Summer greetings! I just got back from a week's vacation before classes start up on the 25th. Brian and I didn't have a show for obvious reasons last week. I was in Tennessee and Brian was busy along with other SOPR members investigating the Mentone Inn. I promised more radio blogs in my last posting and here is the next installment.

Some of you may remember that on our last show we briefly discussed the latest story from Louisville, KY concerning the Waverly Hills Sanitorium. The most recent plan of action for this venerable Louisville landmark is to turn it into a "haunted tourist resort" destination. If you haven't heard about this development in the storied saga of Waverly Hills, you can read a brief article from local news station WAVE TV channel 3 in Louisville here. 

For those few not familiar with Waverly Hills Sanitorium it is, arguably, the most haunted structure in the United States. Waverly Hills was built to house patients suffering from Tuberculosis infection. Val Kilmer gives a wonderful performance of what this disease does to the body, playing Doc Holliday in the movie Tombstone. The facility predated the discovery of antibiotics, specifically Penicillin. What this amounted to was that thousands of human beings that had been stricken with this terrible bacterial infection were relegated to a hospice-like existence. Experimental treatments were pursued and the lives of these patients were made as comfortable as possible pending the inevitable death from the horrible microbe attacking the tissues of their bodies. Once modern antibiotics became available these facilities were no longer needed to quarentine these patients from the general population. Roughly 70,000 human beings perished from this lingering anguish at Waverly Hills.

Now it's slated to be a hotel destination for those interested in the paranormal!! I understand the draw to turn these locations into hotels or bed and breakfasts. Most operations that perform this service, to my knowledge, already operated in the capacity to house guests in that manner. Waverly Hills did not serve in this capacity during its operational life. Waverly Hills has been on the National Register of Historic Places since July 12, 1983. The NRHP lists sites as deemed "...worthy of preservation. It also makes owners of said properties eligible for tax incentives or breaks on money spent pursuing said preservation." according to Wikipedia. The WAVE 3 article states that the owners wish to "clean the place up". This would certainly encompass the preservation aspect of the building being on the NRHP. What purpose, historically, does installing a nightclub or guest rooms into a former hospital have to do with the history of Tuberculosis treatment and infection in the United States? Who can answer me that question? Granted, the NRHP is governed by the National Parks system, but they do not have any say as to what the owners choose to do with their properties. Isn't it in the best interest of the historical record to preserve this location for what it was?

There are frightening new strains of Tuberculosis that are resistant to medication. We, in our shiny, but crumbling antibiotic world, may need to look at this facility to see how our ancestors protected the healthy from the sick. How will we be able to do that when the facility has been modified from it's original configuration? Through blue prints? Possibly, but as any engineer or architect will tell you, a working model or tangible design is leaps and bounds above what you can see on paper. It goes beyond the historical though, to something greater. 70,000 people died on that spot. To put that in context, it is almost 10 times more dead in one spot than perished during the battle of Gettysburg from July 1-3, 1863 (7,863 source: wikipedia). I think the American psyche considers that area hallowed ground. Should it not be the same for Waverly Hills? I think before any money is laid on the table to seal this deal there should be alot of moral and ethical questions answered before the smell of profits gets too heady for people to think straight. I can't think of what it would be like to be a survivor of someone that passed at Waverly Hills to know that the facility that cared for their loved-one during their last lingering days was turned into a hotel/nightclub and ghost hunting attraction sideshow. Is this the future of forgotten hospitals, asylums and dare I say it Cemetaries? Has our culture become so explotative and disposable that even the dead or the locations of tragic death are no longer sacred?

Hey everyone! It was about time that I came down from the mountain of neglect concerning this blog space to deliver some tablets (or nuggets) of knowledge from my own varied opinions. My esteemed colleague, Brian, turned my attention to the recent blog post submitted by Greg, a member of Ghost Hunters Inc. on their Myspace page. You can read the original post here.

While I don't entirely agree with the approach that Greg delivers his blog, I do agree with his concern about the field and individuals or entites that would use the field as a platform for personal-gain through shameless self-promotion. The purpose of this blog is not to discuss the intrigue of the royal court that has become the realm of "Para-celebrity" status. For all the uselessness that is Myspace, I consider that place little better than the E! network for news of the paranormal field. My blogs about the paranormal will be hosted here at our domain instead of Myspace. I was much better off before I had all the porn-bot friend requests and cleverly disguised junk mail forwards cluttering up yet another communication interface.

With that said allow me to get to the meat of this post. Thanks to the pissing contest that Myspace has become, the main idea of the GHI blog has been lost. Regardless of whether or not you agree with Greg, we owe something to the paranormal community at large as amature or professional radio personalities. I have always looked upon this great experiment that Brian and I have been conducting for the last year as a forum for small groups or interested individuals to come and interact with our guests, and in some manner, become further educated about the field of paranormal investigation. I understand in the world of mass communication that you have to play a complicated dance of "Give to Get". What I mean by this is that in order to grow discussion of paranormal topics sometimes you have to devote some time to product plugs or promotions. So far, I think that the two of us hosting Southern Ohio Paranormal Radio have successfully managed to balance those two conflicting beasts. There are times however, where I admit I have sat behind the microphone and asked myself "What the hell are we doing here, recording an infomercial or trying to talk shop about a hobby we enjoy?" I'm not going to lie, I think the small listener base we carry can tell when Aaron is a little irritated with a guest. You know those long pauses of silence where I say nothing? Yeah, thats usually them and those are the times where I am asking myself things like the above.

The last few months I have pretty much sworn off the paranormal shows that are on TV. I came to this decision when I saw that it was all about ratings as opposed to exposing people to a new line of ideas. Television executives would trick out their own children if it meant getting more ad revenue. Television is the pimp and we, the Paranormal community have allowed ourselves to become the prostitute. Let that sink in a moment. Our community has become little more than a menu in a burlesque house. I mentioned this on a previous show, that it probably was a good idea for our "Para-celebrities" to work on shows that would expose the masses to paranormal investigation, but there would be a price. We are seeing that cost. How many Survivor-esq style shows will it take for all of our Sainted-celebs to say "Oh my god, what have we done!?" The sad fact is, all of this appears to be boiling over into the realm of what I considered to be the bastion of our field for education and straight-talk, internet radio. Thanks for slapping me across my face Greg and waking me up. I am your mouthpiece. I am your social network. I am your facilitator for discussion. I am become part of the glue that bound this group together going back to the days of Art Bell and his contemporaries. I would like to think that I always approached a show from the standpoint of an investigator wanting to look at something from all the angles possible. I have often had disasterous results fielding questions asked by listeners and even placed out there on my own. I usually let our guests sink or swim. You don't have to attack a guest to get them to shoot holes in their own theories or experiences. I think if you listen to past shows you can find examples of these. If I haven't been delivering on the accountability that Greg has mentioned then I need to question why I do a show each week. I think each and every person that ponies up to the microphone each week should consider that. Especially independent internet radio where sponsors or ad time doesn't limit or muzzle your voice.

What do I think about this spill-over from television media? I have long felt that there has always been some sort of "level of acceptable disclosure" when it came to paranormal radio. Sometimes this works against or in favor of a show depending on format, listener base etc... What am I getting at? Listen to a guest we have had on our show and then compare that interview with a more "mainstream" interview on other, more popular programs. I feel like our guests, in the majority sense, have given us wonderful experiences. A few times, I felt as if a guest had the stance that they were doing us a service by appearing on our show. I think guests and listeners are part of that accountability factor as well. Don't deflect a question asked to you or dodge a topic because you feel as if you were "baited" or tricked into it. Guests should expect to field questions from any angle no matter what. Hosts, don't fall to huberis. You may have a radio show, but that doesn't give you the right to tell other hosts, interviewers or commentators what to say, write or think. That's censorship, and the enemy of all free-thinkers no matter how scandalous or controversial those thoughts might be. Listeners (or in this case, chatters), don't try to twist the arms of hosts to get your way with the direction of a show. If you want to control content, host your own show. Word your questions in the most neutral and non-confrontational manner possible if you are using a chat or calling in to a show. You can attract a much better response with a honeyed tongue than you can with an envenomed one.

I think this blog has departed to the realm of one of my famous rants so I will leave it at that. Please feel free to tell me how I am right, or wrong for that matter. Or if you just want to call me a poo-poo head, drop me a line. Just don't say I have nipples the size of dinner plates. That's libel, and that's wrong!

From our humble beginings on Talkshoe.com we have had some great experiences on Southern Ohio Paranormal Radio!  We have come a long way since July 2007, and had a lot of great guests on the show since day one.

That tradition continues with your hosts Aaron and Brian as we take you into July 2008 we have some great return guests lined up for you:

July 6th - Steven LaChance

July 13th - Todd Sheets

July 20th - Deborah Collard

July 27th - Gene Lafferty

We can't wait to see what year two will bring us and we hope you will stay along for the ride.  Make sure you catch us Sunday nights at 7pm Eastern ONLY on nowlive.com the home of Paranormal Sundays.

Well everyone, we are working hard to bring you a new and exciting portal for Southern Ohio Paranormal Radio.  So what better way to talk about some of the changes to the show and look back at the past months and reflect.

We are amazed and honored to have all of the guests we have had since July of 2007.  From high profile investigators to local investigators we have attempted to bring you some of the best and most honest topics and guests.  We are always amazed at our listeners as they continue to make suggestions and give our guests their best questions possible.  Without our listeners we would not be where we are today.  Another thing I am very proud to say, to this day we have and will continue to operate our show free of charge and will NOT look to invite paid advertisers to our show.  If you want to advertise your group, function or fund raiser feel free to contact us at any time and we will make sure to mention it on air.  Heck if you want, record your advertisement in MP3 or WAV format and send it our way!

We continue to book guests from all walks of the paranormal and the next few months are no different.  Please take a moment to catch up by clicking on Archives and you will be able to listen to us when we first aired on Talkshoe.com all the way up to our current broadcaster nowlive.com.

This site will be an ever evolving extension of the show so keep your eyes peeled for new and exciting changes!

We want to hear from you so make a point to send us your feedback to us here.

So stay tuned to our show and make sure to listen Sundays at 7pm Eastern as we bring you the best in honest paranormal radio.  Don't forget to stay for Paranormal Interest Radio which airs 10pm Eastern on nowlive.com part of Paranormal Sundays.

One last thing before I let you all go - I have to give a big shout out to Matt from Paranormal Interest Radio for compiling our new intro for the show.  His hard work has only enhanced the show!!!!