An Anniversary/End Of An Era

Today is a day of bittersweet (mostly *sweet*) celebration, as today marks both the 9th Anniversary of our nighttime Horror Hosted movie program; "The BONE JANGLER," and the local airing of our final show.

9 years ago tonight, our first program aired. Anticipation filled the air, and while much of the local community had no idea what was about to be unleashed upon them, many others did, indeed, know about our debut, had known of it for some time, and were looking forward to it, as anxiously as I. Locally, we air on cable access station ACTV (we've long since added NCTV, but, at first it was just ACTV), and, unlike a major cash cow, commercial broadcast station, there are no technical engineers on hand 'round the clock, and mistakes (and unwarranted nonsense) happen. At 10:30pm that night, as the show was set to invade the airwaves, the screen switched from the usual boring community calendar, leaf pick-up, etc., content to... a very annoying, and frustrating, pitch black screen. I thought, "give it a few minutes, everything's fine." However, all was not fine, and the screen remained black. Within minutes, the phone began ringing, and ringing, as people called, and called, wondering, "What's going on?" I took the phone off the hook. At 11:30pm, the show came on, already in progress. Not exactly the type of entrance to the realm of television that I'd hoped for. The following week, the show came on when it was supposed to, and, then, was cut off at the halfway mark. By the 3rd week, the debut show finally aired in it's entirety.

Aside from the technical snafus, things went well for us, right from the start, from before the start, actually, as we'd made our debut public appearance on the weekend following 9-11, at the totally awesome Cinema Wasteland convention, or show, as we like to call it. There was a lot of weird energy, filled with nervous anxiety, as one might imagine, following such an unexpected tragedy. However, everyone at the show had a great time, particularly Nocturna & I, as we were accepted immediately by our peers in attendance; Son Of Ghoul, A. Ghastlee Ghoul, Dr. Creep, and their attendant sidekicks, and crew members. The CW attendees, and staff, were also extremely supportive, and things were off to a jubilant start, even before our shows had aired anywhere, and NE Ohio quickly became not only a hotbed of Bone Jangler and Nocturna fans, but, our adopted homeland as well. Within a month, or so, we began to add stations from all over the country, and our status was well assured.

Four years later, we added a 2nd show; "The BONE JANGLER's Daytime Dungeon," an afternoon children's show, featuring old cartoons, music videos, and other nostalgic entries from the long gone days of quality local television. My nephew/son Young Master Gregory was, and still is, my co-host, and, in theory, this show was created partially to belong to him. Just ask him whose show it is, and he'll be quick to say, "It's MY show!"

When we embarked on this journey 9 years ago, we did so for 2 reasons; 1) because we enjoyed these shows back in the day, and 2) to resurrect/*keep alive* what very much seemed to be a "lost" genre. There were very few other shows of this nature back then. 9 years later, it's abundantly clear that we (those us in what would become known as The Horror Host Underground) achieved our goal, and then some, as there are now something like 100 currently active Horror Hosts out there, with the advent of the relatively inexpensive/high quality camcorder, YouTube, etc. Nocturna & I are proud to have been a part of this resurrection/resurgence, and are also proud of our (The HHU's) "offspring," so to say.

So, while this is a day of immense joy, it is also somewhat a day of sadness. Our final "Daytime Daytime" show has been airing locally all month, and our final nighttime show airs tonight at 11:30pm. I know that many people are upset about this, as evidenced by the many people that I've come across in my many travels about the city today. What I told them, and what I'm saying here right now is that there is no reason to worry. Our Beautiful Nocturna, Young Master Gregory, The Ladies Of The Coven, & I cannot be shut down, other than by our own selves. Winners never quit, and quitters never win. The shows will continue to air locally, and around the country, and there can be no doubt that we will return with new shows. In the meantime, Thank You to everyone who has supported us, respected us, and loved us, for all of these years. We truly, and sincerely appreciate it!

- BONE DADDY

http://www.thebonejangler.com