Voices of the West is a weekly radio program out of Tucson, Arizona, that was created in 2014 by the late Emil Franzi as a way to continue talking about the Old West. His catch-phrase for the show was, “A radio program dedicated to the proposition that America was better off when its TV shows were about cowboys instead of lawyers.”
The show now boasts three esteemed co-hosts;
(1) Harry Alexander, a US Army veteran who retired after a 45 year broadcasting career working at radio and TV stations around the world, including Armed Forces Radio. Harry was later with the Florida Park Service where he produced American Civil War and historic pirate events. His great-grandfather served in B Troop, 4th U.S. Cavalry during the Geronimo Campaign in the mid-1880s.
(2) Retired Hollywood stuntman and U.S. Navy veteran Steve “Bunker” de France, who was in 52 episodes of High Chaparral, various episodes of Gunsmoke and Death Valley Days, and a number of westerns including Ulzana’s Raid and Judge Roy Bean (with Paul Newman). Bunker also did stunts in Rambo III.
(3) Hollywood insider Todd Roberts, best known for his deep connections to the entertainment industry and classic Western cinema. Todd is the son of Hollywood Bobby Roberts, who produced both screen adaptations of Jack Schaefer's famous novel Monte Walsh (the 1970 feature film starring Lee Marvin and the 2003 television movie starring Tom Selleck). Todd is also a member of the Single Action Shooting Society.
In their words, “We talk and write about anything that covers the Old West–the movies, the actors/actresses, the directors, the producers, the stuntmen, and the film music. We also talk with and write about the authors who are still publishing books about the Old West–fact or fiction. In other words, if the topic goes to that “Code of the West” ideal, it’ll be wrangled.”
It was a great honor for me to meet Bunker at the 2026 Tucson Festival of Books and to get a call from Todd inviting me to be a guest on Voices of the West on September 5, 2026. Of course we’ll be talking about the King Cotton trilogy, which begins with the Civil War but evolves into a sweeping saga of the Old West. Tune in on Saturday, September 5th at https://voicesofthewest.net/about/ or anytime afterwards as all shows are archived.