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You're listening to a Tenderfoot TV podcast.
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My name is Ed. Everyone say hello Ed. I'm from a very rural background myself. My dad is a farmer and my mum is a cousin. So like it's not like what do.
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You get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago.
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I just normally do straight stand up, but this is a bit different.
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On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear.
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On 22 July 2015, a 23 year old man had killed his family and then he came to my house.
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So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack where stand up comedy and murder take Center Stage. Coming September 2nd. Listen to Wisecrack on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Hate waiting a week for the next episode of Radio Rental. Subscribe to Tenderfoot plus to get early access to episodes, ad free listening and bonus scary stories. Visit tenderfootplus.com for details.
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The following podcast includes scary stories with content that could be triggering to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.
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Take a break from the same old boring blockbusters and experience a new kind of movie night with Radio Rental. At Radio Rental, our videos come to Life in your living room defy all logic and reasoning and make you question your own reality. This is not your ordinary video rental store. At Radio Rental we carry one of a kind videos. So frightening, so mind bending. You won't be able to sleep at night. You've gone Radio rental.
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What is it? What do you want? I. I don't have a treat. Get away from my coffee. Oh, hi. Hi there. Can I. Oh, oh, wait, here we go. I'm supposed to read from this, I guess. Anyway. Shop bell rings. Okay. When someone walks in, yada, yada, yada. Here we go. Welcome to Radio Rental, a video rental shop with an exclusive collection of the scariest stories you've ever heard, all told by real people. Why is that underlined? I don't understand that. God.
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What?
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I don't know what you want. I'm just gonna keep going. Hi, I'm Jared. I'm filling in for Terry Carnation today. Yeah, I don't usually do this kind of thing. Usually I just come here like twice a year to fix the AC. Upwards of 10 times for the plumbing and Terry had me seal up some hole in the floor a while ago. He said the hole was void or something. Void of what? I have no idea. That guy's kind of, you know. Anyway, totally out of the blue, Terry left me a strange voicemail. Here, you can listen for yourself.
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Hey Jared, how's it going? It's me, Terry. Carnation from Radio Rental. Sorry, I know it's 3:35 in the morning, but I'm gonna need you to come down here asap. Like tomorrow, like today, and help me with something. Maybe it's not the AC this time, it's kind of a. Well, it's kind of a bigger ask when you arrive. I won't actually be there. You can find instructions left in an envelope inside The Omni magazine. December 1985 issue. The one on male pregnancy. And Isaac Asimov. You don't need to bring your tools, but bring an overnight bag and tell no one. Okay, bye.
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Yep. So not the usual house call. Pretty weird. And yet here I am with my overnight bag like a child. No fucking clue where Terry is. Just been trying to fix stuff around the store while I wait. I fixed the rolling chair. Look. Rolls smoothly now. Isn't that nice? Just a little WD40 and I tighten the screws. But no more fixing things pro bono, Terry. No more until I get paid. Yeah. So I guess I'm just supposed to keep an eye on this store and some precious collection of tapes while he's gone. And speaking of it, says here I'm supposed to play one of those tapes for you. If you ask the ones with the scary stories, is that what you want? Hello. From an exclusive collection or an exclusive collection. You think you would have taken better care of these? This box is falling apart. Not my problem. Not my problem. Anyway, is there any rhyme or reason to this? Clear. Great. We'll play this one. Hope you haven't seen it. Don't really care if you have. Okay, here it goes. Oh, wait. This one says Groundhog Day. I love Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. Oh, this is a classic, y'. All. You're gonna love it. Jeez, that does not sound good. Something's grinding in there. I could probably. Nope, not fixing anything else. Still unpaid.
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So about 12, 13 years ago, I moved into a new area. I was excited because it was my first time moving out. I ended up getting a roommate. Three to four months into moving to that new area. I really wanted to meet new people, like around my age to hang out with and so forth. My roommate suggested that I download a meeting app or dating app to meet new people around the area. So I caved in and I downloaded this dating app. I met a few people on the app. Good conversation with majority of them. But eventually I met this guy who was pretty cool. He was down to earth. Conversation was great on the app. So we decided to meet in person and just do a dinner in a movie type thing. We went to dinner, had a great time there. Conversation was great, but we ate a lot and we was torn with the idea if we should go to the movies or not. But we ended up going and we decided to go see Lincoln. I was excited because Abraham Lincoln is, like one of my favorite presidents to read about. I was happy. Him, not so much. But he agreed to go. During the duration of the movie, I saw him dozing off, but I was so engrossed with the movie. We got through the movie, and after the movies, we decided to go back to my place to continue the night. Just to go back, have a couple of drinks, chat. And we got into his car and we kind of sat in the car for a few minutes talking. And maybe like five minutes later, I started to feel different. Everything around me was going at a normal pace, but it just felt like I was slow. But I looked over to him. He was just having a conversation, you know, acting like nothing's wrong. He was still talking. He was doing hand gestures and stuff like that. So it was no indication that he didn't see nothing. Wrong with me. What is going on? Like, I was like, in a deep trance. That's when the cycle started. He started to drive to my place again. I was just slow in nature, like, waking up from a nap. And it just. Everything just seems so, like, ugh. He reached towards the radio and asked me if I wanted to change the radio station. I don't remember answering him. Whatever I did, it must have let him know that, yeah, go for it. So he changed the radio station. A few moments after that, he pointed out the window and asked me, is this my exit? Again, no indication from me to let him know that this is my exit or not. But we got off on it. Exit the whole time. I still feel sluggish. I feel weird. As we're getting off the exit, I looked down on my phone, which was in my lap, and it says 1029. He continued to have his conversation. He looked at me and asked me if I want to change the radio. And I looked at him, but I was like, wait, did he not just ask me this? Like, it kind of felt like deja vu. I was like, did he not just ask me this a while ago? And he reached for the radio and he changed the radio station. And a few moments after that, he pointed out the window and asked, is this your exit? That's when I looked at him again. I was thinking. I was like, wait, we just got off on my exit. Why are we. Why are you asking for if this is an exit again? If we are. We just got on. We got off on the exit. And I remember looking down at my phone and it says, 1029 in darkness. I came to, I looked at him still having a conversation. I became scared because this is the second time this happened. What is going on? As I was processing everything, he looked at me again and asked, do you want me to change the radio station? I was just remember just looking at him, just like, what? Why you keep asking me this? Why this is repeating? Like, why does it keep happening? He went to change the radio. A few moments later, he pointed out the window and he said, is this your exit? I look down at my phone. It says 1029. And darkness. I came to again. That's when I realized something was totally wrong with me because I was like, what is going on? While I keep seeing 1029, he's acting like nothing is going on. I'm freaking out because this is like the third time that this repeating cycle has happened. It kept happening maybe like three or four times. Do you want me to change the radio? Station, Is this your exit? Look down at my phone. 10:29. Darkness. After the fifth time, I have to do something to break this cycle. Thinking to myself, I said, maybe. When he asked if I want to change the radio station, grab his arm, prevent him from changing the radio station, maybe they would break the cycle. Right when he was about to reach for the radio, I grabbed his arm. But it felt like I had to push through this force to get to his arm, like I was fighting some invisible barrier. I grabbed it, and he looked at me and he asked, do you want me to change the radio station? That's when I felt actually defeated. I knew something was seriously wrong because that didn't work. I didn't break the cycle. I felt really scared and afraid. And then it happened again. A few moments later. He pointed out the window, is this your exit? I looked at my phone. It says 1029. And then darkness. I came to. But this time, I was at my apartment complex. I felt normal. I felt normal. I felt perfectly fine, like nothing had happened to me. I was just fine. I was like, whoa, what was that? Like, what happened? I looked down at my phone, and it was like 1040 something. And I was like, oh, wow, it's not 1029 anymore. And I said, well, at least it's not 1029 anymore. And that's when I looked at him. He said, good night. I enjoy my time with you. I hope we can do it again. Maybe we should hang out some other time. And I just remember saying good night. And I darted out of the car and I ran to my. My apartment. I thought I was really having a mental breakdown. I ended up sleeping in my roommate's room that night. The following morning, I went to work. I got to the office, just a normal, typical day. I received a Facebook message from the guy I was hanging out the night before. I was curious to see what he had to say with the message. It was a video attached, and at the bottom of the message, it said, you were epic last night. So I played the video. I saw me, the outfit that I had on the night before in the passenger seat of his car. It looked like I was having a seizure, shaking, mumbling. It was just. It was just scary to see myself in that way. I do not remember any of that happening to me last night. It wasn't me, but it was me. The whole time in the video, it was like he was laughing. Not like a very like ha ha ha type of laugh, like you laughing at a comed. It was like a sinister laugh, like he knew what he was doing. I asked him what happened to me last night. He basically said, that cigarette that you smoked last night wasn't a regular cigarette. In the midst of us talking, he offered me a cigarette. He took a pack of cigarettes and laced them with this synthetic drug called K2 or Spice. He told me what happened. And after that, he blocked me, deleted the message. And I never heard from him again. It looked just like a cigarette, but it was laced with that drug. Because of that, I had a powerful trip. It felt sinister. Very sinister. He knew that this was going to happen. Like a sick entertainment for him.
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Hey, that was not Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. Is that what's going on back here? Terry's got some kind of freaky collection he's been stashing. What's next? I'm gonna pop in the Breakfast Club? It's actually a snuff film with cannibalism. I don't like that you responded to that. Where did all these come from anyway? Hope this is all above board. That's none of your business, Jared. That's none of your business. All right. Anyway, I fixed the box while you were not watching a beloved 1993 romantic comedy. I just used a little duct tape. Couldn't help myself. Sorry. Jeez. Sorry. Well, now it says on the instructions that it's time for ads. Time for ads. No clue what that means. Do I need to do anything or will the ads just happen?
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Okay, turns out the ads just happen and we're back in the store now. So are you gonna check out a DVD or something? Buy some Goobers. There's only Goobers here. Why does he only have Goobers? Do you want me to play you another one of those tapes? I don't know why I'm expecting a response. You haven't said anything this entire time. You know that's not really normal. Normally you answer people who are talking to you. Okay, whatever. Here's your tape. Oh, look. This one's called the Ticket. Oh, wait, I think I've seen this movie. Yeah, I'm going to fix that later.
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It was May of 2010, towards the end of the school year. I'm a schoolteacher. I was driving home from work. All of a sudden the lights came on. So I pulled over and the officer got out of the car, said, hi, officer, how you doing? I let my window down. He said, how are you doing, sir? Can I get your license, registration? I reached my glove box, got my insurance, put out my driver's license, gave it to him and he went back to his car. Just routine. He was an African American male. He was rather tall, I remember, maybe about six three or six four. Kind of muscular, built almost kind of like he may have played professional sports or something. 40s or maybe like early 50s. So like probably middle age, but just like a normal police officer. They've probably been with the police force for a long time. I do have the tendency to drive fast, But I wasn't speeding. I really don't know. I was like, my stickers are up to date, and I really don't know if you saw something on my tag, my license plate. I'm not sure. I wasn't really nervous. I, you know, not really been pulled over a whole lot before, so I wasn't really nervous about it, But I just was really curious because I really just didn't have a clue. We did the exchange, and he went back to his car. A few minutes later, he came back. Here you go. Here's your ticket. Just be careful. And I asked like, well, also, where did I get pull up? Like, what's this ticket for? He just kind of gave me, like a little smirk or a little smile and just said, have a nice day. Then he left. And I didn't really look at the ticket until he got back into his car. I looked at the ticket, and the ticket was actually for not having a child in his safety restraint or car seat. That's weird, because I was the only person in the car. I was just stunned, I guess the silence. When I actually looked at the ticket and saw what the ticket was actually for, I was shocked. I even looked in the back seat. Even though I knew no one was back there. I was like, there's nobody back here, so I don't know why that's on the ticket. Why would he even give the impression that I had someone back there? Because my backseat was completely empty.
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So.
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I don't know how that could have been possible. I just kind of just sat there, let him kind of just drive off down the road. And then finally, I just kind of just got myself and then just drove on home like I had planned on doing. Later on that day, I called my mom and told my mom about it, and she was like, yeah, just, you know, go fight it in court. Two, three weeks later, went to court. The person that I saw at the front desk of the clerk, she asked me a series of questions. But one question she asked me really kind of threw me off. She said, were you born in 1953? Mind you, at the time, I was 24. I don't think I look that old, do I? That's kind of sarcastically just kind of said no and kind of laughed it off. She asked me a few more questions and then told me that I can go see the judge in a few minutes. Finally got into the courtroom, and when it was my time, the judge came up and he was like, I have good news for you. The Officer that gave you the ticket didn't show up, so you're free to go. I said, okay, that's kind of cool. I didn't ask no questions. I just got my stuff and left. Later on that day, I went and visited with my mom and kind of told her what happened. I told her, like, clerk asked me, you know, were you born in 1953? And blah, blah, blah, blah. And she was like, that's weird. And I said, why you say that? She said, because in 1988, your dad got a ticket for the exact same thing, and the child that was in question was you. I just had kind of a stunned look on my face and I was like, me? She's like, yeah. She was like, yeah, you were the child in question. And I was like, that's weird. So I get pulled over 22 years later for something that he did, the officer. I was just curious of, like, why he didn't show up. So I got on the phone. Like, I said, I don't know if it was the courthouse or the Dallas police or something. And I called to try to find out who this officer was that gave me this ticket. I said like, hey, this officer pulled me over at this time on this date. I gave him his first and last name. And they said, well, we don't have an officer by that name. The only officer we had by that name retired like some years ago. That was even more bizarre. And I even gave him a description. Taller guy, he's African American, you know, kind of muscular, built like, he's like an athlete or something. And they said, no, we don't have a. We have officers that probably look like that, but we don't have one by that name that you gave us that works here for, you know, the Dallas, you know, Dallas Police Department. It's like, that's strange. I just kind of just left it at that.
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Welp. That was not the film I expected. Should have known. Let's take another break for ads.
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Whoa, wait. You mean finance?
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That's what they said.
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Well, thanks for stopping by Radio Rental. I guess maybe I'll see you next week. Hopefully Terry comes back before then, though. I really don't want to sleep on the futon in the back office. You seen that thing? And there's a sealed door over there that gives me the creeps. Yeah. Never give your clients your personal phone number. That's my hot tip for the day.
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Radio Rental is created by Payne Lindsay and brought to you by Tenderfoot. TV Showrunner is Meredith Steadman. Lead producer is Eric Quintana. Executive producers are Payne Lindsay and Donald Albright. Our main host is Rainn Wilson. Guest host is Josh Radner. Written by Meredith Stedman. Additional writing by Mark Laughlin. Original score by Makeup and Vanity. Set with additional score by Jay Ragsdale. Editing by Eric Quintana, Steven Perez, Meredith Stedman, Tristan Bankston and Sean Nurney. Sound design, mix and master by Stephen Perez and Cooper Skinner. Additional editing by April Ruha and Dayton Cole. Our production manager is Jordan Foxworthy. Our social media manager is Caroline Orajemma. Video editing by Dylan Harrington. Cover artwork by Trevor Iler and Rob Sheridan. Radio Rental merchandise by Byron McCoy. To shop radio rental merch visit shop Tenderfoot TV. Special thanks to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, as well as the Nord Group and the team at Odyssey. If you have a radiorental story that you'd like to share, please email us at yourscarystorygmail.com or contact us via the form on our website radiorentalusa.com follow us on Instagram at radiorental. On behalf of the RadioRental store, we'd love it if you'd subscribe, rate and review. As always, thanks for listening.
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Foreign this episode is brought to you by FX's alien Earth, the official podcast. Each week, host Adam Rogers is joined by guests, including the show's creator, cast and crew, in this exclusive companion podcast. They will explore story elements, deep dive into character motivations, and offer an episode by episode, behind the the scenes breakdown of each terrifying chapter in this new series. Search FX's alien Earth wherever you listen to podcasts.
Podcast: Radio Rental
Host for this episode: “Jared” (guest host, filling in for Terry Carnation)
Created by: Payne Lindsey, Tenderfoot TV, Audacy
Episode 87 of Radio Rental continues its tradition of immersing listeners in chilling real-life tales, told with the show’s trademark blend of suspense, reality-bending horror, and dark humor. With Terry Carnation (Rainn Wilson) missing in action, the store’s handyman, Jared, steps into the spotlight, reluctantly guiding listeners through another evening at the surreal 80s video rental store. In this episode, two haunting tales unfold: one of a nightmarish, déjà vu-filled date and another of a unsettling encounter with a possibly supernatural police officer. As always, the stories blur the boundary between true crime, the paranormal, and the existentially odd.
Memorable Moment:
Narrator: Unnamed story contributor
[07:24 – 19:04]
Narrator: Unnamed teacher
[23:03 – 28:55]
Jared’s Comments:
The episode maintains Radio Rental’s trademark blend of nostalgia, chest-tightening paranoia, and sly, satirical humor. The framing device (Jared as stand-in host) adds levity and a fish-out-of-water vibe, while the real-life stories are delivered with matter-of-fact honesty, making their eerie qualities all the more unsettling. The episode’s structure, oscillating between levity and existential horror, underscores the uncomfortable notion that nightmares can lurk in the most ordinary interactions.
Radio Rental’s Episode 87 delivers two unsettling true stories, each playing with the concept of time loops—one literal, induced by synthetic drugs and malicious intent; the other, spiritual or supernatural, echoing family history and impossible records. The host’s bumbling presence offers comic relief, but never dispels the underlying dread that these stories so effectively conjure.