THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
October 1, 2011
The Paracast Searches for Bigfoot and Other Strange Creatures
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM (Central Time) on the GCN radio network.
Here's How You Can Help 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, right below our logo. 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! Last summer, 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!
You Can Now Order The Official Paracast T-Shirt: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and a 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 Welcome to The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We now also offer a lineup of other premium merchandise featuring The Paracast logo.
Sunday, October 2, 2011: 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 the amazing world of cryptozoology, as we discuss such amazing creatures as Bigfoot with long-time researchers Eric Altman and Dave Dragosin, from the Pennsylvnia Bigfoot Society. You’ll learn about what we’ve discovered about these beings and whether their reality can be proven.
Christopher O'Brien's Site: http://www.ourstrangeplanet.com/
Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society: http://www.pabigfootsociety.com/
Reminder: Reminder: Don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal:https://www.theparacast.com/forum/.
So Have the UFOs Left Us?
By Gene Steinberg
Every few years, whenever there’s a lull in coverage of possible flying saucers, I hear the same story: UFOs have left us, the aliens phoned home and they aren’t coming back anytime soon. You fill in the blanks.
I remember how it stood back in the 1970s. In the years after the Condon Report dismissed the reality of UFOs and the Air Force got out of the UFO investigation business -- at least officially -- it seemed that there just weren’t so many compelling sightings anymore. As editor of a small magazine that covered the paranormal, I found it more and more difficult to find any reports beyond the usual collection of lights in the sky.
One morning, I arrived at my day job -- I was news director of a suburban Philadelphia radio station at the time -- and checked the wire service reports. One happened to catch my eye, about UFOs seen in the southeast portion of Pennsylvania, just a short drive from the station. No, I didn’t rush down to see what was going on; unfortunately the station manager expected me to attend a press conference that day, and I didn’t have the staff to push that assignment off to someone else.
Well, I did read the story on my morning newscasts. The disk jockey on duty, who resented the presence of an hourly news block to interrupt the lame jokes he copied from a comedy service, merely presented his usual stare of disdain as I read the account of the presence UFOs almost in our neighborhoods.
As some of you recall, the UFO flaps of the 1970s really brought interest in the subject back to a level that met or exceeded what was the norm in the 1950s. Although press coverage was usually dismissive, there were pockets of serious reports. Indeed, that station manager never complained when I gave extra coverage to the local UFO cases. He never mentioned them, probably because the local papers carried those stories too.
In recent years, I’ve heard that same meme repeated, that the UFOs had upped and left Earth for parts unknown. The cases reported were just the usual misidentifications of conventional objects, such as planets, meteorites, and regular aircraft. But don’t forget the events at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, or the Stephenville, Texas case.
More recently, the MUFON Journal has reported loads of interesting UFO sightings. While certainly an organization with a vested interest in the continuation of the mystery would want to advance the view that sightings continue, it does seem they are right on the mark.
Now I don’t claim to have any special insights on the presence of UFOs or why the apparent frequency of sightings ebbs and flows. However, there is a common phenomenon known as the publicity flap. When one sighting gets a lot of attention, people will begin to look to the skies, hoping that they, too, will be lucky enough to see something strange in the sky. While most reports will still describe normal objects or phenomena, a small percentage will remain unknown, as always. But with loads of potential witnesses paying attention, you have to expect more strange encounters to be reported. In turn, news coverage will increase, not just to adhere to the duty of a journalist to report the news, but because heavy public interest means greater circulation, more hits, higher rates -- you get the picture.
After a time, interest in the subject wanes. So skywatching doesn’t happen nearly as often, and thus there are fewer cases to talk about. At least that’s how it seems.
Of course, there have been other reasons given for the periodic outbreak of UFO flaps. At one time, there was a seven year cycle, and UFO researchers even considered the possibility seriously, until the next flap broke the cycle.
Now I suppose it is possible that every single UFO sighting in recent years could be explained by conventional means, that the UFOnauts themselves left us long ago, and we’re only seeing the noise. There’s no signal left to find.
One thing is sure: Whenever we try to predict what’s really going on in the UFO field, such predictions will ultimately end up being wrong. This is the sort of guessing game that seldom seems to deliver success.
Of course, I’d like to think the UFOs are still here. Yes, I have a vested interest too in seeing the mystery persist, but I won’t sacrifice my hard-won journalistic ethics to invent a story that doesn’t really exist.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2011 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!
October 1, 2011
The Paracast Searches for Bigfoot and Other Strange Creatures
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM (Central Time) on the GCN radio network.
Here's How You Can Help 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, right below our logo. 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! Last summer, 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!
You Can Now Order The Official Paracast T-Shirt: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and a 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 Welcome to The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We now also offer a lineup of other premium merchandise featuring The Paracast logo.
Sunday, October 2, 2011: 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 the amazing world of cryptozoology, as we discuss such amazing creatures as Bigfoot with long-time researchers Eric Altman and Dave Dragosin, from the Pennsylvnia Bigfoot Society. You’ll learn about what we’ve discovered about these beings and whether their reality can be proven.
Christopher O'Brien's Site: http://www.ourstrangeplanet.com/
Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society: http://www.pabigfootsociety.com/
Reminder: Reminder: Don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal:https://www.theparacast.com/forum/.
So Have the UFOs Left Us?
By Gene Steinberg
Every few years, whenever there’s a lull in coverage of possible flying saucers, I hear the same story: UFOs have left us, the aliens phoned home and they aren’t coming back anytime soon. You fill in the blanks.
I remember how it stood back in the 1970s. In the years after the Condon Report dismissed the reality of UFOs and the Air Force got out of the UFO investigation business -- at least officially -- it seemed that there just weren’t so many compelling sightings anymore. As editor of a small magazine that covered the paranormal, I found it more and more difficult to find any reports beyond the usual collection of lights in the sky.
One morning, I arrived at my day job -- I was news director of a suburban Philadelphia radio station at the time -- and checked the wire service reports. One happened to catch my eye, about UFOs seen in the southeast portion of Pennsylvania, just a short drive from the station. No, I didn’t rush down to see what was going on; unfortunately the station manager expected me to attend a press conference that day, and I didn’t have the staff to push that assignment off to someone else.
Well, I did read the story on my morning newscasts. The disk jockey on duty, who resented the presence of an hourly news block to interrupt the lame jokes he copied from a comedy service, merely presented his usual stare of disdain as I read the account of the presence UFOs almost in our neighborhoods.
As some of you recall, the UFO flaps of the 1970s really brought interest in the subject back to a level that met or exceeded what was the norm in the 1950s. Although press coverage was usually dismissive, there were pockets of serious reports. Indeed, that station manager never complained when I gave extra coverage to the local UFO cases. He never mentioned them, probably because the local papers carried those stories too.
In recent years, I’ve heard that same meme repeated, that the UFOs had upped and left Earth for parts unknown. The cases reported were just the usual misidentifications of conventional objects, such as planets, meteorites, and regular aircraft. But don’t forget the events at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, or the Stephenville, Texas case.
More recently, the MUFON Journal has reported loads of interesting UFO sightings. While certainly an organization with a vested interest in the continuation of the mystery would want to advance the view that sightings continue, it does seem they are right on the mark.
Now I don’t claim to have any special insights on the presence of UFOs or why the apparent frequency of sightings ebbs and flows. However, there is a common phenomenon known as the publicity flap. When one sighting gets a lot of attention, people will begin to look to the skies, hoping that they, too, will be lucky enough to see something strange in the sky. While most reports will still describe normal objects or phenomena, a small percentage will remain unknown, as always. But with loads of potential witnesses paying attention, you have to expect more strange encounters to be reported. In turn, news coverage will increase, not just to adhere to the duty of a journalist to report the news, but because heavy public interest means greater circulation, more hits, higher rates -- you get the picture.
After a time, interest in the subject wanes. So skywatching doesn’t happen nearly as often, and thus there are fewer cases to talk about. At least that’s how it seems.
Of course, there have been other reasons given for the periodic outbreak of UFO flaps. At one time, there was a seven year cycle, and UFO researchers even considered the possibility seriously, until the next flap broke the cycle.
Now I suppose it is possible that every single UFO sighting in recent years could be explained by conventional means, that the UFOnauts themselves left us long ago, and we’re only seeing the noise. There’s no signal left to find.
One thing is sure: Whenever we try to predict what’s really going on in the UFO field, such predictions will ultimately end up being wrong. This is the sort of guessing game that seldom seems to deliver success.
Of course, I’d like to think the UFOs are still here. Yes, I have a vested interest too in seeing the mystery persist, but I won’t sacrifice my hard-won journalistic ethics to invent a story that doesn’t really exist.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2011 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!
