Interview with Dave Schrader of Darkness Radio
Friday May 9, 2008 8:23 AM
Emily: You celebrated Darkness Radio's second birthday in January — for those who have yet to tune in, what is Darkness Radio and how did it all start?
Dave: Darkness Radio, we're a paranormal radio show that covers every aspect of the paranormal from ghosts to demons to UFOs, Bigfoot, Bermuda Triangle and beyond. We started two years ago at a small radio station in Minnesota. My co-host Tim knew a producer he worked for and said 'they're looking for some contents for a new station, do you have any show ideas?' — I said, "Well, why don't we do a paranormal show?" We put together a show and Jason Hawes was our first guest. Rosemary Ellen Guiley, John Zaffis [and] Annie Wilder all rounded out the first month for us. We were able to come at them with big names like that; they gave us a shot to do the show right away. So we put it out and we've been going strong ever since. We moved to two hours after about a month of being on the air for an hour a week. We moved to a two-hour time slot from 10 to midnight every Sunday night.
Emily: Do you have a favorite guest that you've interviewed?
Dave: I've had a lot of great conversations. A couple of my favorite ones are the shows we did with Pamela Heath talking about suicide and how it affects people when they cross over and people that are left here. Then of course, one of my highlights was getting to talk to Dan Aykroyd. Spent an hour on the phone on the radio show talking about UFOs and the paranormal. So that was a dream come true. It's been a great experience all the way around.
Emily: After all of the interviews and shows that you've done, and all the information, theories and so on that you've gathered through investigations and the radio show, is there anything that you're still skeptical about?
Dave: Well sure, I'm still skeptical of all of it. Just because somebody thinks that they're house is haunted doesn't mean that it is. Could be pipes settling, house is settling, just normal noises that we take for granted and think they're automatically paranormal. You have to actually go out and investigate these places. That's why we put together our paranormal retreats where we go out to these famous haunted locations like the Stanley Hotel, the Queen Mary, Eastern State Penitentiary and we go out and investigate with celebrities, speakers and our listeners to check these places out for ourselves. That's what the fun part is for me. I'm still skeptical about things like faeries, leprechauns and gnomes but there are people out there that believe in that as well, and certainly I'm willing to be open to it and maybe have an experience myself.
Emily: Has anyone ever caught any good evidence on these trips?
Dave: Oh yeah, we've had fantastic evidence. At the first Stanley trip we did, back in November 2006, Grant Wilson was in a room with about six, seven people and the chair sitting next to him flipped itself to the middle of the room. All those people saw it happen. That was pretty amazing. We've caught crazy apparitions on video, some amazing EVPs, personal experiences, hair tugged, held, poked, prodded. Jackie, at the Queen Mary hotel in Long Beach, the little girl who haunts the first class pool, both times that we've been out there has called out loud so everybody could hear her voice. Both times we've been there when Chris Fleming was at the pool doing an investigation and got the little girl to talk twice and large groups of people heard it and caught it on video and audiotape.
Emily: Do you have an experience that you are willing to share, that might have gotten you into the field, or is the paranormal just something that interests you?
Dave: Well, straight from youth I had experiences. My grandmother came to visit shortly after she passed away when I was about 3 years old. I was able to describe what she had been buried in, and it was a closed casket ceremony only my aunt and grandfather knew. So, it started with that. She made another appearance at the birth of my son 20 years ago this February. I've had a visitation by my grandfather. At a haunted house right near where I grew up I saw a spirit come through the window and follow me through the yard without making a sound and it was just insane. A year ago I witnessed UFO activity over the skies of Trout Lake, Washington. When I was 10 years old I believe that my cousin and I had a Bigfoot sighting. I have a lot of really great experiences. I'm reading more, I've picked up books by Hans Holzer, Lorraine Warren, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, all the fantastic authors out there just to keep me going and feeding my lust for wanting to know more about the paranormal.
