An hour of radio stories that aired originally on June 10, 2005… stories dedicated to the subtle and vampiric lure of the virtual world…

This is Xavier Naldo, the Vin Diesl of PC Gamers. Yo Xavier, pimp my PC!

***THE SIGNAL AIRS FRIDAYS AT NOON & 7 P.M. ON 88.1 WYPR***

(Click here for mp3’s of some recent stories from the show. And PODCASTERS, click here for a link to subscribe to The Signal’s weekly podcast.)

• We’ll visit Greenbelt, Maryland, where a group of hardcore PC gamers settle in for a 14-hour video game marathon
• We’ll meet a cadre of cyber-artists who get paid to play video games at Firaxis Headquarters in Hunt Valley
• We’ll hear the story of an ill-fated sci-fi cyber-romance that blurs the boundary between fantasy and reality
• And a conversation with author Lev Grossman about his novel CODEX, which poses the question: Is there even a difference between “real life” and the virtual world?

These gamers are wired together in a fire hall in Greenbelt, Maryland, for a fourteen-hour video game marathon.

A rebroadcast of a program that we originally aired on 01.26.07…

…the view from the railroad trestle where Mark Schawandtner was murdered in 1978. The murderer, Billy Isaacs, was put away by the testimony of mobster-turned-informant, Charlie Wilhelm.

***THE SIGNAL AIRS FRIDAYS AT NOON & 7 P.M. ON 88.1 WYPR***

(Click here for mp3’s of some recent stories from the show. And PODCASTERS, click here for a link to subscribe to The Signal’s weekly podcast.)

This week, the story of one man’s journey into an underworld of organized crime, and his subsequent attempt to escape it.

At one time in his life, Charlie Wilhelm was a loan shark, a drug dealer, and a bookmaker. He raked in ten thousand dollars a week, cash. But when he was ordered to murder two friends, he took himself (and all of his information) to the FBI. Wilhelm turned informant, wearing a wire and later testifying against his former partners in crime, putting them behind bars for years to come.

We’ll meet Charlie Wilhelm, and we’ll hear his reflections on crime, loyalty, and redemption this week on The Signal.

(Here’s a link to the book Wised Up: A Mobster’s Gritty Tale of Murder and Revenge on the Mean Streets, co-authored by Charlie Wilhelm and former Sun reporter Joan Jacobson.)