So, curious visitor you want to learn a little more? Well, just remember how the cat made out with that…

About Frightening Tales

At its core, FrighteningTales.com seeks to share horror with fans of horror for no other reason than, the love of horror. I created all of this because I genuinely love to tell stories. Performing these tales provides me with a level of joy that frankly I’d not like to be without. Knowing listeners tune in each week and enjoy a good story, provided in an entertaining medium is rather fulfilling. Introducing listeners to authors both seasoned and just starting out is an added bonus.  I love the idea that somehow I can give back to the creative people who share their tales by creating awareness for them.

So, how did I end up here…

Imagine my excitement to learn that the URL FrighteningTales.com wasn’t taken. I hopped on it immediately. Originally I thought that this site would be a magazine blog where I’d collect everything and anything about horror, I had wanted to set this up to provide people that had a love of the macabre, another place to gather and collect information. I also intended to have original content here, from authors and artists alike. I was so beside myself in acquiring the URL, I wanted to build something terrifyingly amazing. Putting a pin in that thought I also mention that since the early 90’s I’ve listened to old-time radio plays, scary stories performed by voice actors. At that time I met a fellow online that collected and provided such stories and offered to help him design his website. Horror-theatre.com.

Fast forward to the pandemic of 2019, I happened to have purchased all the equipment I’d need to create my own terrifying tales… but, the equipment was for the purposes of online meetings.

Meeting after meeting people would tell me that I had a great voice for radio, so I thought to myself… hmmm, perhaps I can use this for something. Since my son was born I’d been reading nighttime stories with him and had a tendency to get rather invested in the storytelling which often ended with him being very invested in the stories. It hardly took a push and I’d narrated my first story. The story was a test, and it was called “Wendigo” from the “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series”. It went over very well with family and friends. Of course, I don’t own the rights to the tale so can’t really share it in good faith. But I was sold on the idea of reading stories. The more I did the more I realized it wasn’t enough to just read a story it needed that full experience I had grown up with listening to radio plays. A musical score, and immersive sound effects. So, I pulled out the ol bank card and signed up for a stock audio service that would provide me legally all the audio music and effects I’d need.  It didn’t take long before authors from around the internet started to allow me to tell their tales. And you’ve hopefully just been listening to them. I’ll continue to make these for as long as I have stories to read.

Currently, it is my intention to never monetize this site. No ads, no sponsors, just horror. Why is that? because as soon as you start to depend on funds it becomes work, and work brings stress and stress kills the fun, and it is very fun trying to scare you all each week. I validate the costs involved with doing this the same way a hockey fan might validate paying for ice time or new skates, the same way a golfer drops a few hundred on a new club, I invest in a new microphone. You may note that recently I did add merch to the site, but that’s more, to “get fans to spread the word through stuff they wear” than to make money. The system is simple enough – provide art and the vendor makes products on demand, I get 2 bucks roughly for whatever is ordered and the fans can spread the word for me. The fact that there’s nothing to run or handle I like, so I can focus on getting stories, and I’m still not depending on revenue. This past winter the holidays gifted me with a portable microphone for gathering sound samples, ambient forests, roadways, and custom sound effects. So I’ll dabble with collecting. I love that more established writers are coming on board and sharing their tales. I like to think that this idea of sharing scary stories for the love of it clicks with them and makes them want to be involved. One day I do hope to catch that white whale of a horror Author – Stephen King, and share one of his short stories, but at the end of the day, any solid story regardless of who wrote it will be happily shared and genuinely appreciated.

I hope to share many… Scary Moments.

Why the Radio?

Well, Ghost Radios or Spirit Boxes are believed to work by using instrumental transdimensional communication or instrumental transcommunication, a term coined by German physicist Ernst Senkowski. By providing interdimensional beings a blank canvas of sound and energy the device allows them to modify the media in a way that we can interpret. These devices are fairly normal or unmodified instruments that can create white noise or static. recordings of this phenomenon are called an EVP or Electronic Voice Phenomenon. Audio that claims to be otherworldly. It’s hypothesized that by providing a neutral media for spirits to manipulate they can communicate with us. More than likely attributed to the fact that it’s widely believed that spirits are beings of energy. I embraced the idea that I have such a radio, and that’s where my stories come from.

About Mark Wilhelm

Aside from loving to share stories, I’m an all around creative person. I formally studied illustration and animation in post secondary school a very long time ago. I earn my living in a marketing department creating graphic designed solutions to visual problems in marketing and user interface design. I’ve learned about user-experience design, and interaction design. This helps me to solve how best visually to tell the story that will connect the message to the end user, or potential customer. I also spent some time working in theatre behind the scenes, creating props and running equipment.  To learn more about what I do visit me at markwilhelm.ca.