0:00

Hi everyone, it's Kareem, the voice

0:02

of Simon Fairchild and the Eternal Tavern

0:04

Keeper. Today I'm here to tell you about

0:06

Wake of Corrosion, a podcast recently

0:08

launched on the RQ network. Wake of

0:11

Corrosion is a UK-based audio drama

0:13

set in a nightmare-ridden apocalyptic world.

0:16

In Wake of Corrosion, an unknown horror

0:18

grips the country, forcing most of the remaining

0:20

population into shelter. Tune into the

0:22

broadcast from Bunker A12 and join

0:24

Professor Ryan as he shares the story

0:27

of two brothers, Elliot and Roman, who

0:29

set off on an off-grid camping

0:30

trip, only to return to a world

0:32

that is completely unlike the one they left

0:34

behind. Through their story,

0:36

the dark reality of life outside the bunker

0:39

becomes hauntingly apparent. Can

0:41

Professor Ryan find the answers he seeks, or

0:44

will the encroaching dark prove too much?

0:46

Search for Wake of Corrosion wherever you listen

0:48

to your podcasts, or go to wakeofcorrosion.com

0:52

or rustyquill.com.

0:53

See you later!

1:06

This

1:23

is one for all you fans of horror, mystery and... tapes?

1:27

Apparently

1:38

they have a lo-fi charm,

1:39

whatever that means. Tiny Terror is created

1:41

by the award-winning Coal Weavers from the Town Whispers,

1:44

and you can find this episode, alongside 19 more,

1:46

just by searching Tiny Terror wherever you listen to your

1:48

podcasts, clicking the link in the show notes below or

1:51

visiting rustyquill.com. Have fun,

1:53

and enjoy the episode!

2:00

Thank

2:11

you.

2:57

Hello, dear listener. Yes,

3:00

you. You listening to me now.

3:03

However you've come to be here, I thank

3:05

you for joining me and my friends as

3:07

we aim to terrify you and

3:10

delight you. But before we dig

3:12

in, first answer me this. Have you

3:14

ever heard of the tiny, terror scary

3:17

story exchange? Have you delved

3:19

into the obscure obtuse and

3:21

obscene world in which it lives? Have you

3:23

traveled to the shores of the twisted continent

3:26

and tasted what dark delights

3:27

it has to offer? What? D.

3:41

Welcome to the Tiny Terrors

3:43

Podcast, where we showcase

3:45

some of the most spine-chilling stories

3:48

from the Tiny Terrors Story Exchange.

3:51

Support the Tiny Terrors Showcase Podcast

3:54

today by subscribing and rating

3:56

the show. By doing so, you'll

3:58

become part of a-

3:59

long and often sadly forgotten part

4:02

of storytelling history. So

4:04

become a terrorizer by subscribing and rating

4:06

the podcast and join the exchange today to

4:08

get- Why don't we start calling members terrorizers?

4:11

Really? What? I have a whole

4:14

page left. Oh, you know what? Cut,

4:16

cut, cut, cut, cut, cut everyone out. Why do

4:18

I need to leave? I didn't even do anything this time. Who's

4:20

gonna be script supervisor if I leave? Script

4:23

supervisor? You're joking,

4:25

right? Come on, man. Hi,

4:33

my name's Cole, and I've been

4:36

a member of the Tiny Terror Story Exchange for,

4:38

uh, I

4:41

don't know, about ten years now? Tiny

4:44

Terror is an odd relic of the early

4:46

days of the computer age, back, you know, when

4:48

it still felt intimate. Before

4:51

the internet, there were these digital communities

4:53

called bulletin board systems, or BBSs

4:56

for short. You

4:58

would call a phone number with your computer, modem, and once you connected, you

5:00

could access the system. In

5:02

most bulletin board systems, you could create

5:04

an account with a username, just like you would now. And

5:07

there would be all these directories and files and chat

5:09

rooms, and in some of the more elaborate BBSs

5:12

were games. There was Plovernet,

5:14

MindVox, DemonRoch Underground, Monochrome

5:17

BBS, Osuni, Legend of the Red

5:19

Dragon. At one point, there were more than 150,000 bulletin

5:21

board systems in the United States alone,

5:25

with 17 million users.

5:28

And then the internet came.

5:30

And overnight, bulletin board systems mostly

5:33

died out.

5:34

Now there's only a couple hundred left. Good

5:37

luck finding them, and if you're lucky enough

5:39

to find them, good luck connecting and accessing

5:41

the bulletin board system itself.

5:43

Now, no one knows for certain that Tiny

5:45

Terror started on a BBS, but that's

5:48

the theory.

5:49

That some users on a bulletin board system

5:51

got together and started sharing horror stories,

5:54

kinda like the world's first creepypastas. But

5:57

then Tiny Terror's outgrew the online community

5:59

and more. and more people got involved

6:01

from cross state lines and in different countries,

6:04

but since you were calling in on a phone line,

6:06

long distance charges applied. They

6:08

figured out moving the exchange offline meant

6:10

that they could trade stories through the mail. And

6:13

postage was cheaper than long distance charges in

6:15

routers and computers and all the other costs that came

6:17

with it. And that's when Tiny Terrors

6:20

became a bit of an underground phenomenon.

6:23

It was like making the process even more

6:25

convoluted made it more exclusive.

6:28

The longer you were in the exchange, the

6:30

more mailing addresses you collected, the

6:33

longer your list of mailing addresses, the more

6:35

veteran you were in. If you were new to the exchange,

6:37

then you only had the mailing address of the person who

6:39

brought you into the Tiny Terrors story exchange.

6:43

It was like a club and you had to know someone

6:45

on the inside to get in. And once you

6:47

got in, you could enter the exchange and start sending

6:49

stories. And once you had sent a

6:51

story to another member, they had your mailing

6:54

address. And if your story was popular,

6:56

it would be sent from that member to another

6:58

member and so on and so on

7:01

and so on.

7:03

Just like when it started, the only way you can

7:05

enter a story into the exchange is written or

7:07

on a cassette tape. Small and light enough

7:09

to meet the requirements for cheap stamps and postage.

7:12

It's a bit convoluted, but besides that rule, there

7:14

are a few others and there's only really one

7:16

that matters. That's never steal

7:18

another member's story.

7:21

It's hard to understand without being in the

7:23

exchange. But if you're a member of

7:25

Tiny Terrors, you're a storyteller, you're

7:27

a librarian, you're a conservationist and researcher

7:30

all in one.

7:31

A lot of people involved in the exchange,

7:34

especially those who were around

7:36

in the early BBS days, kept notes and

7:38

records, tracking over time what stories came

7:40

from where, how far they had traveled, who wrote

7:43

them, who recorded them, who re-recorded them. And

7:45

if you stole another member's story, you'd

7:48

run the risk of sending it to the wrong person who

7:50

would blank the tape or write a note and stuff it in

7:52

the envelope and then that would make the rounds and eventually

7:54

before you knew it, you were out of the club.

7:58

Like I said, it's hard to understand. Hard to

8:00

imagine, but all these people in different

8:02

countries and states and provinces all coming

8:05

together made the exchange, and

8:07

their coveted list of mailing addresses is

8:09

what pulled it all together.

8:11

That's the

8:13

sort of weird you don't get on the internet anymore.

8:17

The Tiny Terror Story Exchange isn't what it used

8:19

to be.

8:20

There are a couple hundred dedicated members,

8:23

and every once in a while someone stumbles across it,

8:25

but old members are leaving quicker than new ones come in.

8:27

Which is why I want to make this podcast,

8:30

as a way to showcase the stories

8:32

on the exchange,

8:33

and hopefully keep it from dying out like the bulletin

8:36

board systems it was born out of. Not

8:38

only do I personally hope to preserve the exchange

8:40

in the event that it finally dies out, but

8:43

by showcasing these tales, it is my

8:45

hope that we can actually revive it.

8:49

You done yet? What?

8:52

I didn't say anything

8:55

Mark. Nothing.

8:59

What did you say? I

9:01

said nothing. Nothing. Okay,

9:03

okay, sorry. So how did

9:05

it go? Well, it was

9:08

going well. Did

9:11

you mention that this podcast

9:13

is kind of like PBS? Huh? It's

9:16

kind of like PBS, because without the listeners support,

9:18

we wouldn't be able to keep the podcast going. It

9:21

means the exchange would die. Oh

9:23

God, I'm not saying that. Why not?

9:25

Because it's shameless, Mark. That's why.

9:28

Step aside then, I'll say it, Mr

9:30

Hotshot. Okay, hey, back away

9:32

from the mic.

9:35

Hi everyone, it's Kareem, the voice

9:38

of Simon Fairchild and the eternal tavern

9:40

keeper. Today, I'm here to tell you about

9:42

Wake of Corrosion, a podcast recently

9:44

launched on the RQ network. Wake of

9:46

Corrosion is a UK-based audio drama

9:49

set in a nightmare-ridden apocalyptic world.

9:51

In Wake of Corrosion, an unknown horror

9:53

grips the country, forcing most of the remaining

9:56

population into shelter. Tune into the

9:58

broadcast from Bunker A12. and join

10:00

Professor Ryan as he shares the story

10:02

of two brothers, Elliot and Roman, who set

10:05

off on an off-grid camping trip, only to return

10:07

to a world that is completely unlike the

10:09

one they left behind.

10:11

Through their story, the dark reality

10:13

of life outside the bunker becomes hauntingly

10:16

apparent.

10:17

Can Professor Ryan find the answers he seeks,

10:19

or will the encroaching dark prove too

10:21

much? Search for Wake of Corrosion wherever

10:24

you listen to your podcasts, or go to

10:26

wakeofcorrosion.com or rustyquill.com

10:29

and see you later.

10:39

Oh,

10:56

and did you add the part about leaving a 5-star

10:59

review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

11:01

or other places you can leave reviews?

11:03

Because it actually helps us get the podcast out to more listeners,

11:06

which means more members for the exchange.

11:08

I mean, come on, it takes like all the minute

11:10

to do that. It's completely free.

11:12

Oh right, yeah, no, that is an important

11:14

one. Yeah, come on, Cole, we gotta tell them to

11:16

leave a 5-star review, otherwise no one's

11:18

gonna listen, and we're never gonna get new members.

11:21

I mean, I read online that ratings and reviews are like a huge

11:24

part of getting your show out there, you know? Guys, I

11:26

haven't finished yet. What are you waiting for? Tell

11:28

them to review the podcast already! I

11:31

will,

11:31

I will. Don't be polite about it. You're always too

11:33

polite. You gotta be firm. Like, go now,

11:36

review the podcast Terrorizers or else,

11:38

and then say, like, become

11:41

a Terrorizer by subscribing to the podcast now,

11:44

or else. Oh, and then say, thank

11:47

you very much, because manners never hurt, right? Seriously,

11:49

when did we settle on calling the

11:51

new members Terrorizers?

12:05

Tiny Terrors is an anthology horror

12:08

podcast produced by Pulp Audio

12:10

and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share-Alike 4.0

12:14

international license.

12:15

This episode was directed by Cole Weavers,

12:18

with sound production and editing by Mike LeBeau.

12:21

To find additional information, or to join our Patreon

12:23

for additional content and add to

12:25

our newsletter, visit our website at

12:28

www.tinyterrorspod.com.

12:30

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

12:33

at TinyTerrorsPod. Or join the

12:35

Pulp Audio Discord by clicking the link

12:37

in the description below. Rate and review us on

12:39

Spotify and Apple. And finally, thanks

12:42

for listening.

12:57

We hope you enjoyed this segment of Tiny Terrors. To

13:00

hear more, search Tiny Terrors wherever you get your podcasts,

13:02

or click the link in the show notes. You can find

13:04

Tiny Terrors on Twitter at TinyTerrorsPod,

13:07

on Reddit at r slash tinyterrorspodcast,

13:10

and as always, there's

13:10

more information available at RustyQuill.com.

13:13

Thanks for listening.