Satellite Radio Gets Into the Halloween Spirit

As a proud XM subscriber, I'll try not to be too biased here... hell, who am I kidding? Both companies are the same thing these days, and that's only going to be more and more the case over time. But in any event, Sirius XM (boy, am I having trouble getting my head around that one) is offering a whole bunch of very cool satellite programming to help you get in the right spooky state of mind.

For example, starting Sunday, Sirius serves up Scream 113, and XM offers Gore 134. Both will be "uninterrupted channels devoted to all things Halloween." That means Halloween-themed interviews and features, and on Halloween itself, 24 hours of creepy sound effects perfect for parties or trick-or-treating. Kind of like those cassettes and CDs that are always for sale at discount stores around this time of year.

Perhaps most interestingly of all, Sirius channel 119 becomes Alfred Hitchcock Radio starting Wednesday, hosted by Hitch's granddaughter Mary Stone. It will play vintage radio dramatizations of the director's classic films, including The Birds starring Herbert Marshall and Suspicion starring Cary Grant.

Sirius 118, already a Radio Classics channel, will present the Halloween Spooktacular, boasting some of horror's all-time legends in gripping old-time radio dramas. This includes the likes of Orson Welles' Mercury production of Dracula, Boris Karloff in the Inner Sanctum Mysteries and Peter Lorre in Mystery in the Air. And of course, you better believe they'll be broadcasting Welles' 1938 War of the Worlds on Halloween, 70 years to the day from its original broadcast.

Fan-favorite XM channel Cinemagic will be turned over completely to horror movie clips and music starting tonight, so you can tune in right now. And there's plenty of other stuff going on, too: XM Kids gets into the act with "trick-or-treating music" all afternoon and night on Halloween; even XM's Hair Nation poser metal channel will be cranking out cheesy horror-themed rockers on Halloween and beyond.

But, as Ron Popeil said, that's not all. There's even more stuff going on, and it's all included on the official press release, which you can read here.

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The Vault of Horror continues to spread its icy tentacles across the cultural landscape, dear readers, and in the latest example, I'd like to direct your attention to my Barnes and Noble's Quamut.com, where you'll find my Halloween viewing guide to great, underrated horror flicks. It's called "How to Scare Yourself Silly", and just keep in mind that it's written for a mainstream readership--meaning not a bunch of depraved horror lunatics like all of you. So for all you cool people, many of these titles may be old hat. But hey, it helps me get credit among the "normals". So check it out.