The Red Eye Radio Show debuts amid UFO sightings and comedy scene from Lords: Part One - By N.L. Belardes

Don’t tell me Bakersfield isn’t a land of the macabre. It's being talked about on the Red Eye Radio Show. And don't tell me that people don’t love the dark side of ghost hunters and the radio jocks who talk about the paranormal. There’s a reason Tule fog plays a major character in Lords: Part One, a book about Bakersfield's haunted evil side.



Here, we Bakersfieldians live in a land of ancient Indian mythos on old swampland that somewhere once joined a now nearly drained giant lake called Tule; and don’t forget those native dreams lost to white man’s farmland and oil well dreams. There’s gotta be one or two Yokut ghosts wandering Bakersfield’s hills and riverbanks like wolves.


Comedian John Wessling on the inaugural voyage of the Red Eye
What's this? a ghost image in the photo???

Not to mention the UFO sightings, or that killer bees landed in Kern County possibly in the 1980s, and, that creepy mysterious aircraft have glided into our midst from Edwards Air Force Base, not to mention the paranormal from Bakersfield, a city that sprung up from creepy old oil towns, Chinese tunnels, hidden opium dens and a marketing engine that lured strange young British lords to become the new Lords of Bakersfield in the late 1800s.

Bakersfield is a land of urban and rural myths, and now there’s a radio show to help perpetuate them. Did I say that? No, no, I mean here comes a radio show that will help us understand the mythos surrounding the area in which we live: The Red Eye.


Puck from The Puck Show is the co-host on KGEO Hot Talk 1230 am

The first caller on the Red Eye Radio Show was a comedic actor calling in to say he was out on Breckenridge looking for UFOs. Is that so far from the truth?

It was only 1986 when a stealth plane crashed into a mountain near Bakersfield. Did people even know what stealth technology was then? No. It was straight out of a scene from the X-Files. The government moved in, cordoned off the area and was tight-lipped about the entire affair. Folks in nearby Bakersfield were left in a shroud of mystery about a secret aircraft having gone down that killed its pilot.

Declared a national security zone, the government attempted a cover-up, scattered the remains of an F101-Voodoo to try to fool KERO TV, who flew out of Bakersfield to view the crash site. What they found were remains that should not have been there: pieces of the Voodoo aircraft scattered upon mountainous terrain that had already been combed by the government.


More salsa and toothpicks in my eyes please?

Wreckage planted by our government? You bet. The X-Files? Sure. And this is just part of the macabre of the Bakersfield area.

Why did chimpanzees attack a man outside of Bakersfield? Do we really know the true story? Isn’t such an attack just a little freaky where a man loses half his face?

What about the global witchhunt spawned out of Bakersfield in the early 80s that locked up many alleged child molesters? Cases were overturned in these trials of the satanic cults who supposedly preyed on children for more than pornographic aims. All spawned perhaps by creepy prominent men hiding their true dualistic lives; and casting a city into turmoil possibly because of a mysterious book out of Canada on demon possession? Yes.


The Red Eye host needs your ghost stories...

What kinds of Satanic myths, ghost stories and more can creep out of Bakersfield? Do you have a story you can share? The Red Eye needs you.

The Red Eye Radio Show is hosted by John Wessling out of Hollywood but is created right here in Bakersfield.

I was lucky enough to be their first ever in-studio guest on the show.

I arrived at 1:20 am. Puck rushed out and let me into the studio. I listened to the end of their segment as Puck and John Wessling talked about fertility drugs and obesity. I know, it wasn’t the scariest of segments. But they were on their way to talking about the scariness of the Bakersfield back country.

None to worry, I came on the show and we talked about the Lords of Bakersfield, my novel, Lords: Part One, and even read a rather strange scene.

Now, don’t forget, John Wessling is a comedian. I picked the lone comedy scene from my novel: a moment with the transvestite Carol in her attempt to get to know and transform the character of Joey Minstrel. She wanted to change him with clothes, a haircut and a nice pearlised eyeshadow.

Was that all? Maybe you should read the book.

Puck was the narrator. I read the part of Minstrel, and Wessling gave his all in a grand performance as a Puerto Rican transvestite hairdresser named Carol.

Talk about hysterics. I can’t wait until we post those portions of the show on nlbelardes.com as an exclusive podcast.

We then moved on to ghost stories. Puck told a hair-raiser about a ghost lady while out fishing near the old Kernville Cemetery. Yes, she was in a white dress and floating down the river. Ask Black Dog. His skin was crawling while listening to the powers of suggestion cast bu the Red Eye. But were his pants?

And then we were joined by none other than ghost hunter Arthur Chilling by phone, who in his most creepy manner, talked about his love for ghost hunting among the ruinous landscapes of Bakersfield and beyond. His mad fascination for ghost kids makes him one of the strangest spectators of specters you could ever meet.


The ghost hunter himself who has a
mysterious voodoo finger...

He’s had run-ins with voodoo and animal ghosts and wouldn’t hesitate to aim his Multi-field Tracker at you to see if you’re real.

Stay tuned to the Red Eye Radio Show, and don’t forget to contact John Wessling with your ghost stories. They’re recording in Bakersfield again in a few weeks and you’ll even be able to call in to tell your ghostly tales to all of Bakersfield and the people traveling through on dark Central Valley freeways.

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Monday, July 03, 2006. You can leave your response.