This challenge is courtesy of CatDragon.
Credit to grimlucis on the GLOG discord for the idea:
1. RVDL - I Nast-Colindo: An extensive LARP conducted entirely in J. R. R. Tolkien's imagined elven language of Quenya, from the perspective of a local news radio station in Rivendell, many hundreds of years after the events of the Lord of the Rings when technology has advanced to a contemporary level. The station mostly reports on local governance in a satirical tone, as well as local interest stories, with near-half-elven births being a particular cause for celebration.
2. 62.3 - The Hippodrome: Clandestine frequency of choice of a nomadic criminal ring that runs illegal underground auto-sports in a cyclical roving caravan across America, doing everything from drag racing to monster truck battles to the death. Seems to be lead by a loud man who calls himself "The Carbarian". Rumoured to be manipulated behind the scenes by the FBI, who draw a black budget from its revenues and use it to find disaffected radicals to entrap in fake terrorist schemes.
3. WSMN - The Man on the Street: Every 4 hours this station broadcasts the internal monologue of an apparently random male between the ages of 18 and 65 who has resided in Madison, Wisconsin for at least a year. Due to the difficulty of determining who exactly the station is broadcasting, it is widely believed to be performance art that's landed on a few lucky coincidences. True believers credit the station with uncovering a corruption case involving the mayor's secretary.
4. 54,9 - Finn's Flotsam: A favourite among esoteric art aficionados and machine learning fans. The station broadcasts twenty four hours a day readings of Finnegan's Wake that have been elaborated on by glossolaliac artificial intelligence. The broadcast has been running for two and a half years, and is expected to continue running for another twelve. It's apparently operated - based on the voices reading and snippets of non-literary dialogue - by a husband and wife pair that swap out for each other in twelve hour segments.
5. 43.1 - The Response: Purportedly a response to the Arecibo Message broadcast from the Arecibo Radio Telescope in 1974. The Response consists of altered versions of the original Message which suggest an understanding of and intention to alter terrestrial biochemistry and the human form. A component signal of the station seems to be a countdown, originally from 162 years, now approximately 145. The Washington Post has declared The Response to be a hoax worthy of no less than four Pinocchios.
6. 7.77 - Voice of the Azure Sky Elders: Operated by a "cult" (one too small and non-threatening to really deserve the name) of old hippies who swing together and believe totally in the reality of the luminiferous aether. They hold that modern theories of light, air, and vacuum were created to deprive humanity of vital knowledge. The station plays world music, hosts discussions on cosmic onenes and energy exercises, and only ever gets agitated above a level of sedative calm when the subject of 5G networks come up. They also sometimes do weather predictions based on their own modelling, which are always far more accurate than mainstream news reports.
7. ITKA - Requests on Demand: Only ever plays songs that callers request. Even plays requested songs that don't actually exist. Analysis of recorded tracks of these non-existent songs suggests that the person behind the station is incredibly talented at vocal and stylistic mimicry, improvisation, and a virtuoso to boot. Recently the station has run into legal troubles over its hit single "Into My Temple", which so closely imitates Madonna that her agent at the time believed it to be an attempt to evade their contract.
8. 3.14 - The Mindscrew: Boasts of using proprietary bone induction-conduction technology to induce synaesthesia in listeners through sound and radio waves. It does work, more or less, and due to obscure intellectual property law, tuning in is legally consenting to being exposed to its experimental tech. Be prepared to experience royalty-free pop music in the most basic of colours, scents, and tactile sensations. Synaesthesia can continue after exposure to The Mindscrew. If synaesthesia continues, put your head inside a Faraday cage for no less than 30 seconds.
9. 70.8 - Gnostibombs: An unusual and bombastic station that reports on everyday political and economic goings-on in South Korea as though they are extensively covered-up by a global conspiracy, in a breathless toe. The station analyzes K-pop especially for its conspiracizing, relaying the explicit meaning of performers' lyrics and presentation as though they were secret, implicit, world-changing revelations.
10. MKCM - The Trophy Case: Pirate station that exclusively plays songs recorded by victims of a serial killer who targets musicians. It's claimed to be a memorial to the victims, yet most regular listeners have come to believe it's a taunting, self-congratulatory message from the serial killer themself. Conspiracy theories about the killer abound, identifying them as everything from a producer killing potential clients who won't play ball, to a cabal of indie musicians collaborating to eliminate competitors and provide mutual alibis, to a sonic vampire.
11. 39.9 - The Finders: Apparently a station for ARG (alternate reality game) facilitation, The Finders broadcasts coordinates every Sunday, with a short story and loose theme tied to recent movie releases, news items, or other such pop culture reference points. At the coordinates is always a locked suitcase containing goods potentially worth tens of thousands of dollars, such as golden figurines, drugs, corporate espionage dossiers, and the like, again loosely tied to the week's theme. It's unknown who's behind the station, whether they're sponsored by whatever franchise a week's theme is based on, and how they even get their suitcases into places like hotel VIP suites. Competition to get to a suitcase often gets bloody.
12. 17.2 - Chthonic Nemo: This broadcaster claims to be a man stuck inside a Cold War-era bunker, who received a head wound falling inside that caused him to forget his name, location, and the prejudices of the wider world. Two times a day he broadcasts a personal diary reciting his remaining rations, water, electricity, what he did to survive that day, and his predictions for future survival. The broadcaster has been propositioned for a show or movie based on his story several times, but has rejected each. A subculture has formed around trying to find and rescue him before it's too late.
These are so good. They have that perfect balance of being genuinely weird, while also being mostly plausible, and also being suggestive of bigger things without laying it all out explicitly. 62.3, 7.77, and 3.14 are probably my favorites. I assume 7.77 is a play on 666 and 3.14 is pi, do the others have hidden meanings as well? RVDL could be Rivendell?
ReplyDeleteYeah RVDL is Rivendell, WSMN is Wisconsin Madison, and I forget the rest. They might mean something, or they might not.
DeleteI love this. It would be perfect for Weirdways, I love the plot hook that so easily flows from The Finders
ReplyDelete