A wave of change has been sweeping across Coast to Coast.

Starting with founder Art Bell's latest retirement, a series of rapid fire events has turned the world of late night paranormal radio on its ass. Coast to Coast Live? Boom! Dead. Now Ian is taking over the normal Saturday night show. Meanwhile, we're getting Noory another day each month. But the most shocking development in the past few days was the surprise announcement that the CoasttoCoastAM.com 'Coast Riders' message board would be closing to make way for a weekly newsletter.

The starting place for my writing career as well a second home of sorts for the past couple years, the death of the Coast Rider board has hit a soft spot in my heart. Like watching your birthplace get demolished, it feels like we've lost a piece of esoteric history.

This one's for you Coast Riders. A special dedication to one special message board.

Alright, now before I cross some geeky line by shedding a tear for a web forum, let me get everyone out of the loop caught up. If you've failed to do so already (for shame), my main-man Binnall has already written up a touching and extremely detailed synopsis of the whole ordeal in his latest Binnall Report. So without retreading ground that I know I wouldn't be able to cover nearly as completely, let me just say that the announcement took me by surprise. Granted, I don't lurk there as much as I used to, but, as I said above, the Coast Riders will always have a special place in my heart.

Ah yes, I can remember it like it was yesterday...

After receiving a subscription to Streamlink as a birthday gift from my brother, I first made my way to the super-secret, members only forum for Coast to Coast AM fans. Such good times, then. George Noory was still fresh as the 'new guy' and many a discussion was to be had about EVPs and shadow people. And before long, I had made good friends with my fellow esoteric fans, chief among them some dude named 'binnall'. Fast forward a few forum games, movie reviews, and weekly columns later and here I am--sitting in a comfortable Wednesday slot in the hot-hot BinnallofAmerica.com empire. If it weren't for that forum, I'd probably be some college punk who likes UFOs and plays way too many video games. But now I'm some college punk who like UFOs and plays too many video games and gets to write about them each week.

But they were not all happy times. Like any good home, there was turbulence as well. Starting with administrator Lex Lonehood giving Binnall, myself, and a few others the opportunity to moderate a select group of forums, a few of the members decided to protest the slippery slope of censorship moderators would create. As the months passed and none of us did anything but trim a few old posts (usually made by ourselves) and create a couple of sticky topics, the moderator controversy diminished. But, as would become apparent, the will to resist censorship was merely dormant.

In recent months, brought on by a rising movement of criticism directed towards host George Noory, the Coast Riders were definitely not silent when it came to voicing their opinions. But after several of these posts were deleted, the forum was in a near revolt. They were a troublesome couple of weeks, I'm not going to lie. I chose to stay out of it--as I generally don't get too worked up over radio hosts--but I did my fair share of lurking, trying to understand the outrage many were feeling.

By the time you all are getting the chance to read this, the forum will be in its last precious hours of life. I mourn this loss as much as the rest, but I find solace in the fact that there is life after Coast Riders. To all of my friends and comrades still unsure about where to go from here, I would like to formally invite you to Tim Binnall's TheUSofE.com forum. You'll find many 'Riders have already made the leap and are contributing a great deal to our community there. To these new members, I'd like to once again welcome you all.

And then finally, I would like to thank our Coast Rider admin Lex Lonehood. It's been a wild couple of years, and I appreciate your dedication to making sure the boards where updated on time and running smooth. I shudder to think what my life would be like without your support and the Coast Rider forum, and for that I am grateful. I would also like to say that I eagerly await what you've got planned for the weekly recap newsletter. Not all change is bad.

RIP Coast Riders - July 12, 2007