It's been three years since my last update here. Work and other hobbies bogged me down a bit, but the TV Guides kept piling up. I've got a fair amount of new material to post, which will be coming in the next few days and weeks.

Lately it seems like there is more interest in vintage local broadcasting than ever. Offline, I've participated in Shock It To Me! at the Castro Theater every October for the last four years. Shock It To Me! is among other things a tribute to the horror hosts who ruled the Golden Age of local broadcasting. Sitting in the audience during the show, I've overheard many nostalgic conversations about the era. I was really struck by how memories feed off one another in conversation. In a group setting, those "Oh, yeah, I remember THAT!" moments happen more easily.

With that in mind, I spent some time after the most recent show setting up a forum for UHF Nocturne. The forum format gives everyone a chance to talk directly to everyone else. It also lets people create their own topics of discussion, and forum posts show up in Google results. A lot of Google hits to UHF Nocturne come about from people searching for a specific station or personality. The forum will give a bigger target for those searches. Registration is easy, and the posts have already begun to appear, so sign up soon and get involved in the reminiscing!

Among other related events, I'm particularly excited about the Creature Features documentary, WATCH HORROR FILMS - KEEP AMERICA STRONG which is currently playing various theatrical venues. This was a labor of love for everyone involved, and well worth getting up off the couch to go see in a real movie theater!

If you watched TV in northern California between the 1960s and the late 1980s, you might have fond memories of local shows and local celebrities, particularly those who were on at odd hours - late at night or on weekend afternoons. You might even have a favorite movie host or show which you remember well, but haven't seen in years.

Unfortunately, not much remains to help us revisit those days. Home VCRs became common only in the latter years of the period in question, and TV stations tended to erase and reuse expensive broadcast-quality videotape in the earlier years. For many of these shows, all we've got left are fading, fragmented memories. UHF Nocturne exists to preserve what memories we still have of watching local TV in northern California from its beginnings to the late 1980s.

Poke around here, enjoy the old ads and listings, and if any of it sparks memories of your own, head to the forum to discuss share them with the rest of us!

Tuesday, November 18 2008 -- John Stanley ad, plus... TV Guide ads I've found so far for John Stanley's reign at Creature Features have not mentioned John by name, but finally here's one that does!. Not only that, but if you click on the ad, you might get a surprise. (Let me know if the attached file works. This is something new, and I'd like to do more of it if people like it.)

Monday, November 3 2008 -- 1963 KGO Saturday night horrors... Added a page of ads and listings for World's Greatest Chillers, which seems to have been KGO's attempt at a late night version of their weekly afternoon show, Chillers From Science Fiction.

Thursday, March 3 2005 -- Obsessive listmaking in progress... I've added a list of 50s SF and Horror movies on DVD for your reference and to waste time when I should be doing my taxes. The list also includes titles not on DVD, for the edification of the many studio heads and their minions who read UHF Nocturne daily.