It debuted on February 3, 1942 on the NBC Blue Network[3] and was broadcast three days a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
[2][self-published source] Mutual and Langendorf continued the series on the West Coast Don Lee Network through the 1940s at 7:30pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, always with the familiar organ theme, "The Dying Cowboy" ("Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie").
The Red Ryder Victory Patrol, a club founded in 1942 to encourage people in conservation practices that would help the war effort, was directly inspired by the radio show's popularity.
In return there would receive a membership card, a certificate, a secret decoder and a 32-page comic book about "Red Ryder".
[1] In 1944, Warner Bros. produced a parody of the character in the short Buckaroo Bugs: Red-Hot Ryder (whom the narrator described as "Brooklyn's famous fighting cowboy").