Important Ranger Bill Dates

Ranger Bill Major Dates and Events

1st show - PVF – Monday, 10/2/1950

Note: RB switched from Monday afternoon broadcasts to Saturday morning broadcasts sometime on or before 10/4/1952.

Script 104 – African Animals – Saturday, 10/4/1952

Last dated show RB193 (Fire Bombers) Pink Cloud –Saturday, 5/19/1962

From 10/2/1950 to 5/19/1962 is:

4247 days
11 years, 7 months, 17 days
606 weeks (607 broadcasts)

Ranger Bill was first only broadcast locally by WMBI (and possibly its sister stations) from 1950 to sometime in 1954. RB204 Chief of the Dakotas (probably broadcast Sat., 1/30/1954) and RB179 VIPs Visit Knotty Pine (probably broadcast on Sat., 4/17/1954) seem to indicate that RB went uninterrupted in the transition to national broadcasts.

RB006 (Randolph Thompson’s) The Fire Bug is script #168 (Moody date 8/11/1954). Script #154 would have been the end of year #3 or the beginning of year #4 in October 1953.

The change over from opening #1 to opening #2 appeared to have occurred in the fall of 1959. RB134 Cattle Rustlers of Coconino seems to be the last #1 opening on 6/3/1959. I am guessing that either RB135 Elizabeth and the Stranger (no date given) or RB136 The Crisis (10/21/1959) is the first #2 opening.

There are 228 known episodes broadcast over about 8 years. That works out to about 28 or 29 stories per year (maybe 30 if we assume a few scripts or tapes are still to be found). There was a new show every week for at least the first two or possibly three years.

Some of those like RB179 VIPs Visit KP (The Missing Buffalo Herd), RB085 The Deep Country, and RB092 The Return of Sitting Bull, sound like they were done by different people or were right from the first couple of stories in 1950.