As with the last episode, you can push past the opening two minutes of syrupy music to get to the 13 minutes of action in Neighbor Shoots Deputy Sheriff, the second installment in our continuing story from the 1930s radio soap opera “Betty & Bob.”

Audiences for the c. 1939 original or 1947 rerun tuned in daily, but for the duration of this semester, I’ve decided to post and podcast one episode a week, on Wednesdays. Give a listen!

Today, we catch up with newspaper publishers Betty and Bob Drake setting aside their rest-cure in the country to deal with what sounds like a lynch mob going after their neighbor.

“A man without reason makes trouble enough, but a mob without reason, there’s nothing worse or uglier.” — Bob Drake

In the process they find a local hero named Chet, a school teacher who, because he is principled and courageous, might make a good newspaper reporter when the Drakes head back to the city in a later episode.

Note: Some old-time radio collectors must be guitar-picking fans, because the filename titles of some archived episodes refer to the school teacher character as “Chet Atkins.” His name, clearly given here, is “Chet Andrews.”

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