The Toronto Star,

Saturday, January 16, 1999

by Peter Goddard

Section M - Page 10

The nitty gritty of Rob McConnell's philosophy is this:

Okay, weirdo. You just park that mutant alien life form and leave it exactly where you found it - in Tonawanda. And keep it there. We don't allow paranormal trash like that in Canada.

In case you're musically minded, this isn't Rob McConnell - trombonist, funny guy and big boss of the Boss Brass.

This is the other Rob McConnell, psychic-debunker and host of The ``X'' Zone Radio Show, on Friday through Sunday nights to 1 a.m. on CKTB (610-AM) talk radio in St. Catharines.

And this McConnell is leading a cross-border psychic war to shut out what he sees as a wave of conspiracy theories flooding American radio most nights - a whole lot of new-age, holy-rolling Yankee paranormal weirdness coming our way.

``I get people all the time who come up with new conspiracy theories,'' says McConnell, 46, an ex-Montreal cop and one-time bartender, fruit-picker and short-order cook.

``Conspiracy theories end at the border, I say. We're Canadian reality.''

So maybe we should thank him. Led by the ubiquitous and spooky Art Bell, paranormal radio is a growth industry in the U.S., particularly now that the millennium is looming.

Some real concerns are aired on these shows, but every screaming nutbar also gets his/her say on when the world is going to end and in what spectacular manner it will do so.

And everyone has a theory why they - whoever they are - don't want us to know about it.

Millenniums will do that to you every time, just ask Nostradamus or the Artist Formerly Known As Prince (``they say two thousand zero zero party over'').

But never mind. In the paranormal business, you go with the flow even if you want to go against the flow at the same time.

Psychics, UFOlogists, warlocks, palm-readers, Sasquatch-trackers and minor poets are practically elbowing each into the corner just to get their fair share of air-time.

Some are genuine, some aren't - and McConnell likes to think that The ``X'' Zone Radio Show is there to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Generally, McConnell thinks it's really sick the way American radio has maxed out on all of this. And radio hosts like the spooky Bell - whose show, Coast To Coast, comes live from the spooky Nevada desert and is heard in Toronto on Talk 640 - are the ones who get people riled up and freaked out.

For his part, though, McConnell says he wants to bring real information to people. ``We're not a tabloid show. We're a news talk show.

``Yes, on Friday nights we do psychic readings. But we've also done shows bashing the 1-900 psychic line.''

The 11 p.m.-1 a.m. readings - last night's show featured tarot-card forecasts - air live from St. Catharines' Red Onion Eatery & Bar.

Saturday and Sunday's shows, which begin at 10 p.m, come from the CKTB studios. Tonight's program features an enginneer who's into ancient Egyptian technology, a ``futant researcher'' and paranormal debunker Kal Korff, an ``X'' Zone regular.

Tomorrow's lineup includes paranormal specialist Janet Russell, nutritional consultant Robert Azzopardi and a futurist pet-motivator.

Okay this does sound pretty mainstream for psychic/paranormal radio. In truth, McConnell's a pretty mainstream guy who's not above telling me that the CKTB studios ``are haunted.''

But his ex-cop side can't resist the lure of digging out facts. And he preps by scouring the Internet and wire services to give a newsy edge to each show.

Art Bell and the Bell-wannabes prefer to sound as if they're coming at you from deep space - with that doo-doo-doo-doo mystery vibe.

McConnell's delivery, on the other hand, is snappy and informal. His interviews sound more like interrogations - you a real Feng Shui master or what? - and he keeps the pace hopping.

This is probably not the way to go in the paranormal-radio business. Listeners love the doo-doo-doo-doo stuff.

And true believers who want their unearthly fantasies stoked, not their realities checked, will hardly pick up on a feature called ``The Doofus Report.''

But McConnell has landed his future in The ``X'' Zone, which is in turn a launching pad for him to work the TV and lecture circuits.

He has even gone into The ``X'' Zone branding business and come up with a board game called The X-Game.

Not that this is only a business to him.

McConnell says he truly believes in the possibility of the paranormal - particularly since he lives at the centre of the ``Great Lakes Triangle'' - but it's the real-life elements of the farfetched stories that have most affected him.

He tells of a woman in Vernon, B.C., who found The ``X'' Zone Internet site and phoned while the show was on the on air.

``She told me she'd been implanted several times with alien implants,'' McConnell remembers with a shudder. ``She was contemplating suicide.''

McConnell wasted no time speculating about alien implants. He immediately phoned a California-based medical doctor who's a regular on the show and the Vernon police - both of whom were able to quickly contact the woman.

The paranormal could wait.