Crutchfield's early years as a CBS scriptwriter are not as well documented as his work for later radio, television, and film projects, but records do show that by 1947 he was adapting stories for "Escape". His first script for the series was also its premiere broadcast—an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's story "The Man Who Would Be King"—presented on July 7, 1947. In its review of that initial episode, the widely read trade paper "Variety" commends Crutchfield's adaptation, calling it "skil[l]fully scripted". Crutchfield's 45 other adaptations and original scripts for "Escape" and his work on other series continued to draw regular compliments from reviewers. Examples of two other CBS Radio series that feature episodes written by Crutchfield are the contemporary crime drama "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar" and "Fort Laramie", an action drama about nineteenth-century United States cavalry troopers and starring Raymond Burr. A few of his scripts for "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar" are "The Jones Matter" (1953), "The Piney Corners Matter" (1954), "The Cronin Matter" (1955), and "The Lonely Hearts Matter" (1956). Crutchfield's episodes for "Fort Laramie" include "Shavetail" (1956) and "Don't Kick My Horse" (1956). During Crutchfield's first years working for CBS, Macdonnell began collaborating with another scriptwriter, John Meston, on developing new weekly series. One series the two men proposed to the network was an "'adult Western'" that would present character-driven "Old West" stories set in and around Dodge City, Kansas in the 1870s. After their proposal was approved for production, Macdonnell and Meston invited Crutchfield to join their team of writers for the new project, which had been titled "Gunsmoke". Its first episode, "Billy the Kid", was written by Walter B. Newman and aired on CBS Radio on April 26, 1952. The new Western quickly became popular with audiences, and Crutchfield quickly became a frequent contributor of stories and scripts. In addition to himself, Macdonnell, Meston, and Newman, seven other writers furnished content for "Gunsmoke" in the 1952–1953 radio season. Nevertheless, Meston and Crutchfield's work that year comprises the great majority of the broadcasts, together accounting for 48 of the 71 episodes presented.