YETI: Yearning for Evidence of Terrestrial Intelligence
Is There Intelligent Life on the AM Radio Dial?
An Article from the Premier Issue of Not YETI
A Spasmodically Published Newsletter
Volume 1 Number 1, January 2001
The YETI Story
The Search Begins
Inspired by SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), YETI (Yearning for Evidence of Terrestrial Intelligence) is a loosely organized society of radio listeners tuned to the AM dial in search of signs of intelligent life, especially during talk shows. The seeds for the creation of YETI were planted years ago when the young Fred Herring acquired his first transistor radio, an Emerson portable. He liked the instant-on and the convenience of batteries, not to mention that it was only about six inches long and weighed less than five pounds, but he missed the glow of the vacuum tubes, especially late at night when he was supposed to be asleep.
Like most portable radios back then, Fred's had only an AM band. Ionospheric conditions in those pre-HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) days allowed Fred to receive nighttime broadcasts in his home outside Washington, D.C., from up and down the East Coast and as far west as Kentucky and Ohio. While "Cousin Brucie" on Boston's WBZ and the Grand Ol' Opry from WCKY in Cincinnati were standard fare, an occasional phrase or snatch of conversation from some unidentifiable station would drift in from the aether to fascinate the young Herring. Thus, early on, he was convinced that there was a source of superior intelligence "somewhere out there."
Remember that those were the technologically primitive days before digital electronics and the CC Radio. You could barely lock onto even a local station. Nevertheless, young Fred's nightly out-of-sight, out-of-mind excursions marked him for life, so it was no surprise that he would mature... well, make that "age" into the adult paranormal investigator known today for his far ranging quests for truth.
The next milestone in Fred's journey toward the creation of YETI occurred several years later when the adult Fred, who inadvertently pioneered the new genre of wacko talk radio, was interviewing a guest on his program broadcast from a remote island in the far western end of the Aleutian archipelago. Of course, being so remote made it difficult to obtain credible guests. The already infrequent flights were often disrupted by unpredictable weather changes and telephonic interviews were randomly scrambled by bursts of energy seemingly originating from somewhere in south central Alaska and playing havoc with the ionosphere. (Usually within a day or so of these bursts, Fred would receive a barrage of indignant late-night phone calls about the disturbance. Similar calls would be received by another talk-radio show operating out of Pahrump, Nevada. Intrepid YETI members would later be able to triangulate on the energy bursts and pinpoint them to the mysterious HAARP experimental installation about ten miles east-northeast of Gakona Junction, Alaska.)
That evening's guest, a self-proclaimed expert on the sasquatch or yeti, said with a straight face (granted, it was hard for the listening audience, if any, to see it) that after years of intense research he had not yet actually seen a sasquatch but he knew that their presence was marked by a strong odor. "More succinctly stated," he went on, "big foot equals big stink foot!" If ever there was an obvious tautology, that was it. This incident, along with on-going financial reverses, convinced Fred that he was not well serving the public, and shortly thereafter, he shut down operations.
The SETI Inspiration
From then on, in his spare time and with his extra money, in addition to whatever else was going on in his life, Fred set out in earnest to prove once and for all what he had believed as a youth, the existence of intelligent life on AM radio. The inspiration for YETI finally came when Fred heard about SETI, with its network of home computer owners pouring over radio telescope data to cipher out anything resembling an intelligent signal above the background noise of the cosmos. This led Fred to conceive of a network of loosely organized volunteer home-based commercial radio listeners with their antennas tuned to self-assigned frequencies on the AM band. YETI was born.
Starting with only a few listeners, YETI slowly but steadily increased its membership and impact. The enterprise was not without mishap, however. A near fatal tragedy was narrowly averted when Fred, after checking the latest log of reports, realized that one volunteer was locked onto the Horrid Storm Show, a nationally broadcast "shock jock." Fred called immediately, and it was only the persistent ringing of the phone that snapped the volunteer out of his involuntary spasms of retching.
YETI Today - New Venues, New Hope
With further experience YETI has become the fine-tuned investigative instrument we see today. If AM intelligence is ever present, YETI will find it. Hopes are high but the longer the search continues unrequited, the more some argue that this is proof itself of the nonexistence of AM intelligence. Fred's answer is to systematically expand the search into more countries, languages, formats, and venues.
For example, having extensively probed the political spectrum from pole to pole - radical to reactionary - YETI will shortly begin a survey of the extreme middle. Similarly, religious broadcasts from old church to new age are being finely combed, a seemingly daunting task given the huge number of AM broadcast hours collectively devoted to that venue. However, once the advertising, huckstering, and political posturing are filtered out, true religious content turns out to be almost as nonexistent as that elusive intelligence, but easier to monitor as a result.
There are glimmers of hope out there. Several searchers have detected snatches of classical music on the band, not necessarily direct evidence of intelligence but sometimes accompanying more meaningful broadcasts. Of course, more often than not, the music is simply the lead-in to a commercial for a luxury car. (Oh, in case you were wondering, yes, we know sports broadcasts make up another large segment of the total AM radio log, but, again, we're talking about possible intelligent life here.)
"Counter Intelligent" Life Forms
Whereas the investigation has thus far failed to prove the existence of intelligent life, it has clearly demonstrated that there are what Fred calls "counter intelligent" life forms out there - as opposed to unintelligent or nonintelligent. By counter intelligent, he means beings or organizations whose actions threaten the advance or, if you prefer, evolution of intelligent or civilized life.
Until recently, this was a little recognized radio genre, identified if at all as a small subset of religious broadcasting. There have always been individuals or churches whose dogma or lack of same cause them to be labeled as "crackpot" or "fringe." However, according to Herring, this was erroneously thought to be a religious phenomenon, because that was the surface content of most of the messages or diatribes. In fact, Herring further asserts, the religious label stuck because that niche was the only venue allowing such over-the-line broadcasts, and their creators consciously or otherwise drifted into a religious context.
With the migration of most listeners and advertisers to FM and the subsequent lowering of AM broadcast costs, coupled with the loosening of public morals and FCC controls and the general drop in educational and behavioral standards, the crackpot fringe of the counter intelligent broadcast tree has made its way into almost all AM programming venues. Examples are available simply by touring the band for 10 minutes in any direction at any time, day or night.
At this point we might identify the shock-jock venue as another branch of the counter intelligent broadcast tree. Horrid Storm is noteworthy here only because he helped "nationalize" the shock-jock venue and because his program is so unnoteworthy otherwise. As with Storm the shock-jock niche appears to have been created and populated entirely by counter intelligent life forms.
Hate Broadcasting--Further Lowering the Bar
Another niche - one that has always existed but at a much smaller size - that has been greatly expanded by the growth of counter intelligent organisms is the hate broadcast. By organisms here we mean anything from individuals to organizations, single celled to complex, slimy to sleazy. Some of these claim national or international status, although this does not necessarily correlate with membership size. Some international organizations may have very few total members or one or two members in as many countries, while some local or state organizations may have memberships in the thousands. Why is this discussion relevant to the hate broadcast niche? Because for these organizations, broadcasting is intended to be a means not only of spreading dogma, but also to recruit, as opposed to the general talk show or even the shock-jock venue, where most programs are intended to be entertaining and occasionally informative, even if deliberately offensive. Of course, the bottom line is selling the sponsors' products or messages.
Sponsorship
As for sponsors, the more focused, extreme, or radical a program becomes, the more shallow the pool of likely sponsors. In this regard most hate and fringe religious or political broadcasts must be self sponsored, relying on the parent organization, if any, for funding or on the contributions and purchases of the listening audience - again if any. Ergo, the common broadcast tagline, "Tapes of this or any other broadcast may be purchased for X dollars by calling..."
In AM talk radio, no particular organization, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual preference, race, creed, religion, philosophy, or political party seems to have the corner on counter intelligence, although all may feed at the same trough to some degree. Of course, the same is true for unintelligence. Now, if we could just find a glimmer of intelligence.
Join YETI...
If you are interested in becoming a participant in YETI, send $10 for a tape of... Just kidding! Actually, to paraphrase Descarte, if you think you are a member, or rather if you think you want to be, then you are one. The next step? Simply select a promising "patch" of the AM band and tune in. Keep a log of of any even remotely intelligent broadcasts, noting the date and time, station call letters, frequency, city of origin, your location, etc. For your convenience you can use the form provided elsewhere on this page to record and report your hearings (as opposed to sightings).
But beware! You can quickly become overexposed to what is out there. Also, don't be fooled by infomercials masquerading as informative broadcasts. And remember, like TV, you can always turn your radio off!