Just Listen: The Way It Was, 10 April

Try though you might, you won't find anything earthshattering or lifechanging occurred on this date in old-time radio history. So why not just sit back and listen? You can have your pick of a Riley getting flummoxed by a Martin & Lewis, a Chicago news hound getting flustered by an attempted suicide, and an Old West sawbones getting snatched by a stage poacher while he's wondering whether to get the hell out of Dodge. Or, you can have all three, in your own chosen order . . .

CHANNEL SURFING . . .

1949: "I CAN'T WAIT TO BE YOUR GUEST STAR THIS WEEK"---After their usual insane song-and-clowning, Dino and the Stooge answer a telegram from film and Life of Riley star William Bendix, visiting him at the studio where he takes a break from rehearsing his own hit show, on tonight's edition of The Martin & Lewis Show. (NBC.)

Additional cast: Flo McMichael, Michael Roy. Music: Dick Stabile and His Orchestra, the Martingales. Writers: Norman Lear (yes, children---that Norman Lear), Ed Simmons.

1950: I KNOW YOUR SECRET---What begins with stopping a suicidal young woman (Joan Banks) from drowning in the Chicago River turns into a troubling travel for Stone (Frank Lovejoy), when he discovers she isn't the only one someone's driving out of an apartment building for a slightly jarring reason, on tonight's edition of Night Beat. (NBC.)

Additional cast: Colleen Collins, Jeff Corey, Betty Lou Gerson, Martha Wentworth, Will Wright. Writer: Joel Hunt.

1954: GREATER LOVE---Disillusioned Doc (Howard McNear), pondering a move to San Francisco, is taken hostage by a stagecoach robber whose accomplice is already dead, on tonight's edition of Gunsmoke. (CBS.)

Dillon: William Conrad. Chester: Parley Baer. Miss Kitty: Georgia Ellis. Additional cast: Frank Churchill, John Dehner, George McCluskey, Ralph Moody. Writer: John Meston.

PREMIERING TODAY . . .

1868---George Arliss (actor: Lux Radio Theater), London.
1885---Sigmund Spaeth (commentator: True Detective, Fun in Print), Philadelphia.
1902---Mark Warnow (conductor: We, the People, Your Hit Parade), Monastricht, Russia.
1906---Lili Darvas (actress: We Love and Learn), Budapest.
1910---Peg LaCentra (singer/actress: The Court of Human Relations, For Men Only, Gulden Melodies), Boston.
1915---Harry Morgan (as Harry Bratsburg; actor: Mystery in the Air), Detroit.