HAUNTED RADIO

AUSTIN, TEXAS - Roy had moved from a smaller market radio station to a larger metropolitan market and had to start on the graveyard shift. For a young married man this was a good opportunity. The shift came to him suddenly, one night several days after giving the program manager his air check tape and resume he received a phone call. The program director asked if he could come as soon as possible. He apologized for calling so late, but something had happened and could Roy come in that very night to work? Roy knew an opportunity when he heard one. As soon as he arrived he saw that police were parked outside of the Station. A young female Disc Jockey was standing inside looking distraught. She was speaking with one of the police officers and when she saw Roy coming in she said, “Thank God you’re here. I don’t want to be alone in here.” After the police left she told Roy someone had tried to break into the Station while she was on the air. She had heard a loud noise, she went to investigate, and saw people running away from the side door that they had broken into leaving their burglar tools behind.

Radio towers in Austin, TX

Roy asked her why would the burglars leave in such a hurry. He did not want to insult the girl but he hardly believed that her slight form would have intimidated the robbers. She stated she did not know but that the police had told her that something had apparently frighten them away before anything could be stolen. Roy stayed the rest of the night, and then the next day the program director called him asking him to work again the next night. That night was peaceful but the college aged announcer had lost her peace of mind. She had to have every light on in the station, and had wanted Roy to walk her to her car after the shift ended. The next day, the program director told the woman that he could not continue to pay for both Roy and her to work the night-shift, she would have to do this alone. She refused. The program director offered the shift to Roy who accepted it eagerly. Roy was young and slim but over 6 feet tall and felt he could handle himself. Arrangements were made for Roy to have a key to the building as his shift started at midnight, this way the evening disc jockey was not forced to leave the control room to let Roy in, as she was also nervous after the break in. The first week that Roy was alone he would hear sounds that he tried hard to dismiss as imagination.  He heard what sounded like a key in the door, and the door opening, closing and then footsteps coming down the hall toward the control room.  He would investigate and find no one.  He would check the front door and side door and find both locked up tight.  Roy kept this to himself, this job was what he wanted and no spookiness would distract him. He told himself that the noises came from cleaning people in the business downstairs, or perhaps sounds from the street that he heard.  

After some months of working various shifts he was told that the night shift was his permanently. About the same time a Soft Drink vending machine was placed in the hallway outside the control room.  The constant light from the machine would shine in the doorway.  He began to notice that between two and three o’clock every night he would begin to hear the noises that were becoming familiar to him.  He also noticed that as he heard the sound of someone walking down the hallway a shadow was cast as through someone was walking in front of the machine.  He would investigate frequently, but finding no one he continued to keep these events to himself.

After about two months of his permanent position he began to ignore even the shadow and concentrated on how much he enjoyed his job.  One night at about 3:25 in the morning, he was going into a commercial break after which he would read a weather forecast.  As he was reaching for a copy of the weather forecast placed on top of the control board he noticed a reflection in the Plexiglas stand.  Reflected in the glass was man standing behind him.  Roy immediately thought back to the events of the first night that he had been called into the station.  The night someone had tried to break in. Thinking someone had been successfully this time, Roy thought he was a dead man.  He whirled around to confront the intruder and found that he was so frightened he could not speak.  All the startled DJ could do was stare.  The man in front of him had dark hair with average features and no weapons.  In fact the intruder was smiling, his bearded face drawn up in a pleasant grin.  Roy also saw that his arms were crossed and he looked as through he was wearing a “hippy” looking tunic.  This was shocking to the young DJ, but even more shocking was that as he looked the newcomer over he noticed he had no feet.  Looking back up into the face of the other man Roy’s own face must have registered his alarm.  The bearded man looked shocked, as through surprised that Roy could see him and then … he disappeared. 

Roy’s mind was in shock and he noticed that his commercials were over with and he needed to put something on quick before he had dead air.  He put the first track he could find without really paying attention to it. Roy asked himself, did that just happen? What did I see?   He was sure he had seen something and the only logical thing it could be was an intruder.  Once again Roy checked ever door and looked into every room finding no one.   Roy vowed to himself, that he would never mention the event to anyone. Months later, he did take the opportunity to ask what he hoped sounded like an innocent question of the general manager.  He asked him if he knew of any DJ’s who had died while working at the radio station. The GM could think of no one. Then Roy asked if the GM knew any of the history of the building.  All he knew was that the building had belonged to another station, back in the 1960’s.  The station at that time had been playing an acid rock format.  The GM rolled his eyes at the mention of that particular brand of music and departed, but Roy wondered if perhaps at least one ex-employee of the ‘60’s funk and electric guitar station was still around grooving to new sounds.  

Haunted Radio in Jasper AL