Hi everyone,

Let's start this blog with an apology -- I'm very sorry that the MYSTERY THEATER website is not fully-functional to date. I've had many emails expressing disappointment in the site still being 'under construction' in sections. There are many reasons why this is so, but there is really no need to pass the buck, I take full responsibility for its present condition. We're all working very hard to get it up and running to full capacity as soon as possible. I hope you'll visit it often and if you do, you'll see the progress we're making.

Once again, the site is www.mysterytheater.com

MYSTERY THEATER with host Christopher Lee is airing on 35 stations to date and we're growing the station list each week. At the site is a 'Radio Locator' section to help you find a station in your area. If there is not one, soon you'll be able to hear the show streamed each night at 9 pm. I'm told this will be 9 pm in all US time zones - - Eastern, Central and Pacific. At MYSTERY THEATER we present great mystery, science-fiction and detective programming from the golden age of radio and beyond, so I hope you'll check out the site.

On the TZ front, I have a special announcement:

We have released a total of 13 volumes of TZ on Compact Disc (10 shows per volume). They are all available at our website. We've decided to NOT manufacture any more CDs of TZ. We've decided that TZ will be a download ONLY show as soon as the CD product that we have in our warehouse is sold. We will not be releasing a volume 14 on CD. Volume 14 and subsequent volumes will be available at our website but via download only. The 13 volumes that we do have on CD have been specially marked: Buy 1, get 1 Free. You can buy as many volumes as you like and get an equal number of volumes for free while supplies last so -- get em' while they're hot!

We're reeling in all the third-party companies that sell and download our TZ product and very soon, the only place TZ will be available is at our official TZ website. We want to be better at managing the distribution of the series and if it is available at our website and our website only, we believe we can better serve fans and collectors.

I recently received in the TZ episode "Probe 7, Over and Out" starring Academy-Award Winner Lou Gossett Jr. Mr. Gossett is simply amazing in the role of Colonel A.L. Cook, an astronaut who crash-lands on an uncharted planet. While there he learns that much of his own world has been destroyed. He has no one to rescue him, no way to repair his ship and nothing to go back to if he could. He's a space-age Robinson Crusoe and he's on his own -- until he meets a female astronaut who also crashed there. But she's not from his planet and she speaks a language he can't understand.

In the original teleplay starring Richard Basehart, the female astronaut (played by the beautiful Antionette Bower) barely speaks at all. Much of the story was visual, as he explored the planet and tried to communicate with her. All of that worked great on television, but this is RADIO. Our brilliant writer Dennis Etchison had to work magic with his radio adaptation of the TV script, including adding lines in an unknown language for her to speak, so we can hear their interaction. This one needed Herculean efforts for writing, acting and sound design. I'm pleased to report that all three hit the mark. I think it's one of the best we've ever done. Kudos to Mr. Gossett and Chicago actress Oksana Fedenuschen who are the only voices in the play other than Stacy Keach as host and Doug James as the announcer. "Probe 7, Over and Out" will be airing on the TZ network soon so tune in for it.

Next up is "Two" starring Don Johnson and I'm looking forward to hearing a draft mix of it. Well, that's all for now. See you next time for MORE NEWS FROM THE ZONE!

Hi friends,

I'm sorry it's been a while since my last Blog but I've been crazy busy getting ready to launch MYSTERY THEATER, the new nationally syndicated radio series hosted by Christopher Lee. MYSTERY THEATER premieres this coming Monday March 2nd, 2009! If you're a fan of classic radio mystery, detective and sci-fi shows, you're going to love MYSTERY THEATER. MYSTERY THEATER is designed to air 2-hours each weeknight, Monday through Friday. On each 2-hour show, listeners are treated to three 30-minute dramas. In just the first two weeks alone we'll present: SUSPENSE, BOSTON BLACKIE, PHILIP MARLOWE, THE CLOCK, JEFF REGAN, THE WHISTLER, RICHARD DIAMOND, MURDER BY EXPERTS, THE FAT MAN, PAT NOVAK, THE SHADOW, ESCAPE, ELLERY QUEEN, THE SAINT, LIGHTS OUT, JOHNNY DOLLAR, INNER SANCTUM and others.

Eventually we'll have more than 5,000 radio dramas available for download purchase in our RADIO VAULT. Each episode will come from the original transcription disc or a low source master, then receive: Cedar processing; Time correction; Hiss removal; Levels normalized; Hum removal and then a re-equalization process. I believe that the quality of the radio shows available for download at www.mysterytheater.com will be some of the best you've ever heard. And the download price will only be 99 cents per show! And if you buy 5 shows you get 1 free - buy 10 shows you get 3 free.

You'll also be able to hear each night's MYSTERY THEATER show streamed at the website in case you don't have a radio station in your area, or if the radio station plays the show at a time that is not convenient for you. The nightly steam will be at 10 pm Eastern time, every Monday through Friday.

On the TZ front, I'm bummed to say that I just heard the produced mix of "Come Wander With Me" and I am not at all happy with it on many levels so I've decided to scratch the show altogether and start fresh. There were things I really liked about it, including the acting by the two stars Marshall Allman and his lovely wife Jamie Allman (who was just on THE CLOSER last night and was outstanding) but I have issues with the supporting players and other parts so that one is going back to the drawing board. I'm sorry as I know fans of that episode have been waiting for it but I just am not comfortable releasing anything that isn't great and this one 'just ain't great' the way it is now.

The next NEW TZ show that you'll hear is "Probe 7 - Over and Out" starring Academy Award winner Louis Gossett, Jr. I've had the pleasure of working with Mr. Gossett on my Word of Promise New Testament audio Bible project, where he is magnificent as "John." Next week, I'm told by the geniuses at Cerny that I'll have the rough draft of this next week so I'm excited about that.

Last Wednesday I had the great pleasure of directing Don Johnson in two episodes of TZ, "Two" and "Execution." He was incredible in both shows. He absolutely, and totally nailed it! Don is a radio drama fan and he was so much fun to work with. I've always been a huge Don Johnson fan and I can't wait to mix these shows.

Our TZ syndicator, Westwood One has added some great radio stations to the growing network. We're now on 190 radio stations! Here's the newest station adds:

WCRN AM 830.0 Boston, MA Sat 2p-4p
WROK-AM 1440 Rockford, IL Sun 10p-12a
KUBC-AM 580 Grand Junction, CO Sat 10p-11p
KOA-AM 850 Denver, CO Sat 3a-5a
KYNS-AM 1340 Santa Barbara, CA Sat 10a-12p
WICY-AM 1490 Burlington, NY Sat 7p-9p
WCCO-AM 830 Minneapolis, MN Sat 11p-12a & Sun 2:30a-3:30a
WSJF-FM 105.5 Jacksonville, FL Sun 10p-12a

Thanks for all your support. I'll see you next time for MORE NEWS FROM THE ZONE!

Well, last week the geniuses at Cerny sent me the TZ episode "The Shelter" starring Ernie Hudson and it came out great! It will be airing on the network this week so listen for it. Ernie is a great actor and does a brilliant job as a man who has the foresight to build a bomb shelter in his basement before it's ever needed. The supporting cast has many of our TZ regulars including: Kurt Naebig, JoBe Cerny, Tom McElroy, Jamie Baron, Ana Sferruzza, Linda Reiter, Norm Woodel, Doug James, Jeff Lupetin and Ric Vargas. It features newcomers April Williams and her son Damon Williams and also first time Zoner Renee Domenz. It also has a few lines by my 10-year old son C.J. who you can hear as the young boy who receives phone calls from his dead Grandma in "Long Distance Call" starring Hal Sparks. FYI: "Long Distance Call" is one of the three shows we offer for free download on our TZ home page.

The next show that Cerny is working on is "Young Man's Fancy" by Richard Matheson and adapted for radio by Dennis Etchison. It's the story of a woman who is in competition with her new husband's dead mother, whose spirit does not want to let go of him. Tony Plana (the dad from "Ugly Betty"), who was magnificent in "The Mirror" for us, plays Alex, the husband and Franette Liebow plays Virginia his new wife. Nydia Rodriguez plays Alex's dead mother (she can be seen as the woman judge who gets blown up in her car in "The Dark Knight").

Barry Richter, who has written some amazing TZ radio scripts for us, including a brilliant adaptation of "The Encounter" has tackled the one show that so many people thought would be impossible to present on radio -- "The Invaders." That's the show where Agnes Moorehead plays a woman who does not utter any dialog as she is being invaded by tiny spacemen. It's one of the most famous TZ shows of all time. Well, I have to say that Barry figured out an angle on how to present it on radio and I can't wait for you to hear it. Way to go Barry! With this script Barry just proved that Stan Freberg was right when he said "anything can be done on radio!"

By the way, here's just some of the stars you'll soon hear in upcoming episodes of TZ:

Ed Begley, Jr.
Bruno Kirby
John Schneider
Jason Alexander
Stan Freberg
Marshall Allman
Kim Fields
Blair Underwood
Hal Sparks
Lou Gossett, Jr.
Don Johnson
John Heard
Barry Bostwick
Lou Diamond Phillips
Robert Knepper
Karen Black
Shelley Berman
Henry Rollins
John Rhys-Davies

Well that's all for now my friends. See you next time for MORE NEWS FROM THE ZONE!

Happy New Year everyone! I look forward to an exciting 2009! We have a lot in store for fans of TZ and MYSTERY THEATER. MYSTERY THEATER with host Christopher Lee launches this March 2nd, 2009. A mass-mailing of MYSTERY THEATER demo kits went out this week. Stations should start receiving them next week. We have a follow-up mailing scheduled for the first week of February so my hope is to launch with 50 or so stations and build on that throughout the year and on-going. My goal for the show is 150 stations by the end of 2010.

The website is coming along quite nicely; it will be up and running by mid February and will be at www.mysterytheater.com MYSTERY THEATER is set up to run Monday through Friday. At the official website, listeners will be able to listen to that night's MYSTERY THEATER show at 10 pm Eastern each night Monday through Friday. The 5 shows airing the current week will be available for download the following week for only 99 cents each. Fans will have one week to download the prior week's shows for only 99 cents each. Then, after one week, the 5 shows will be replaced with 5 new shows (which aired the previous week) and they too will be available for download for only 99 cents each and so on. If you miss downloading any MYSTERY THEATER shows, they will be permanently available in the Radio Vault for a download price of $2.99 -- so I encourage fans to download them when they are available for only 99 cents each.

The website will also have a "Radio Vault" feature that will house thousands of other top-quality radio episodes from the mystery, detective and sci-fi categories. Each episode (whether 30-minutes of 60-minutes) will be only 99 cents each to download. When you buy 5 shows, you get 1 additional show for free. When you buy 10 shows, you get an additional 3 shows for free. There will be many other fun features at the MYSTERY THEATER website and I can't wait to have it up and running.

Last week we received in the TZ episode of "The Mirror" starring Tony Plana and it came out great! Listen for it on a station near you. Next to be mixed is "The Shelter" by Rod Serling and adapted for radio by Dennis Etchison. George Clayton Johnson calls it the best of the Serling episodes. This one stars the amazing Ernie Hudson. It's the one about the man who builds a bomb shelter in his backyard. When it looks like the Big One is going to hit, his neighbors panic, turn into a mob and try to break into his shelter. By the time it's over all have learned something about themselves -- some of it ugly. It's similar in feel to "Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" which is one of the best-remembered TZ shows. I look forward to hearing what the geniuses at Cerny do with "The Encounter."

Well, that's all for now friends, check back with me soon for MORE NEWS FROM THE ZONE!

Well, last week I received in the final tweaked version of TZ episode "The 16 MM Shrine" starring Kathy Garver and Charles Shaughnessy. It came out great! I hope all of you reading this have a chance to hear it. The next TZ show that Cerny is working on is "The Mirror" starring Tony Plana. As Dennis Etchison describes it: That's the one that Peter Falk starred in on the original TV show. The original was an anti-Castro tract, with Falk made to look like a clone of Fidel, who becomes a ruthless, bloodthirsty dictator as soon as he takes over. It was very much of its time, expressing America's hostility toward the new regime in Cuba. An angry, one-sided propaganda piece. Serling called him Clemente, with D'Allesandro as a stand-in for Che. Rather than arguing the pros and cons of Castro, the radio version is less specific. It is set in what could be any Latin American country ruled by a dictator. The basic point is sound - that fear and paranoia can make any new leader a dictator himself. It is a cautionary tale about the corrupting dangers of power.

I was so happy to have cast the amazing Cuban-American actor Tony Plana in the lead role. You can see him each week as the dad on "Ugly Betty." What a pleasure it was working with him, not only on this story but on "Young Man's Fancy" too. I think he had a really fun time getting to play two completely opposite characters and he totally knocked them out of the park. I can't wait for you to hear them.

We're close to releasing TWILIGHT ZONE collection 14, which will have 10 shows on 10 CDs. The shows are:
Night Call – Mariette Hartley
Kick the Can – Shelley Berman & Stan Freberg
A Game of Pool – Wade Williams
A Penny For Your Thoughts – David Eigenberg
Free Dirt – Eric Bogosian
Number 12 Looks Just Like You – Bonnie Somerville
On Thursday We Leave For Home – Barry Bostwick
Third From the Sun – Fred Willard
The Trouble With Templeton – Michael York
The Mirror – Tony Plana.

We're hard at work producing MYSTERY THEATER hosted by Christopher Lee which launches March 2nd and will be a showcase for the best of the best in radio mystery, detective and science-fiction -- so be sure to listen. Well, that's all for now, HAPPY HOLIDAYS and join me next time for MORE NEWS FROM THE ZONE!

We're getting ready to mail out our MYSTERY THEATER flyer and CD demo to prospective radio stations across the country. My hope is that we sign up 50 to 75 stations to start and build it to 200 or more stations by the end of 2009. MYSTERY THEATER officially launches March 2nd, 2009.

I've had the great pleasure of working with Christopher Lee as host. He's voiced the first 50 shows (from London), which is the first 10 weeks. We're in the process of building a wonderful website for the series at www.mysterytheater.com (not up yet). Eventually, listeners will be able to find thousands of mystery, detective, and science-fiction radio shows available at our site for download or CD sale. The site will be a great place to visit and I'll keep you posted on the progress.

On the TZ front, this week I received in "The 16 MM Shrine" starring Kathy Garver and Charles Shaughnessy. It needed some tweaks here and there and is back in the capable hands of Matt Sauro at Cerny American Creative. I'm told that the final version will be here today, so I'm looking forward to that.

Recently, I've received in TZ radio drama scripts for "Eye of the Beholder" by Barry Richart, "Once Upon a Time" and "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge" by Matthew Elliott, " and a fresh 'never before seen or heard' episode called "And Cauldron Bubble" by Christine Watson. I'm looking forward to producing these shows in 2009. We have scripts out for consideration to Billy Zane and Christopher Lee and Tim Kazurinsky is going to come in, in a few weeks to star in two great shows. It's always so much fun working with Tim, he's simply amazing.

On the Old Testament audio Bible front, we just recorded Max von Sydow as "Noah" from the South of France and he was absolutely brilliant. Also, we recorded my good friend Malcolm McDowell as "King Solomon," Wade Williams as "Gideon" and we just signed John Rhys-Davies as "Saul." I can't wait for everyone to hear Malcolm, Max, Wade and all the cast in this epic Old Testament audio project to be released in October 2009.

Well, that's all for now, join me next time for MORE NEWS FROM THE ZONE!

Well, I can finally reveal who the host of MYSTERY THEATER will be! I'm very proud and honored to announce that the host of MYSTERY THEATER will be the legendary film star Christopher Lee! Special thanks to Gemma Cox, Donna Cannatella and Juan from Mr. Lee's official website for helping make this possible. Mr. Lee's website is: http://christopherleeweb.com/

Last Thursday, Mr. Lee recorded the first month's scripts. He lives in London and London is 6 hours ahead of Chicago so I had to phone in at 5 am for the 3 hour session. We'll record approximately 10 sessions per year. At each session Mr. Lee will record slightly over one month's worth of scripts. He was absolutely brilliant and so very gracious and just wonderful to work with.

I think listeners will really enjoy MYSTERY THEATER, which will be a showcase for the best in radio mystery, detective and science-fiction. They'll love Mr. Lee as host, but they'll also be impressed with the quality of the radio episodes that we'll be presenting. Mostly the shows featured on MYSTERY THEATER will be from the 1940s and 1950s; shows like: Suspense, Escape, Sherlock Holmes, The Whistler, Johnny Dollar, X Minus One, Ellery Queen and so on but we'll also have newer mystery, detective and science fiction shows too. For example, we just licensed the Peabody award-winning series Bradbury 13 produced in 1984 by Michael McDonough. Bradbury 13 was originally broadcast on NPR and has never been broadcast on commercial radio - but you'll be able to hear it on MYSTERY THEATER.

I'm working on licensing many other "newer" radio shows as well. I'd very much like to include the great Himan Brown's CBS Radio Mystery Theater and although we do not have rights to include it at this time, I am in contact with Mr. Brown and hope that he'll allow us to do so in the near future. MYSTERY THEATER will launch March 2nd, 2009 and I'm hopeful that a radio station near you will carry it. If not, you'll be able to hear it streamed at our official website at www.mysterytheater.com (the site is not up as yet - it will go live in March 2009).

In other news, please look for THE NEW ADVENTURES OF MICKEY SPILLANE'S MIKE HAMMER starring Stacy Keach. It's at bookstores near you or click this Blackstone Audio link.

And THE WORD OF PROMISE NEXT GENERATION AUDIO BIBLE is in stores everywhere so I hope you'll pick up a copy. Here's Amazon's link to it: http://www.amazon.com/Word-Promise-Next-Generation-Dramatized/dp/1400313279

The next TZ show that Cerny American is working on is "The 16 MM Shrine" which stars Kathy Garver and Charles Shaughnessy. I'm hoping to hear it and make tweaks by next week as it airs in December. Well, that's all for now friends. Check back with me next week for MORE NEWS FROM THE ZONE!