Radio Rental Episode 92 – Summary
Podcast: Radio Rental
Host: Ricky Lee Bagley (Jeff Foxworthy)
Episode Date: October 17, 2025
Theme: Real-life horror stories—focusing this episode on unsettling, personal UFO encounters—brought to life within the quirky, retro, and lightly comedic setting of an ‘80s video rental shop.
Episode Overview
This episode of Radio Rental immerses listeners in chilling first-person accounts of UFO sightings and possible extraterrestrial encounters. Two distinct, deeply affecting stories anchor the episode: one, a late-night sighting of a mysterious orange-lit craft in suburban England; the other, a childhood encounter with a black saucer-shaped object in rural Appalachia. Host Ricky Lee, in his classic folksy and comedic style, frames the stories with humor and surrealism, underscoring the thin boundary between reality and the supernatural.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Ricky Lee’s (Jeff Foxworthy) Introduction: Vintage Flair Meets the Uncanny
- [02:06]–[04:04] Ricky Lee sets the scene in Radio Rental’s otherworldly video shop, playfully claiming psychic powers after “predicting” the listener’s arrival.
“Hey everybody, this is Ricky Lee and this is Radio Rental. But listen to this—not just a moment ago I had one of my trademark premonitions and I told Malachi, I said somebody is going to walk in here like clockwork. And boom, you did!”
- Establishes the episode as a portal between the mundane and the extraordinary, teeing up the first “tape.”
2. Story #1: “Three Orange Lights” – Suburban UFO (Guest Storyteller)
[04:04]–[12:23]
Synopsis:
- In 2012, a bar worker in England returns home late at night, takes a spliff in the garden, and notices three orange glowing lights in the sky.
- They move in slowly, make no sound, and eventually stop, form a triangle, and emit a “warm, white light.”
- The narrator becomes terrified after seeing a silhouette “in the dome,” flees into his house, and panics with his sister.
- Later, he discovers another witness’s almost identical account in a local newspaper; their shared details reinforce the reality of what he saw.
- Questions linger: missing time, lost memory, and the possibility of abduction.
Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes:
- On the encounter’s silence:
“I decided to take one of [my earphones] out, thinking I’m going to hear an engine…And I couldn’t hear anything.” — Guest ([04:50])
- On seeing a figure:
“…From the light in the center I notice that it’s a dome. I can see the silhouette of this figure inside this dome. And I absolutely shit myself.” — Guest ([06:33])
- Panic and aftermath:
“Ran straight for [my sister’s] room, just swung the door open. As I burst in, she’s sitting on the bed all like wide eyed. And that’s when I just blurted out everything that I had just seen. ‘Oh my fucking God, Rosie, you never guess what I just fucking saw.’” — Guest ([07:19])
- Validation with another witness:
“He pulled out this picture and…showed it to me. ‘Is this what you saw?’ As soon as I saw it, I thought, this is it. That’s what I saw.” — Guest ([11:45])
Themes:
- The unreliability and blurriness of memory during trauma
- Shared experiences validating the supernatural
- Lingering doubt: possible abduction, loss of details
3. Host Interlude: Foxworthy’s Take on Aliens
[12:23]–[13:52]
- Foxworthy riffs on “extratestical” (a malapropism for extraterrestrial) life and asserts his open-mindedness, with sly humor:
“They’re as real as the hair on my back.” ([12:32])
- Offers a comical, tongue-in-cheek astrological premonition for Scorpios, blending cosmic and comedic tones:
“But that one. Watch your back.” ([13:44])
4. Story #2: “The Glowing Basketball” – Appalachian Childhood Encounter (Guest Storyteller)
[15:42]–[26:50]
Synopsis:
- Two tomboyish kids play basketball in a tiny Appalachian town at night; a wild bounce sends the ball over an 8-foot wall.
- When retrieving the ball, the narrator finds it glowing; upon touching it, a monotone male voice in their head commands, “look up.”
- Overhead, a giant matte-black saucer hovers, silent and enormous, ringed by round lights.
- Both children stand transfixed, confirming the sighting with each other. The narrator projects a thought—“We don’t want to go with you.”
- The craft responds, begins to rotate, then speeds off “20 miles away in half a second.”
- Aftermath: the children excitedly report to their mother (who dismisses it as a military craft), and decades later a tree beneath the sighting site is inexplicably dead on one side.
- The experience alters the narrator’s worldview and sense of safety forever.
Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes:
- The voice in the head:
“Something inside my head, very clear, very monotone, just said, ‘look up.’” — Guest ([16:58])
- Describing the object:
“It's blacker than any black I’ve ever seen…There were these round lights around the bottom of it, like pods around the bottom.” — Guest ([17:35])
- Mutual validation:
“I remember saying, ‘Stacy, do you see this?’ … She says, ‘yeah, I see this.’” — Guest ([18:33])
- Attempt to resist abduction:
“I dropped the basketball…just pushing the thought out of my head into the air. ‘We don’t want to go with you.’ The second this thought…was launched out of my mind…” — Guest ([19:56])
- Impact on worldview:
“If what I saw is real, which I know it is, our whole world is not anything that we think it is. Nothing.” — Guest ([26:34])
Themes:
- The blurred line between extraordinary experience and childhood imagination
- The isolation and disbelief faced by experiencers
- The permanent psychic and emotional impact of an unexplained encounter
5. Host Outro: Ricky Lee’s Comic Perspective and Closing Thoughts
[26:50]–[27:21]
-
Foxworthy wraps the episode with levity, joking about being a prime candidate for abduction:
“In fact, one time the aliens did pick me up. But then they dropped me right back off at the end of the street. I wasn’t in there for more than 10 seconds…” ([26:58])
-
Offers a tongue-in-cheek take:
“Them aliens just wanted to play some ball.” ([26:50])
Notable Quotes & Moments by Timestamp
- “Hey everybody, this is Ricky Lee and this is Radio Rental...here you are.” — Ricky Lee Bagley ([03:00])
- “This is a UFO. I’m actually having this experience.” — First Guest ([05:59])
- “As soon as I saw it, I thought: this is it. That’s what I saw.” — First Guest ([11:55])
- “The most monotone, nonspecific male type voice. I’m still holding onto this ball…look up.” — Second Guest ([17:03])
- “It was bigger than our house…blacker than any black I’ve ever seen.” — Second Guest ([17:35])
- “If what I saw is real…our whole world is not anything that we think it is. Nothing.” — Second Guest ([26:34])
- “In fact, one time the aliens did pick me up. But then they dropped me right back off at the end of the street.” — Ricky Lee Bagley ([26:58])
Highlighted Timestamps
- [04:04] — First UFO story begins (three orange lights, chilling encounter)
- [11:45] — Visual confirmation of the triangular craft with a fellow experiencer
- [15:42] — Second story begins (glowing basketball, black saucer encounter)
- [17:03] — The command to ‘look up’ and discovery of the craft
- [19:56] — Mental resistance (“we don’t want to go with you”) triggers craft’s departure
- [26:34] — Reflection on how the experience shifted the narrator’s worldview
Tone & Atmosphere
- Narrative Style: First-person, intimate, and confessional.
- Host Tone: Folksy, wry, and gently irreverent, blending comic relief with sincere curiosity.
- Overall Mood: Uneasy wonder, the lingering dread of the unexplainable, but punctuated with humor and humanity.
Conclusion
Episode 92 of Radio Rental stands out for its authentic, deeply personal accounts of UFO sightings, blending nostalgia, humor, and true fear. The episode affirms the series’ cult appeal: real stories that let listeners suspend disbelief, question reality, and re-live the awe and terror of encountering the unknown.
For listeners craving the intersection of reality, the supernatural, and a dash of retro TV store weirdness, this episode delivers the goods—with a little comic relief on the side.
