~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My first Halloween with my older brother Rick, ages 3 & 5, 1961

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da Head Spook sez:

Nightmare City Halloween is the longest running Halloween Radio Program on-the-air!

Nightmare City Halloween first hit the airwaves in 1979,
as the ultimate soundfest celebrating All Hallows' Eve.

Nightmare City Halloween features nearly every genre of music...

ambient, avant garde, big band, blues, classical, childrens, comedy,
country, dance, disco, electronic, electronica, experimental, folk,
house, industrial, jazz, metal, novelty, pop, punk, rap, rhythm & blues,
reggae, rock, soul, soundtracks, spoken word, techno...
...and, YES, I even have gospel!!!!!!!!!!

...from the 20's to present, offering monsterishly ghoulish tunes from
Alice (Cooper) to (Frank) Zappa
(even such unlikelys as Buck Owens and Lawrence Welk!)
played against a dense soundscape of 'eerie ambience.'

Nightmare City Halloween has aired at:

Stevo In Yr Stereo Radio Internet Radio Station 2008- present
WARP Radio Network Internet Radio Station 2000-2007
WZRD 88.3 FM - Chicago, Illinois 1986-2005
KNON 90.9 FM - Dallas, Texas 1983-1984
KGOU 106.3 FM - Norman, Oklahoma 1979-1980

Nightmare City Halloween Milestones

Nightmare City Halloween 1980 introduced "Eerie Ambience". Eerie Ambience is a dense soundscape of sound effects played under the music. Nightmare City Halloween 1988 was the first time Compact Discs were used on the show. Vinyl and cassettes, continued to be used. Nightmare City Halloween 1995 was the first year all primary music was played only from Compact Discs. The exception being, the Eerie Ambience was played from cassettes mixed by Stevo In Yr Stereo. No vinyl this year!!! Nightmare City Halloween 1999 was the 20th Anniversary celebration with a colossal 12-1/2 hour show, featuring special guest Mr. Nuclear, the creator of the original show, including a special rebroadcast of the 'original' NIGHTMARE CITY RADIO HALLOWEEN!!! Nightmare City Halloween 2000 featured the spectacular return of MR. NUCLEAR & THE INFINITE ONE & THE SOUNDTRACKS OF HORROR CONTEST. Plus A TRIBUTE TO GODZILLA & the first ever LIVE WEBCAST on the Internet via WARP Radio Network!!! Nightmare City Halloween 2001 was another, FIRST... the first ever theme show... HAUNTED SPACE!!! 2001: A Nightmare City Halloween Odyssey!!! Broadcasted LIVE on the Internet via live365.com!!! Additionally, in 2001, Nightmare City Halloween went totally digital. From this show forward, no vinyl or cassettes are employed. This also marks the beginning of using music downloaded from the Internet, which becomes a major resource for all future shows. Nightmare City Halloween 2002 featured much music by Independent Musicians!!! Broadcast LIVE on the Internet via WARP Radio Network!!! Nightmare City Halloween 2004 was the special 25th Anniversary show!!! With special guest appearance from Mr. Nuclear!!! Broadcast LIVE on the Internet via WARP Radio Network!!! Nightmare City Halloween 2006 was the first broadcast direct from Stevo In Yr Stereo Studio!!! Nightmare City Halloween World Headquarters!!! WEBCAST live on WARP Radio Network!!! The Best of Nightmare City Halloween was featured on "Mind-Altering Music" 27 October 2007 on WARP Radio Network!!! Nightmare City Halloween 2008 was the first broadcast exclusively on Stevo In Yr Stereo Radio!!! Featuring The Best of NCH throughout October and all day Halloween!!! Nightmare City Halloween 2009 is the 30th Anniversary of the program!!! Featuring The Best of NCH throughout October and all day Halloween!!! Another Best of Nightmare City Halloween titled "Not Necessarily Halloween" comprising all Halloweenish songs from normal releases (not Halloween releases) aired 30 October 2010 on "Mind-Altering Music"!!! Nightmare City Halloween 2010 was the first year since the beginning to feature only music that had never been previously played on the show!!! Note: For the most part, beginning in the Chicago years in 1986, each year features music never previously played, but there is always a handful of classic songs that get repeated, on occasion, however that was not the case in 2010. Nightmare City Halloween 2011 to present continues the trend to feature only music that had never been previously played on the show!!! Additionally, over the past few years all of the previous Nightmare City Halloween shows recorded to cassette, from 1979 through 2001, have been digitally mastered and are featured all month long in October of each year on The Best Of Nightmare City Halloween on SIYS Radio! Nightmare City Halloween 2014 celebrated it's 35th Anniversary on the 36th Annual broadcast and continued the tradition of only playing music never previously aired!!! Nightmare City Halloween 2015 was the very last show at the Chicago SIYS Radio Studio!!! Nightmare City Halloween 2016 was the very first radio show at the new Oak Forest SIYS Radio Studio!!! Nightmare City Halloween 2017 was the second Halloween show at the new Oak Forest SIYS Radio Studio, however this year the studio was damaged by a flood and had no floor installed. The show continued as normal and went perfectly with all new music, never before played on the program!!! Nightmare City Halloween 2018 found the studio completely restored including the first of many custom CD shelves built and installed by my 16 year old granddaughter Stephanie, however more tragedy befell us. A major storm with a devastating lightning strike zapped the studio in June taking out nearly a grand worth of equipment, including an external hard drive with 8-months of music work for the show. Starting over in August the show was completely rebuilt from scratch and turned out to be another frightfest classic with all new music, never before played on the program!!! Note: In spite of the lightning strike, SIYS Radio never went off the air and remained broadcasting throughout everything. Nightmare City Halloween 2019 was the 40th Anniversary of the show featuring all new music, never before played on the program!!! The goal is 10 more years and retire after the 50th Anniversary show in 2029!!! Nightmmare City Halloween 2020 was a banner year for music, when leading up to the show there was 12 hours of music selected, for a 5 hour broadcast that uses about 4 hours and 40 minutes of music at the most, of which over 7 hours had to be cut, honing the show down to the absolute best of the best. And, of course, the show featuring all new music, never before played on the program!!!

The Infinite One

Stevo In Yr Stereo Celebrates his 25th Anniversary as a DJ
25 September 1979 - 25 September 2004

Stevo In Yr Stereo at KGOU circa 1980
(image processed by siys 26.9.04)

and now...

The Story of Nightmare City Halloween

It had always been a lifelong dream of mine to be a DJ on the radio. I used to play DJ as a boy with my little record player and 45s, as young as about age seven or eight. I grew up listening to "Subterranean Underground" on the local college radio station, KWGS-FM, in Tulsa, with such intriguing DJs as "The Foxy Lady" playing 'psychedelic' music. By high school I was hanging out late-nights at KTBA, then KKUL, both extremely 'progressive' FM stations, with "Rob On Your Radio" and decided if I ever became a DJ I would call myself "Stevo In Yr Stereo."

Rob On Your Radio, circa 1975 (image courtesy of Don Cook)

The other ingredient in this Halloween extravaganza came in 1973 and 1974 when I worked at "Scream In The Dark!" Tulsa's ultimate Halloween Haunted House!! During my first year there, all night long, every night, the most incredible music played throughout the entire house. It was "Black Mass" by Lucifer (Mort Garson), an incredible electronic music tour de force (it was not at all evil as the title may falsely suggest)! I was hooked and soon thereafter began collecting Halloween audio. The first, and to this day, STILL, my all-time favorite haunted sound effects LP is "Sounds To Make You Shiver!" I now possessed the formula for 'Eerie Ambience'!!!

coupon courtesy of Mitchell Holt The Ma-Hu Mansion - home of Scream In The Dark Shown after a fire in 1977. Built in 1937 at 2500 S. Memorial Drive In Tulsa. It was used as a haunted house by local charities before being demolished in 1978 after a series of fires. Read more on the Ma-Hu Mansion at Tulsa TV Memories (image from Tulsa World) A cemetery sign at the entrance to Scream In The Dark, October 1972. (image from Steve Crane/Tulsa World) The Spider Room gives a fright at Scream In The Dark, October 1972. (image from Steve Crane/Tulsa World) A frightening scene awaited visitors at Scream In The Dark, October 1972. (image from Steve Crane/Tulsa World) Guests exited by sliding down from a second-story window at Scream In The Dark, October 1972. (image from Steve Crane/Tulsa World) Scream In The Dark was sponsored by Campus Life These are the albums that started it all!!!

In 1979, while attending the University of Oklahoma, I was at the right place at the right time. It was mid September and one night I went to KGOU, 106.3 FM, one of only three commercial college radio stations in the U.S. at that time, to see the DJ, John "Jazzz" Askins a.k.a "Jazzkins," doing the "Jazz, Straight No Chaser" show. He turned out to be the Program Director so I told him how I loved music and had always wanted to be a DJ. He informed me that although the station presently signed off the air everyday at midnight, they were considering staying on until 3:00 AM if they could find someone willing to work that late, and asked if I would be interested in working the 'midnight to 3:00 AM' shift. Absolutely! I sat in on his show for the next week learning the board, how to take readings and other on-air procedures and on Tuesday 25 September 1979 from midnight to 3:00 AM I debutted "On-The-Air"!!!! (Note: I consider it the new day at midnight. Some may consider it was Monday night 24 September.) I was a bit rough at first but within a couple of weeks I was like a duck in water! Even though KGOU was a commercial station with a strict format, I was allowed to play and do about anything I wanted on this late (early!) shift. I soon began experimenting in the production studio, on and off-the-air, and before long was developing new shows and programing. Meanwhile, a good friend of mine, in fact my best buddy in college, Mr. Nuclear, had made a Firesign Theateresqe tape called NIGHTMARE CITY. It was quite bizarre and I suggested that we expand the tape into a Halloween show. NIGHTMARE CITY RADIO HALLOWEEN was born.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mr. Nuclear recalls:

When I first got a TEAC 4-track recorder, I made a tape of "The Nuclear Fun Park." It was a takeoff on the Firesign Theater's "We're all Bozos On This Bus." It was about a computerized theme park. One of the parts of my fun park was "Nightmare City." That's where the original version came from. Stevo was working at the University of Oklahoma radio station, KGOU. I played the tape for him, and he got it on-the-air. Part one was "Nightmare City" and part two was "Japanese Tribute." We also hosted a Halloween Costume contest sponsored by Sound Warehouse, where the radio show was being played live. When the show was over Stevo and I rushed over to the record store to judge the 'Best Halloween Costume.' I forgot that "Japanese Tribute" had the word 'f--k' in it twice, so when we arrived at Sound Warehouse, The station Program Director, Jazzkins, told us, "People really liked the show, but don't ever say 'f--k' on the air again." I still have a film of us running around Sound Warehouse during that contest. The next "Nightmare City" was mixed live on-the-air at the radio station, where we had the "Satellite Nest" (Hey, even before the 'Computer Web'). It was just like knocking a rock down a hill after that, it just kept rollin".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the 'original' version of NIGHTMARE CITY was so twisted and offensive, we had to virtually rerecord the whole thing to get it on-the-air!!!!! Mr. Nuclear and I also created the short lived radio shows "Over The Rainbow" and "Future Radio Now," while I created the local musicians music show "Public Access Radio." (later known as "Independent Music Artist," in Chicago) By the second year, 1980, I had developed the classic NCH haunted soundscape known as "Eerie Ambience," while Mr. Nuclear continued programing the more bizarre and kitsch bits and pieces. The radio version of the show continued in 1983, now in Dallas at KNON, 90.9 FM, public radio station. 1984 saw the 'MEGA' Halloween event which consisted of a one hour video program playing constantly on QUBE cable television; a live remote broadcast at The Twilite Room, with a haunted house created in the basement by The Dallas Artists Co-op; video projected Horror movies, and the live remote radio show on the first floor with the bar; and live bands, featuring The Mel Cooleys and Spazbot, and a costume contest on the second floor. The show had a slew of sponsors who supplied countless prizes for the on-air "Soundtracks of Horror" contest winners and "Best Halloween Costume" contest winners. Nightmare City Halloween moved to Chicago in 1986 airing on WZRD "The Wizard" 88.3 FM, hosted solely by myself, Stevo In Yr Stereo. During this period, I got very serious about Halloween audio collecting and began building one of the largest Halloween collections on the planet. By the mid 90s with the advent of eBay I was able to acquiring extremely rare items and an endless supply of other 'Halloweenish' source material from countless sources online. The show has been webcast live on the Internet since 2000, first on the WARP Radio Network, with the exception of 2001, when the show was webcast on live365.com. In 2006 I made a major decision to leave WZRD, after 20 years, to produce the show from the Stevo In Yr Stereo Studio, and in 2008 I began webcasting the show exclusively from my own SIYS Radio station online, where it remains to this day.

Stevo In Yr Stereo & Max Nuclear with vinyl Halloween collection - 1984 publicity shot

The Story Updated...

Nightmare City Halloween 2015 was the last show on SIYS Radio after 30 years in Chicago. In January 2016 SIYS Radio moved to Oak Forest, IL, a mere 36 miles south of the previous studio. Nightmare City Halloween 2016 is the first official broadcast on SIYS Radio since the move. Nightmare City Halloween continues to be simulcast on the WARP Radio Network, courtesy of DJ Zath, as it has been since 2000.

Producing The Show

Nightmare City Halloween has always been a challenging show to produce, entailing the live broadcast, documentation, and archival recording. The program is a collage in sound utilizing a multitude of sources simultaneously that are collected year round. First and foremost, there is the bed of "Eerie Ambience" consisting of, at minimum, two Halloween sound effects sources, and at times, haunting ambientesque soundscapes. Over the bed of "Eerie Ambience" all genres of music - songs and instrumentals - and spoken word stories make up the primary programming. The show has always strove to introduce new music each year featuring the most varied sources possible from all time periods of recorded audio perfectly juxtaposed against the "Eerie Ambiene". In the early years of the show, vinyl and cassettes were the primary audio source, until CDs were introduced in 1988. Beginning in 2001, the show went completely digital utilizing CDs and digital downloads which continues to the present. Of course, most of the essential and vintage vinyl and cassettes have been transferred to digital media, if only by individuals using consumer equipment, allowing these classics to live on. Although, not strictly adhered to on the earliest shows, the program is meticulously planned and documented to ensure the ultimate broadcast, tracking when sound effects change and including specific timed breaks for "Eerie Ambience" segments which ensure no primary programing is interrupted should the show segments need to be split to transfered to archive media such as, previously, audio cassettes, and presently, audio CDs. As much work that goes into previewing, selecting and documenting the absolute very best Halloween audio that can be aired on the program, during the live broadcast, music is selected spontaneously showcasing the cream of the crop of Halloween audio, including a liberal amount of tracks from independent artist, throughout the show. Presently, the shows are not available online for on-demand play, but are featured yearly, throughout the month of October, on SIYS Radio, as the Best Of Nightmare City Halloween.

NEWEST ADDITIONS!!!

Nightmare City Halloween 40th Anniversary Playlists

Nightmare City Halloween Horror Theater

Nightmare City Halloween Fliers

Mort Garson Tribute Page
Featuring The Entire Black Mass by Lucifer Album

Nightmare City Halloween Videos

Stevo In Yr Stereo "Mind-Altering Music" Playlists

NCH Audio

Listen to NCH Eerie Ambience audio samples & NCH Playlists!

NCH Audio

Mort Garson Tribute Page

NCH Archive

Explore one of the largest collections of Halloween related audio ever assembled!
Over 25 years in the making!!

NCH Archive Part 1 - Music

NCH Archive Part 2 - Sound Effects & Spoken Word

NCH Archive Part 3 - CD-Rs of MP3s

NCH Archive Part 4 - CD-Rs of Lossless Formats

Selected Album Covers from the Archive

Over 850 album covers are displayed! Over 630 are playable!

NCH Album Covers

NCH Fliers

Complete collection of NCH fliers!

NCH Fliers

NCH Playlists

NCH 2024
NCH 2023
NCH 2022
NCH 2021
NCH 2020
NCH 2019
NCH 2018
NCH 2017
NCH 2016
NCH 2015
NCH 2014
NCH 2013
NCH 2012
NCH 2011
NCH 2010
NCH 2009
NCH 2008
NCH 2007
NCH 2006
NCH 2005
NCH 2004
NCH 2003
NCH 2002
NCH 2001
NCH 2000
NCH 1999
NCH 1998
NCH 1997
NCH 1996
NCH 1995
NCH 1994
NCH 1993
NCH 1992
NCH 1991
NCH 1990
NCH 1989
NCH 1988
NCH 1987
NCH 1986
NCH 1985
NCH 1984
NCH 1983
NCH 1982
NCH 1981
NCH 1980
NCH 1979

SPECIAL THANX
To all the wonderful folks who have contributed to the Show & Archive!!!

Please visit their sites!
(Tell 'em Nightmare City Halloween sent ya!!)

BANDS / MUSICIANS:

Amazon Mollies
Ambidextroux
Ancient Order of the Droids
Mike Ashe
AtoZ
Attrition
David Bagsby
The Barbarellatones
Dan Blakeslee
Dan Blakeslee @ Bandcamp
Jacob -Renfield- Boston
Sean Bowler
John Rabbit Bundrick
Nicholas Burgess
Calabrese
Cheekyboy
George Crampton
Count Ridicula
Count Transylvania
Creepy Clyde
Cyber Zen Sound Engine
D1
Dark Asylum
Darkmood
DBone And The Remains
Deaf Panda
Dewmar Campfire
Die Monster Die
The Disciple Brothers
DJ Hal Lo Ween
DJ Throatslice
Doctor Dark
Doctor Gasp And The Eeks
Doctor Gasp And The Eeks @ Bandcamp
Dracula Party
Dr. Skull
Dr. Snik
Wynn Erickson
Endgame
Dean Farnell
Derek & Brandon Fiechter
Peter Forrest
Gary J. Freeman featuring The Fabulous Lesters
Future Music Corp.
Ghosts In The Graveyard
Ghost Town Station
Graveyard Tracks
Delorean Gray
JC Greening
Halloween, Alaska
Halloween FX Productions
Halloween Scream Team
Halloween Is The Dream
Michael Hedstrom
The Mike Hoffman Orchestra
House Made Of Dawn
Chris A. Johnson
Sean Keller
KillSmith
King Dapper Combo
Mannheim Steamroller
Midnight Syndicate
The Method Actors
Monster Mashups
The Moon-Rays
Emilie Mover
Nash The Slash
Nervous System
Kent Oberlin
The O'Neill Brothers Group
Ostrich Empire
Frank J. Petruccelli
Pitch Black Manor
Vincent Presley
Pretty Ghouls
Casey Redmond
Reflexicon
Rollick House
The Rosedales
Sam Haynes
Satan's Pilrims
Eban Schletter
Sue Schnitzer
Blythe Schulte
James Simmons
Jay Slackta
Neal Smith
Solcofn
Spookhaus
Dasha Stepan
Summer Villains
Theo's Thang
The Thing
The 3-D Invisibles
Tigerman
Dante Tomaselli
Uglyhead
Scott Upper
Vic Varney
Vazum
The Wayweird Souls
Todd V. Wolfson
Zyzzybalubah

INDIVIDUALS:

Jocelyn Benko
Mike Bennett
Ron Bieletzki
Rafe Cantrell
Countess Kat
Bill Dann
DJ Sue
Dr. Destruction
Arvo Fingers
Ron Fitzgerald
Dan Gamaldi
Seth Glass
Scott Jackson
Albert Martino AKA The Howler
Barry McAllister
Pastor McPurvis
Richard Miller
Patrick Neve
Dana Paull
Rodrigo Perez-Segnini
J.R. Williams
Jason Willis

RECORD LABELS / COMPANIES:

Ace Records
Allegheny Music Works
Allegro Music
American Gramaphone
Anti- Records
Archfiend Records
BCI Eclipse
Black Cat 13
Blue Martin Records
BMG Special Products
BMG Entertainment
Boffo Records
Boost Music
Brainy Tunes
Brentwood Communications
Celia Entertainment
Cherry Red Records
Chipster Entertainment
Cleopatra Records
Columbia River Entertainment Group
Cut-Throat Productions
Delirious Insomniac
Delta Entertainment
Digital Theater Systems
Dionysus Records
Disney Records
Disneyland Resort Paris
Dog Lake Music
Double Crown Records
DRG Records
Dr. Strange Records
Eclipse Music Group
Entermagic
Enter The Torture Chamber
Entity Productions
Epitaph Records
Evil Pumpkins
Family Arts Theatre
Fiendforce Records
For Profit Media
Four Quarters Entertainment
General Mills
GNP Crescendo Records
Goblinhaus Records
Golden Records
Graveyard Calling Horror Records
Greathall Productions
Halloween Haunted Attraction
Halloween Haunt Songs
Halloween Music Lives
HarperCollins Audio
HarperCollins Publishers
Haunted Jukebox
Headless Spectre Recoords
Heads Up Records
Hedstorm Productions
Hell-Cat Records
Hidden Volume Records
HighTone Records
In A World...
Inner Splendor Media
Interscope Records
In The Red Records
Invisible Records
Island Records
Jerry Joy Music
J&N Records
Kid Rhino
Knitting Factory Records
K-tel International Switzerland AG
K-tel International
Lamp & Dagger
Liberation Hall
Liberation Hall on Bandcamp
Lifetime Classics
Linfaldia Records
Little Morganville Recording Company
Lonely Spectre Productions
Madacy Entertainment Group
Mashup Industries
Milan Entertainment
Matador Records
Modern Harmonic
Monster Mashups
Musike Di Diable
Music For Little People
Necro-Tones Records
Neeka Records
Neurotic Bop
Neverwood Records
Nine Winds Records
Nobody Records
No Part Of It
Oglio Entertainment
Outrageous Media
Outro Records
Peter Pan Industries
Petruccelli Productions
Pooke Music
Pottery Barn
Prime Mover Media
Princess Records
Razor & Tie
Reader's Digest
Rhino Records
Rubellan Remasters
Rubie's Costume Company
Secret Records
Shallow Grave Records
Silva Screen
Singer Productions
SKiN GRAFT Records
Sonic Realm
Sony Music Custom Marketing Group
Sony Music Entertainments
Sony Wonder
Soundry Records
Sourcebooks
Spookshow Records
St. Clair Entertainment Group
Sterling Entertainment
Strange Daisy Records
Sub Pop
Sugar Free Records
Sundazed Music
Telarc
Tinderbox Music
Toxic Bag Productions
Turn Up The Music
Universal Music Group
Vamps & Freaks
Varese Sarabande
VA:10 Records
Verse Music Group
Warner Bros. Records
Weddington Productions
Wee Bee Music
Wee Sing
Wicked Cool Records
Wondercap Records
Yep Roc Records
Zombie A Go-Go Records
Zone Music
Zone Plus

Halloween Resume:

Scream In The Dark, a haunted house, as both designer and performer, 1973-74
(Tulsa, Oklahoma)

Nightmare City Halloween, a radio show since 1979, playing all genres of music
with a 'halloweenish' theme over a bed of 'haunted ambience'

Various frightful (yet fun) installations at commercial/public locations

'Mega' Nightmare City Halloween event in 1984 which included a one hour video for cable tv,
a live remote radio broadcast from a club featuring a haunted house, live bands
and costume contest, with a host of commercial sponsors
(KNON; Twilite Room; QUBE Cable; Dallas)

Recording and performing original 'scary' music

Halloween archive (collecting anything and everything pertaining to halloween;
particularly audio materials including vinyl, tape, cds)

Halloween installation in my home/studio since 1994

NCH website created in 1999 to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the show

12-1/2 hour 20th Anniversary show in 1999

First live webcast on the Internet in 2000

First ever theme show, "Haunted Space" in 2001

25th Anniversary show in 2004

New art by sTeVo iN yR sTuDiO in the 7th Annual Halloween Art Exhibit
Peter Jones Gallery, Chicago, October 2005

New haunted art by sTeVo iN yR sTuDiO in the 8th Annual Halloween Art Exhibit
Peter Jones Gallery, Chicago, October - November 2006

First NCH CD "Rock 'N' Roll Special" compilation released October 2006
FREE collectible CD available in LIMITED EDITION Black Cat 13 No. 2

Premiere broadcast direct from Stevo In Yr Stereo Studio
Nightmare City Halloween World Headquarters, October 2006

First Best of NCH Show featured on "Mind-Altering Music"
27 October 2007 on WARP Radio Network

NCH Videos