THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
March 10, 2012
The Paracast Explores Advanced Races in Ancient Times
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Please Consider a Donation to The Paracast: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the show by our network or local stations. So we hope you're able to help fill the gap if you can to help us cover increasing server costs and other expenses -- or perhaps provide a little extra cash for lunch. No contribution is too small (or too large
. We have a Donate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.
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 Brand New 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.
Sunday, March 11, 2012: 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 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 explore ancient mysteries of advanced beings said to have visited our world in ancient times with Scott Alan Roberts, author of "The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim: The Untold Story of Fallen Angels, Giants on the Earth, and Their Extraterrestrial Origins." Real or fanciful? You listen, you decide!
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Home - Our Strange Planet
Scott Alan Roberts' Site: INTREPID Magazine | 651.468.8115
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. We recently completed a major update that makes our community easier to navigate, and social network friendly.
Do You Really Want to Sponsor a UFO Conference?
By Gene Steinberg
In last week’s issue, The Paracast’s friendly co-host, Christopher O’Brien, had some pointed comments to make about a certain UFO event, known as the International UFO Conference, run by the folks at Open Minds. While last year’s event presented a number of speakers with so-called “respectable” points of view, this year the sponsors also tried to exploit the cracked side of the saucer.
That has been a problem with a number of UFO conventions. In the bid to attract a large crowd, speakers are not vetted as carefully as they used to be. Anyone who can bring ‘em in decent numbers is eligible to be put on the agenda.
Sure, there’s nothing wrong with filling an auditorium. After all, it can cost lots of money to pay for advertising, conference rooms, not to mention travel, living expenses, and some sort of fee for the visiting speakers. More to the point, most of the organizations and individuals who sponsor those conferences aren’t charitable organizations. They deserve to at least cover their costs, and, hopefully, have a little extra at the end of the day to make the effort worthwhile.
The problem is that such events aren’t limited to a cross-section of true believers. People with a wide range of interests and motivations are likely to attend. Some are just curious, others seek entertainment, but many more have serious interests in the paranormal. Sure, it’s nice to be able to provide a comfortable, friendly environment to meet “fellow travelers” and old friends, but you also hope they will learn something about these subjects as well.
But that doesn’t happen if you stuff the agenda with cult leaders and others whose only motivations are to attract followers and sell books. Worse, consider the news media, who will be thirsting for an offbeat story to flesh out the coverage of that day. Paying a visit to what they perceive as an event for the “lunatic fringe” will deliver, they hope, a few chuckles, not to mention good ratings. To them, it’s just another reality show.
Now I like to think that most of the readers of The Paracast Newsletter actually have serious interests in these subjects. You want to be able to find something solid to chew on, not just a bunch of silly stories with which to wile away your idle hours. I would dare say that we’d get a far wider audience if we pandered to our listeners, but we won’t.
However, I understand the dilemma these convention sponsors confront, particularly when economic times are tough. Think about the people who own motion picture multiplexes who have opted to offer 3D films, regardless of quality, in order to get you to pay more for a ticket. When it comes to a paranormal conference, the sponsors want to both entertain and inform, and they may decide that the former will deliver a larger audience than the latter. Maybe it’ll be harder to get serious news coverage, but the bills will get paid.
Well, maybe not.
As Chris has already stated, attendance at this year’s International UFO Conference was down from last year. I wasn’t there for all the sessions, but, during my two visits, on a Saturday and Sunday, I didn’t find huge crowds anywhere. I checked the auditoriums, and they weren’t filled to capacity. The vendor stands attracted only a modest number of people.
One national news story claimed that some 2,000 people attended. Having sponsored and worked at UFO conventions in the past, I think I have a basic sense of crowds and crowd management. I’d put attendance in the hundreds, not thousands. Then again, the writer of the story in question got an award at the conference. It hardly makes him an objective observer.
I understand wanting to convey the veneer of great success, and the people at Open Minds, assuming they agree with that estimate, wouldn’t be the first people to exaggerate crowd sizes. It does make the event seem more significant, and maybe that will help drive interest for the 2013 conference.
Further, I don’t begrudge the need for such events to pay for themselves and then some. If I sponsored that conference, I would also hope to come out ahead, but I would rather focus on guests that have something to say, rather than ones that will just entertain and nothing more. People like Stanton T. Friedman manage to deliver compelling presentations, lots of facts and fascinating theories, yet still entertain their audiences. Sure, I don’t agree with Stan on everything he says, but he nonetheless is there to inform, not to serve as a cult leader.
And, in case you’re wondering, I have no interest whatever in organizing an Official Paracast Paranormal Conference anytime soon. I tried sponsoring a UFO convention just once, and that was it for me. These days, I’d rather just attend these events.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2012 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!
March 10, 2012
The Paracast Explores Advanced Races in Ancient Times
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Please Consider a Donation to The Paracast: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the show by our network or local stations. So we hope you're able to help fill the gap if you can to help us cover increasing server costs and other expenses -- or perhaps provide a little extra cash for lunch. No contribution is too small (or too large
. We have a Donate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.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 Brand New 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.
Sunday, March 11, 2012: 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 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 explore ancient mysteries of advanced beings said to have visited our world in ancient times with Scott Alan Roberts, author of "The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim: The Untold Story of Fallen Angels, Giants on the Earth, and Their Extraterrestrial Origins." Real or fanciful? You listen, you decide!
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Home - Our Strange Planet
Scott Alan Roberts' Site: INTREPID Magazine | 651.468.8115
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. We recently completed a major update that makes our community easier to navigate, and social network friendly.
Do You Really Want to Sponsor a UFO Conference?
By Gene Steinberg
In last week’s issue, The Paracast’s friendly co-host, Christopher O’Brien, had some pointed comments to make about a certain UFO event, known as the International UFO Conference, run by the folks at Open Minds. While last year’s event presented a number of speakers with so-called “respectable” points of view, this year the sponsors also tried to exploit the cracked side of the saucer.
That has been a problem with a number of UFO conventions. In the bid to attract a large crowd, speakers are not vetted as carefully as they used to be. Anyone who can bring ‘em in decent numbers is eligible to be put on the agenda.
Sure, there’s nothing wrong with filling an auditorium. After all, it can cost lots of money to pay for advertising, conference rooms, not to mention travel, living expenses, and some sort of fee for the visiting speakers. More to the point, most of the organizations and individuals who sponsor those conferences aren’t charitable organizations. They deserve to at least cover their costs, and, hopefully, have a little extra at the end of the day to make the effort worthwhile.
The problem is that such events aren’t limited to a cross-section of true believers. People with a wide range of interests and motivations are likely to attend. Some are just curious, others seek entertainment, but many more have serious interests in the paranormal. Sure, it’s nice to be able to provide a comfortable, friendly environment to meet “fellow travelers” and old friends, but you also hope they will learn something about these subjects as well.
But that doesn’t happen if you stuff the agenda with cult leaders and others whose only motivations are to attract followers and sell books. Worse, consider the news media, who will be thirsting for an offbeat story to flesh out the coverage of that day. Paying a visit to what they perceive as an event for the “lunatic fringe” will deliver, they hope, a few chuckles, not to mention good ratings. To them, it’s just another reality show.
Now I like to think that most of the readers of The Paracast Newsletter actually have serious interests in these subjects. You want to be able to find something solid to chew on, not just a bunch of silly stories with which to wile away your idle hours. I would dare say that we’d get a far wider audience if we pandered to our listeners, but we won’t.
However, I understand the dilemma these convention sponsors confront, particularly when economic times are tough. Think about the people who own motion picture multiplexes who have opted to offer 3D films, regardless of quality, in order to get you to pay more for a ticket. When it comes to a paranormal conference, the sponsors want to both entertain and inform, and they may decide that the former will deliver a larger audience than the latter. Maybe it’ll be harder to get serious news coverage, but the bills will get paid.
Well, maybe not.
As Chris has already stated, attendance at this year’s International UFO Conference was down from last year. I wasn’t there for all the sessions, but, during my two visits, on a Saturday and Sunday, I didn’t find huge crowds anywhere. I checked the auditoriums, and they weren’t filled to capacity. The vendor stands attracted only a modest number of people.
One national news story claimed that some 2,000 people attended. Having sponsored and worked at UFO conventions in the past, I think I have a basic sense of crowds and crowd management. I’d put attendance in the hundreds, not thousands. Then again, the writer of the story in question got an award at the conference. It hardly makes him an objective observer.
I understand wanting to convey the veneer of great success, and the people at Open Minds, assuming they agree with that estimate, wouldn’t be the first people to exaggerate crowd sizes. It does make the event seem more significant, and maybe that will help drive interest for the 2013 conference.
Further, I don’t begrudge the need for such events to pay for themselves and then some. If I sponsored that conference, I would also hope to come out ahead, but I would rather focus on guests that have something to say, rather than ones that will just entertain and nothing more. People like Stanton T. Friedman manage to deliver compelling presentations, lots of facts and fascinating theories, yet still entertain their audiences. Sure, I don’t agree with Stan on everything he says, but he nonetheless is there to inform, not to serve as a cult leader.
And, in case you’re wondering, I have no interest whatever in organizing an Official Paracast Paranormal Conference anytime soon. I tried sponsoring a UFO convention just once, and that was it for me. These days, I’d rather just attend these events.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2012 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!
