On The Road To Roswell 2008: A Discussion With Syndicated Broadcaster Jerry Pippin

Editors note: This is part of a special series of Raiders News Network interviews focusing on the 61st Anniversary of the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico UFO Incident. Tom Horn is joined by syndicated radio host Jerry Pippin, once named Billboard magazine's "Disc Jockey of the Year" and whose award-winning program The Jerry Pippin Show has been recognized worldwide as one of the very best.

HORN: Jerry, first let me say thank you for doing this interview. I know you are very busy and I want to get right to the subject of Roswell. But first, you have a fascinating background not everybody may be aware of including at one time being a stand-up comedian. Tell us about that and how you wound up in broadcasting.

PIPPIN: Well actually Tom, I was in broadcasting first and always have been a broadcaster. I started in radio while in high school at my local radio station KBIX in Muskogee, Oklahoma, interestingly enough my last live shows were on that same station. But to the stand up comedy gig.

I always did a little stand up comedy in my personal appearances as a radio personality when there was an audience and it was appropriate. In Oklahoma City I worked with a disc jockey by the name of Bobby Sessions, he did as good of impressions as anyone in the business. We used to do bits on the air where I would have him as President Carter, Reagan, etc. etc. We started doing comedy together and when WKY changed formats in the early 80s in Oklahoma City, I had a syndicated show called the "Comedy Radio Network" and the format was simple, we interviewed a comic and played comedy records.

The Comedy Club in Tulsa was a showcase place, best room I have ever seen for comedy. It was available to purchase because the state of Oklahoma had just gone to liquor by the drink. The owners couldn't get a license and being a nice Baptist boy, I could qualify. So I bought the place. We had it for almost three years before I decided to get back into broadcasting full time with an offer for a job from KVEG which was a 50,000 watt AM station in Las Vegas. They offered me a good slot and good money and great opportunity so I closed all the clubs which by that time I either owned or operated four of them, Arlington, Texas very briefly, Little Rock, Arkansas, Lincoln, Nebraska and Tulsa.

HORN: Every year a highlight at the Roswell Festival are the live radio shows you do. How long have you been doing this from Roswell and how did it get started?

PIPPIN: This is our fifth year. It got started by me simply deciding that would be a good place to go and check it out. Our format has always included "going places and doing things." So I asked Roberta Scott my producer to jump in a car and go to Roswell with me. We just showed up unannounced and did some shows from the Museum and our hotel room.

HORN: Jesse Marcel Jr. wrote a book that came out last year called Roswell: What Really Happened. His story about the crash site material that his Dad brought home and showed him and his mother has remained consistent over a long period of time. To this day he insists the wreckage was not anything like the official explanations, balloons and so on. What do you think really happened in Roswell in 1947?

PIPPIN: I think there was a UFO crash with some dead ETs and maybe a live one. If I were a lawyer I could win a case for this using all of the circumstantial evidence. It is overwhelming and why Peter Jennings called it "myth" is beyond me.

HORN: How do you compare the Roswell spirit with other places with UFO history such as Rachel, Nevada outside area 51 and the like?

PIPPIN: It's pretty much the same only Roswell is bigger and not as isolated as Area 51. I think the Roswell folks are doing a great service to humanity while doing a nice job of promoting their town.

HORN: What was the most surprising thing about Roswell for you once you started doing shows about it?

PIPPIN: Nothing really surprising other than the way major businesses like WalMart and McDonald's use the UFO theme. I think it is refreshing and a good thing.

HORN: It's been 61 years of Roswell history in the media. What differences have you noticed in coverage over the years?

PIPPIN: Two things really, more of it, more coverage but the coverage is more of the same, some serious looks at it but lots of unfounded skepticism by other stories and features. I think by and large Roswell is the center piece for UFO history as far as the public is concerned.

HORN: I've seen a strange dichotomy recently where on the one hand researchers say we are in the greatest UFO flap in history including some very persuasive sightings by professionals, members of the military, airline pilots etc. And yet there are some who are saying now that the whole UFO issue is dead. What do you make of the debunkers and discounters of the UFO evidence?

PIPPIN: I think the UFO issue is far from dead. I have never really heard that, I have noticed a resignation of the debunking types that they are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the people.

HORN: In the several interviews I have done with Marcel on radio and as a news reporter, I asked him a question that often comes up about UFOs and religion. Jesse is a devout Catholic and like some of the high profile church astronomers that have been in the news recently talking about the possibility of intelligent alien life, he agrees that contact with extraterrestrials or some other proof of their existence is not in conflict with church's teachings. Have you given much thought to this question concerning the ramifications of what Roswell may truly represent?

PIPPIN: Personally it does not impact my religious beliefs. I am surprised that many think it does. All they have to do is read the old testament and there are lots of words about encounters with creatures, angels, devils, machines, vehicles in the air.

HORN: Following Vatican chief astronomer Father Jose Gabriel Funes interview saying it's okay for Catholics to believe in Aliens, I wrote an article called Is the Vatican easing humanity toward alien disclosure? I pointed out how Funes was just the latest in a string of Vatican authorities including Guy Consolmagno, Monsignor Corrado Balducci, the now deceased Father Malachi Martin and others who in recent history provided carefully crafted language that almost seems to be designed to help church faithful face the possibility of ET contact. Consolmagno went so far as to the say the chances of finding ET are now better than not. Do you think the Vatican has ET evidence of some kind?

PIPPIN: I really have not a clue about what they know and what they don't. I am sorry but I am not concerned much with them. What they say really has impact on what really is. That's my opinion whether people like it or not. I just think reality takes over in all religions sooner or later.

HORN: What do you make of the latest Indiana Jones film and its ties to Roswell.

PIPPIN: I haven't seen it yet. I want to get time to go to the movie and see it. The crystal skulls thing is very interesting to me, we have done many shows on it over the years.

HORN: Then I won't spoil it for you, but I think you'll be surprised at the Roswell connection. David Flynn is presenting at Roswell this year too. His lecture will be based on an amazing article he wrote for Raiders News Network and which we also got published in UFO Magazine. The name of the article was An Occult Translation of the Roswell Event and the Year 2012. I don't know if you read it, but he tied the Mountain of Horeb which he calls a place where ET descended once before (the legend of the Watchers), the measurements 33.33 and 2012, directly with the crash site of Roswell. His bottom line is that the Roswell crash site is, in his mind, an intelligent marker pointing to the year 2012 and the return of the Watchers / aliens. Have you heard about this, and if not, do you think there could have been some mystical value to the actual location of the crash site?

PIPPIN: I hope to have David on our shows form Roswell this year, which will be recorded at the Civic Center there, Thursday and Friday, July 3 and 4 from 2:00 to 5:00, Saturday from 4:00 to 7:00 and Sunday from 9:00 to Noon. We have room for a studio audience and they can ask questions. The shows will be available on the web site, www.jerrypippin.com usually the same day. I love the ideas you and David bring up here; I guess if we are lucky we will be here to see if its true or not.  

HORN: If there were a UFO crash today near a city like Roswell which was next to an Air Base, do you think it could be covered up today?

PIPPIN: First of all, they would try to cover it up. Some member of the USG don't like the public knowing anything, it might come back to impact their retirement. It's that simple. However I would hope if it happened today I would know about it and I would be on the next plane there to have a show on www.jerrypippin.com within hours.

HORN: On another note. I will be at the Burlington Vortex Conference in October and I see that Stan Friedman, yourself and Farah Yurdozu will also be there. Will you be broadcasting from there?

PIPPIN: We will be broadcasting from there for sure. We will be doing a presentation as well. We have done one in Dallas on the same subject, UFOs and Shows I have done, 45 years on the edge. We present a lot of stuff that is designed not only for the UFO experts but to bring everyone up to speed on this story of the generations, of the centuries really. Farah Yurdozu has been associated with us for as long as Roswell or maybe even a little longer, a wonderful woman and very very intelligent. Ask her about her trip to the desert with Roberta and me in the middle of the night and the encounter with the wolves.

HORN: I will be interviewing Farah during this series, too, and I will ask her about that. Well Jerry, thank you so much for taking time to talk with me today.

Pippin: It's my pleasure and thanks for asking me. Tom Horn you do good work.