Indeed, I didn't get around to fixin' up an entry specifically tailored for your auditory pleasure this week. As such, I will endeavor to fill space on the ol' blog today by recounting a story that can be at least loosely tied to the subject of "audio." You are ready for the storytelling. Yes you are...YES YOU ARE!..

Let's get started...

The setting for this story is the old radio station cluster building on south Circle drive here in town which I worked at "way back when." The year, I'm guessing, was 1994, maybe 1995. I was working an "overnight" shift (midnight to 6:00am) at the oldies station and a kid named Eric was down the way, working a similar shift, at an adult contemporary station...At least 3 of the 4 stations in our part of the building were staffed round the clock (this, of course, was right before computers and voice-tracking turned the business of radio into a faceless, barren enterprise outside of "normal business hours") which meant that you were never really "alone," even late at night or on the weekends. That was actually a good thing, since the larger building (formally called the "Executive Tower" could be a pretty creepy place if you were all alone...

Now, it wasn't creepy in the "old mansion on the hill" way, nor was it creepy in a "this building has seen a lot of years" kind of way. It was creepy in a hard to explain "malevolent poltergeisty" kind of way. Indeed, among other things, the elevators in the building seemed to have minds of their own and would often take you to floors other than the ones which you pressed. Additionally, there were lights which would turn themselves on and off inexplicably in various locations and even odd noises, voices and bangings which emanated from the bathrooms on the ground floor. There were also bathrooms on the 4th floor which made me terribly uneasy, filling me with a sense that someone had committed suicide, specifically via hanging, inside them every time I went to use them.

But that's neither here nor there, really...

Back to the night which I've already described for you, after midnight some years back, me in my station and Eric in his. I can't say that I remember anything REALLY out of the ordinary leading up to the "incident," but given the building's propensity for what I deem "supernatural occurances," I was always on my guard. As I mentioned prior, this was radio before the despotesque control of the computer, so everything was segued manually. At some point during my shift, while I was facing the CD rack, I heard an odd clicking coming from behind me. I then heard Eric shouting frantically from his studio and, as I turned around, I witnessed the reel-to-reel deck which we had in the studio turning itself on and off and the reels spinning in such a violent manner that tape was spewing out in all directions. I jumped at the unit, punching the stop button, the power button and then every other button in a vain attempt to stop the sudden and inexplicable surge to life which the machine was exhibiting. All the while, I could still hear Eric shouting about...well, something...I was too busy to find out what, exactly. Finally, after unplugging the unit, the reel-to-reel slowly spun to a halt and I was able to emerge from my studio, confused and a little scared, only to find out what had flustered Eric across the way in his studio...

Also confused and on the side of scared, Eric told me that HIS reel-to-reel was "freaking out and spitting tape everywhere" at the exact same time that mine was...

Rest assured, neither of us ventured off to use the (haunted) bathrooms that night...

Labels: lame stories, me roots, radio stories, spooky shit