The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

Episode Notes for
Broadcasting for a Spell
(episode 109)

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James “The Amazing” Randi joins us to discuss his work on the Long John Nebel “Party Line,” a late-night AM radio show from New York’s WOR that defined the paranormal-themed chat show and was a precursor to shows like those of Art Bell, George Noory and Dave Schrader. This episode features clips from the Long John Nebel show and from Randi’s tenure after he took over Nebel’s slot.

Books Referenced in this Episode

• The Way Out World of Long John Nebel by Long John Nebel
• The CIA’s Control of Candy Jones by Donald Bain (a non-skeptical view)*
• 13 Steps to Mentalism by Corinda
• Conjuring by James Randi
• Presto! How I Made over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales by Penn Jillette
• The Desert Kingdoms of Peru by Von Hagen

Some sample shows from Long John Nebel (via YouTube)

• Andrew Sinatra — the Mystic Barber
• Ivan Sanderson and man-made UFOs
• Jim Moseley

Additional Links

• Long John Nebel — Wikipedia
• Long John Presents the Flying Saucer Story — Audio via Amazon
• An Honest Liar — Documentary about James Randi
• The Heavyside Layer — Wikipedia
• Large UFO audio archive from Wendy Connors
• The WOR tower in Carteret, New Jersey
• WOR radio station rebuild
• Video of the old 3-tower WOR array coming down
• Archive of Long John Nebel shows at Syracuse University
• Frederick Pohl writing about Long John Nebel
• Penn’s Sunday School Podcast
• The Shaver Mystery — Wikipedia
• Ray Palmer — Wikipedia
• Randi and Alice Cooper reminisce about the Billion Dollar Babies tour
• Candy Jones and the CIA*

* Regarding Candy Jones, I have not had an opportunity to do extensive investigation into the Candy Jones / CIA story but besides James Randi’s observations in the episode, it is worth mentioning that it appears the majority of the evidence regarding the story comes from memories recovered by Long John Nebel conducting hypnosis on Candy. That is a notoriously unreliable approach to investigation. Candy was 6’ 4” tall herself, and a famous model. Stories about her alleged spying involve her putting on a wig to disguise herself - something that seems a bit ludicrous to me when imagining as striking a figure as Ms. Jones trying to blend in as a spy. Perhaps we’ll look deeper into this in the future, but nothing in my preliminary research suggested the story had legs. For more info on the CIA’s MK Ultra program, I recommend checking out this Skeptoid episode on the topic.

Music

• Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys

The views expressed on this program are not necessarily the views of the Skeptics Society or Skeptic magazine.