THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
November 16, 2014
www.theparacast.com
The Paracast Presents the One and Only Don Ecker!
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Announcing The Paracast+: You asked for it! For a low monthly or annual subscription fee, you will receive access to a higher-quality ad-free version of The Paracast, chat rooms and other exclusive content. For more information about our premium package, please check: Introducing The Paracast+ | The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio.
Attention U.S. Listeners: Help Us Bring The Paracast to Your City! In the summer of 2010, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. But we need your help to add additional affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact on your behalf. We can't do this alone, and if you succeed in convincing your local station to carry the show, we'll reward you with one of our special T-shirts, and other goodies. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
Please Visit Our Online Store: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and an expanded collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt now featuring our brand new logo, just pay a visit to our online store at The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We also offer a complete lineup of other premium merchandise for your family, your friends and your business contacts.
About The Paracast: The Paracast covers a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions across the planet.
Set Up: The Paracast is a paranormal radio show that takes you on a journey to a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions. The Paracast seeks to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join long-time paranormal researcher Gene Steinberg, co-host and acclaimed field investigator Christopher O'Brien, and a panel of special guest experts and experiencers, as they explore the realms of the known and unknown. Listen each week to the great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris present the one and only and always Don Ecker, host of the real "Dark Matters" radio show (accept no substitutes!) to talk about the death of "UFO Magazine," the state of UFO research, lunar mysteries, possible conspiracies, the almost complete lack of traditional investigative reporting and a whole lot more. You'll also hear Don's answers to questions from our listeners.
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
Dark Matters Radio: Dark Matters Radio - Downloads | CyberStationUSA On Demand Programming
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums.
Some Memories of UFO Personalities in the Early Days
By Gene Steinberg
I was 11 when I read my first book about UFOs, “Flying Saucers From Outer Space,” by Major Donald E. Keyhoe. Now Keyhoe was a busy aviation and fiction writer who glommed onto the mystery and became famous. Well, at least famous among people interested in chasing after the flying saucers.
It was over a decade before I actually met Major Keyhoe in the flesh, near his home in Luray, VA. But I had already become a close friend of yet another UFO notable, Jim Moseley, who hired me for my first job as Managing Editor of Saucer News.
Until I left New York to seek my fortune in broadcasting, I worked side by side with Jim, and sometimes even traveled with him to visit other prominent figures in the field.
So in 1965, we were joined by Allen Greenfield, Rick Hilberg and Dale Rettig as we journeyed to Chicago. On that trip, we had a pleasant meeting with Jacques Vallee, whose first book, “Anatomy of a Phenomenon,” had been published earlier that year.
My memories of that meeting aren’t terribly detailed. Vallee greeted us in his hotel room, and we covered a number of subjects during that session, but as I said, nothing memorable happened. This was in the years before Vallee began to influence cutting-edge thought in the UFO field. To us, he was just another author trying to sell a book.
The final step of our little sojourn was to a tiny Wisconsin town, Amherst. Jim drove his rented car from Chicago to the home of Ray Palmer, the notorious sci-fi author and editor, and the co-founder of Fate magazine.
As editor of Amazing Stories, Palmer discovered some of the best authors in that genre, such as Issac Asimov. But he also became controversial when he launched a curious set of stories from an unknown author named Richard Shaver.
The Shaver Mystery really boosted the circulation of Amazing Stories, but it wasn’t long before Palmer claimed that Shaver’s stories were true. Many loyal readers were infuriated, but most of them continued to buy the magazine.
Palmer was, to some degree at any rate, instrumental in launching the UFO field by publicizing the most important sightings in Fate and, after splitting from the magazine, in another newsstand magazine, Flying Saucers.
Well, the trip to Amherst was mostly uneventful, as I listened to Jim curse as he struggled to follow Palmer’s instructions. We arrived in Amherst, and promptly got lost. But a local service station attendant knew of Palmer, and directed us to a large home, single story as I recall, overlooking a river with a beautiful view of the scenery.
Palmer’s wife, Marjorie, greeted us at the door. She was clearly protective of her husband because of his severe physical deformity, the result of a serious injury sustained when he was hit by a truck at the age of 7. But Palmer proved to be a personable host, and consented to a 20 minute interview with me that was later broadcast over a college radio station, on a show hosted by broadcaster Bob Zanotti.
I later became somewhat friendly with Palmer, and even interviewed him twice on behalf of another radio show in the 1970s, broadcast from the Philadelphia area.
The meeting with Palmer came a few months ahead of the encounter with Keyhoe, but it all came full circle the day after our short session with the latter*.
You see, our little group decided to visit the headquarters of Keyhoe’s UFO group, NICAP, in Washington D.C., where they had rented a small suite of offices just off Dupont Circle.
In passing, this locale has a curious sci-fi connection. In the classic 1951 movie, “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” you’ll recall that the alien, Klaatu, portrayed by Michael Rennie, wounded by a nervous soldier in the first part of the film, is later slain by the military near Dupont Circle. He is soon returned to his spaceship by the robot, Gort, where he is brought back to life.
Now I should point out that my memory of the location of that scene may be flawed, but it has stuck in my mind regardless.
In any case, upon entering NICAP’s headquarters, we were greeted by Keyhoe’s assistant, Richard Hall, who glared at me, shook his finger, and declared, “You’re not welcome here.”
Now I had only met Hall once before that fateful day. I spent a few hours volunteering at NICAP earlier that year. Since then, I had taken on the editorial position at Saucer News. Unfortunately, Jim and Hall were feuding over some silly reason that makes little sense nowadays. Seems Hall accused Jim of taping their conversation the first and only time they talked. It was nonsense, because Jim was very much nontechnical and didn’t own a recording device. But my known connection to Jim made me persona non-grata with the irascible Hall.
I didn’t argue. I left with my little crew, and we returned to our hotel, where we considered what to do next. Yes, I called Jim and told him what happened, but we all wanted to get some more advice, and I suggested we ring up Palmer.
Palmer listened, and seemed appropriately sympathetic to our plight. He soon published an article about the incident in Flying Saucers, bearing a subtitle that translated NICAP to “No Investigations Can Actually Proceed.”
Jim proudly announced that “Hall must fall!” and made a huge deal of this sorry encounter in the next issue of Saucer News. Some time later, Hall did fall, or at least left NICAP. But I wouldn’t assume it was because of the articles in Flying Saucers or Saucer News.
In the mid-197os, I actually encountered Hall at a UFO conference, I believe in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He displayed a bemused smile on his face when he saw me. We simply shook hands and let bygones be bygones.
For a while, I lived up the street from Jim, and we later moved on to separate parts of the country. But when I was considering guests for the first episode of The Paracast, I invited Jim to reminiscence about lots of things. He was always my favorite guest, and continued to appear on the show up until a few months before he died of cancer.
While Greenfield and Hilberg are here and well, and remain my close friends, the others named in this little tale have all left us. They were characters all, and it’s fun to think about them, particularly as I began reading a new book about Palmer’s life, “The Man From Mars,” by Fred Nadis.
While things sometimes got chaotic, I’ll always treasure my memories of some of the great and sometimes outrageous figures in the UFO field from the early days.
Copyright 1999-2014 Making The Impossible, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
November 16, 2014
www.theparacast.com
The Paracast Presents the One and Only Don Ecker!
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Announcing The Paracast+: You asked for it! For a low monthly or annual subscription fee, you will receive access to a higher-quality ad-free version of The Paracast, chat rooms and other exclusive content. For more information about our premium package, please check: Introducing The Paracast+ | The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio.
Attention U.S. Listeners: Help Us Bring The Paracast to Your City! In the summer of 2010, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. But we need your help to add additional affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact on your behalf. We can't do this alone, and if you succeed in convincing your local station to carry the show, we'll reward you with one of our special T-shirts, and other goodies. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
Please Visit Our Online Store: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and an expanded collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt now featuring our brand new logo, just pay a visit to our online store at The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We also offer a complete lineup of other premium merchandise for your family, your friends and your business contacts.
About The Paracast: The Paracast covers a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions across the planet.
Set Up: The Paracast is a paranormal radio show that takes you on a journey to a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions. The Paracast seeks to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join long-time paranormal researcher Gene Steinberg, co-host and acclaimed field investigator Christopher O'Brien, and a panel of special guest experts and experiencers, as they explore the realms of the known and unknown. Listen each week to the great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris present the one and only and always Don Ecker, host of the real "Dark Matters" radio show (accept no substitutes!) to talk about the death of "UFO Magazine," the state of UFO research, lunar mysteries, possible conspiracies, the almost complete lack of traditional investigative reporting and a whole lot more. You'll also hear Don's answers to questions from our listeners.
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
Dark Matters Radio: Dark Matters Radio - Downloads | CyberStationUSA On Demand Programming
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums.
Some Memories of UFO Personalities in the Early Days
By Gene Steinberg
I was 11 when I read my first book about UFOs, “Flying Saucers From Outer Space,” by Major Donald E. Keyhoe. Now Keyhoe was a busy aviation and fiction writer who glommed onto the mystery and became famous. Well, at least famous among people interested in chasing after the flying saucers.
It was over a decade before I actually met Major Keyhoe in the flesh, near his home in Luray, VA. But I had already become a close friend of yet another UFO notable, Jim Moseley, who hired me for my first job as Managing Editor of Saucer News.
Until I left New York to seek my fortune in broadcasting, I worked side by side with Jim, and sometimes even traveled with him to visit other prominent figures in the field.
So in 1965, we were joined by Allen Greenfield, Rick Hilberg and Dale Rettig as we journeyed to Chicago. On that trip, we had a pleasant meeting with Jacques Vallee, whose first book, “Anatomy of a Phenomenon,” had been published earlier that year.
My memories of that meeting aren’t terribly detailed. Vallee greeted us in his hotel room, and we covered a number of subjects during that session, but as I said, nothing memorable happened. This was in the years before Vallee began to influence cutting-edge thought in the UFO field. To us, he was just another author trying to sell a book.
The final step of our little sojourn was to a tiny Wisconsin town, Amherst. Jim drove his rented car from Chicago to the home of Ray Palmer, the notorious sci-fi author and editor, and the co-founder of Fate magazine.
As editor of Amazing Stories, Palmer discovered some of the best authors in that genre, such as Issac Asimov. But he also became controversial when he launched a curious set of stories from an unknown author named Richard Shaver.
The Shaver Mystery really boosted the circulation of Amazing Stories, but it wasn’t long before Palmer claimed that Shaver’s stories were true. Many loyal readers were infuriated, but most of them continued to buy the magazine.
Palmer was, to some degree at any rate, instrumental in launching the UFO field by publicizing the most important sightings in Fate and, after splitting from the magazine, in another newsstand magazine, Flying Saucers.
Well, the trip to Amherst was mostly uneventful, as I listened to Jim curse as he struggled to follow Palmer’s instructions. We arrived in Amherst, and promptly got lost. But a local service station attendant knew of Palmer, and directed us to a large home, single story as I recall, overlooking a river with a beautiful view of the scenery.
Palmer’s wife, Marjorie, greeted us at the door. She was clearly protective of her husband because of his severe physical deformity, the result of a serious injury sustained when he was hit by a truck at the age of 7. But Palmer proved to be a personable host, and consented to a 20 minute interview with me that was later broadcast over a college radio station, on a show hosted by broadcaster Bob Zanotti.
I later became somewhat friendly with Palmer, and even interviewed him twice on behalf of another radio show in the 1970s, broadcast from the Philadelphia area.
The meeting with Palmer came a few months ahead of the encounter with Keyhoe, but it all came full circle the day after our short session with the latter*.
You see, our little group decided to visit the headquarters of Keyhoe’s UFO group, NICAP, in Washington D.C., where they had rented a small suite of offices just off Dupont Circle.
In passing, this locale has a curious sci-fi connection. In the classic 1951 movie, “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” you’ll recall that the alien, Klaatu, portrayed by Michael Rennie, wounded by a nervous soldier in the first part of the film, is later slain by the military near Dupont Circle. He is soon returned to his spaceship by the robot, Gort, where he is brought back to life.
Now I should point out that my memory of the location of that scene may be flawed, but it has stuck in my mind regardless.
In any case, upon entering NICAP’s headquarters, we were greeted by Keyhoe’s assistant, Richard Hall, who glared at me, shook his finger, and declared, “You’re not welcome here.”
Now I had only met Hall once before that fateful day. I spent a few hours volunteering at NICAP earlier that year. Since then, I had taken on the editorial position at Saucer News. Unfortunately, Jim and Hall were feuding over some silly reason that makes little sense nowadays. Seems Hall accused Jim of taping their conversation the first and only time they talked. It was nonsense, because Jim was very much nontechnical and didn’t own a recording device. But my known connection to Jim made me persona non-grata with the irascible Hall.
I didn’t argue. I left with my little crew, and we returned to our hotel, where we considered what to do next. Yes, I called Jim and told him what happened, but we all wanted to get some more advice, and I suggested we ring up Palmer.
Palmer listened, and seemed appropriately sympathetic to our plight. He soon published an article about the incident in Flying Saucers, bearing a subtitle that translated NICAP to “No Investigations Can Actually Proceed.”
Jim proudly announced that “Hall must fall!” and made a huge deal of this sorry encounter in the next issue of Saucer News. Some time later, Hall did fall, or at least left NICAP. But I wouldn’t assume it was because of the articles in Flying Saucers or Saucer News.
In the mid-197os, I actually encountered Hall at a UFO conference, I believe in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He displayed a bemused smile on his face when he saw me. We simply shook hands and let bygones be bygones.
For a while, I lived up the street from Jim, and we later moved on to separate parts of the country. But when I was considering guests for the first episode of The Paracast, I invited Jim to reminiscence about lots of things. He was always my favorite guest, and continued to appear on the show up until a few months before he died of cancer.
While Greenfield and Hilberg are here and well, and remain my close friends, the others named in this little tale have all left us. They were characters all, and it’s fun to think about them, particularly as I began reading a new book about Palmer’s life, “The Man From Mars,” by Fred Nadis.
While things sometimes got chaotic, I’ll always treasure my memories of some of the great and sometimes outrageous figures in the UFO field from the early days.
Copyright 1999-2014 Making The Impossible, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!