Coaster Radio: The Original Theme Park Podcast

Happy Halloween, everybody — Mike and EB kick off spooky season with the old Crypt Keeper cold open before diving into one of the strangest stories in recent Six Flags history: a leaked survey sent to passholders asking how they'd feel about renaming flagship parks like Cedar Point, Carowinds, and Magic Mountain into options like "Six Flags over North Ohio" and "Cedar Point, a Six Flags Experience." The guys break down exactly why every single option on the list is worse than just leaving the names alone, and make the case that Six Flags has some serious brand rehab to do before anyone wants their name slapped on a park.

In Quick Hits: X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain is officially closed for good after years of lawsuits and injury allegations, prompting a trip down memory lane for one of the most notorious rides ever built. Lagoon finally reveals its mysterious 2027 attraction: J3 Grand Prix, the first Intamin Hot Racer coaster built in the United States, replacing the aging Jetstar 2. Busch Gardens Tampa quietly fixes a long-standing complaint by making lockers free for two hours on Iron Gwazi instead of charging riders full price. And after a years-long saga, Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park has officially sold for $14.8 million through bankruptcy court following the tragic death that led to a massive judgment against the park — Mike walks through how Chapter 11 sales actually work and why the family is unlikely to see anywhere near the full settlement.

The back half of the show is all about ArieForce One: Mike and EB go through dozens of listener predictions for which Six Flags park will land the relocated coaster, debating the cases for Kings Island, Carowinds, Knott's Berry Farm, Six Flags Great Adventure, and a few delightfully out-there picks (frequent-flyer-miles traveling coaster, anyone?). Then they reveal the full audience vote breakdown — and it's not particularly close. Plus, an update on the show's Halloween scare-actor interview contest, including a few spectacular early failures.

Coaster Radio is back after a week off, and there is a lot to cover. First Drop: Cotaland, the park next to Circuit of the Americas outside Austin, Texas, just held its grand opening as a full-time amusement park. It now has the world's first shuttle Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster (Palindrome), a tilt coaster (Circuit Breaker), a Schwarzkopf Wildcat, a log flume, and a 150-foot Star Flyer. Mike and EB explain why they both thought ArieForce One was headed there.

In Quick Hits, Mike and EB salute Arthur Levine, who is retiring after decades covering the amusement industry and has appeared on the show 40 times, far more than any other guest. Lagoon is teasing a racing-themed 2027 announcement for October 3rd. The Fun Spot Atlanta auction has 413 lots, and the prices so far are hilarious (a Dragon Wagon coaster for $3,600 and a 4D simulator for $200). Then EB files a two-part trip report from Family Kingdom in Myrtle Beach, covering the 1968 wooden coaster Swamp Fox, the Twist and Shout wild mouse, and a field where an RMC Raptor will open in 2027.

After the break, the Halloween contest gets its first entry, a very threatening clown. Then the mailbag delivers park maps and a mountain of stamps for the Snail Mail Club. The main event is the 2026 Golden Ticket Awards. Dollywood dethrones Busch Gardens Williamsburg as the world's most beautiful park, Europa-Park takes best amusement park, and Voyage edges Phoenix for the top wooden coaster. Fury 325 tops the steel list ahead of VelociCoaster, Steel Vengeance, and Iron Gwazi. ArieForce One comes in at #11, and Mike and EB are both shocked it isn't higher. Along the way there are hot takes on Flying Turns, Apollo's Chariot, and Guardians of the Galaxy, plus a debate over whether AI can crunch 10 years of Golden Ticket rankings.

Want to play along? Send your ArieForce One prediction (one park, plus a few sentences on why) and any scare actor interview entries to [email protected].

Mike holds down the studio solo this week while EB spends a spontaneous day at Six Flags Great America — but the real story is one nobody saw coming: Six Flags has officially purchased ArieForce One, the beloved RMC that was headed for demolition just weeks after Fun Spot Atlanta announced its closure. Mike breaks down why this genuinely surprised him (the budgeting alone for a chain like Six Flags should have made this financially implausible), walks through everything that has to happen before this ride finds a new home — disassembly, cataloging, transport, an entirely new station to fix its known capacity issues — and floats his own guesses for which park might land it when Six Flags reveals the destination later this year.

Meanwhile, EB reports live from the midway all day: riding the new Wrath of Rakshasa dive coaster, revisiting old favorites five years after his first trip to the park, and later checking out the Dark Knight coaster. A listener trip report from opening day of Night Flight Expedition at Dollywood reveals a rocky first outing — a four-hour wait, a failed test, and a mad dash back into line — but genuine excitement for what the ride will become once it's fully worked in. Then Mike covers Six Flags Magic Mountain's announcement of an entirely new roller coaster category: the Thrill Glider, a prone, face-forward "hover cycle" experience blending flying coaster tech with a full sci-fi storyline. Plus, a look at Alton Towers' elaborate new Halloween dinner theater experience, Dine With the Dead, and EB caps off his day with a nightcap at a favorite Chicago tiki bar.

This week, Mike and EB pay tribute to Dolly Parton, reflecting on a career and a spirit that somehow united an entire divided country in genuine admiration — from her decades of quiet, unpublicized generosity to the way Dollywood itself became an extension of who she was rather than a monument built in her name.

In Quick Hits, the guys cover a CNN investigation into a string of serious injuries on X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain, including a wrongful death settlement tied to a 2022 incident, and talk honestly about whether this ride will ever run again. There's also news on expansion plans spotted near Monsters Unchained at Universal's Epic Universe, and Six Flags St. Louis's rebrand to Mid-America Adventure under new ownership.

After the break, a Kings Island trip report on the reimagined dark ride Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare, plus the Coaster Radio mailbag packed with rare international park maps. Then Emmy-winning WGN-TV Chicago anchor and longtime friend of the show Marcus Leshock returns for the first time in over a decade to talk about his own personal history with Dolly Parton — including firsthand stories from spending time with her both on and off camera — and shares his take on this year's Halloween Horror Nights lineup at Universal Orlando, from the scale of the original haunted house concepts to what changes as the season progresses.

It was one of the biggest weeks in the amusement industry in years, and Mike and EB have a ton to cover. First up: D23 - Disney's biannual fan convention, which featured Neil Patrick Harris hosting a full award-show-style presentation packed with 33 announcements about the future of Disney Parks and Experiences. The guys break down the highlights, including a Carousel of Progress refurbishment featuring new voices from Bryan Cranston and Jamie Lee Curtis, a Coco-themed attraction (the IP's first ever), a Magic Kingdom Villains Land finally getting its official name, and Dream Finder and Figment returning to Journey Into Imagination at Epcot. But the biggest surprise of the night: Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom will see the return of The Yeti. (HE'S HUGE! HE'S HUGE!)

Then it's Quick Hits, where Mike and EB dig into the opening of NightFlight Expedition at Dollywood and the genuinely mixed early reactions — much of it, they argue, coming from riders misunderstanding the ride's intentionally storybook visual style. Plus a live call-in from the base of Top Thrill 2 at Cedar Point, giving listeners a real taste of the launch in action.

The back half is a can't-miss exclusive: Silver Dollar City's Director of Content and PR, Joey Thorsen, joins the show fresh off the announcement of Miner's Mountain Express, walking through a full POV narration of the ride, introducing its brand-new skunk and bat mascots, discussing the final year of the beloved Thunderation before it closes in January, breaking down how the new Daredevil Pass connects two previously separated areas of the park, and telling the wild true story of how the ride's real 15-story mining head frame ties back to America's 250th anniversary.

Mike spends National Roller Coaster Day right where he wants to be: at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, riding walk-on after walk-on during the park's Brews & BBQ festival. Between food samples and short lines, he gets reacquainted with old favorites like Apollo's Chariot and Escape from Pompeii, takes the family on Roman Rapids for the first whitewater ride he's been on in years, and gives a full breakdown of Verbolten's surprising overnight refresh — new queue storytelling from an animatronic witch, reworked lighting and scrims inside the show building, and a genuinely creepy new glowing tree effect that makes the whole ride feel reborn without changing the layout at all.

Then it's the segment you've been waiting for: the full, exclusive 30-minute interview with Erica Rutledge, Herschend's Senior Director of Guest Experience Development and Creative Director behind NightFlight Expedition, along with longtime Dollywood PR Vice President Pete Owens. They go deep on how the ride's Mack Rocking Boat vehicle came directly out of lessons learned building Big Bear Mountain, the full legend of Secret Lake and characters Cora and Jasper, how a chance conversation turned the ride into four completely different adventures in one — plus hidden Easter eggs connecting it to Big Bear Mountain's shared universe, and just how much work goes into an attraction that's still being "plussed" even after it opens.

Six Flags Great America is getting a brand-new family area called Camp Timber Trail, anchored by a Vekoma family suspended coaster that's essentially a clone of Phoenix at Deno's Wonderwheel Park. The area has nine attractions total, mixing new builds with clever re-themes of park classics. Mike and EB break down why these smaller, heavily-themed family coasters might matter more for a park's long-term health than another record-breaking mega-coaster.

Then it's time for Quick Hits: Cedar Point's season-long Fast Lane add-on is going for a jaw-dropping $1,999 after the park closed last year's loophole of buying a cheaper Fast Lane at a different Six Flags park. Mike and EB do the actual math on how many visits it takes before that price tag makes any sense at all. Kings Dominion is running its classic dark ride Flight of Fear with the lights on every night in August, giving longtime fans a reason to ride a coaster they've been on a hundred times before. And in the biggest tease of the week, newly surfaced test footage...along with a mysterious social media post.... all but confirms that RMC's long-rumored Wild Moose coaster — a compact, maneuver-packed ride built entirely around those beloved pre-lift RMC moments — is headed to Kentucky Kingdom. Mike also circles back to Busch Gardens Williamsburg's still-mysterious Corkscrew Hill rebuild, wondering out loud what it could mean for the park's aging motion simulator theater.

Coaster Radio also has a genuinely stacked week ahead: an early, embargoed interview with Hershend's creative director about Dollywood's NightFlight Expedition, a Silver Dollar City interview tied to their upcoming 2027 announcement, and Neil Patrick Harris himself joining the show to talk D23, Hong Kong Disneyland, and his connection to the Muppets' Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.

The back half is this week's interactive topic, and it's a good one: listeners were asked what ride needs to leave their home park to make room for something better. Kings Island's outdated log flume, Six Flags Over Georgia's Blue Hawk, Lagoon's Double Thunder Raceway, Six Flags Great America's Superman, Cedar Point's Kiddy Kingdom, Hershey Park's train and monorail, Knott's Berry Farm's Accelerator, and Six Flags Magic Mountain's Scream, among many more.

Closing weekend arrived for two very different roller coasters: ArieForce One at Fun Spot Atlanta and Kumba at Busch Gardens Tampa both took their final riders this past weekend, and Mike and EB dig into the real math behind why an $18 million RMC almost never survives in a family entertainment center, no matter how loudly the enthusiast line chants "save this ride." Listener trip reports roll in live from the queue.

From there, the news comes in hot: Knott's Berry Farm's long-delayed MonteZOOMa: The Forbidden Fortress reportedly cost Six Flags a stunning $20 million for what's ultimately a 1978 shuttle loop with new paint and fog machines (and it's still not open), Universal is demolishing what's left of the beloved Poseidon's Fury show building as the Lost Continent disappears for good, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg drops a sneaky social media tease revealing a full rebuild is coming to the old Corkscrew Hill simulator building.

Then the regional parks get serious about Halloween: Kings Island, Carowinds, and Six Flags Great Adventure are all getting a Friday the 13th-themed Jason house, SeaWorld parks are doing I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Busch Gardens is bringing Anaconda to life — which inspires the guys who bring Anaconda's villain Paul Sarone back from the dead to review every snake-named roller coaster in the country.

After the break, Mike and EB get into the business side of the show, walking through a full overhaul of Coaster Radio's Patreon tiers — including a new producer-only Discord channel — before wrapping with a water park trip report from Crete and a juicy Screamscape rumor that Kings Island's aging Arrow suspended coaster, The Bat, might be on the chopping block to make room for something new.

A shorter episode this week, and a special one: Project Purple at Six Flags Great Adventure finally has a name and a POV video, and it might be the strangest thing we have ever seen a roller coaster do.

Bakunawa — named for the moon-eating sea serpent of Filipino mythology — launches riders 60 mph out of the station, sends them upside down into a vertical stall while launching them a second time, then blasts them up a 382-ft tower at 100mph with zero floor beneath the seats before doing the entire thing again backwards. Mike and EB break down the three separate launches, debate whether "more of everything" is actually a substitute for something new, and land on the one moment in the ride that they think makes it worth the drive.

After the break, Dollywood finally locks in an opening date for the long-delayed NightFlight Expedition: August 19th, following pass-holder previews. The guys will talk through why this ride could be the best of 2026.

And then the news that prompted this shorter episode in the first place, Mike and EB officially announce Coaster Radio is moving its release date after more than 20 years of Thursday nights — new episodes will now drop early Tuesday mornings, timed to catch weekend park news and midweek commutes.

This week opens on sad news: Dick Knoebel, the iconic owner of Knoebels's Amusement Resort, has passed away. He was one of the true greats of the family-owned park world. Mike and EB share a piece of an interview they did with him back in 2006, on the midway in front of the Phoenix, and talk about why Knoebels still feels different from every other park in the country — and why that's exactly what he wanted.

From there, the news picks up: Fury 325 at Carowinds is back up and running after the park caught a foundation issue on one of its support columns during a routine inspection. Holiday World is extending Friday Night Live hours and adding two brand-new fall operating dates in November. And Mike and EB spend a solid chunk of the show gawking at a Heritage Auctions listing selling off actual Disney park memorabilia — a customized Big Thunder Mountain bench going for over $10,000, a Tomorrowland trash can pushing $2,000, and a Twilight Zone Tower of Terror chandelier that might, weirdly, be the one item on the list actually worth the price.

Then there's the story the guys can't stop speculating about: Silver Dollar City has pulled its mine-train coaster Thunderation to make way for what it's calling the largest investment in the park's history, wrapped in an elaborate in-universe press release about a fictional 1880s mining company "returning to work" beneath Marvel Cave. Given the ride's footprint sits right next to the park's real cave tour entrance, Mike and EB dig into what an actual underground attraction at Silver Dollar City could look like — and why the August 14th reveal might be the most interesting theme park announcement of the year.

The back half is a trip report showcase: a live in-park report on the brand new Tormenta Rampaging Run at Six Flags Over Texas, a visit to a certain small, deranged-millionaire-built park in Georgia, Flying Fox at Kentucky Kingdom, a listener's 150th ride on Wrath at California's Great America, and a family day at Lake Winnepesaukah that ends with a first roller coaster credit for a very lucky three-year-old. Also, there's some 80's pop nostalgia that you won't want to miss.