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Mystery, Crime & Detective · Syndicated

Secret Agent K-7 Returns

· 66 broadcasts

Secret Agent K-7 Returns is a 1939 syndicated transcription series of fifteen-minute spy stories, made as war gathered over Europe and Americans grew uneasy about foreign agents in their midst. Its host, the retired master operative K-7 -- "America's number one adventurer," who once worked in twenty-two countries -- introduces each case and draws a warning from it, while three rotating field teams do the actual spy-catching: Agent B-9 with Rita Drake, Agent Z, and Agent M, aided by Yvonne Durrell and Patricia Norwood. The plots read like the front pages of 1939 -- poison gas, suicide ships, stolen defense plans, fifth-column uprisings, and villains marked as enemy agents by their accents. Rather than glamorizing espionage, K-7 preaches against it, urging listeners to stay clear of a shadowy trade he frames as a threat to peace. The series grew out of creator George F. Zimmer's collection of purportedly true First World War spy tales; the radio performers themselves went uncredited. Minor but vivid, it survives as a brisk time capsule of what America feared on the eve of the Second World War.

Collection status: 66 of 66 held (100% complete)
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Episode Spine

undated

date unknown Border Violations Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia go after a gang staging border violations to panic nations into rearming, then selling them the weapons.
date unknown Poisonous Gas Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita pursue Zora LaValle, a Mata Hari after the formula for a horrific poison gas.
date unknown Information Peddler Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne unmask a highly placed official selling his own government's intelligence to other nations.
date unknown Narcotics Peddlers Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia break up a gang smuggling cocaine into the country.
date unknown Sabotage in Industry Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita are called in by an aircraft-parts manufacturer to find the saboteur wrecking his plant.
date unknown Fortified Borders Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia hunt master spy George Shostak, who means to blow up a stretch of fortified border.
date unknown Blood and Steel Society Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne use handwriting analysis to identify an assassin and break the Blood and Steel Society.
date unknown Illegal Use of Radio Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia move to shut down a clandestine radio operation stirring dissent among a nation's citizens.
date unknown Coast Defense Secrets Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne track a young woman slipping coastal-defense secrets across a border.
date unknown Suicide Ships Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia investigate a ship sunk just off port, which Z suspects was secretly running munitions.
date unknown War Supplies Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia race to stop saboteur Sturm Walters from destroying a train hauling munitions.
date unknown Revolution Listen (MP3)
K-7's friend, an old statesman, spins a cautionary tale of how spies use disinformation to spark revolution.
date unknown Military Secrets Leaked Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne trace how word of a new aerial bomb leaked out.
date unknown Undesirable Aliens Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita take on a master spy who doubles as a smuggler of undesirables into the country.
date unknown High Speed Bomber Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne investigate the sabotage of a new high-speed bomber.
date unknown Master Spy Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita chase a master spy slipping into the country with the help of an aging customs inspector.
date unknown Gold Shipments Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia guard a large gold shipment being moved for safety, fearing attack by an unfriendly power.
date unknown Storm Cloud Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita hunt enemy agents smuggling themselves ashore aboard the liner Storm Cloud.
date unknown Apparent Civil War Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne face long odds trying to head off a civil war in another nation.
date unknown Air Defenses Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia must recover stolen air-defense plans before they can be smuggled to an unfriendly nation.
date unknown Thermite Bombs Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita pursue the spy Lotta Rowan, who is blackmailing her way to the plans for a new thermite bomb.
date unknown Fleet Movements Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne investigate how a pirate nation's master spy obtained a friendly fleet's sailing plans.
date unknown Foodstuffs Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia trace a string of attacks on warehouses holding a friendly nation's wartime food stocks.
date unknown Secret Police Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne pursue the secret-police gunmen who murdered two dissidents planning an underground newspaper to spread the truth.
date unknown Aeroplane Order Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia investigate the ambush of an emissary carrying the plans and order for a new aircraft.
date unknown Innocent Citizens Used Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita stop a master spy who moves stolen information through unwitting ordinary travelers.
date unknown Bombing Planes Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia hunt saboteurs who destroyed one shipment of new bombers and are after a second.
date unknown Embassy Master Spy Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne match wits with Antiv Vladev, a master spy using diplomatic passports to smuggle out secrets.
date unknown Shipyards Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita chase a spy who photographed a nation's shipyards from the air and wants the film out of the country.
date unknown Colonial Uprising Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia investigate who is fomenting rebellion in a friendly nation's valuable colony.
date unknown World Crisis Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne go undercover to gauge whether a neighboring nation's people truly want the war its leaders seek.
date unknown Government Overthrow Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne are sent to a foreign capital to break up a spy ring arming its followers for a coup.
date unknown Refugees Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia board a refugee ship to find the spy Rene Braun, who has stolen another man's identity.
date unknown Fraudulent Passports Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita hunt whoever is forging passports and selling them to enemy spies.
date unknown Information for the Premier Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia work to foil a plot to sway a cabinet toward a hostile alliance by murdering the opposing Premier.
date unknown Secrets Leaked Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia move to prevent the sabotage of a power plant and the assassination of a Premier.
date unknown Code Book Stolen Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita are given 24 hours to recover a stolen Navy code book.
date unknown Carl Frankenburg aka Known Spy Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia are sent to catch Carl Frankenburg, a spy slipping information across borders uncaught.
date unknown Machine Gun Plans aka Inventor Missing Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne go to The Hague to find an old machine-gun inventor who has vanished.
date unknown Wholesale Murder Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita hunt Dimitri Poulos, who profits by promising to smuggle refugees, then abandoning them to die.
date unknown Anti Aircraft Gun Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne work to stop foreign spy Anton Rane from sabotaging the test of a new anti-aircraft gun.
date unknown Agent Z Disappears Listen (MP3)
When Agent Z misses his meeting with K-7, Patricia teams with Agent L-6 to find out what became of him.
date unknown Counterfeiters Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita travel to a friendly nation to find who is flooding it with counterfeit money.
date unknown Vapor Gas Listen (MP3)
Assigned to guard vapor-gas scientist Major Alpha, Agent B-9 faces a spy who plans to kidnap and impersonate him.
date unknown Aeroplane Factory Listen (MP3)
Agent M hunts the saboteur of an aircraft factory as two new models near testing, with Yvonne missing.
date unknown Defense Plans Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia work to learn who is offering a friendly nation's defense plans for sale.
date unknown Ultimatum Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita race to expose a secret ultimatum to the press before a hostile neighbor can force a nation's surrender.
date unknown City of Intrigue Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne enter a disputed post-WWI city, a hotbed of intrigue, on the trail of Andre Zermin.
date unknown Firing Squad Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia go to the Far East to find the real culprit before Major Hurrell faces a firing squad for the crime.
date unknown Narcotics Smuggled Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne pursue a drug-smuggling ring that may be running more than narcotics.
date unknown Aeroplane Plans Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita are sent to catch whoever is secretly copying the plans for a new plane at an aircraft factory.
date unknown Delivery of Papers Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia carry state papers abroad, a deadly errand after the spy Lederber killed the two agents before them.
date unknown Government Overthrow Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne trace a run of official murders disguised as suicides, part of a plot to overthrow a government.
date unknown Agent Missing Listen (MP3)
Agent Z is ordered to find Patricia Norwood, who vanished after leaving a note to meet at Royal House.
date unknown Military Information Stolen Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Rita are sent to Colonel Crannock's fortress to learn how its military secrets are leaking out.
date unknown Oriental Spy (1 Listen (MP3)
Agent Z is sent to discover why Franz Robita, an agent for a Far East aggressor nation, is bound for this country (part 1).
date unknown Oriental Spy (2 Listen (MP3)
Agent Z closes in on the aggressor-nation agent Franz Robita and his purpose in the country (part 2).
date unknown Favor Returned Listen (MP3)
K-7 sends B-9 and Rita to the Orient to help Mr. Wong root out the traitor inside his organization.
date unknown Foreign Agent Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne are assigned to capture a spy operating in Paris who has slipped past several agents.
date unknown Letter Box Agent Listen (MP3)
B-9 works with L-6 to watch a letter-box drop and identify the agent using it.
date unknown Military and Diplomatic Secrets Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia investigate the theft of important documents from the desk of a colonel who is K-7's old friend.
date unknown Blonde Spy Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne pursue Ona Lajos, a blonde who has carried stolen documents across into an unfriendly nation.
date unknown Defense Programs Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia investigate officials in a friendly nation conspiring with a foreign power to stall its defenses.
date unknown Spy Returns Listen (MP3)
Agent M and Yvonne move to arrest Marie Bimieux, a dangerous WWI French spy active again with documents to recover.
date unknown Stolen Maps Listen (MP3)
Agent B-9 and Yvonne Durrell work in Switzerland to find who stole a secret map.
date unknown Far East Mission Listen (MP3)
Agent Z and Patricia escort a high official on a secret mission to the East, charged with getting him there safely.
The Story

Secret Agent K-7 Returns is a 1939 syndicated transcription series of fifteen-minute spy stories, made as war gathered over Europe and Americans grew uneasy about foreign agents in their midst. Its host, the retired master operative K-7 -- "America's number one adventurer," who once worked in twenty-two countries -- introduces each case and draws a warning from it, while three rotating field teams do the actual spy-catching: Agent B-9 with Rita Drake, Agent Z, and Agent M, aided by Yvonne Durrell and Patricia Norwood. The plots read like the front pages of 1939 -- poison gas, suicide ships, stolen defense plans, fifth-column uprisings, and villains marked as enemy agents by their accents. Rather than glamorizing espionage, K-7 preaches against it, urging listeners to stay clear of a shadowy trade he frames as a threat to peace. The series grew out of creator George F. Zimmer's collection of purportedly true First World War spy tales; the radio performers themselves went uncredited. Minor but vivid, it survives as a brisk time capsule of what America feared on the eve of the Second World War.

Full story — coming soon while it's being curated.
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