She knows that sign-off. Everyone in Calder County over fifty does.

Station owner Margo Lusk hasn't set foot in KCDR since the Christmas party, but one listen to last night's tape turns her gray. "Tell Margo I kept the light on" was Lyle Beaumont's sign-off, and Lyle walked off the air on Halloween 1987 and never came back. The caller rings again at two seventeen. This time he knows June's mother's name, and he warns of a fire at Hollis Feed and Seed. Then the transmitter goes dead, and out on Ferris Hill, someone has cut the line.

Featuring June Castillo, Ezra Pike, Margo Lusk, Dolores Vick, Ray Tolliver, the voice on line four.

Static County is a ten-part Southern-gothic radio noir from Narratique. One night per episode, October 22 to Halloween. Listen in order.

Voices in this series are AI-generated. Written, scored and sound-designed by Narratique Studios.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On the radio, the worst sound isn't a scream. It's nothing at all.

Margo lays down Lyle's old rule: never let it go quiet. Seven seconds of dead air on thirteen-forty, and it hears you. Dolores calls in shaken: the unplugged kitchen radio at home whispered her late husband's name. June and Ezra do the one thing they were told not to do. They count out seven seconds of silence, and every streetlight in Harlan goes dark at once. Then a voice comes out of every radio in town.

Featuring June Castillo, Ezra Pike, Margo Lusk, Sheriff Dale Pruitt, Dolores Vick, Ray Tolliver, the voice on line four.

Static County is a ten-part Southern-gothic radio noir from Narratique. One night per episode, October 22 to Halloween. Listen in order.

Voices in this series are AI-generated. Written, scored and sound-designed by Narratique Studios.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

He was first on the scene in 1987. The phone was ringing. He didn't pick it up.

June and Ezra take the old photograph to Sheriff Dale Pruitt, who has worn the badge for thirty-nine years and hasn't played music in his patrol car since 1987. He denies everything, then tells them part of it: the hot microphone, the record still spinning, Lyle's coffee still warm. Out on the highway Ray's CB picks up a broadcast that ended decades ago. And at two seventeen, the voice on line four finds the sheriff where he's hiding, right in his own car radio.

Featuring June Castillo, Ezra Pike, Sheriff Dale Pruitt, Margo Lusk, Dolores Vick, Ray Tolliver, the voice on line four.

Static County is a ten-part Southern-gothic radio noir from Narratique. One night per episode, October 22 to Halloween. Listen in order.

Voices in this series are AI-generated. Written, scored and sound-designed by Narratique Studios.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

At night, AM radio travels farther than it should. So does whatever rides on it.

Ezra breaks out a whiteboard to explain carrier waves and skywave. The caller explains what the tower on Ferris Hill is really holding in, and how long he's been holding the rest of it by himself. Dolores keeps a vigil at Dot's with the radio turned all the way up while trouble finds the lonely places in the county: a farmhouse fire, a car in the creek. Then, mid-warning, the caller's voice slips, and something else speaks with it.

Featuring June Castillo, Ezra Pike, Margo Lusk, Dolores Vick, Ray Tolliver, the voice on line four.

Static County is a ten-part Southern-gothic radio noir from Narratique. One night per episode, October 22 to Halloween. Listen in order.

Voices in this series are AI-generated. Written, scored and sound-designed by Narratique Studios.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In a storm, the signal skips across states, and across years.

A thunderstorm rolls over Calder County and KCDR's signal bounces hundreds of miles. Calls come in from places, and decades, they shouldn't: a Tulsa man asking about a football team that no longer exists, 1986 diesel prices on Ray's CB. One call on line four is from a kitchen June knows by heart, with a baby crying in the background. Then lightning hits the tower, the county goes dark, and June learns what it means to hold the line alone.

Featuring June Castillo, Ezra Pike, Margo Lusk, Sheriff Dale Pruitt, Dolores Vick, Ray Tolliver, the voice on line four.

Static County is a ten-part Southern-gothic radio noir from Narratique. One night per episode, October 22 to Halloween. Listen in order.

Voices in this series are AI-generated. Written, scored and sound-designed by Narratique Studios.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.