Note:  You can listen to all the Para X shows including my Paranormal News at www.para-x.com   and www.psychiconair.com

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/1251678,paranormal-ghost-vampire-ufo103008.article

Who ya gonna call? Brothers host hit paranormal radio show from Kentucky

GEORGETOWN, Ky. - Para X Radio started with just two shows and four people: a couple in Texas and the Jones brothers in Kentucky. ‘‘They’d listen to us; we’d listen to them,’’ says Tom Jones, who formed the network with his brother, Dave, to share podcasts of their paranormal investigations.

A year later, Para X, an online radio network, boasts 30 live shows a week, hosted by dozens of different presenters, and more than a million visitors. The podcasts have become shows with guests and topics, some of which now air on CBS Radio and as well as Para X.

‘‘It just mushroomed; boom; took on quick,’’ says Tom Jones, the younger of the brothers and the tech expert.

In the beginning, says Dave Jones, guests would say, ‘‘I’ve never heard of you’’ or simply would not reply to the brothers’ requests to be on the show.

‘‘But as it got more popular, we would call or write them and they would almost instantaneously call or write back,’’ he adds.

That’s when the brothers realized they were on to something. Their first big-name guest, the one that almost brought Tom tumbling from his chair when he said yes, was Barry FitzGerald, a ghost hunter on the Sci-Fi cable TV show ‘‘Ghost Hunters International.’’

Others have included Stanton Friedman, considered by some to be the definitive expert on UFO research, and Patrick Burns from the truTV cable show ‘‘Haunting Evidence.’’

Those are the ‘‘stars,’’ says Dave. He goes on to list other guests featured on the show: ‘‘exorcists, ghost hunters ...’’ ‘‘... researchers, skeptics, you name it,’’ chimes in Tom.

A retired deputy sheriff, Tom, 45, works as a police officer. He says he didn’t give the paranormal a second thought until an apparition was spotted in a photo taken at his wedding to his wife, Bobbie, almost two years ago.

The image intrigued Tom, and soon he and Dave were checking out other haunted spots and posting their images and videos online.

The podcasts were a way to explain what they had seen. The network grew from that.

Now they spend ‘‘every spare minute’’ on the network, says Dave, a 52-year-old retired civil engineer.

Tom has been fooling around with computers since the mid-’80s. In his home office he has a sound board, headset and laptop and desktop computers. It is from here that he co-hosts the Kentucky Area Paranormal Society’s ‘‘Paranormal Radio with Dave and Tom’’ every Sunday night.

Dave participates from his home in London, KY. The brothers message each other during the show. They also message CBS Radio in Detroit and listeners online. Sometimes, but not often, a message goes to the wrong person.

‘‘I think, personally, that there is a spirit world out there,’’ says Dave.

‘‘I do too,’’ adds Tom.

‘‘How that is made up and what constitutes it, I don’t know,’’ continues Dave. ‘‘I just know there’s something that’s unexplained there. ...’’

Like the voice they say they heard in recordings they took at an old tuberculosis hospital, or the spooky image they say they saw in a photo of a long, dark hallway. Then there are the voices that made it on the show.

Listeners heard a female voice humming during a presentation that involved no females, the brothers say, and a host heard a voice say, ‘‘Dave is not here,’’ on a show that did not feature Dave.

Unfortunately, says Dave, ‘‘Ghosts don’t stick around long enough’’ to be on the show.

But vampires are a definite possibility. Dave is trying to get a member of a practicing vampire group as a guest. They don’t bite people, he assures, but he believes they do drink blood.

Another possible guest is a man researching the alleged Ohio Grassman - a Bigfoot type creature.

It is the caliber of guests, and the banter between the brothers, that attract listeners, said Marla Brooks, author of the ‘‘Ghosts of Hollywood’’ book series.

‘‘It’s an intelligent show,’’ says Brooks, who is based in Hollywood, Calif., and hosts her own show, ‘‘Stirring the Cauldron,’’ on Para X.

The diversity extends to listeners as well.

‘‘I think we got hits in Pakistan, in Russia, China,’’ says Dave. ‘‘The Middle East,’’ continues Tom.

‘‘Iran ...’’

And that is just on their network.

In September, Dave and Tom were picked up by CBS Radio and now can be heard on AOL, through which CBS broadcasts, as well as on over-the-airwaves radio in Detroit, explains LisaRodman, program coordinator for CBS Radio and Psychic Radio.

‘‘We just loved the programming aspect of the show,’’ says Rodman.

Paranormal radio shows work, she says, because unlike television, radio is a true one-on-one connection in which ‘‘anybody and everybody can pick up the phone and call and be part of.’’ There are plenty of shows out there, but the Jones brothers’ integrity, heart and passion for paranormal investigations and truth set them apart, she says.