By James H. Nichols

"Mr. Loman, I’d be more than happy to let you use my UFO art on your TV program, but I have no intention whatsoever to sit in front of a television camera myself!"

Was I getting through to this guy? The chap sitting across from me in my apartment living room was affable, engaging and insistent. He wore a black patch over one eye like a movie pirate. A recent metallurgical accident had virtually cost him his sight. But here before me sat a blind man determined to produce, of all things, his own television show. I had to admire his grit, but his proposal to include me as a co-host was absolutely ludicrous!

Peggy, Ted, Jim at the Roswell crash site.

Do-it-yourself television? Yes, indeed! Public Access Television. The Tucson city fathers in a rare fit of political acumen had set aside tax dollars to provide a production facility where any innovative, ambitious ‘Ted’ off the street could come in and be trained to direct and shoot and air his very own television show. And that’s exactly what Mr. Ted Loman planned to do—with my assistance… He had this grand idea to do a show all about UFOs. I could see he wasn’t going to take No for an answer. He threw his best schmooze into gear. I learned later he once sold used cars. His practiced charm and persistence were wearing me down.

"Look, we’ll only do eight shows or so, and we won’t even do them live." He insisted. "All you have to do is help me tape the ten minute introductions. If we goof-up we can just re-tape it." Finally to humor this guy and send him on his way… I reluctantly agreed. This was the summer of 1991.

Little did I realize I was embarking with Ted on a project that would involve us for the next six years with an award winning program that would be aired on Public Access channels in American cities from coast to coast! ‘UFOAZ Talks’… the longest running ‘live’ UFO talk-show in the country!

Well, yes. I did have some background in UFO research—but as an artist. From about 1972 until about 1980 I’d been struggling at a career as a painter of Southwestern landscapes. Cactus, mountains and skies filled my canvases. Seemed the natural thing to paint living in Tucson, Arizona. But often when I’d finish a scene of desert, stark with sagebrush and saguaro, I’d think to myself—it just needs a flying saucer! Now, I grew-up a kid of the Fifties. Back in those days flying saucers were a staple same as cheeseburgers and french fries! I lived for the afternoon TV movies like War of the Worlds, Earth vs. Flying Saucers, Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still and It Came from Outer Space. So many of those old movies showed UFOs flying over barren desert it just seemed sort of natural to stick one in my landscape paintings. So I did. By the late Seventies with the release of films like Star Wars and Close Encounters, I found myself inspired to do more and more paintings of science fiction themes. But by the spring of 1980 I had a fateful encounter of my own…

Ted, Peggy, Jim in Rachel, Nevada.

One day while prowling the shelves in Walden Books at the mall, I spied a remarkable find. A large, full-color picture book on UFOs, titled UFO: Contact from the Pleiades. A far cry from the fuzzy, grainy, indistinct UFO snapshots we were used to—these were clear, sharp, color pictures taken by a farmer in Switzerland who claimed the craft had ‘posed’ for his camera. The photos were too good to be true, but enthralling just the same! I bought a copy and read it cover to cover. Aside from the photos it was the story of the American research team that trekked all the way to the Swiss countryside to verify this farmer’s incredible story. The team was assembled by a retired Air Force Lt. Col., who by the merest coincidence, just happened to live in Tucson, Arizona! His name was Wendelle Stevens. Within a week of purchasing that book, through an odd synchronous sequence of events, I found myself at the home of Mr. Stevens—learning firsthand the extraordinary tale of Eduard ‘Billy’ Meier’s visit with beings from the Pleiades star cluster!

Wendelle Stevens made an indelible first-impression. Despite my apprehensions, he was not the typical ‘New Age’ looney I was expecting. He was a retired, career, military officer—a combat pilot from World War II—who for thirty years had been investigating the UFO phenomenon. For Wendelle, UFOs were serious business. Over those many years he had amassed the largest archive of UFO photos in the world. I found him articulate and energetic with a keen, detective’s gift for observing meticulous detail. At the time he was still immersed in the Meier investigation. The Swiss contact which had begun in 1975 was continuing on a regular basis,

With the infectious enthusiasm of a school-kid, Wendelle showed me portfolios of additional unpublished photos from the case. Independent analysis of the photos confirmed they were images of a large object taken at some distance from the camera. Double exposed paste-ups or suspended models had been ruled out. Instead of a hoax, the evidence seemed to suggest the case was legitimate. If so, the implications were staggering! Here was proof at last the humans of earth were not alone in the universe! The most important revelation in the history of the entire planet… and I was in on it!! Well, after a couple hours in Wendelle’s study, I was hooked! I had to know all about UFOs, particularly the ones visiting from the Pleiades. Over the ensuing ten years I became one of the premier illustrators of flying saucers in the country.

It was my UFO art that brought me to the attention of Mr. Ted Loman. Now, understand I was an artist… content to pursue my craft in the blissful solitude of my studio. My paintings conveyed my message. I had not the slightest ambition or inclination to sit under the glaring spotlights and unblinking camera stare of a TV studio. Just the thought of such a fate was terrifying! No, indeed! You won’t catch me at any such foolishness! But irrepressible Ted had other plans…What was it Shakespeare said? "There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, roughhew them how we will…"

With ten years experience as something of a UFO investigator myself, Ted figured I’d be just the guy to help him co-host this crazy TV project. And indeed, much to my horror, I found myself in a studio at Tucson Community Cable Corp., at the mercy of that relentless camera just struggling to make coherent sentences. Okay, Ted—are you happy now? Let’s just get this agony over with!

Well, as destiny would have it, a little incident transpired that tweaked my Irish and totally reversed my reluctance to pursue a television project with Ted. It happened at the First World UFO Congress held in Tucson in the spring of 1991. Wendelle Stevens had promoted an extravaganza unprecedented in it’s scope. He assembled researchers from all over the world—the Soviet Union, England, Germany, Spain, Japan, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Brazil as well as the United States to share their findings on potentially the most important issue in human history public at large. If but one of the dozens of cases under review at that conference was literal fact—it would prove the news story of the Millennium! Right?

On the first day of that week-long event a press conference was held. It was open to all the Tucson media, newspapers, TV, radio. Reporters from the local affiliates of the big networks, ABC, CBS and NBC were there—and to a man the press sat in stony, icy silence. They had no questions for any of the visiting investigators… not even the Soviet Cosmonaut. Ted and I were there too and we were dumbfounded! It was obvious the professional ‘media’ had already made up it’s mind as to what was fit and newsworthy for the public—and UFOs were not on that agenda. On the evening news all that was shown of the conference were venders selling crystals, t-shirts and ‘alien’ coffee mugs. The whole thing was dismissed as comic, ‘woo-woo’ nonsense. I was grossly offended—not just a UFO investigator—but as a private citizen as well. Was this how we got our ‘news’? Was this how the press really worked? I thought the role of the press was to report the facts of a story and let the public make-up it’s own mind. Surely the investigations coming to light at this conference were ‘newsworthy’ to say the least! Well, once again, I’d been relieved of another cherished, idealistic fantasy—media trust!

Now, how many times in your life do you have the opportunity to tell the story the big networks—CBS, ABC, and NBC refuse to tell? Ted and I with UFOAZ had just that opportunity, and we ran with it…! For me our show was no longer just an idle pastime—it was a crusade! Bring this information to the public and let the rank and file make up it’s own mind—the responsible roll the national media should have been performing all along!

Public Access Television—the last bastion of free speech in America. NO commercials. You don’t have Bristol Meyers, or General Motors, or Texaco, or Bank of America telling you what to say or how to say it. All the news that’s print to fit! Ted had access to all the video-taped lectures from the conference and that became the UFOAZ mission, to air the untold story of the First World UFO Congress. Now, exactly how much credibility Ted and I leant to the subject with our bumbling introductions I leave to the judgment of posterity. On camera with myself decked out in an old T-shirt and Ted with his cheeks puffed full of tobacco I fear we may have done our lecturers more harm than good. We were not a threat to Peter Jennings just yet! Thank God for video tape—yes, we made lots of goof-ups and yes, we did lots of re-takes, but somehow we managed to shoot some fairly useable introductions. I’d actually survived it all and happily thought I was about to get off the hook when I discovered a little taste of ‘show-biz’ had only made Ted hungry for more…

A Friday evening slot became available for an hour ‘live’ show—Ted couldn’t resist!

"Oh, no!" I protested. "I’ve done my bit for God and country—you said we wouldn’t do live TV! I’ve done the taped shows just like you asked, but NO way am I gonna do live television!"

Of course Ted ignored my protests and just laid on the schmooze even thicker to keep me aboard. I must have agreed. I did that first live show, but I have no conscious recollection of being there. It’s said under moments of extreme terror the mind slips into temporary amnesia. Somehow I must have survived. Well, for the reluctant co-host the stage-fright gradually subsided and it began to dawn that perhaps Ted and I had blundered into a ‘destiny’ experience. UFOAZ Talks, from that point, seemed to take on a life of it’s own.

The weekly production was all Ted’s. He was the ring-master—the ‘Ed Sullivan’ of UFOs. With his disability he had free time to devote to all the technical preparation--lighting, set design, audio, control room—he had a full production crew at his command—and there were no salaries paid. This was strictly a volunteer labor of love. That’s just how public access TV works—time and effort donated. I had my own full-time job so my assistance was more limited. But together we’d brainstorm show topics, and to help-out we enlisted the assistance of another able co-host, Roger Scherrer, to keep the ball rolling.

And roll it did! We abandoned our grubby t-shirts for sports jackets and ties to give the show at least a pretense of class, and to lend a shred of respectability to our subject. It turned out that Ted was a natural born showman. He had a gift for television production and for networking with people around the country who were involved with UFO research. We’d developed good contacts with many of these people starting with Wendelle Stevens’ conference, and it grew from there. In those days New York publisher, Tim Beckley, was holding annual UFO conferences in nearby Phoenix, so packing cameras and microphones, the UFOAZ entourage would trek off to the Arizona capital and tape as many interviews as we could manage. Conferences like this were perfect for our show’s non-existent budget—they brought the international investigators to us… A local bookstore graciously provided space for Ted’s video editing work.

At that point the UFO phenomenon had been getting only meager attention in the national media. You were lucky to see one or two documentaries on the subject per year, so with UFOAZ we were trying to take up the slack. With our own research we’d discovered there was lots more to this mystery than was being told. But little did we realize at the start the tidal wave of stories we’d be riding for the next six years. What tales we told…

Beginning the very day our show premiered—7-11-91. In Mexico city, one of the world’s largest metropolitan centers, the populace was outdoors observing a full solar eclipse when a tiny bright object was seen hovering over the city. Despite the eerie mid-day twilight this was no star. Dozens of observers video-taping the eclipse caught this object as well. Taped footage that zoomed in on this sparkling light revealed a perfect little silver disc bobbing silently in the sky over Mexico city. This event was just a harbinger of on-going UFO activity to be witnessed throughout Mexico for the rest of the decade.

Robert O. Dean, retired Command Sergeant Major from the U.S. Army, also a Tucson resident and also with a background in UFO investigation, made national headlines in 1991 for being denied a promotion with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department due to his professed interest in UFO research. This civil rights violation led to a legal confrontation which Mr. Dean won. At that point Bob went public, in violation to his military career’s national security oath, and revealed Top Secret UFO information he had access to as an intelligence analyst for NATO in the mid-Sixties. He spoke of a multi-volume report titled, ‘An Assessment’, available only to the highest echelons of the NATO command which revealed UFOs were serious business and that earth was indeed being visited regularly by more than one group of extra-terrestrials. Bob had been a no-nonsense combat veteran and career soldier who’s life had been radically changed upon reading the ‘Assessment’ information. Gracious, intelligent and articulate, Bob became a welcome regular guest on our show and a dear friend. His support was a major contribution to the success of UZOAZ Talks.

But there was more… Alien abductions, cattle mutilations and crop circles. The decade abounded with such tales. There was the fantastic account of a Las Vegas physicist who claimed he worked at a secret military base in the Nevada desert where the government possessed a collection of captured alien saucers! Documents were surfacing which suggested a top-secret team had been assembled as far back as the Truman administration to study the UFO phenomenon. Film footage purporting to be the autopsy of a captured alien body became public. The myth was taking on even grander proportions with the popularity of TV fare like X-Files, Encounters and Sightings, not to mention movies like Independence Day, Contact and The Arrival. Of course, keeping pace with it all was… UFOAZ.

At last I’d found a practical use for that semester of journalism I took way back in high school. At various conventions we’d set-up our portable video camera and tape interviews… like skilled, seasoned professionals!

"Ask ‘em some questions," Ted would prod.

"You ask ‘em! I don’t know what to ask ‘em," I’d protest.

"No, go on. You ask ‘em," Ted insisted. "You know all about this stuff. I’ll run camera."

"Are you sure you can see well enough?" I’d ask with dubious reluctance.

"Yeah, I think I can see okay."

"Well, try to keep us in focus. All right?"

"No problem."

And off we’d go interrogating another hapless abductee or researcher—all grist for our mill. Sometimes in focus—sometimes not. I’d had an extraordinary opportunity dumped in my lap. With the parade of people before our cameras from all walks of life, from all over the world, each with their own fantastic experience to share—here was a chance to find out for myself just what this phenomenon was all about.

In early 1994 Roger Scherrer left UFOAZ for a TV show of his own, and was replaced briefly by Rick Kief. By this time our show was an award winning success, but still it lacked something... somehow, some indefinable essence was still missing. Aha! At last we discovered that magic ingredient! It just needed a woman’s touch! Peggy Kane had been a regular UFOAZ fan and a good family friend, who shared interest with us in a related UFO project underway at the time called ‘Stargate’. We boldly invited this lovely lady and talented artist to join us as co-host and she dared to accept. Her enthusiasm, grace and charm were just the sparkle the show needed. UFOs were not just a ‘guy thing’—she added a feminine point of view. The three of us together spun a remarkable synergy that defined the vitality of UFOAZ Talks. It was just great fun!

Little did this intrepid trio realize, but over the course of the ensuing three years they would find themselves on an investigative adventure that would take them to the desert wastes of New Mexico, to the very site of the famed, 1947 Roswell UFO crash and to the heavily guarded gates of the infamous Area-51 test site in Nevada. An adventure that would take me half-way around the world to stand in the midst of a mysterious crop circle in England. That would find my UFO art appearing on NBC’s Today Show, and would ultimately push Ted into the national spotlight on Larry King Live and the Geraldo Rivera talk show!

All this thanks to… UFOs. Unidentified Flying Objects, i.e. ‘flying saucers’—mysterious craft in our skies, reported by people from all walks of life, over the entire world, throughout the course of recorded history that cannot be accounted for by conventional ‘reality’. Their origin and purpose remain a total mystery… After seven years of weekly broadcasts UFOAZ Talks filed it’s last installment in December of 1997. And just what did Ted, Peggy and Jim conclude about UFOs after all their years of dedicated research…?

…There are mysterious craft in our skies, reported by people from all walks of life, over the entire world, throughout the course of recorded history that cannot be accounted for by conventional ‘reality’. Their origin and purpose remain a total mystery…

UFOAZ Talks was truly an excellent adventure…! Party on!!