Mid-Valley Mutations

Dimestore Radio Theater Halloween Spook-tacular 2026! (Part 4)

WFMU Playlist & Listener Comments

With only one more week left in our annual Spook-tacular, we pull out all the stops, and bring you four horror stories that you are guaranteed to love this time of year!

We begin with another tale from The Weird Circle, and their story, “Knight’s Bridge Mystery,” about a gentleman that is sure he can get away with murder, and more, if he impersonates someone who is certain to be assumed guilty. But, does he have the resolve to see it all the way through? Then, in an aquatic entry of The Price of Fear, Vincent finds himself among the company of a couple on their boat, where the dinner that he’s offered becomes the inspiration for revenge that night.

After an installment of the conversation I had with Obadiah about The Golden Age Of Sci-Fi, we bring you, “Murder Ship,” by The Strange Dr. Weird. A couple who are ready to risk it all for a big reward suddenly find themselves contending with a problem they had never anticipated, and suddenly, their trust for each other is on the line. And, lastly, we present a Carnival and Circus themed episode of Quiet, Please, where the chance to have your deepest wishes granted plays havoc on a relationship that is almost destined to work out, no matter what they wish for.

Help us raise a little coin for WFMU’s Hellraiser, and enjoy Old-Time Stories on your New-Fangled Device!

Enjoy!

The People Who Died 2026 Edition! (A Hellraiser “Singles Going Deady” Installment)

WFMU Playlist & Interactive Live Chat. (The Digital Salon)

It’s our annual review of musicians, artists, and performers who have passed recently, as we play music and audio clips of these people, to get a sense of what they were like in the past. Bandit calls in to talk about the people they will miss the most, and we close with a Joe Negri afterparty, and get to know him a little better.

It’s three hours of music and art by people who are no longer with us. Take some time and appreciate work by some incredible people.

Enjoy!

Be Seeing You.

Dimestore Radio Theater Halloween Spook-tacular 2026! (Part 3)

WFMU Playlist & Listener Comments

It’s another holiday installment of Dimestore Radio Theater, as we start with The Weird Circle, and the story, “What Was It?,” where a mysterious invisible creature begins to plague a simple household. Continuing with the theme of not seeing things, The Price of Fear, gives us horrific tale of the lengths some people will go to when they want to take advantage of someone, and how best, in those circumstances, to get revenge!

After a short installment of “Dimestore Revelations,” and the fourth part of our conversation with Obadiah Baird about Golden Age Sci-Fi, we bring you a story by The Strange Dr. Weird, with “The Tiger Cat.” What happens when you can increase the size of any animal, in the name of science! We close with a story from the legendary show, Quiet, Please, and their tale, “”Don’t Tell Me About Halloween,” about the kind of relationship that endures beyond the point when either party is having fun anymore.

Help us raise a little coin for WFMU’s Hellraiser, and enjoy Old-Time Stories on your New-Fangled Device!

Enjoy!

Idiomagic: The Blathering (A Hellraiser Special!)

WFMU Playlist & Interactive Live Chat. (The Digital Salon)

It has become a bit of a tradition on this show that Xeres of Xeron would offer a new tale, in an on-going series of ghostly (and unusual) tales set in the Mid-Valley, and offering a different perspective of what would count as a Halloween story.

This year is no exception, and we not only have a new installment in the series – our fourth so far – but we offer you all these stories, plus a little “frame narrative” to give you further information about these tales. It’s two hours of “Idiomagic” on our show tonight, as we bring you four strange and compelling Holiday Tales, perfect for you and yours.

Then, stick around for the Afterparty this week, as we pull up a shorter edit of a classic tale, where Xeres and I find ourselves stuck in a Haunted House, and must find our way out before the end of the night! Can we survive, and live to tell the tale so Mitch doesn’t take over the show? There’s only one way to find out!

Be Seeing You.

Dimestore Radio Theater Halloween Spook-tacular 2026! (Part 2)

WFMU Playlist & Listener Comments

It’s another holiday installment of Dimestore Radio Theater, as we start with The Weird Circle, and the story, “A Terribly Strange Bed,” with a story about one of the worst sleeping arrangements you can imagine. Then, we offer a tale from The Price of Fear, with a terrifying tale of an older woman, an ex-military boss, and “The Ninth Removal.” Is Vincent actually scared? That’s not good…

After a short installment of “Dimestore Revelations,” and the third part of our conversation with Obadiah Baird about Golden Age Sci-Fi, we bring you a story by The Strange Dr. Weird, with “Stand-In For Death.” We close with a story from the legendary show, Quiet, Please, and their story, “Some People Don’t Die,” about cliff dwellers, and their secrets!

Help us raise a little coin for WFMU’s Hellraiser, and enjoy Old-Time Stories on your New-Fangled Device!

Enjoy!

Welcome To October (A Hellraiser DJ Party)

WFMU Playlist & Interactive Live Chat. (The Digital Salon)

With the Hellraiser in full swing, I pull out a DJ set from a live Gig I did last month, and combine it with a couple Day-And-Date Retrocasts, to bring you three hours of Mid-Valley Mutations that is the perfect way to kick things off. I play a few new records along with the old mixes, Aaron from Minneapolis calls in with some positive vibes, we revisit the incredible The Return of The Living Dead and the short stories of Ambrose Bierce, and we welcome in the Hellraiser, the only way we know how!

Be Seeing You.

Dimestore Radio Theater Halloween Spook-tacular 2026! (Part 1)

WFMU Playlist & Listener Comments

When the calendar flips to October, Dimestore Radio Theater flips to “Holiday Programming Mode,” where we feature a variety of horror radio presentations that are guaranteed to get you in the mood. We start with an installment of The Weird Circle offering “Declared Insane,”, a show that offers re-made classic stories for audiences at the time. Then, we move to the UK, with an installment of the incredible BBC show, The Price of Fear, with a story called, “Not Wanted On The Voyage,” where a domineering entrepreneur makes a horrific discover on a cruise, that leads to a much needed turn of events.

After a short installment of “Dimestore Revelations,” and the second part of our conversation with Obadiah Baird about Golden Age Sci-Fi, we bring you a story by The Strange Dr. Weird, with “Survival of The Fittest,” where a team of trappers are struggling against nature itself, and one by one, they find what it takes to survive. And, lastly, we offer another installment of the horror classic, Quiet, Please, with a tale set in hell, that gets worse and worse for someone who first died without any sin.

Join us for the beginning of the season, and help us raise a little coin for WFMU’s Hellraiser, and enjoy Old-Time Stories on your New-Fangled Device!

Enjoy!

The Guitar Shop (30 September 2026)

KPSU Playlist 

In a very special, anniversary broadcast of “The Guitar Shop,” I sit in with DJ Victrola to help celebrate KPSU’s 32nd Anniversary. It is also, most likely, the LAST broadcast I will ever do out of the Sub-Basement studios on the PSU campus. The station is moving to a new location, and while I hate to be nostalgic about a place that has so many mixed and complicated feelings, it is also a place that I love dearly, and I couldn’t image wanting to spend that day any other way, than to do this show.

In many ways, it is a regular episode of “The Guitar Shop.” However, you’ll be able to tell when I”m picking songs, for sure. We tell stories, we play records, and we remember our friendship that has lasted 22 years now. Victrola was the DJ at my wedding, and we’ve done so much more together, too. I feel honored that I know someone like her, and that she thought to reach out to me for a show like this.

Mostly, just enjoy the music. But oh, do we have stories to tell…

Be Seeing You.

“My Baby Wrote Me…”

WFMU Playlist & Interactive Live Chat. (The Digital Salon)

Waiting for a letter to come is like waiting for a good song to come on the radio: it can take time and patience, and sometimes, the stuff you do while you wait becomes wrapped up in the experience of waiting for a letter. We explore all of it, The US Postal Service, and more, in this love letter to the hand written word, received my Mr. Postman. There’s a tiny bit of Mini-Mutations happening here and there, but with a very quiet Audience Participation line, the best we could do is let these sweet, sweet songs play on…

As today is the 20th Anniversary of hosting “The New Bloods” on my show, I decided to re-run that performance, slightly improved for this broadcast. (There was some slight re-mastering of the mono-master for this show.) To round things out, I play some Pledge Drive spots I made in 2019, that are evergreen.

It’s three hours of madness! Enjoy!

Be Seeing You.

Dimestore Radio Theater #179

WFMU Playlist & Interactive Live Chat (The Digital Salon)

It’s trouble for Richard Diamond from the top of the show this week, as a dead man shows up in his office, and gives him a letter that cases Diamond to become the target of some gang members looking for a treasure in gold. Meanwhile, what’s going on with Nancy, and her friend, Guillardo? Then, in an episode that’s a re-run this week, Rocky Jordan finds the past back to confront him, when a man from Damascus claims he knows Rocky from the past, and wants him to help locate someone named Alex Zarko. Can Rocky reconcile the past, and handle the case before the police and Sam Sabbaya get involved?

After an installment of “Dimestore Revelations” and the first chapter of our new Documentary Feature, “The Golden Age of Sci-Fi w/ Obadiah Baird,” we bring you another tale from Blackstone, where someone has stolen some diamonds and has hidden them somewhere in the Billiards room. Can Blackstone find the diamonds, and the thief, before it’s too late? And, lastly, we offer you a rare Science Fiction treat: in the months before NBC Launched their new program, Dimension X, CBS commissioned a pilot for a show called, Beyond This World, a show that was not picked up, but produced a version of the story, “The Outer Limit,” which Dimension X would produce, later. But this show has a very unusual host framing the story, and gimmick that would have been great, if they had kept it up. Hear the only existing episode of Beyond This World today!

It’s old time radio on your new-fangled device!

Enjoy!