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Read the full text, as well as the show notes, at http://flashpulp.com
Tonight, in lieu of our usual fiction, we present The Final Broadcast, a modern myth of improbable pedigree. To find out more on this terrible transmission, visit wiki.flashpulp.com
[Music] Welcome to FlashPulp special episode 4. Tonight, we present the final broadcast. This week's episodes are brought to you by the Parsec Nominated podcast Geek Out with Mainframe. This is Richard Green, aka Mainframe of the Geek Out with Mainframe podcast. That can be found at geekoutwithmainframe.com. With hundreds of Geek interview podcasts, I have one of them. Interviews have included people such as Michael Plastit, Gerald Axelrod, D.C. Herring, J.R. Murdock, Chris John Ellis, Mark the encapsulated one-kill fall, Paul E. Cooley, and Nathan Lowell with more to come in 2011. So come to geekoutwithmainframe.com, where our geek flag always flies hot. [Music] FlashPulp is an experiment in broadcasting fresh pulp stories in the modern age. Three to ten minutes of fiction brought to you Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings. Tonight, in the year of our usual fiction, we present The Final Broadcast, a modern myth of improbable pedigree. To find out more on this terrible transmission, visit wiki.flashpulp.com. The Final Broadcast, written by J.R.D. Skinner, Art and Narration Biopoponix, and Audio Produced by Jessica May. [Music] [Music] Sometimes mentioned in response to the legend of Midnight Tales with Cassandra, the Final Broadcast is a much older bit of folklore, which started appearing around Southern California in the late 1930s. No record can be found of any of the events in question, despite many aging former residents of the area claiming to have heard the incident personally. It's said to have happened at a radio station in Riverside, or possibly Long Beach, on a sweltering summer night. A live recording of an episode of the Detective Miles Archer Mystery Hour was in progress when the lead actress, Archer's Love Interest, went suddenly off script. Millicent Erb, who played Rebecca Diamond, had been caught up in an affair with Chuck Moxon, who played Archer. While a married woman, she'd fallen for her co-star, and the two had carried on behind the closed doors of the station, well away from Herb's husband. Unbeknownst to her, however, Moxon felt differently about the situation, and was apparently also carrying on a sexual relationship with Stephen Terry, who played Archer's arch nemesis, the villainous Dr. Fang. Supposedly, though she'd been hearing rumors, Herbert refused to believe the truth regarding her lover, until during a commercial break, Moxon, who had little interest in hiding his conquests, engaged Terry in a passionate embrace. It's said that upon their return from the advertising interruption, the actress retrieved a handgun from her purse, and held it on the man she felt had betrayed her. Although the dialogue that followed was somewhat confusing to the listeners at home, fans of Detective Miles Archer were used to having to wait until the climax of an adventure for clarification of plot points, and considered the heated exchange to be simply part of the production. The tip-off came when Moxon cussed vigorously, and at length. His crude response to a question from Millicent brought on a flood of calls to the station, and when a secretary ran through the small studio to inform the show's producer of the complaints, the sudden entrance was enough to set off the already jumpy gun woman. In a blaze, she killed her three fellow cast members, mystery hours Foley artists, the producer, and two sound engineers. For the next five minutes, she shrieked and wept into the open mics, which were finally disengaged once the first patrol car arrived on the scene. It was only then that, realizing it was no dramatic production, many parents of the members of the Miles Archer Fan Club fully comprehended the reality of what had happened, and thought to bundle their children off to bed. Flashpulp is presented by Flashpulp.com and is released under the Canadian Creative Commons attribution non-commercial 2.5 license. Text and audio commentaries can be sent to Skinner@skinner.fm, or the voicemail line at 206-338-2792, but be aware that they may appear in a future flashcast. We'd also like to thank the free sound project, found at freesound.org. For a full listing of effects used during the show, as well as credits for the users who provided them, please check this episode's notes at flashpulp.com. And thanks to you for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please tell your friends. ♪ Sunday is gloomy, my hours are stumbled, here is the shadows I live with are stumbled. (dramatic music)
