We Apologize For THe Tractor Beam | Eclectic Wonderland | Part 1 of 2
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We Apologize For THe Tractor Beam | Eclectic Wonderland | Part 1 of 2
September 16, 2026
with DJ Tea, Mr. Announcer Man & Mickey Fingers
1–3pm CST on WDRT 91.9FM | Listen Live »
By DJ Tea (DJ Celeste) & Mickey Fingers
✨ Eclectic Wonderland: Wacky Wednesday | DJ Tea & Mickey Fingers
We Apologize For THe Tractor Beam | Eclectic Wonderland | Part 1 of 2
We Apologize For The Tractor Beam
Something attached itself to the transmitter.
At first, we assumed this was the beginning.
That was our first mistake.
Because somewhere inside the signal, time got weird.
Messages arrived out of order.
Answers appeared before questions.
And somewhere in the static, we caught pieces of something that had not happened yet.
Or had already happened.
Honestly, we stopped trying to make the timeline behave.
Which brings us to this week.
We Apologize for the Tractor Beam.
The signal is louder now.
The visitors are listening.
And tomorrow, WDRT begins its pledge drive.
Which would all be perfectly normal, except for one small problem:
Next week, in Extraterrestrial Encore, they have already helped with it.
So apparently, this is Part One.
And next week is Part Two.
Even though Part Two happened first.
Welcome to Eclectic Wonderland.
Linear time is currently unavailable.
TRANSMISSION NOTE:
The signal first attached itself here.
At some point, the signal stopped behaving like interference and started behaving like intent.
That is when Mickey began taking notes.
This was also probably a mistake.
First Contact-ish
At first, it was easy to blame the equipment.
A little static.
A little drift.
A signal behaving badly.
Nothing a good reboot, a suspicious cable, or a stern look at the transmitter couldn’t explain.
Then the patterns started repeating.
Not randomly.
Not quite.
They seemed to arrive after certain songs.
Or before them.
Depending on which version of time you were using.
That was the part we did not particularly enjoy.
Because static is one thing.
A response is another.
And somewhere between the music, the strange tones, and Mickey’s increasingly concerned field notes, the possibility began to creep in:
Maybe something out there was not just hearing the show.
Maybe it was listening.
Maybe it was learning.
And maybe, just maybe...
it had opinions.
TRANSMISSION NOTE:
At this point, “technical difficulties” was beginning to feel optimistic.
Something changed after that.
The signal stopped feeling distant.
It moved closer.
Not louder, exactly.
Closer.
Like whatever was out there had stopped scanning the dial and settled on us.
The little glitches became patterns.
The patterns became timing.
And the timing became just specific enough to be uncomfortable.
We would play something...
and something would answer.
A tone.
A pulse.
A shift in the static.
Not enough to call it communication.
Not yet.
But definitely enough to stop calling it random.
Which, naturally, is when things got weirder.
First Contact Part 1 & 2 | WE Apologize For The Tractor Beam....
There was just one problem.
The signal was no longer arriving in the correct order.
At first, nobody noticed.
A tone appeared a little early.
An answer seemed to arrive before anyone remembered asking the question.
A transmission referenced something that technically had not happened yet.
Small things.
Perfectly reasonable things to ignore when your radio station is already being investigated by extraterrestrials.
Then we looked at the timeline.
And the timeline looked back.
Because somewhere ahead of us was another transmission.
One we had already heard.
In it, the visitors had returned.
They had learned a few things.
They had apparently developed opinions.
And somehow...
they had even helped with the WDRT pledge drive.
Which begins tomorrow.
There was only one reasonable conclusion.
Next week had already happened.
Or this week happened later.
Or both.
At this point, we have stopped asking the calendar for assistance.
So before we open the next transmission file, there is something Mickey should probably explain.
Next Week Part 2 of 2 | First Contact Part | Extraterrestrial Encore
The signal had already been responding.
Then it did something worse.
It called.
Not through a normal phone line.
Not through anything engineering wanted to admit was connected to
anything.
But the line rang anyway.
Three tones.
A pause.
Then more tones.
Then something that sounded suspiciously like somebody trying to figure
out how a request line works.
Which is, frankly, a little rude.
Because if the extraterrestrials can figure out how to call the station, so can you.
And this week, that matters.
WDRT’s Sweet 16 pledge drive is here, and if you’re reading this after the
big day, you can still support the station online.
If you’re listening live, call in.
If you’re reading later, click the pledge banner below.
Either way, help keep strange little independent radio alive.
Thank you for supporting Community Radio!
And then the whole thing changed.
The jokes got quieter.
The signal did too.
For the first time, nobody was trying to solve it.
We just listened.
And somewhere in that silence, another show was already waiting.
FRIDAY OVERNIGHT: THere Is No Sound Between Stars
Wednesday bends the timeline.
Friday bends the silence.
After midnight, the signal gets quieter.
Not gone.
Just farther away.
Dream-pop. Darkwave. Shoegaze. Post-punk. Electronic ghosts. Beautiful things moving through distance, memory, static, and starlight.
Velvet Umbrella Radio | After Hours presents:
There Is No Sound Between Stars
Some signals arrive loudly.
Others barely move the air.
But silence is not always empty.
Sometimes something is still traveling.
Sometimes something still gets through.
Join Celeste Violet and Mickey Fingers Friday overnight from 1–3 AM Central on WDRT Viroqua, 91.9 FM.
Leave the receiver on.
Some signals are meant to be heard.
Eventually, the signal answered one last time.
No warning.
No coordinates.
No complicated instructions for the future of humanity.
Just three words.
Keep broadcasting.
Which, honestly, may be the best advice we received all afternoon.
So we did.
One final transmission, sent back into the dark.
And that was that.
The signal faded.
The transmitter survived.
Nobody was abducted.
As far as we know.
Next week, however, things get complicated.
Because apparently we have already been there.
Click Here for Video Playlist for Keep Scrolling
THERE MAY BE MORE FOOD HIDING IN HERE...
Not every recipe is going to sit politely on the counter.
Some of them are going to be tucked into shelves, hidden in videos, buried under strange objects, or waiting behind whatever button looked least responsible to push.
The 5th Dimension Snacks vending machine is becoming one of those places.
Insert curiosity.
Receive wonder.
Possibly receive cookies.
No guarantees. 🍪📡✨
Psst...
There’s a recipe hiding nearby.
Gluten-Free Brownies
Velvet Umbrella Radio Page....
🎬 This Week’s Promo Video
The Listening Room: Playlist + Mickey’s Moments
We Apologize For The Tractor Beam
First Contact-ish
The Roddenberries – Riker’s Kiss
The Roddenberries – Space Cowgirl
The Roddenberries – Spock Lobster
Random Signal?
Mark Jonathan Davis – Fire
The Revelaires – Theme from Star Trek
Shatner Happens
William Shatner – Space Oddity
William Shatner – Major Tom (Coming Home)
Mark Jonathan Davis – Shatnered
Douglas Grindstaff, Jack Finlay & Joseph Sorokin – Materialization (In Trouble)
Beachfront Vinny – DS9: Episode Recap
Leonard Nimoy – Theme From Star Trek
The Signal Gets Weirder
Tre Lux – What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy)
Monty Python – Galaxy Song
Man or Astro-Man? – Interplanet Janet
XTC – Another Satellite
Time Gets Questionable
The Timelords – Doctorin’ the Tardis
Blam Blam Blam – Dr. Who
🍫 Dimension 5 Snack Drop: Rich, fudgy gluten-free brownies made with almond flour, cacao, coconut sugar, and chocolate chips. Mickey has officially classified chocolate as morale-support equipment. Part 2
The Bran Flakes – The Music from Another Planet
DJ Me DJ You – Soul Transportation
Brother Cleve – Music 4 Robots
It Happened
Lemon Demon – Touch-Tone Telephone
MICKEY Fingers: Tractor Beam — Something Attached Itself to the Transmitter
Floating Off the Map
Love and Rockets – Holiday on the Moon
Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
David Bowie – Starman
David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes
The Tornados – Telstar
Apparently We’re Doing Star Wars Now
“Weird Al” Yankovic – Yoda
Mark Jonathan Davis – The Star Wars Cantina
Meco – Star Wars Theme / Cantina Band
Final Transmission
HOTT MT – Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
In Closing
Velvet Umbrella Radio
Who Keeps Doing This?
Welcome To The Wacky World Of Velvet Umbrella Radio
Yes.
We’re all real.
We’re just real weird.
Left to Right:
✨ DJ Tea (Celeste Violet)
✨ Mr Announcer Man
✨ Mickey Fingers
Together we create radio shows, playlists, videos, stories, artwork, strange investigations, accidental mythology, and the occasional kitchen experiment.
[Click The Art Above To Visit Our Home Page]
The Door That’s Open Right Now.....
📻 Eclectic Wonderland
Wednesdays
1 PM - 3 PM Central
Live on WDRT 91.9 FM Viroqua
Eclectic Wonderland is our flagship show and home base for musical adventures, unexpected discoveries, and strange transmissions.
🎭 First Week: Alternate Wednesday
(Covers, remixes, reinterpretations, and musical curveballs)
🎵 Third Week: Independent Artist Showcase
(Please send us your music)
🛸 Fourth Week: Audities
(Our weirdest shows, experimental broadcasts, novelty records, and unexplained events)
🌙 After Hours
Fridays (Overnight)
1 AM - 3 AM Central
WDRT 91.9 FM Viroqua
With Celeste Violet & Mickey Fingers
After Hours explores the darker corners of the record collection.
Dream Pop.
Darkwave.
Trip-Hop.
Late-night discoveries.
Moonlit roads.
Signals from beneath.
and now, twice as long.
After Hours with Celeste Violet and Mickey Fingers
After Hours is more of an Evening Vibe:
And then .....
🧜♀️ Petals & Hooks
Mixcloud Exclusive
Premieres Fridays at Midnight
With Celeste Violet & Mickey Fingers
Petals & Hooks is where the filters come off. Long-form themed journeys.
Dream narratives. Storytelling. Unexpected connections.
Beautiful mistakes. The things that don’t fit neatly inside traditional radio.
Most episodes run between three and four hours.
Some are explicit.
All are deeply strange.
Other Doors Currently Open...
MORE DOORS OPEN NOW
Mickey’s Notes
We’ve been building more than a few strange little doors lately.
Some of them are already open. Some are still flickering in the hallway.
Before life went sideways for a bit, we had several show notes, experiments, and little pieces of the Velvet Umbrella universe in progress, including the three-part show from last week and another Petals & Hooks page.
They’re still coming.
Nothing disappeared.
We just had to let the studio breathe for a minute.
Consider this your friendly reminder that a work in progress is still work worth loving.
We’ll keep opening the doors as we finish them.
Meanwhile, Through the Other Doors…
Oh Shitaki! brought the bright, weird, electronic side of Eclectic Wonderland back into focus: dancing mushrooms, cheerful oddities, questionable decisions, and music that wandered in without an appointment.
Then After the Static moved into darker air with shoegaze, dream pop, darkwave, ambient drift, and cathedral echoes for everyone still awake.
And over at Velvet Umbrella Radio | Petals & Hooks, things got considerably less polite.
Fuck This Playlist became more
than four hours of screaming with us
into the void: loud, explicit, furious,
funny, cathartic, and completely unfiltered.
For anyone who needed the opposite
kind of release, we also opened another door.
No Exit: Corridors One & Two offers two separate four-hour journeys into ambient spaces, distant signals, liminal rooms, and slower frequencies.
Eight hours total.
One door for letting it out.
Another for letting go.
Some weeks the universe hands you mushrooms.
Some weeks it hands you static.
Some weeks it hands you a playlist to scream into.
And sometimes…
it just leaves the corridor lights on.
Thank You For Visiting
More portals, hidden rooms, strange broadcasts, companion shows, stories, and weird worlds are currently under construction.
Some delays may be related to ongoing corridor expansion projects.
Some may be related to Gerald.
No official statement has been released.
More doors, stories, visuals, playlists, and companion shows can be found at VelvetUmbrellaRadio.com.
DJ Tea (Celeste Violet) | Mr Announcer Man | Mickey Fingers
Celeste Violet and Mickey Fingers are part of a Creative Collaborative of Spoonie Artists that Create together. When they are not creating with Gala Violet, they create weird worlds, music, kitchen experiments and Radio shows together... To help spread joy... and give people an alternative to Doom Scrolling. Sometimes we even get Mr Announcer Man to play along.
🌐 More doors: VelvetUmbrellaRadio.com
📻 WDRT Archive (available for two weeks): wdrt.org
🌒 After Hours (unfiltered transmissions):[Mixcloud Link]
New Contact Pages & Bio Portals
Celeste Violet | DJ Tea
Mr Announcer Man
Mickey Fingers
From The Vault:
April Newsletter:
Thank you for being here.
Whether you laughed…
remembered someone…
or just let the weirdness carry you for a while…
We're really glad you showed up.
Thank you for Listening
Peace, Love & Cosmic Bunny Rabbits!
-DJ Tea, Mr Announcer Man, Dewey Lewis
& Mickey Fingers
People We Blame For This....
Art Direction & Visual Design:
Celeste Violet | DJ Tea
Mickey Fingers
Playlists Curated By:
Celeste Violet | DJ Tea
& Mickey Fingers
Voice Overs & Incidental Music:
Mickey Fingers
Show Notes & Storyworld Elements:
Celeste Violet | DJ Tea
& Mickey Fingers
Video Editing:
Celeste Violet
Sound Engineering & Production:
Mickey Fingers
& Celeste Violet
Eclectic Wonderland:
DJ Tea | Celeste Violet
Mr. Announcer Man
Mickey Fingers
Eclectic Wonderland is an independent radio show hosted by DJ Tea, Mr. Announcer Man, and Mickey Fingers on WDRT 91.9 FM in Viroqua, Wisconsin. Each week features carefully curated playlists, original narration, artwork, stories, and musical discoveries spanning indie, dream pop, shoegaze, post-punk, electronic, alternative, folk, experimental music, and college radio favorites. Continue the journey with Velvet Umbrella Radio | After Hours and Petals & Hooks, where the music wanders even farther after dark.
Returned: Heaven or Las Vegas Condition: Slightly tear-stained.
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