THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
November 25, 2012
We Remember Jim Moseley on The Paracast
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.
Announcing Our Holiday Fund Raising Campaign: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough to pay your humble hosts decent wages. 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 and utility bills. 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 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 remember Jim Moseley, the UFO field's court jester and editor of "Saucer Smear," who died on November 16. His close friends join us with their anecdotes about Jim's amazing life, including Tim Beckley, Jerome Clark, T. Allen Greenfield, Geneva Hagen, and Bob Zanotti.
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Our Strange Planet
Tim Beckley's Site: Conspiracy Journal - Unfair and Unbalanced!
Allen Greenfield's Site: Assembly of the Knowledge and Wisdom of Solomon
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.
The Passing Parade in the UFO Field
By Gene Steinberg
As I write this issue, I’m still thinking about all the years I knew Jim Moseley, who passed away early this year at the ripe old age of 81. My friend Jim was both writer and court jester, the gadfly of the UFO field. But he was, alas, only one of the elder statesmen who left us in recent years.
Since The Paracast debuted in 2006, we have broadcast special shows observing the memories of such veteran researchers as John Keel, Richard Hall, and Lucius Farish.
Except for Hall, with whom I had some bad run ins during the 1960s, they were all good friends, and I only regret they never appeared on the show. In contrast, we featured Moseley as a guest on 16 different episodes, including the very first one, in 2006, which also included Brad Steiger in a separate segment. The special episode to honor Moseley airs this weekend.
I think it’s fair to suggest that we have one of the larger online archives featuring the voice of Jim Moseley. The Paracast’s staff announcer, Bob Zanotti, also has a number of analog recordings of Jim that were recorded in the 1960s, when he was a guest on Bob’s “Coffee Klatch” radio show. That show was broadcast from a college station in East Orange, NJ, had a surprisingly large following throughout the New York area.
In the larger scheme of things, however, as the so-called “old guard” of Ufology passes, it’s fitting to examine their legacy, their influence on the field, and how they may have helped us make progress towards finding a solution to the ever-elusive enigma.
When it comes to Jim, aside from the phony feuds and silly hoaxes he and his pal Gray Barker were engaged in during the early years, he was also a chronicler of the UFO subculture. To him, it was very much about the sometimes eccentric people who got heavily involved in chasing after mysterious flying objects. It has always been fascinating to attempt to understand what attracts people to devote sometimes most of their working lives to the subject, even though there are rarely any large financial rewards.
Yes, when it comes to money, don’t expect to earn much of a living from writing about flying saucers, although a few lecturers, including Jim, managed to make a decent living as a visiting expert over the years. When it comes to books, authors are lucky to get an advance against royalties, and when they do, it’s rarely more than a few thousand dollars. That may seem to be decent pay, except when you consider that it make have taken a few years to write those books.
Yes, it’s true that a few authors of UFO books have written best sellers, such as Leslie Kean, Budd Hopkins, Whitley Strieber, and even Major Donald E. Keyhoe, to name a few of the more successful scribes.
But Jim once admitted to me that he and co-author Karl Pflock shared approximately $4,000 in advances from their publisher for their efforts in writing “Shockingly Close to the Truth.” Several thousand copies were printed, and Moseley said he heard that some 1,500 were left unsold at the publisher’s warehouse a decade after the book’s publication.
Could it be that the sum of 50 years of Moseley’s life was worth no more than a pittance to a major book publisher? Hardly, as anyone who became a “non-subscriber” to “Saucer Smear,” and eagerly read each and every issue, will attest.
As for Lucius Farish, who died earlier this year, he helped keep the subject alive by providing a UFO news clipping service to subscribers over the years, and as a sponsor of regular conventions covering the paranormal. Indeed, whenever I would begin to think that fewer people were seeing the saucers over the years, I’d soon get an envelope from Farish with lots of cases to chew over.
Richard Hall, who died in 2009, was a straight ahead UFO researcher, serving once as assistant to Major Keyhoe at the legendary UFO club, NICAP. He was responsible for two volumes of “The UFO Evidence,” which extensively chronicled sightings over the years, and made a compelling case for the possibility that we were being visited by extraterrestrials.
I had my unpleasant encounter with Hall in the 1960s, when, upon visiting NICAP headquarters with several friends in the field, was unceremoniously shown the door. That unfriendly reaction stemmed in large part from the fact that I was working as Managing Editor for Moseley’s original “Saucer News.” Seems that Jim and Hall were decidedly unfriendly in those days.
There was one episode, in fact, when Moseley called NICAP headquarters to ask about a matter, probably a sighting, only to have Hall accuse him of recording the conversation. As anyone who knew Moseley over the years can testify, he was decidedly untechnical. I don’t even think he owned a tape recorder, ever. And, even though “Saucer Smear” was eventually offered online, the actual version Jim wrote and edited was all done on an aging portable electric typewriter, printed on regular paper, and mailed via the U.S. Postal Service in regular envelopes. Jim not only never used or owned a personal computer, but he didn’t have a fax machine or an answering machine, and his two telephone lines didn’t even include Caller ID.
A decade after this unfortunate episode at NICAP headquarters, Hall and I shook hands and made up. Years later, he was too ill to participate when I invited him to appear as a guest on The Paracast.
John Keel, who also left us in 2009, was an intriguing contrast to the usual run of UFO authors. He usually focused on the negative, some say possible demonic side of the UFO enigma. The cases he described in great detail in his books and occasional lecture appearances were all about paranormal side effects, strange phone calls in the night, and visits by the Men In Black. To him, we were all the victims of deception and misinformation, and woe be the person who got too heavily involved with the subject.
Sure, it was also fair to suggest that the level of scholarship in Keel’s books was seriously lacking, and they often read more like pulp mystery novels than serious compendiums of facts and theories.
But it’s also true that Keel helped us to think out of the box, to consider possibilities, even though potentially frightening, which may have not occurred to us had we accepted what passes for conventional wisdom in the UFO field.
There are others who were among us over the years who also made sometimes significant contributions to advancing the UFO field. As more of us enter our twilight years, it’s fitting that we remember what came before, and learn from their wisdom, and, yes, their mistakes, as we continue to strive to understand the great mystery that we continue to confront.
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!
November 25, 2012
We Remember Jim Moseley on The Paracast
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.
Announcing Our Holiday Fund Raising Campaign: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough to pay your humble hosts decent wages. 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 and utility bills. 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 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 remember Jim Moseley, the UFO field's court jester and editor of "Saucer Smear," who died on November 16. His close friends join us with their anecdotes about Jim's amazing life, including Tim Beckley, Jerome Clark, T. Allen Greenfield, Geneva Hagen, and Bob Zanotti.
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Our Strange Planet
Tim Beckley's Site: Conspiracy Journal - Unfair and Unbalanced!
Allen Greenfield's Site: Assembly of the Knowledge and Wisdom of Solomon
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.
The Passing Parade in the UFO Field
By Gene Steinberg
As I write this issue, I’m still thinking about all the years I knew Jim Moseley, who passed away early this year at the ripe old age of 81. My friend Jim was both writer and court jester, the gadfly of the UFO field. But he was, alas, only one of the elder statesmen who left us in recent years.
Since The Paracast debuted in 2006, we have broadcast special shows observing the memories of such veteran researchers as John Keel, Richard Hall, and Lucius Farish.
Except for Hall, with whom I had some bad run ins during the 1960s, they were all good friends, and I only regret they never appeared on the show. In contrast, we featured Moseley as a guest on 16 different episodes, including the very first one, in 2006, which also included Brad Steiger in a separate segment. The special episode to honor Moseley airs this weekend.
I think it’s fair to suggest that we have one of the larger online archives featuring the voice of Jim Moseley. The Paracast’s staff announcer, Bob Zanotti, also has a number of analog recordings of Jim that were recorded in the 1960s, when he was a guest on Bob’s “Coffee Klatch” radio show. That show was broadcast from a college station in East Orange, NJ, had a surprisingly large following throughout the New York area.
In the larger scheme of things, however, as the so-called “old guard” of Ufology passes, it’s fitting to examine their legacy, their influence on the field, and how they may have helped us make progress towards finding a solution to the ever-elusive enigma.
When it comes to Jim, aside from the phony feuds and silly hoaxes he and his pal Gray Barker were engaged in during the early years, he was also a chronicler of the UFO subculture. To him, it was very much about the sometimes eccentric people who got heavily involved in chasing after mysterious flying objects. It has always been fascinating to attempt to understand what attracts people to devote sometimes most of their working lives to the subject, even though there are rarely any large financial rewards.
Yes, when it comes to money, don’t expect to earn much of a living from writing about flying saucers, although a few lecturers, including Jim, managed to make a decent living as a visiting expert over the years. When it comes to books, authors are lucky to get an advance against royalties, and when they do, it’s rarely more than a few thousand dollars. That may seem to be decent pay, except when you consider that it make have taken a few years to write those books.
Yes, it’s true that a few authors of UFO books have written best sellers, such as Leslie Kean, Budd Hopkins, Whitley Strieber, and even Major Donald E. Keyhoe, to name a few of the more successful scribes.
But Jim once admitted to me that he and co-author Karl Pflock shared approximately $4,000 in advances from their publisher for their efforts in writing “Shockingly Close to the Truth.” Several thousand copies were printed, and Moseley said he heard that some 1,500 were left unsold at the publisher’s warehouse a decade after the book’s publication.
Could it be that the sum of 50 years of Moseley’s life was worth no more than a pittance to a major book publisher? Hardly, as anyone who became a “non-subscriber” to “Saucer Smear,” and eagerly read each and every issue, will attest.
As for Lucius Farish, who died earlier this year, he helped keep the subject alive by providing a UFO news clipping service to subscribers over the years, and as a sponsor of regular conventions covering the paranormal. Indeed, whenever I would begin to think that fewer people were seeing the saucers over the years, I’d soon get an envelope from Farish with lots of cases to chew over.
Richard Hall, who died in 2009, was a straight ahead UFO researcher, serving once as assistant to Major Keyhoe at the legendary UFO club, NICAP. He was responsible for two volumes of “The UFO Evidence,” which extensively chronicled sightings over the years, and made a compelling case for the possibility that we were being visited by extraterrestrials.
I had my unpleasant encounter with Hall in the 1960s, when, upon visiting NICAP headquarters with several friends in the field, was unceremoniously shown the door. That unfriendly reaction stemmed in large part from the fact that I was working as Managing Editor for Moseley’s original “Saucer News.” Seems that Jim and Hall were decidedly unfriendly in those days.
There was one episode, in fact, when Moseley called NICAP headquarters to ask about a matter, probably a sighting, only to have Hall accuse him of recording the conversation. As anyone who knew Moseley over the years can testify, he was decidedly untechnical. I don’t even think he owned a tape recorder, ever. And, even though “Saucer Smear” was eventually offered online, the actual version Jim wrote and edited was all done on an aging portable electric typewriter, printed on regular paper, and mailed via the U.S. Postal Service in regular envelopes. Jim not only never used or owned a personal computer, but he didn’t have a fax machine or an answering machine, and his two telephone lines didn’t even include Caller ID.
A decade after this unfortunate episode at NICAP headquarters, Hall and I shook hands and made up. Years later, he was too ill to participate when I invited him to appear as a guest on The Paracast.
John Keel, who also left us in 2009, was an intriguing contrast to the usual run of UFO authors. He usually focused on the negative, some say possible demonic side of the UFO enigma. The cases he described in great detail in his books and occasional lecture appearances were all about paranormal side effects, strange phone calls in the night, and visits by the Men In Black. To him, we were all the victims of deception and misinformation, and woe be the person who got too heavily involved with the subject.
Sure, it was also fair to suggest that the level of scholarship in Keel’s books was seriously lacking, and they often read more like pulp mystery novels than serious compendiums of facts and theories.
But it’s also true that Keel helped us to think out of the box, to consider possibilities, even though potentially frightening, which may have not occurred to us had we accepted what passes for conventional wisdom in the UFO field.
There are others who were among us over the years who also made sometimes significant contributions to advancing the UFO field. As more of us enter our twilight years, it’s fitting that we remember what came before, and learn from their wisdom, and, yes, their mistakes, as we continue to strive to understand the great mystery that we continue to confront.
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!