Back in 1963 a NYC actor named Adam Keefe began hosting late night movies following the news on the ABC affiliate in Buffalo, NY. At the time these types of programs were popular in many cities throughout the nation.
LA had Vampira, Chicago had Marvins Shock Theatre, Cleveland had Ghoulardi, NYC and Philly had Zacherley and dozens more throughout the nation. All had similar programming that centered around a “character host” screening horror films.
But by the end of the 80's, cable TV and the infomercial had pretty much closed the lid on that casket so to speak. But the hosted movie concept wasn’t quite dead yet.
In 1989, the USA network began showing a series called Up All Night hosted by comic Gilbert Gottfried. Rather than simply screening horror and monster films, Up All Night programming consisted primarily of low budget films and pre-produced comedy skits featuring the shows hosts which later included comics Caroline Schlitt and Rhonda Shear. But again advances in technology and network decisions ended the late night airings of cult classics and B-movies in 1998.
Luckily time stood still at Transistor TV. Now staying up til the wee hours to watch offbeat films or dig cool video has gone the way of the dial up modem. Although the past is celebrated on this wavelength, it's modern technology that has allowed time to stand still. No longer do you need to wait until the end of the week to dig a classic film or the beginning of the day to see cool a cartoon. Inside TransistorTV.com it’s always either late night or Saturday morning.