By: Hanna Stock & Ben Helwig
MavRadiowill be back on Halloween night for its seventh year to host Haunted Heartland where investigative journalists uncover some of Omaha’s chilling hauntings and untold stories.
Haunted Heartland started back in 2012 as a project in Jodeane Brownlee’s Radio II class.
It was meant to be a one-time project, but it has since grown into the notorious radio broadcast produced on campus.
“The first one is always the Guineapig, but I thought the first year it ran so smoothly without a hitch,” said Megan Reider, UNO alum and radio host at Omaha’s Z92 The Rock Station.
Each year the bar raises, and students try to top the stories from previous years. “What’s gotten better over the years with the classes after mine is the creativity,” said Reider.
“They all one up each other every year, that’s not the goal but the students just naturally know how to step it up and the stories just get more and more creative.”
Reider remembers her first Haunted Heartland story where she took a Ouija board that she gotfor free on Craigslist and played it at Hummel Park for her segment.
“I’d never used one before and growing up Catholic that was a no no, but YOLO!” said Reider.
Not only do the students get to be creative and have fun with their stories butgetting hands on experiencewith programs that are used in the broadcasting industry is priceless.
