A Favorite, Scary Memory From The KLAQ Haunted Warehouse

The KLAQ Haunted Houses Of Terror are back so here's a flashback to the very first one.

One haunted house wasn’t good enough, we wanted 2 and they’re both awesome. We’ve been doing this for 26 years now so, trust me, we’ve learned some stuff.

The first KLAQ haunted house was actually a haunted “warehouse” that we designed and staffed ourselves. It was on San Antonio street in what had been the Commercial Sales building. To be honest, I think that location really was haunted. It’s long gone now but, back then, was kind of the Harbor Freight of its day.

I was on air from 7 – midnight back then and would do my show live from the waiting area which was a blast. I had a front row seat to all the people waiting to go through the warehouse and watching their tension build as they heard all the screams and scary noises from within was hysterical.

Those noises were a combination of music, scary sound effects, screams ... real and recorded ... and, occasionally, they would hear a chainsaw buzzing. The character with the chainsaw wandered all over the house but stayed primarily near the exit.

All while classic horror movies played on several tv screens and folks tried to stay calm. Many of them were guys trying to soothe their dates while you could clearly see that they themselves were about to lose it.

One of my favorite memories from those days was the time I noticed two young girls waiting to go through who were already scared to death.

They were both debating whether or not to go through with it and I offered to escort them if they would wait until I could step away from the broadcast area.

This caused them to wait even longer and get even more worked up.They informed me their biggest concern was being touched by the characters which I assured them would not happen.

I told them over and over again that the characters not only wouldn’t but couldn’t touch them. There were barriers in most places and all were under orders not to touch the victims, err guests.

When I could finally take them through, they were white as ... well ... ghosts and shaking. It was great. Little did they know I had a plan.

I had spoken with one of the characters about them and had arranged for him to leap out, grab me, pull me into his area and pretend to attack me. About 1/3 of the way in, he did it. He roared, I yelled and the fake beating commenced.

I have never in my life seen two girls move as fast as they did. Track stars couldn’t have cleared out of their any faster.

They ran but with no idea where they were running to. Screaming the whole way they dashed from one character or display to another, desperately trying to find their way out while things kept happening around them.

Props going off, actors playing their parts and ... at the end ... the guy with the chainsaw finished off their evening.

I never saw them again.

And I seriously doubt they ever went through another haunted house again.