of Stephen Vincent Benét’s most enduring short stories. It’s been adapted and readapted in hundreds of productions over Radio, Animation, Television, and Film. If you’ve never read it yourself, then don’t miss the opportunity to listen to the Adventure Ahead! rendition. It captures all of the key elements of Benét’s original story.

Toby Tyler . . . is pure young male adventure fantasy, both delightfully spun and poignantly punctuated. One of the more realistically and sensitively portrayed productions, we found it one of the more enjoyable of the existing eleven exemplars.

Waldo Fleming’s Talking Drums is pure male juvenile escapism very much in the Jungle Jim or Tarzan mold, but with a b

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CHALLENGE OF THE YUKON – Meeting the Terms of a Contract

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Source:
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CHALLENGE OF THE YUKON
A Footprint in Leather

Challenge of the Yukon was a long-running radio series that began on Detroit’s station WXYZ (as had The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet), and an example of a Northern genre story. The series was first heard on February 3, 1938.

The program was an adventure series about Sergeant William Preston of the Northwest Mounted Police and his lead sled dog, Yukon King, as they fought evildoers in the Northern wilderness during the Gold Rush of the 1890s. Preston, according to radio historian Jim Harmon, first joined the Mounties to capture his father’s killer, and when he was successful he was promoted to Sergeant. Preston worked under the command of Inspector Conrad, and in the early years was often assisted by a French-Canadian guide named Pierre.

Preston’s staunchest ally, who was arguably the true star of the show and indeed often did more work than he did, was the brave Alaskan husky, Yukon King. Typical plots involved the pair helping injured trappers, tracking down smugglers, or saving cabin dwellers from wolverines. Sgt. Preston’s faithful steed was Rex, used primarily in the summer months, but generally Yukon King and his dog team were the key mode of transportation (as signalled by Preston’s cry of “On, King! On, you huskies!.”

There is some confusion regarding King’s actual breed. The producers seemed to use malamute and husky interchangeably. At least once, Preston answered “malamute” to the question from another character. In the early radio shows, the cry of “On, you huskies!” would alternate with “On, you malamutes” from show to show.

Von Reznicek’s Donna Diana Overture was the pulsing theme music, and the episodes ended with the official pronouncement, Well, King, this case is closed.

Following the success of The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet, George W. Trendle, the station owner, asked for a similar adventure show, but with a dog as the hero. According to WXYZ staffer Dick Osgood, in his history of the station, Trendle insisted that it not be “a dog like Lassie because.. this must be an action story. It had to be a working dog.” Writer Tom Dougall, who had been influenced by the poems of Robert W. Service, naturally chose a Husky. The dog was originally called Mogo, but after criticism by Trendle, Dougall re-christened the canine King. Dougall likewise created Sgt. Preston and the French-Canadian guide. Fran Striker, who wrote for The Lone Ranger, also contributed scripts.

However, Trendle’s criticism of Dougall may have had another reason behind it. Shortly before the two Trendle series aired ( The Lone Ranger and Challenge of the Yukon), popular author Zane Grey had a book in circulation (Lone Star Ranger) about a Texas Ranger like The Lone Ranger and a comic book series in circulation (King of the Royal Mounted) about the adventures of Sgt. King, a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman like Sgt. Preston. It could be that Trendle borrowed both ideas from Grey’s work and wanted to retain the name “King” as a tribute to Grey, who died after a long illness one year following the first airing of Challenge of the Yukon.

Challenge of the Yukon began as a 15-minute serial, airing locally from 1938 until May 28, 1947. Shortly thereafter, the program acquired a sponsor, Quaker Oats, and the series, in a half-hour format, moved to the networks. The program aired on ABC from June 12, 1947 to December 30, 1949. It was then heard on The Mutual Broadcasting System from January 2, 1950 through the final broadcast on June 9, 1955. The title changed from Challenge of the Yukon to Sergeant Preston of the Yukon in November 1951, and remained under that name through the end of the series and into television.

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Please watch: “(34) Sycamore Tree In Ancient Israel – ExploreTraveler ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZuL3xcnBr0
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-

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CHALLENGE OF THE YUKON – A Footprint in Leather

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ExploreTraveler Presents:
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CHALLENGE OF THE YUKON
A Footprint in Leather

Challenge of the Yukon was a long-running radio series that began on Detroit’s station WXYZ (as had The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet), and an example of a Northern genre story. The series was first heard on February 3, 1938.

The program was an adventure series about Sergeant William Preston of the Northwest Mounted Police and his lead sled dog, Yukon King, as they fought evildoers in the Northern wilderness during the Gold Rush of the 1890s. Preston, according to radio historian Jim Harmon, first joined the Mounties to capture his father’s killer, and when he was successful he was promoted to Sergeant. Preston worked under the command of Inspector Conrad, and in the early years was often assisted by a French-Canadian guide named Pierre.

Preston’s staunchest ally, who was arguably the true star of the show and indeed often did more work than he did, was the brave Alaskan husky, Yukon King. Typical plots involved the pair helping injured trappers, tracking down smugglers, or saving cabin dwellers from wolverines. Sgt. Preston’s faithful steed was Rex, used primarily in the summer months, but generally Yukon King and his dog team were the key mode of transportation (as signalled by Preston’s cry of “On, King! On, you huskies!.”

There is some confusion regarding King’s actual breed. The producers seemed to use malamute and husky interchangeably. At least once, Preston answered “malamute” to the question from another character. In the early radio shows, the cry of “On, you huskies!” would alternate with “On, you malamutes” from show to show.

Von Reznicek’s Donna Diana Overture was the pulsing theme music, and the episodes ended with the official pronouncement, Well, King, this case is closed.

Following the success of The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet, George W. Trendle, the station owner, asked for a similar adventure show, but with a dog as the hero. According to WXYZ staffer Dick Osgood, in his history of the station, Trendle insisted that it not be “a dog like Lassie because.. this must be an action story. It had to be a working dog.” Writer Tom Dougall, who had been influenced by the poems of Robert W. Service, naturally chose a Husky. The dog was originally called Mogo, but after criticism by Trendle, Dougall re-christened the canine King. Dougall likewise created Sgt. Preston and the French-Canadian guide. Fran Striker, who wrote for The Lone Ranger, also contributed scripts.

However, Trendle’s criticism of Dougall may have had another reason behind it. Shortly before the two Trendle series aired ( The Lone Ranger and Challenge of the Yukon), popular author Zane Grey had a book in circulation (Lone Star Ranger) about a Texas Ranger like The Lone Ranger and a comic book series in circulation (King of the Royal Mounted) about the adventures of Sgt. King, a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman like Sgt. Preston. It could be that Trendle borrowed both ideas from Grey’s work and wanted to retain the name “King” as a tribute to Grey, who died after a long illness one year following the first airing of Challenge of the Yukon.

Challenge of the Yukon began as a 15-minute serial, airing locally from 1938 until May 28, 1947. Shortly thereafter, the program acquired a sponsor, Quaker Oats, and the series, in a half-hour format, moved to the networks. The program aired on ABC from June 12, 1947 to December 30, 1949. It was then heard on The Mutual Broadcasting System from January 2, 1950 through the final broadcast on June 9, 1955. The title changed from Challenge of the Yukon to Sergeant Preston of the Yukon in November 1951, and remained under that name through the end of the series and into television.

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Please watch: “(34) Sycamore Tree In Ancient Israel – ExploreTraveler ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZuL3xcnBr0
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-

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Ports Of Call Austria

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https://www.spreaker.com/user/exploretraveler/ports-of-call-35-xx-xx-xx-austria_2

ExploreTraveler Presents
Ports of Call
https://exploretraveler.com

An obscure series from 1935 or 1936 in which each episode deals with a voyage to a different country where events of that country’s history are dramatized. They each begin with the low moan of a tramp steamer’s whistle and the announcement of the series title, followed by a musical interlude.

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Please watch: “(34) Sycamore Tree In Ancient Israel – ExploreTraveler ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZuL3xcnBr0
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-

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Adventure Ahead Episode 3 The Story of a Bad Boy

Source:
https://www.spreaker.com/user/exploretraveler/adventure-ahead-episode-3-the-story-of-a

ExploreTraveler Presents
https://exploretraveler.com
ADVENTURE AHEAD!
Episode 3 The Story of a Bad Boy

Adventure Ahead! was a brilliant Summer feature for 1944. Comprised of fourteen stirring adventure novels and stories from among America’s greatest fiction writers, its somewhat more masculine orientation may have kept some of the young females of the era listening to Frank Sinatra that summer instead of Adventure Ahead!.

But it was indeed billed as ‘famous stories for young people’, not ‘famous stories for young men’. And yet, how any rational programmer at NBC-Red could have construed the slant of this project to young people is anyone’s guess. There’s no discernible love interest, there are female protagonists, nor any female authorities or mentors for that matter. Of course this was the 1940s after all, still in the throes of the fight for equality on many fronts. It’s just quite obvious that NBC-Red programmers were simply completely out of touch with their era.

That having been said, each of these literary choices did have a uniting theme–defending Freedom, domestically and abroad. To be fair to NBC’s programmers, there were several jingoistic, over the top, almost fascist ‘public service programs’ geared toward every facet of domestic population at one time or another during the World War II years and the Cold War Years that followed. So overlooking the slant for the time being, let’s focus in on the selected stories and their themes.

Virtually all of these stories were male-oriented, ‘coming of age’ tales of one type or another. Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast was one of the books virtually any father would expect his son to have read by the time he was eleven. A stirring tale of independent thinking, the courage to act on it, and the satisfaction of correctly asserting one’s convictions is always a satisfying read for boy and man alike. For young ladies, even during the 1940s, not so much. All it would have conjured up was more of the status quo the Rosie the Riveters and their daughters across America were fighting against, sweating to defeat, and earning the right to overturn. Sadly this same theme can be set forth in the other twelve selections as well.

Suspending belief a bit further, The Arrival of The Lily Bean, ostensibly the one female oriented theme in the entire run, stems from Walter Dumaux Edmond’s compilation of short stories that appeared over several installments in The Saturday Evening Post and Atlantic Monthly entitled simply, Young Ames. The fact that this is one of the two exemplars of the series not in circulation doesn’t help. But from what I can recall from the Saturday Evening Post installment of the same name, The Arrival of the Lily Bean was yet another male coming of age story as well–but in the romantic arena.

T.B. Aldrich’s The Story of A Bad Boy–as adapted–was a greatly abridged version of the original novel, which basically traced the entire life of the author at various critical ‘coming of age’ junctures throughout his life. What survives in the Adventure Ahead! installment is a series of vignettes of the ‘bad behaviour’ of the protagonist. The ‘bad behaviours’ are a series inspired pranks which, in the final analysis were instigated with the best of intentions. It’s just that most of them backfired in one way or the other.

Inside The FBI is a stirring tale of the inner workings of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Clearly fascinating fodder for the imagination of any young male. Reportedly blessed by J.Edgar Hoover himself, it doesn’t take much thought to imagine how the piece is slanted. With most of the emphasis on FBI scientific procedure and analysis, there’s plenty here to fire the imagination of any young man.

Robinson Crusoe is a classic of American literature. Even abridged, it’s easy to understand how naturally this selection sprang to mind when developing the project. Daniel Defoe’s classic exists here in skeleton form only, but it’s a good listen to this day. And if it prompts you to reach for your own copy from the library shelf, so much the better. It’s an amazing read–and re-read.

A Tooth for Paul Revere is one of Stephen Vincent Benét’s most enduring short stories. It’s been adapted and readapted in hundreds of productions over Radio, Animation, Television, and Film. If you’ve never read it yourself, then don’t miss the opportunity to listen to the Adventure Ahead! rendition. It captures all of the key elements of Benét’s original story.

Toby Tyler . . . is pure young male adventure fantasy, both delightfully spun and poignantly punctuated. One of the more realistically and sensitively portrayed productions, we found it one of the more enjoyable of the existing eleven exemplars.

Waldo Fleming’s Talking Drums is pure male juvenile escapism very much in the Jungle Jim or Tarzan mold, but with a bit more cerebral

maxresdefault 4

Ports Of Call Union Of South Africa

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Source:
https://www.spreaker.com/user/exploretraveler/ports-of-call-union-of-south-africa

ExploreTraveler Presents
https://exploretraveler.com
Ports Of Call Union Of South Africa

An obscure series from 1935 or 1936 in which each episode deals with a voyage to a different country where events of that country’s history are dramatized. They each begin with the low moan of a tramp steamer’s whistle and the announcement of the series title, followed by a musical interlude.

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Please watch: “(34) Sycamore Tree In Ancient Israel – ExploreTraveler ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZuL3xcnBr0
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-

maxresdefault 5

Ports Of Call Turkey

Signup for our Newsletter Email here:
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Source:
https://www.spreaker.com/user/exploretraveler/ports-of-call-turkey

ExploreTraveler Presents
https://exploretraveler.com
Ports Of Call Turkey

An obscure series from 1935 or 1936 in which each episode deals with a voyage to a different country where events of that country’s history are dramatized. They each begin with the low moan of a tramp steamer’s whistle and the announcement of the series title, followed by a musical interlude.

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Please watch: “(34) Sycamore Tree In Ancient Israel – ExploreTraveler ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZuL3xcnBr0
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-