That time of the year again . . .
Yes, it’s that time of year again, where I pour all my energy into the Halloween Listening Party on FOTW Radio.
And that’s why I wanted to share a this blog post that Peter Skiera of the Recommended Stations site wrote for his Patreon subscribers, a list of online Halloween radio stations, including our one. I was very flattered that he took the time to do some background research, and even mentioned the fact that I work as a teacher. Peter has worked in the commercial radio space in various capacities, but has been very involved in internet radio, which for those that don’t really know, really began to take off in the early 2000s. According to Peter, there are “100,000 free Internet stations from all over the world that you might not otherwise have discovered on your own” which is why he writes about them. I’m glad he found mine. Here it is –
“Halloween Listening Part on FOTW (128 kbps/MP3; Sydney, Australia)
Stream URL: https://stream.radiojar.com/ytm8g61c1feuv?1789230475
Hailing from the land down under, Halloween Listening Party lives up to its name. It streams all year long but hits its peak this month, culminating in a live broadcast on Halloween night from the RejectaCon 3* Horror Fest in Sydney.
Besides the usual Halloween hits, you’ll also enjoy horror soundtracks, spooky classical works (Harry Manfredini’s Friday the 13th main score), “haunted jazz”, “devilish blues”, scary stories, and historic recordings (Devil Dance Blues by Sippie Wallace from 1925). You can even make a request. There are also oddball selections like Enya’s Orinoco Flow, which isn’t scary at all, unless you have Enyaphobia.
There’s also original music submitted by indie bands with song titles like Play Dead, Night At The Mausoleum, Sounds of Hauntology, One Good Scare, From A Whisker To A Scream, Living With The Dead, The Electric Halloween Haunt Experience, and my personal favorite, Somethin’s Jumpin’ In The Pumpkin Patch by the Hobgoblins.
There are 13 (lucky number) “theme hours” that repeat throughout the broadcast day. Some of the themes include The VHS Aisle, The Classical Hour, Spooky Japanese Double Hour, and Storytime. I’m so there.
HLP is the brainchild of Iain Wilson, educator and creator of radio documentaries and original audio stories via his production company, FOTW Audio Productions. The station has been proudly creeping listeners out since 2014.
Wilson (right) with wrestling superstar Freakshow Kain displaying his new FOTW shirt at RejectaCon 2. Photo from instagram.com/p/Db2rB8dlEnh/?img_index=1
Iain gave me a great summary of what to expect this month on FOTW Radio: “There will be a new mix from our regular DJ, Missy El, who finds rare and interesting dark-themed songs from around the world, usually with an 80s synth-pop/Italo disco flavour. There will be a new original Halloween audio story called ‘Companion’ written by Nicholas Kaufmann and read by Dave Cavallaro. It’s about a middle-aged New Yorker under intense pressure to make the decision to turn off his father’s life support system – but the stress of it all brings something else into his life from a distant star. You’ll get to hear this on Halloween night. There will be a new ‘prog-rock’ hour focusing on the French band ‘Halloween’ – along with Iron Maiden, The Alan Parsons Project, and Antony Zioni. And as usual, we’ll have lots of new Halloween songs from indie musicians writing in the key of spooky…Thee Gassed Caskets, The Goldstars, Gabe Castro, Zane Hori, Sam Haynes, Inherent, Adam Roberts, Pale Catherine, Michael Walker, Coley Kennedy and Belbury Poly. Listen out for a Halloween poem by David P. Carroll. And I’m sure there will be more, as October unfolds.”
As Wilson says, “drop in anytime to refill your cup of creepy.”
Thanks very much Peter for this great write-up about our channel. And please visit his Recommended Stations to discover more great internet radio stations.
*The only thing that has changed, is now I am no longer doing a live broadcast from Rejectacon, but it will be from the usual Dusty Garage as other years.
