Phactum sampling

PhACT Goes On the Air

-- by Eric Krieg

My story of how I put a skeptics' radio show on the air in Arizona is a long one. It starts with Joe Newman who has been claiming to have an over-unity (free energy) electric motor for about thirty years. Like many of what I refer to as "free energy messiahs," Joe publishes a big thick book filled with loads of conspiracy theory, talk of God and alternative physics concerning free energy. Norm Biss, an electric motor technician, read the book and contacted Joe to negotiate a deal where Norm's company would jointly attempt to build an over-unity motor. Norm's doubts about Newman's competence, ethics and sanity grew as thousands of dollars were spent to make the device. Finally, Norm alleges, the night before the motor was to be independently tested, Newman made off with it in the middle of the night.

With most investors Joe would get away with this sort of thing but Norm Biss, who signed up for a extra tour in Nam just to enjoy "trading bullets with the VC," was the wrong person to mess with. It became Norm's passion to alert as many potential investors as possible to the risks in Newman's business schemes. Since I have become the main Internet voice of skepticism concerning free energy claims, Norm soon tracked me down. He appreciated my advice on how to get his message out on the Internet.

Norm quickly undermined support for Newman in cyberspace with help from a number of skeptics. However, Newman still had a paid radio show on KFNX 1100 in Arizona with a strong base of support. Biss, "a born-again skeptic - but with fury from hell," couldn't let that go unanswered. He and his company paid the radio station for a half-hour radio program to come on after Newman's. Though Norm has become most articulate in the printed media, he felt awkward about being live on the air for 13 successive weeks. Instead he got me to agree to be the host. To be put on the air all I had to do was to call into the radio station on one line and have my guest call in on another.

We agreed that responding to Newman's claims would be just one of many areas to be covered. I quickly went to work and lined up many of the big names in skepticism as guests. I decided to dub the show "the whY Files" as a play on the X Files. [The WHY-Files is also the title of the newsletter of the Inquiring Skeptics of Upper New York.] There were several nut-case "Art Bell type" shows on this station so I promoted my show to appear like one of the "in search of unexplained sightings" genre. The idea was not to betray my skeptical bias before sucking people in. I got publicity help from other skeptics and PhACT member Fred Mitchell made up a graphic logo design to use on a Web page that tracked the show.

The station produced an ad promo and an intro-track with spooky sounding music and a deep voice-over saying, "Come check out the Y Files and hear the paranormal information too hot for other shows to touch." (That is true, Art Bell won't touch skeptical information for many claims.) Our show was even promoted on the ad time of Joe Newman's show.

In my first episode I interviewed Norm Biss about his experience with Joe Newman. Soon after that show aired the station called me and said an absolutely livid Joe Newman had threatened to sue the station for running us. Rather than back down or make any promises concerning controversial content, I ended up having a neat conversation about First Amendment rights and historical efforts to restrict radio show content.

Of course the next week I simply opened up the show by talking about how the powerful conspiracy to suppress information about free energy had failed to knock the show off the air. I let people know that they could always get the information that I provided concerning Joe Newman via the Internet. Joe ended up cancelling his radio show altogether. Too many of his listeners had called up asking for a response to what I said. A few people at the station told me that mine was their favorite show.

Each weekly episode was a wonderful chance to whack one collection of claptrap after another. Among my guests were: Arizona skeptic Michael Stackpole talking about local paranormal events, Phactum and Skeptical Inquirer contributor Jim Enright discussing the "evidence" for dowsing, PhACT member Joe Szimhart speaking about cults and Emily Rosa's father talking about TT. (I had wanted to get Emily but she was travelling.)

Jim Mosely, editor of the skeptical Saucer Smear magazine, talked about UFO's. Michael Shermer, editor of Skeptic magazine, talked about holocaust revisionism and his book Why People Believe Strange Things. I got James Randi (my favorite skeptic) to use his wonderful wit to demolish many paranormal claims. I even managed to get Dennis Lee, the other big free energy promoter, to speak on the show, but only after agreeing he could state his case without interruptions or concluding comments.

Phactum editor Tom Napier talked about the physics (or lack thereof) of free energy claims. Mark Pitcavage, an expert on dangerous militia and patriot activities, gave a good run-down on right-wing extremists. Joe Nickel did an excellent job discussing ghosts and the Shroud of Turin. Fittingly, the final episode was on "The end of the world." I got former PhACT speaker, Ted Daniels to talk about various groups that think the world is about to end.

During the shows I took a middle of the road stance but asked questions which would set my guests up to raise their concerns, much as a back row volleyball player sets up the front line for a driving spike. I've since had offers by fellow skeptics to make recordings of the show available on the Internet.

So Arizona got to hear a voice of reason on the radio. Norm Biss was happy to help "run Newman off the air like a cockroach exposed to light." My guests appreciated having a sympathetic interviewer for once and those who happened to be authors got shameless plugs for their books. And, as a bonus, I had a good time hob-nobbing with many of my favorite skeptics.

See Eric's SKEPTIC pages.