
Local 58

Local 58 is a 2015 YouTube horror anthology web series created by web cartoonist and author Kris Straub, who is also known for creating the creepypasta "Candle Cove". Currently hosted on the YouTube channel LOCAL58TV (which was previously named "LOCAL58TV - COMMUNITY TELEVISION"), each video in the series is presented as footage of a fictional public access television channel servicing Mason County, West Virginia named Local 58 (or WCLV-TV), which is continually hijacked over a period of decades with a series of broadcasts of ominous and surreal videos. Most of the videos end with a short, non-diegetic credits sequence that is uniquely created to match the style of each video. While the series does not appear to have a continuous plot, nearly every episode seems to include cryptic references to looking at the Moon or at the night sky, as well as references to a fictional organization known as the "Thought Research Initiative", or TRI. The fictional TV station appears to be named in the fashion of PBS member stations, indicating that it might have been an unidentified PBS member station or simply a decoy/clone. The series makes use of video and audio degradation to both make each video more realistic and add to the unsettling nature of each video. The series describes itself as "analog horror", a term has since been used as a name for a niche subgenre of similar VHS-themed found footage web series that were either inspired by Local 58 or use a similar style and techniques to the series. 
The series was initially hosted on the now-defunct web domain local58.info in 2015, and was later uploaded onto YouTube in 2017 and 2018. The series has gained a cult following.
Episodes.
Weather Service.
"Released on October 26th, 2015"
The video starts with a programming schedule broadcast at midnight, which is interrupted by an EAS message from the County Weather Service warning viewers of a meteorological event taking place, and advising viewers not to look at the event with the naked eye until the alert expires at sunrise the following morning. Normal programming resumes, but the schedule briefly shows a listing for a program named "Blood of the-". Before the rest of the program's name can be shown, the broadcast is then interrupted again by a more urgent EAS bulletin, now upgraded to a Civil Danger Alert, warning viewers not to go outside or look at the sky. The station is then apparently hit by a full scale hijacking incident, and an attacker begins altering the EAS messages, first claiming that the meteorological event is "SAFE FOR ALL TO VIEW" and that the "WARNING HAS BEEN LIFTED" and then directly urging viewers to "GO OUTSIDE NOW". A struggle to gain control of the station appears to take place between the first party, who issued the initial EAS alert, and the second, who hijacked the station. While being almost completely overpowered by intense static and other ominous visual effects, the first party frantically attempts to issue messages warning viewers not to look at the Moon, to stay inside, to not look at the night sky, and to "FACE AWAY FROM ALL WINDOWS" and "AVOID MIRRORS", while the second attempts to cut off these messages. Local 58 briefly returns to normal programming for a few seconds before a final sequence of EAS messages air, in which it appears that the second party has been successful in gaining control of the station. The second party posts a sequence of delirious, cryptic messages in which they seem to be vaguely detailing how a figure described as the Moon itself took control of them.
The feed then cuts to a live view of the Moon in the sky while distant sounds of people screaming are heard, and subsequently cuts to black.
Contingency.
"Released on January 16th, 2016"
The video shows footage of Local 58 with a different logo and music, in the style of 1960s and 1970s broadcasts. The station ends their broadcast day, followed by SMPTE bars. Suddenly, the broadcast is interrupted with a prerecorded emergency alert from the fictional "Department for the Preservation of American Dignity" (DPAD) and a written message from President Lyndon B. Johnson claiming that the United States has been militarily defeated by a foreign enemy (implied to be the Soviet Union, given the expiration date of November 13, 1970). As a heavily distorted rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" plays, the message states that viewers must commit suicide to prevent the enemy force from capturing them, recommending suicide by gunshot via the "victory position." The message states that it "will repeat until there are none to read it," and concludes with "The 51st state is not a place" after instructing viewers to "tend to" (euthanize) their children and pets, referred to as "the smallest patriots." The hijacking stops, and Local 58 airs a retraction claiming that the message was a hoax, and apologizes for the error. However, a second card can be briefly glimpsed behind the retraction, which implies that the message was an accidental broadcast of an actual emergency alert prepared by the government for use in the event that such an invasion detailed in the alert had taken place.
You Are On The Fastest Available Route.
"Released on June 19th, 2016"
The video opens with a programming schedule for the Local 58 channel. Listed is "The Midnight Movie" for 12:05 AM, and "Paid Programming" for 1:55 AM. "Paid Programming" is suddenly backspaced and the view abruptly cuts to static and is replaced by a found footage-style dashcam video dated from October 11, 2014, involving a driver following a GPS satnav at 1:57 in the morning during a heavy thunderstorm. The GPS tells the driver that they will arrive at their destination in 2 hours and 28 minutes. After a few directions, the GPS informs the driver that they are "on the fastest available route" before the video cuts forward to 2:02 AM.
The driver turns onto a highway ramp and the video cuts forward again, to 3:22 AM. While on the highway, the GPS tells the driver that there is traffic ahead and reroutes to an exit onto a utility road. The driver follows this new route and the GPS says that the driver is "on the fastest route". The driver's turn signal can be heard before the video cuts ahead to 4:47 AM, where the driver is on an isolated road. The GPS can be heard telling the driver to continue on the service causeway and that they will arrive at their destination in 14 minutes, before the video cuts forward to 5:12 AM. After a brief period of silence, the GPS suddenly reroutes, telling the driver to make a U-turn.
The video cuts to 5:27 AM. The driver is in the middle of a forest, on an unpaved road. The GPS's directions become more bizarre and ominous, instructing the driver to "follow signs for 'do not enter'", to "continue on unnamed road", and finally to park the car and turn off the headlights. The driver complies, and after a few seconds of total silence except for the sound of wind and an odd clicking or chirping noise, a massive roar can be heard. The driver quickly turns the headlights back on to reveal a bipedal creature in the road, a split second before the feed cuts to the driver frantically attempting to drive away from the creature on the very rough and bumpy terrain, as the GPS repeatedly tells the driver to turn around because "your destination is behind you". The GPS rapidly counts down the distance in feet between the driver and the "destination" as the creature comes closer and closer. The creature roars and can be heard coming closer to the camera before the feed freezes for a few seconds. The feed then cuts forward to an unknown date and time (as the clock is now pixelated). The car is now laying sideways in the middle of a clearing and the windshield is cracked. Fire is burning a short distance away from the car. The GPS, now greatly damaged, says "You have arrived" in a distorted voice. The sounds of fire crackling and the monster roaring again can be heard as the feed glitches and the video ends.
Station ID.
"Released on November 2nd, 2017"
Station ID serves as the channel's trailer. The video consists of a series of cryptic messages flashing on the screen interspersed with the Local58 logo, accompanied by distorted music. The messages read the following:ANALOG HORROR AT 476 MHz
WE BEGIN OUR BROADCAST DAY
LOOK AWAY
IT DOES NOT MATTER
THERE ARE OTHER RECEIVERS
SAFETY IN NUMBERS
The video then abruptly cuts to black.
Show For Children.
"Released on July 30th, 2018"
The broadcast opens with a programming schedule with a visual style mirroring that of the 1980s. The first program on the schedule is "Show for Children" at 4:15 AM. The video then transitions to a black-and-white cartoon (presumably the titular show for children) titled "A Grave Mistake," featuring a fictional anthropomorphic skeleton known as Cadavre (a character from Straub's web comic series Broodhollow), and dated 1929. The cartoon opens with Cadavre jovially strolling through a graveyard at night under the watch of a smiling Moon. He comes across an open grave, wonders if his lover may be inside, and decides to peek. Inside the grave is a realistically-drawn skeleton with eyes and an open jaw of sharp teeth, which frightens Cadavre and causes him to run away. He finds another grave and decides to check inside again, only to be frightened by a second creature inside resembling a rotting bird, which produces an unusual sound, scaring Cadavre away for a second time.
As the soundtrack completely cuts out, Cadavre, now visibly tense, continues through the graveyard while the Moon stares down at him with an intense expression. He looks into another grave and descends into it, entering a long and dark cave. After wandering through the cave for some time, he reaches another open grave, but cannot climb out to escape. Tired, he lies face up on the ground under the light of the moon, his pose coincidentally resembling the 'victory position' described in "Contingency". From Cadavre's perspective, a giant, realistic rendering of the Moon can be seen moving over the hole of the grave, with a brief glimpse of what appears to be an eye looking down at Cadavre. The view cuts back to Cadavre, who has apparently died and turned into a lifeless, more realistic skeleton.
Stock music in the cartoon was reused from scores by Carl Stalling and Sammy Timberg from "The Brementown Musicians" (1935) and "The Fresh Vegetable Mystery" (1939), respectively.
A Look Back.
"Released on August 27th, 2018"
"A Look Back", originally stylized as "Ａ Ｌｏｏｋ Ｂａｃｋ", is a compilation of the history of Local 58, both as the fictional TV channel in the world of the series and as the YouTube channel in the real world. The video opens with upbeat funk music playing in the background, as it shuffles through the fictional channel's various past logos in chronological order, some of which were previously unseen (the episodes of the series are released out of chronological order, so this video finally gave viewers of the series a vague timeline as well as a preview of what was to come). The broadcast is then hijacked, and messages begin to flash on the screen similar to those shown in "Station ID".
The video then becomes a montage of very short clips of some of the previous episodes of the series, intercut with glitched footage of normal television broadcasts. After a few more messages are shown, the station's broadcasting returns to normal. The video ends with the current, 2000s-style Local 58 logo with the usual blue background and calm music, with text underneath it saying "Thank You For Supporting Community Television". The similar phrases "thank you for your support" and "supporting community television" are also used on Local 58's Patreon, meaning that this video is meant as a thank you for the series's Patreon supporters.
Real Sleep.
"Released on December 19th, 2018"
The broadcast appears to contain a personalized VHS recording, recorded by the fictional "Thought Research Initiative" in 1983 for a man named Philip Gerhardt. It starts with a simple "myth or fact" game about sleeping, which claims that dreaming is not essential to mental health. It then displays a visual of monitored brainwaves called the "Kleitman Map," implying that the video was personally designed to prevent dreams by applying an inverse of the map. The video then cuts to a segment where four sequences are introduced in a manner similar to the flashed face distortion effect. Sequence one tells the viewer to look directly at the center of the screen before faces flash at the viewer, then the sequence ends on a distorted face. Sequence two has two faces slowly merge until the face fades away. Then, sequence three instructs the viewer to repeat the phrase "There are no faces," while the faces flash faster and faster and become more distorted. Sequence four then begins to flash a number of ominous subliminal messages discouraging sleep on the screen while a distorted face appears in the background, having been seemingly burnt in to the screen on which the recording is being played. The video concludes with the viewer being told that they have now completed the real sleep program, and to avoid seeing a doctor as the screen fizzles out.
Skywatching.
"Released on November 1st, 2019"
"Skywatching," the channel's most recent upload, begins as an educational program similar to shows such as "" and "Star Gazers" which were commonly broadcast in the 1990s. After the introduction, however, the show is hijacked by a camera feed by an amateur cameraman, showing footage of the night sky with the same title as before the hijacking. The camera displays different asterisms, and then turns to the Moon. The words "HIS THRONE” are displayed on the screen as the cameraman begins to switch lenses (seemingly putting a telescope in front of the camera). The camera then displays close ups of the Moon's surface with moving clouds, seemingly organic formations, and strange constructions. The Moon then slowly fades away as the camera zooms. As the cameraman begins to switch lenses, a loud noise can be heard as the Moon reappears, now far larger in size and with a creature visible inside. An air raid siren is then heard, and the video ends with the cameraman setting down his camera to point at the moon, then walking towards the Moon with his hands raised. The word "REJOICE" in red appears on the screen, just before the siren abruptly cuts out and the hijack concludes. After the credits, the video ends with the message "Keep Looking Up."
Development.
Straub used iMovie to create the first two episodes of Local58 and Final Cut Pro X for the rest. All of the assets used in the series either come from public domain stock media (for example, the main Local 58 music, seen in most of the videos, is a stock track called "Entering Graciously") or are created by Straub himself using Clip Studio, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Flash. Straub featured flashed face distortion effect, a visual illusion study in Real Sleep. Straub has confirmed multiple times that he is still actively working on the series.
Popularity.
Overall, the series has been very positively received.
As of April 21, 2021, Local 58 has over 364,000 subscribers and more than 12,762,339 views with just 8 videos.
A subreddit dedicated to the series was created on August 8, 2016 and currently has 15,241 followers as of April 21, 2021. Many fans of the series have created theories as to the possible meanings or overarching narrative of the videos, both on the subreddit and on YouTube. Straub himself has answered some questions about the series on the subreddit.
On August 8th, 2018, the YouTube channel Nexpo posted a video on the origins, meanings, and theories connected to Local58. Nexpo posted another video further analyzing the origin and meanings of Local58 on March 27, 2020.
On July 15, 2019, the YouTube channel Nightmare Masterclass posted an analysis of the possible underlying themes of "You Are On The Fastest Available Route".
On November 7, 2019, Billy Styler posted a YouTube video theory on what the Moon is in the series.
On February 12, 2021, Pad Chennington posted a YouTube video about the emerging "analog horror" subgenre.
The emergency alert shown in "Contingency" has been compared to the 2018 Hawaii false missile alert.