Star search

Just call him Cosmo. He’s the creator of a long-running Portland, Ore.-based cable access TV show that delves into the mysteries of intelligent life on other planets—and on our own. A recent transplant to Reno, Cosmo has brought his show, The Cosmic Connection, to the Sierra Nevada Cable Access Network. The show consists of taped episodes of older call-in programs for now, and it airs at 10 p.m. Mondays on SNCAT’s Channel 16. Cosmo and his newly recruited Reno production team are already at work on a series of new shows from the Silver State. You can view selected Web casts of the show at www.extranettv.com or visit tvufo.tripod.com for more info.

How’d you get into UFOs?

I had a sighting in May 1987, in Las Vegas. I saw nine cobalt-blue orbs with a white halo around each one. They were flying in a V-formation from west to east over the Strip.

What did you think they were?

Something not of this Earth. It was definitely technology we don’t have.

So you started a TV show?

First, I started calling a radio talk show, Billy Goodman Happenings. I started telling him, on a nightly basis, things about UFOs. He hired me as his producer. It was a 50,000-watt radio station, and the show was aired in 12 states—the Western United States. We made Area 51 a household name. And we broke the Bob Lazar story.

Bob Lazar?

Yeah, he was a scientist at Area 51 who back-engineered flying saucers. They took saucers that the U.S. government had at Area 51, and they tried to see how they work. They test-flew them in Project Redlight. Humans flying alien craft at Groom Lake.

And then you started a TV show?

After two years, I moved to Portland. In July 1993, I had my first show, a one-hour, call-in talk show. I found I had a future in broadcasting. I got to interview interesting people, like Betty Hill. Betty and Barney Hill were supposedly abducted in 1961.

Supposedly?

I treat everything with a healthy skepticism. But Betty Hill, in the 1960s, drew a star map that later proved to show positions of stars that weren’t discovered until the 1970s. And she described the alien abduction procedures—something like amniocentesis—before that was being done. She thinks her ovaries were taken from her by the aliens. Life magazine did a story on the Hills in 1965 or thereabouts.

Have you had any odd sightings here?

In September, I saw triangles in Fallon.

So you’re liking this area?

Absolutely. I’m looking forward to the show. People have been really friendly here.