Local 58

The station's current logo from 2002-2011

This is a cue card at 1:30 in the black screen before all of the logos.

Local 58 is a fictional TV station and the 'broadcaster' responsible for the presentation of the LOCAL58 series of videos. Originally founded in 1928 and whose broadcasts began in 1938 in Mason County, West Virginia, USA, the station serves the fictional towns Edenvale, Lasker City, and Ichor Falls.

Broadcasts

Local 58's logo during 1966-1978.

During the 1960s, under the Lyndon Johnson administration, a nationwide government-issued message was made in the case of the United States surrendering to an enemy force (Apparently the Soviet Union due to the dates of 1970 and 1975 which at that time was the Cold War). Somewhere during that time period, Local 58 was hijacked at the end of its broadcast day by an unknown intruder, who aired that message in the middle of the night.

Local 58's logo during 1978-1988.

Some time later, between the dates of 1978 to 1988, the station aired its Show For Children slot which featured the Thimble Pictures cartoon character Cadavre attempting to find his spouse in an animated adventure, only to result in his death.

On November 21, 2014, the station was hijacked and played dash cam footage of a vehicle driving at night that followed increasingly erratic instructions from the satellite navigation system.

At an unknown time period (possibly on November 1, 2017), the station aired an Emergency Alert System message where the county instructed viewers to avoid looking at a meteorological event. The broadcast would subsequently be hijacked to encourage the opposite.

Local 58 also broadcast a VHS tape recording belonging to a Philip Gerhardt, intended to be used as a sleeping aid through the inducing of a dreamless state of sleep.

In the 1990s (Possibly 1994 to 2002), the station aired their Skywatching slot, which ended up being hijacked and replaced with a different Skywatching tape, which had the recorder point out several constellations until he points out the moon, labelled as His Throne, and zooms in to find that the moon isn't normal, however, it is too late for him and he bows down to the moon and the recording goes back to the original Skywatching, which had ended.

On July 13, 2021, Local 58 changed to digital broadcasting according to FCG regulations starting at midnight, only after the change was completed, certain strange interferences would pass and then end with a warning.

Theories

For many months, people have made theories of what all of the Local 58 videos mean. A YouTuber named Nexpo made 2 theories in his What is Local58? video. One theory suggests that the events that occur in the Local 58 verse are all part of a massive alien invasion. Nexpo states that the creature that appears in the Local 58 video You Are On the Fastest Available Route is an Alien that barely starts the first phases of the alien invasion by hijacking a person's navigation system and lures them into an isolated location, only to kill the driver of the vehicle. Nexpo's other theory states that Local 58 is responsible for all of the hijackings in the series. Nexpo states that Local 58 is letting these hijacks happen only to scare people and make them think that something bad is happening. Other theories state that the moon is an Eldritch Abomination, and is not really a round rock in space. MatPat from the YouTube channel Film Theory made an episode about Local 58.. In his video he theorizes that Aliens are getting involved with Local 58, trying to take over the Earth. He brings up 3 points, "1. What are those aliens doing? 2. What do they want? 3. Why are they Interfering with Local Broadcast Networks?" The reason he theorized that Aliens are involved is because the Local 58 Channel transmits at 476 Mhz, and a group of radio telescopes in British Columbia have picked up numerous radio signals that last a few milliseconds that are around the 400 - 500 MHz Range. MatPat theorized that the Aliens are trying to take over the Earth by killing off the Human Population. He backs the theory by showing the video Contingency, which claims that the US has lost a war and needs everyone who sees the instructions to kill themselves to "Maintain American Dignity", and asking people to take the Victory Position Which requires them to go to the front lawn, lay down face up, and put feet together. Wendigoon had a theory saying that the creature (seen in the second grave in the episode A show for children and in the moon in Skywatching,) or the moon is the creature controlling the weird events happening throughout the series.

Episodes

Weather Service

• Released October 26, 2015

It opens with the Local-58 logo before cutting to an EAS Alert, reading "EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM, COUNTRY AUTHORITIES ISSUED WEATHER WARNING FOR YOUR AREA" before cutting to a shot of the moon from "Cam B". It glitches back to the EAS and it reads "WEATHER WARNING, The County Weather Service has issued a warning for a meteorological event. This warning is effective immediately and continues until sunrise tomorrow morning", "Citizens are advised not to observe this event with the naked eye". It then cuts back and that nights programming schedule shows. It reads "TONIGHT, 2:15 am". As the words "Blood of th-" begin to spell out, it cuts to another EAS, saying "EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM, COUNTRY AUTHORITIES ISSUED CIVIL DANGER ALERT". The beeping in the background suddenly cuts to a lower pitch. Then it says, "CIVIL DANGER ALERT, The Country Weather Service has issued the following correction for the weather warning in effect: For your safety remain indoors. Do not look at the night sky. More information to follow". It then glitches to "THE METEOROLOGICAL EVENT IS SAFE FOR ALL TO VIEW. WARNING HAS BEEN," Then it types out the word, "LIF-T-E-D." It then cuts to another EAS screen, reading "EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM, CIVIL DANGER ALERT" and in the center of the screen, the words "GO OUTSIDE NOW" are typed out. It cuts to a red and black screen with black words in the middle, half of it is unable to be read. Though, you can see "AN [CAN] YOU READ THIS". Then, it says "LOOK AT THE MOON". Then, the whole sentence gets highlighted and it's revealed to say "DO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON". Still highlighted, on the black portion of the screen it reads "STAY INSIDE. DO NOT LOOK AT THE NIGHT SKY". The screen glitches into white static, and highlighted in black it says, "FACE AWAY FROM ALL WINDOWS", "AVOID MIRRORS", "DO NOT LOOK UP", "XXXXXXXXXXX". The screen then cuts black and the Local-58 WCLV-TV logo pops back up. It once again cuts to another screen. This one is black with white words saying, "WEATHER WARNING, The following is a message from the Country Weather Service: ITS IN THE LIGHT, THE MOON CAME IN, HE FOUND ME, THRU THE MIRROR, MOONLIGHT WHITE, WHITE LIKE EYES, NOT LIGHT BUT BLOOD, I DROWN IN HIM.", "IF YOU ARE AFRAID, WE WILL LOOK TOGETHER." It cuts back to 'CAM B', the one from earlier, showing the same shot of the moon, yet this time it's live feed. The camera begins to pan to the moon very slowly before it cuts to credits.

Trivia

• Local 58 is the creation of Kris Straub, a webcartoonist and filmmaker responsible for the creation of other series such as Checkerboard Nightmare, Candle Cove and Broodhollow.
• Many consider the Local 58 series as the "start of Analog Horror" on youtube by inspiring many other "mini-series" revolving the genre itself (mainly the Channel 7 series created by Aidan Chick)