Local 58

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The station's current logo

Local 58 WCLV-TV is a fictional TV station and is the in-universe source of the LOCAL58 YouTube series. Originally founded in 1939 and broadcasting since 1938 in Mason County, West Virginia, USA, the station serves the fictional towns of Edenvale, Lasker City, and Ichor Falls.

Previous Logo

Broadcasts

Contingency

Local 58's logo during 1966-1978.

Under the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, a nationwide government-issued message was made in the case of the United States surrendering to an “insurmountable” enemy force, the most likely force being the looming Soviet Union in which the U.S. was locked in Cold War with. Sometime during that time period, Local 58 was hijacked at the end of its broadcast day by an unknown intruder, who aired the message at the end of their broadcast day, 3:00 A.M.

Show for Children

Local 58's logo during 1978-1988.

Between 1978 to 1988, the station aired its Show For Children slot which featured the Thimble Pictures cartoon character Cadavre, one episode of which showed him attempting to find his spouse in an animated adventure, only to result in his death.

Skywatching

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. He zooms in, revealing that the moon isn't normal and in fact seems to have organic material and a large arrow on it. The moon eventually disappears before reappearing closer to Earth with its bottom half damaged, revealing a large skeleton. The cameraman worships the creature as the word “REJOICE” is shown on-screen before the recording goes back to the original Skywatching, which had ended.

You Are On The Fastest Available Route

The station was hijacked once again and played dashcam footage dated November 21st, 2014 of a vehicle at night in which an unnamed driver follows increasingly erratic and nonsensical instructions from their GPS, leading to the said driver’s death.

Weather Service

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 with the naked eye. The broadcast would subsequently be hijacked to encourage the opposite.

Real Sleep

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

Digital Transition

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.

Night Walk

Some time after Digital Transition and CLOSE, the channel aired a segment of Night Walk, a 1977 mystery show, discussing a local Mason County legend called the "Woman in Profile".

NSSA-3 (atypical)

A garbled glitchy mess with the 2000s Local 58 logo, this video has not been pinpointed nor decoded. (this video is connected to the Local 58 website)

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. However on November 17, 2024, Film Theory made a third episode about the Local 58 theory (hosted by Forrest Lee). In this episode, Lee concluded that all of Kris Straub's works—Ichor Falls, Candle Cove, and Local 58—are connected (as the call sign, WCLV-TV, is a reference to Candle Cove; "CandLe CoVe") and theorized that all the paranormal events happening in the series are because of a crossover with an alternate dimension, like the Hirsch Camera taking pictures of it. He also theorized that the creatures are from the alternate dimension and have the ability to travel between other dimensions, as he explained that the Woman in Profile creature always returns to "its own dimension" when "fading into the shadows"; Straub insisted that the creatures aren't aliens at all.

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.

TV Programming in Local 58

• Still Life (A Look Back and (possibly) Digital Transition).
• Public Eye (Weather Service and A Look Back).
• Skywatching (Skywatching).
• City Countil Minutes / City Countil Meeting (Skywatching and Weather Service).
• Night Walk (Night Walk).

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).
• By coincidence, Ichor falls is a real city in Vinton, Ohio, with about 8000 inhabitants.

External Links

Local58.tv (the website which accompanies the series and doubles as an ARG) (Wiki page for the website)

References/Placement in other media.

Candle Cove (the station the show aired on *non cannon?*). Prismatic TV (Local 58 gets hijacked by "the mutated?" *non cannon to Local 58*)