Ranger Headquarters

Ranger Headquarters
Big Pine National Forest, Knotty Pine

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Pendleton Valley Fire

We have an update on the first Ranger Bill story Pendleton Valley Fire. We originally reported that Pendleton Valley Fire was a two-part story. We have since read through the scripts we have (Ranger Bill scripts #1 and #2). This story doesn't end with show #2. It looks as if the story goes on for at least one or two more episodes.

We know that Colonel Anders and his men are fighting a tough fire in Pendleton Valley. The colonel sends Ranger Bill and Henry to Pineridge Dam to blow it up and flood the fire if Pendleton Valley gets out of control. We can tell you that Bill is attacked by a rattler and injured while he and Henry are on their way to the dam. Will they get there? Will they blow up the dam? How will they be able to destroy enough of the dam to flood a fire? That we don't don't know. We all will have to wait and see.

How Many Ranger Bill Episodes?

Phil Shappard of Moody Audio tells the Ranger Bill Fan Club that he now has roughly 370 Ranger Bill scripts that have been rescued from the dark recesses of a closet at Moody Bible Institute. Phil hopes to scan all these scripts as time permits. But this may take some time because he has many other duties with Moody Audio that must come first.
Moody Audio also now boasts 206 half-hour episodes of the show for sale on their web site. We here at the club have 220 half-hour episodes. We call the additional 14 shows that we have the "missing episodes." These are shows that have probably been lost or damaged beyond usability. And from the script numbering that we have seen so far, it appears that there are 162 of the 15-minute episodes broadcast from October 2, 1950 until approximately February of 1954 when the half-hour shows began. These numbers suggest that WMBI aired a new 15-minute Ranger Bill every week for about three and a quarter years with few if any interruptions! Compare that with today's TV broadcasts where rough;y 25 new shows are aired each season.
If the club's numbering is correct then there are 162 15-minute shows and 220 half-hour shows for a grand total of 382 Ranger Bill episodes!
We don't know how many complete stories there are in the 15-minute shows at this time. We were guessing that one story covered two 15-minute shows. Now it looks as if the stories may include three or more episodes and that stories' lengths may vary.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

New Photos


We have some new photos from Ranger Marty on our Zoomshare pages at http://rangerbill.zoomshare.com/. Enjoy the wonders and colors of fall. Just click on the photos link to see our Forest Images photos.

And speaking of photos, how do you like Stumpy? Actually this fellow is a real-life ranger. His name is Ranger Joe. I found a photo of him on the Inernet and felt he was the perfect Stumpy. Joe was kind enough to share this photo with us. Email me and let me know if Joe looks like Stumpy to you. This picture of Stumpy, uh I mean Joe is also in our Forest Images collection. There is another photo following Ranger Joe's photo of a female ranger taking to some students. Think of this ranger as Ranger Rocky.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Welcome to the Ranger Bill Fan Club

This Ranger Bill Fan Club blog site is now officially up and running.

Ranger Bill is the story of the adventures Chief Ranger Bill Jefferson; senior Ranger Stumpy Jenkins; Ranger Gray Wolf, a Dakota Indian; and Bill's ward Henry Scott. The fellas live and work in the small town of Knotty Pine, situated near the Rockie Mountains. Knotty Pine is along the banks of the Shady River and south of the Shady Mountains.

Ranger Bill is a classic Moody Broadcasting radio program from the 1950s. Originally broadcast from 1950 through 1964, Ranger Bill continues to be broadcast on roughly 200 radio stations and at this web site in streaming audio provided by His Kids.Net.

The Ranger Bill Fan Club is here to provide you with the most up-to-date information available on Ranger Bill, its cast and crew, audio and printed resources, and more.

Welcome to the world of Ranger Bill!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

The Very First Ranger Bill Show!!!

"Pendleton Valley Fire" is the very first Ranger Bill program ever broadcast, first aired on October 2, 1950. This is a 2-part story aired in 15-minute segments.

In this show Colonel Anders is leading his rangers in fighting a huge fire in the Pendleton Valley. The fire is getting too big for the firefighters to control. So Colonel Anders sends Ranger Bill, Henry, and Stumpy high in the mountains above Pendleton Valley. Bill and the boys must reach an earthen dam to blow it up and save the firefighters and the valley from the massive fire.

Cleveland Moody radio station WCRF is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary. So what does that have to do with Ranger Bill and the "Pendleton Valley Fire?" As part of their celebration, WCRF performed a humorous reenactment of "Pendleton Valley Fire." The WCRF crew mentioned that the original Ranger Bill cast and crew would often perform a Ranger Bill story at Chicago area churches. They also revealed that many of these early 15-minute episodes were cliff-hangers.

WCRF also has some Ranger Bill treats on their web site, an mp3 audio file from that first Ranger Bill episode and copies of episodes 1 and 2 so you can read the entire "Pendleton Valley Fire" story and find out what happens to Colonel Anders and his men and what Bill does to rescure them.

Visit the WCRF web site at http://www.wcrfradio.org/ and follow the links to their 50th anniversary to liten to and download the Pendleton Valley audio and scripts.

And don't forget our own Ranger Bill script, "The Fire Bug," the story of Randolph Thompson's coal-burning engines. Visit our files on Zoomshare at http://rangerbill.zoomshare.com/ and click on the "Fire Bug" link.