Conducting research for Noon: Doomsday (later relaunched as Deadline), Mike Noon found mentions of international runs of the series in a mid-1980s Avengers fanzine, With Umbrella, Charm and Bowler. In an article about the radio show, Thomas Kralik noted that "the radio show achieved success in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and even in the United States, where it aired on WBAI 99.5FM. More episodes are expected to be aired in the near future." This fascinating and valuable titbit led to a new angle in the possible recovery of Avengers serials. It was quite possible that episodes were held either at radio stations outside South Africa.

While the broadcasts in New Zealand and Australia are still shrouded in mystery, much more is known about the American broadcasts. WBAI 99.5FM is a non-commercial, listener-sponsored station in New York, staffed in the main by volunteers. The station has no programming budget to speak of, so specialist producers tend to share their collections over the air. It was a slight disappointment to learn the titles of The Avengers serials broadcast on WBAI - they would sound very familiar to those aware of thirteen of the existing serials! The episodes were transmitted Mondays to Fridays as part of The Daily Serial strand, which ran from 1977 up until the early Nineties, in a variety of timeslots, varying from early evening to six o'clock each morning! The recordings were sourced from old time radio collectors in the States and cleaned up for broadcast by Max Schmid, who often presented the programmes. The recordings that Max worked with were sourced, indirectly, from the home recordings made by avid Springbok Radio fan, John Wright.

Alan Hayes and Mike Noon

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