Riders Radio Theater
Riders Radio Theater was an ongoing radio show performed live by the Western band Riders in the Sky before an audience at a Cincinnati theater in the 1990s. The radio show originated in Nashville, with WPLN-FM as the presenting station, but moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. These half-hour radio shows can be heard on Tuesdays at 11am (EST) on WMKV 89.3 FM, out of the Cincinnati, Ohio area.
The shows include cowboy music (including polkas), musical skits, well-known country and cowboy music guests, and episodes of the "Ongoing Saga of the Cowboy Way". The shows are, in part, spoofs the 1930s era Western singing cowboy serials. It contains mock public service announcements and commercials. The show teaches "The Cowboy Way" to those uninitiated in this "life style". The regular Sagas center around their small town, and the action ranges all over the United States and the world. Dastardly Bad Guys planning Fiendish Plots figure in all of the Saga storylines.
The main characters are Ranger Doug ("The Idol of American Youth") (who sounds similar to The Lone Ranger), Woody Paul ("King of the Cowboy Fiddlers"), Too Slim ("a Righteous Tater"/"The Man of a Thousand Hats"), and Steve Arwood as the narrator, "Texas Bix Bender".