Lights, ringing phones, and footsteps at a southern Idaho radio station
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], in Seattle, says they worked weekend overnight shifts alone at a radio station in southern Idaho about seven years before the broadcast. The station was said to be haunted. They report lights switching on and off, phones ringing with a dial tone when answered, and footsteps crossing the floor above them while they were in the basement at about 3:30 a.m. They blame a ghost that they say was attached to one of the station’s DJs and had earlier been at that man’s house until a priest blessed it. They do not say how the activity at the station ended.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 1996.mp3”, starting at 2:23:18). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
Calling from Seattle and giving their name as [name withheld], the caller says they worked weekend overnight shifts alone at a radio station in southern Idaho about seven years before the broadcast. The caller declines to name the station because management would be upset. They say they had heard about the station’s ghost years earlier, when people used to go out for a “ghost tour” and staff would show visitors things it did, including flipping lights on, which they describe as “basically on command.” During their own shifts, they say, lights flipped on and off and telephones rang. Picking one up gave a dial tone, and after they hung up, it rang again. Drinks and snacks were kept in the basement, so they say they had to go down at about 3:30 in the morning. From downstairs, they say, they heard footsteps moving in a straight line from the desk area, across the stairway and through the wall of automation machines, [quote withheld] Asked what they did, they pose the choice of staying down to get the Coke or going back to face it. The caller says the ghost was connected to one of the DJs who worked there, and that before it appeared at the station, it was at that man’s house. Their own experiences at the station were not violent, they say, but things reported earlier by other DJs were: [quote withheld] The caller says the DJ's wife left the house with his children, telling him to have a priest bless the house or move. A priest blessed the house, and [quote withheld] The host comments that such a thing can be transferred by taking over a person, and the caller agrees. The caller does not say how the activity at the station ended or how long it continued.
Reported events, in order
- 0:11
The caller says they worked weekend overnight shifts, alone in the station, at a radio station in southern Idaho about seven years earlier. They decline to name it.
- 0:36
They say they had heard about the station’s ghost years before, and that during “ghost tours” staff showed visitors things it did, including flipping lights on “basically on command.”
- 0:42
They say that during their shifts, lights flipped on and off and phones rang. Picking one up gave a dial tone, and hanging up led to another ring.
- 1:05
They explain that drinks and snacks were in the basement, so they had to go down at about 3:30 in the morning.
- 1:29
They say that while downstairs, they heard footsteps move in a straight line from the desk area across the stairway and through the automation machines, [quote withheld]
- 1:47
They say the ghost was connected to one of the DJs who worked there and had been at that man’s house before it appeared at the station.
- 2:00
They say their own experiences at the station were not violent, but things that happened earlier to other DJs were, including objects thrown at them.
- 2:19
They say the DJ's wife left the house with the children, telling him to have a priest bless the house or move.
- 2:32
They say a priest blessed the house, and that the moment this was done, the activity stopped there and started at the radio station where the DJ worked.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- observation· 0:42
During their overnight shifts, the station’s lights flipped on and off.
- observation· 0:42
Phones at the station rang repeatedly, giving a dial tone when answered.
- observation· 1:29
While they were in the basement, they heard heavy footsteps crossing the floor in a straight line.
- observation· 0:42
The station’s ghost would flip lights on “basically on command” during the ghost tours they attended before working there.
- hearsay· 1:47
The ghost was connected to one of the DJs at the station and had been at that man’s house first.
- hearsay· 2:03
Other DJs earlier had violent experiences at the station, including objects thrown at them.
- hearsay· 2:25
The DJ's wife left the house with the children because the situation had become that bad, and demanded that a priest bless the house or that they move.
- hearsay· 2:33
After the house was blessed, the activity stopped at the house and began at the radio station where the DJ worked.
- interpretation· 2:19
The caller’s own view is that this was a ghost, attached to a person and moved with him.
- host statement· 2:09
The host says that such a being can be transferred because it takes over a person who brings it to a new place.
- host statement· 2:38
The host says the being was forced out of one place and moved itself.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
A clear firsthand story from the person who worked the shifts, with a concrete building layout, a stated time (about 3:30 a.m.), a stated region, an approximate date, and a coherent sequence that answers the host’s question. Against it, the likeliest ordinary explanations are not addressed: aging electrical and telephone equipment in a broadcast building, and noise from the building or the automation equipment. The central “transferred ghost” element is entirely secondhand and not backed up by anyone else.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand: [quote withheld]
- Concrete detail and sequence: [quote withheld]
- Approximate date and region given: [quote withheld]
- The caller distinguishes their own experience from others’: [quote withheld]
- No ordinary possibilities are considered anywhere in the story. The light and phone events are blamed directly on a ghost.
- Key elements (the ghost’s attachment to the DJ, the house blessing, objects thrown at other DJs) are secondhand and unattributed: [quote withheld]
- The station and all the people involved are left unnamed, so nothing stated can be checked.
- No duration or ending is given for the activity at the station.
- The labels showing who is speaking are unreliable in places (some caller lines are labeled as the host’s), so a few sentences cannot be firmly attributed.
- The line [quote withheld] is incomplete, so part of the caller’s description is missing.
- 0:11
- 0:42
- 1:29
- 2:00
What the model inferred (not said on air): Component scoring (mine, not from the transcript): source proximity 20/25 (firsthand witness for the core events, but several elements are secondhand); specificity 14/20 (detailed layout, time, and sounds, but no names, exact dates, or details that can be checked); internal consistency 15/20 (coherent and responsive to the host, no self-contradiction found); alternative explanations 7/20 (equipment and building-noise explanations fit the reported events well, and the caller does not consider them); calibration 6/15 (they present a ghost as the cause throughout, with only a mild distinction between their own non-violent experience and others’ violent reports).
There is nothing beyond the caller’s word: no names, documents, photographs, recordings, or second witness speaking on air. The station is deliberately left unnamed, so even the location cannot be checked.
Evidence for and against
- The caller’s own word about lights, phones, and footsteps
- A general region and rough date are given: [quote withheld]
- The station is deliberately withheld: [quote withheld]
- No physical evidence of any kind is claimed or described
- Other witnesses (other DJs, the DJ's wife) are only reported, not heard from: [quote withheld]
- Whether any documentation (station logs, later research) exists is not stated
- 0:22
- 2:03
What the model inferred (not said on air): Placed in the 0–10 band (the caller’s word alone) rather than 11–25, because the only details that could be checked, such as the station name, town, dates, and staff, are missing or withheld, and no second witness speaks on air. The cap of 50 for stories with no outside check does not come into play.
The setting does a lot of the work: an overnight shift alone in a broadcast building, a trip to a basement at about 3:30 a.m., and heavy footsteps crossing overhead. The reported escalation elsewhere raises the score: objects thrown at earlier DJs and a wife taking the children and refusing to return. The score is lowered by the lack of any threat to the caller, the lack of graphic description, and the host’s calm wrap-up.
Evidence for and against
- Isolation and time: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- Approach of an unseen source: [quote withheld]
- Reported violence and family disruption elsewhere: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- The caller says the events they themselves experienced were not threatening: [quote withheld]
- The story ends without an ominous incident. The host simply comments and moves to the next caller.
- The tone and staging of the call (candle, open closet) are banter with the host and are not part of the reported events.
- 1:05
- 1:29
- 2:19
What the model inferred (not said on air): Judged as moderately unsettling rather than frightening. The story builds atmosphere through place and timing but has no direct threat, no physical contact with the caller, and no vivid horror.
Individually the elements are common (flickering lights, ringing phones, footsteps, thrown objects, a house blessing). But the setup is distinctive. The events are said to have left a private house the moment a priest blessed it and started up at the workplace of the man the caller says the ghost was attached to. The station also reportedly ran “ghost tours” showing the activity before the caller worked there. The comparison with the rest of the archive is provisional, and the archive weighting is minimal at pilot size.
Evidence for and against
- Transfer: [quote withheld]
- Attachment to a person: [quote withheld]
- Official ghost tours at a workplace: [quote withheld]
- The core events are stock poltergeist items: lights, phones, footsteps, thrown objects
- A house blessing that stops the trouble is a familiar motif in stories of this kind
- Novelty cannot be computed here. The published originality figure will blend this provisional score with how rare its motifs are across the archive.
- 1:47
- 2:33
What the model inferred (not said on air): My originality score is 66: a familiar setup, a haunted workplace, with the distinctive way the ghost is said to attach to a person and move, and the reported workplace ghost tours. No data on similarity to other stories is available in this request.
Scoring confidence 0.70 · analysis confidence 0.75 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand story about lights, phones, and footsteps at the station; Secondhand claims within the call about other DJs (objects thrown) and about the DJ's household (wife leaving, priest blessing the house); No documents, recording, photograph, or on-air second witness. The originality score blends the model's score (66) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- Faulty or aging electrical and telephone equipment in the station could produce lights switching on and off and phones ringing with a dial tone when answered. · The caller reports repeated light switching and phone ringing and dial-tone behavior in a working broadcast building, with automation machines on the floor.
- Noise from the building, machinery, or automation equipment could produce regular heavy thuds heard from below. · The caller describes the sounds as a straight-line sequence passing across the desk area, the stairway, and [quote withheld] a path that matches the equipment and the floor structure.
- Knowing the station’s ghost stories, including the “ghost tours” they attended and earlier DJs’ reports, may have shaped how they read unclear sounds and equipment behavior at night. · The caller says they [quote withheld] and had been on ghost tours at the station before working there, and they describe the activity at the station in the same terms used for the tours.
What stands out
The caller describes the haunting as mobile. They say the activity left a private house right after a priest blessed it and started up at the workplace of the man they say it was attached to. They also describe an unusually open “ghost tour” at the workplace, in which staff reportedly showed visitors the strange events before the caller ever worked there.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.