Coaster Radio: The Original Theme Park Podcast

Theme parks are designed as a place where friends and family can go and have a good time together. They really aren't set up for people to visit alone. For instance, there aren't any one-seater roller coasters out there. Most times if you're by yourself, there's always that huge empty seat next to you. So, while most people would never consider visiting a theme park alone, there are a lot of advan...

We had a topic lined up for this week's show, but a post on the CoasterRadio.com Forums caught our eye. So, we decided to bump our planned show and talk about the debate. One of our listeners was looking into joining ACE, the American Coaster Enthusiasts. While he was reading their code of conduct, he came upon one part of the code that said... "When interacting with the media, members are expecte...

This is the time of year when all of the different Hollywood blockbusters are being honored at the various award ceremonies. What does this have to do with theme parks and roller coasters? Well, many of the best theme park attractions in history have based upon popular films. Back To The Future, Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, Jaws, Star Tours, Kongfrontation, Superman Escape, T...

If you're a weekly listener to this podcast, odds are you're passionate about theme parks. You might be a fan of the roller coasters, the scenery or the general ambiance, but most likely your love of theme parks is a big part of your life. Some people are so passionate that they include a theme park experience as part of their wedding. We've all seen video of people "taking the plunge" on board a...

We get a lot of questions sent our way through e-mail, the forums and the voicemail line. But because our show is set up the way it is, we don't get a chance to answer them as quickly as we'd like. So, every few months we save them all up and answer them in one show. We'll talk about a lot of different things... including Flava's HUGE MISTAKE with an Oscar nominated actress. After the show, join u...

Our review of Final Destination 3.

This is our video preview of Final Destination 3!

Theme parks seem to be a popular place to shoot movies. They're colorful, loud and full of perpetual motion. Roller Coasters, in particular, seem to be something that Hollywood likes to use in its films because of the perceived danger and what seems like out of control speed. We haven't had a major studio thriller based around a roller coaster since the 1977 classic "Rollercoaster" (which we'll ta...

We'll kick off this week's show with a look ahead at some of the upcoming episodes of CoasterRadio.com. In the next few weeks, we'll preview and review the new Final Destination 3 movie, we'll talk with couples who have tied the knot theme park-style, we'll unveil a new contest and we'll finally bring you our commentary on the movie "Roller Coaster". After that, we'll go through some of your e-mai...

Let's face it, one of the worst things about visiting a popular theme park are the long lines. Unless you're lucky enough to be waiting in a well themed queue like the one for Dueling Dragons at Islands of Adventure, you're probably going to be miserable. But one of the newest innovations in the amusement industry has been the how the various theme park chains have introduced ways that guests can...

One of the fun things about having an on-line community of theme park fans around the world is that there is an abundance of information about current parks and attractions. What's even more fun is that there is also a lot of information about proposed parks and attractions that never quite made it to the construction stage. On this week's show, we're going to talk about the rides and attractions...

This week, we bring you a very special podcast as Mike Collins sits by the fire, sipping brandy and smoking a pipe, while he reads passages from the immortal Charles Dickens classic "Great Expectations". Actually, as fun as that sounds, it's not what we're really going to do this week. Instead, each of the CoasterRadio.com guys will pick one thing that we absolutely expect when we visit a theme pa...

We'll kick off this week's show by going through some some of our listeners' picks for the hits and misses of 2005. Then, we'll talk about what could be the New Year's Resolutions of theme parks and amusement parks across the world. After the show, join us in our forums to talk about your opinions. You can also record your thoughts on the CoasterRadio.com Voicemail Line at 206-339-RIDE (206-339-74...

The year 2005 was pretty good for theme parks across the world. We saw the premiere of record breaking attractions, new high tech thrill rides and traditional forms of amusement park entertainment. We'll take a look back at the highs and lows of 2005 with Arthur Levine from about.com. We'll talk about the attractions that were big hits and some of the ones that missed the mark. We'll also preview...

If you've every spent any time watching ESPN, you've probably seen a program called "Pardon The Interruption" (PTI). It's a daily show where Washington Post columnists Tony Kornhsiser and Michael Wilbon debate the the biggest stories in sports for exactly one minute at a time. In these days of short attention spans, it's the perfect format. So, we decided to follow the homage "imitation is the sin...

This year, Hades, the monstrous wooden roller coaster that opened at Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin won the Amusement Today Golden Ticket Award for Best New Ride in 2005. Riders were amazed by it's steep drop (140-feet at a 65-degree angle), two underground tunnels (one of which was the longest underground tunnel on a roller coaster ever), and the extreme 90-degree...

This week, we hit soft-of a milestone and podcast our 30th episode. To help celebrate, we'll play highlights from some of our favorite interviews that we have done over the past seven months. We'll play clips from Disney Imagineers Eric Jacobson and Joe Rohde, Holiday World's Will Koch, Curse of DarKastle designer Brent Young, travel author Kelly Monoghan, backyard coaster designer Jeremy Reid and...

In America, the day after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the year. Everyone crowds into the shopping malls and collectively spend billions of dollars on holiday gifts. If you listen to this show on a regular basis, odds are you're interested in buying presents for theme park and roller coaster enthusiasts. You might be looking to buy for family and friends or maybe, you're interested...

It's the week of Thanksgiving here in the United States. For most people, that means stuffing themselves full of turkey and then passing out while watching NFL football. We decided to celebrate the holiday in a different way. We asked out listeners to let us know what they are thankful for within the theme park industry. We received a lot of interesting responses and we'll share some of them with...

If you're a theme park enthusiast, you've probably had a dream of building and owning your own theme park. But odds are, unless you're very well connected or a multi-millionaire, you'll never get to see your dream come true. If that isn't discouraging enough, most people would probably tell you that your dream was crazy anyway. Heck, people even told Walt Disney that his plans for a new type of am...

There really aren't many rides or attractions that theme park fans won't try at least once. But there are a few rides out there that even the most hardcore enthusiasts think twice about before riding. Some people won't ride certain types of freefall rides while others won't ride attractions that spin you in circles. Some people won't ride skycoasters and some people could never bring themselves to...

All month long, we've been on-location at different theme parks celebrating Halloween. Now that it's finally here, we'll spend this week's show talking about your favorite haunted, spooky or scary themed attractions. We'll talk about attractions like The Haunted Mansion, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, The Exterminator, Revenge of the Mummy, The Beast, The Freezer, Burg Falkenstein and more. We're...

This week, we're on-location from Fear Fest at Paramount's Kings Dominion. It's the 3rd stop on our month-long CoasterRadio.com Halloween Terror Tour. Since Paramount is a movie company, Kings Dominion uses film-like storytelling to create their haunted mazes and attractions. When the sun goes down, they specialize in delivering intense environments that make you scream as much as they make you la...

This week, we're on-location from Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. During the show, we'll talk with park guests and preview the scare zones and spooky attractions at this annual Halloween event.

This week, we had originally planned to bring you an on-location show from Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. It was going to be the first broadcast in our month long CoasterRadio.com Halloween Terror Tour. But it was raining so hard on Saturday that we and Busch Gardens decided it was best for the show (and our equipment) to postpone until next week. But luckily, Kevin and Beth (our cor...