Dick Tracy had a long run on radio, from 1934 weekdays on NBC's New England stations to the ABC network in 1948. Bob Burlen was the first radio Tracy in 1934, and others heard in the role during the 1930s and 1940s were Barry Thompson, Ned Wever and Matt Crowley. The early shows all had 15-minute episodes.
The beginning of the 1 May 1945 episode ("The Case Of The Empty Safe:) was interrupted on the Blue Network for a "special news flash" relating that Adolf Hitler had "died of a stroke." Copies of this episode, complete with the mistaken news flash Hitler had committed suicide the day before, not died of a stroke still exist today.
