Roy Rogers

The Roy Rogers Show was a 30-minute Western radio program in the United States. It began in 1944, ended in 1955, and was carried on more than 500 stations.

Like the television program of the same name, the show centered on Roy Rogers, one of the most popular singing-cowboy movie stars. Initially, the radio show differed in format from The Roy Rogers Show on TV, with the radio version being more oriented toward music. Toward its end, however, it moved more toward the adventure featured in the TV show. Radio historian John Dunning wrote:

"The early shows followed the pattern set by [Gene] Autry's Melody Ranch ... Rogers' show featured Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers in such fine Western favorites as "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," "Cool Water," and "Don't Fence Me In." Much of the show was campfire banter and song, with Roy and songstress Pat Friday doing vocal solos, Perry Botkin leading the Goodyear orchestra and Verne Smith announcing. Dramatic skits were offered, but leaned to lighter material than what the show used in late years. Ultimately, it became primarily a Western thriller show.

The show's music, like that featured in Rogers' movies, had a lasting effect on the music business. A 1986 article in Billboard magazine endorsed membership for Rogers in the Country Music Hall of Fame. It said, in part, "Two generations of Americans grew up with Rogers on the silver screen, TV, and radio -- and the impact he had on the present success of country music would be hard to estimate and easy to underestimate." Although Rogers was already in the Hall of Fame as a member of the Sons of the Pioneers when that article was written, he was inducted as an individual in 1988.

The triumph of good over evil was a continuing thread throughout the program's existence. A 1954 newspaper article noted that Rogers' radio and TV shows featured "entertainment ... in which justice triumphs." It added: "A steady parade of badmen forever appear to plague the law-abiding, justice-loving Roy Rogers and to present to Roy and his friends a constant challenge. Embezzlers, swindlers, poachers, bank robbers, horse-thieves and diamond smugglers ... each to be vanquished in turn by the hard-riding cowboy."