I love watching all these YouTube videos of local hosts that I never would have otherwise heard of.
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It truly is a folksy artform, both local and universal at the same time. Did you have one growing up that you watched?
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I didn’t! I moved around a lot growing up in the 80s and missed out… I only remember watching Elvira and later… Rhonda Shears on USA Up All Night. Ha.
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Fair dues, and Elvira is great anyway! It was a different world when UHF was still a regular thing. 
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Doctor Madblood was my guy when I was a kid (and later on, thanks to his many revivals) so fistbump for you, my friend:
Later, thanks to my weird TV antenna, I was able to pick up Doctor Gruesome’s Movie Morgue out of Richmond VA (I’m glad they’re putting up their old episodes on YouTube now–without the movies, but still) and I’ve done some horror host tape trading in my day–Ghoulardi, Svengoolie (both of 'em) and Crematia Mortem are favorites of mine.
ALSO–not a horror host, but I have to rep hard for NIGHT FLIGHT. It has been part of the things that make my lifelong insomnia tolerable. 
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Not a local, but I interviewed Sir Cophagus for a horror website I write for and he’s pretty fun.
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And can we have a nostalgia shout out to the days of antenna and when as kid with the right weather conditions and your antenna angled just right you could pick up stations in other cities that had completely different tv shows and movies you could watch!
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That’s how I got to watch Dr. Gruesome in Richmond VA from North Carolina, despite the fact that I SHOULD be able to pick up Dr. Madblood in Norfolk VA, based on geography.
But that only happened on rainy nights, for some reason.
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That was fun. An early taste of secret access to the forbidden.
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Doctor San Guinary’s Creature Feature. Omaha, NE in the 70’s and 80’s. I’m not sure if the show is still around or when it ended. Spent many a late night watching really bad horror movies and listening to very corny jokes. Look how I turned out!
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There was another horror movie show in the 70/80s in Nebraska. It might have been on public access. The show wasn’t really hosted but during the breaks they would air a short clip with no dialogue of a vampire (Vinny?) and his werewolf pal (or minion. Probably not lover in those days). Reply if you have any idea on this. Or it could just be a damaged memory from not living a wholesome lifestyle. Fun, though.
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Count Gore De Vol was a regular on channel 20 in DC for a long time. When that went away he moved to doing his show online. He also was regularly doing special showings of movies at the AFI Silver theater in Silver Spring and he hits the local con circuit as well. He’s a pretty nice dude and he clearly loves what he does. Count Gore De Vol
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I’ve recently discovered Creature Features, with host Vincent Van Dahl on YouTube. It’s some kind of continuation/homage to the show from the Bay Area which aired in the '70s and '80s.
It really reminds me of watching my childhood host, Sammy Terry. It’s well done with a number of movies that have been MST3K experiments. There’s often interesting guests as well.
For example, this week’s show is The Crawling Eye with guest Linda Miller from King Kong Escapes.
There’s also the YouTube channel which has a trove of previous episodes.
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In Memphis we had the great Sivad, alter ego of Watson Davis. His show got to be one of the top-rated shows in the region, for a while ran two nights a week, and for another period was a double-feature. He had a car in the Christmas parade. My brother and I were floored when we learned his name was ours spelled backwards.
I do my own creature feature homage on my YouTube channel, PickleBoot Arts.
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Certainly not. A vampire and a werewolf as a couple just wouldn’t fly in those days.
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Speaking of odd couples, here’s a bit of one of my friend’s favorite horror hosts from Wichita, The Host & Rodney:
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Yup. I’ve recently discovered the new Creature Features and love it. I follow them on their Roku app and via Youtube. I love the chemistry and humor between the hosts. Even got a poster, t-shirt and shoot them a little patreon money each month.
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Oh yay, just discovered this book! Picked up a copy, will see if it’s any good. Doctor Madblood has his own chapter, so I’m hopeful.
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I loved this book so much! I was glad Madblood got his own chapter, and it allowed me to discover other hosts like Crematia Mortem and Ghoulardi.
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I have it, it’s a good book.
Ever see the documentary Virginia Creepers (video on Amazon - it’s a documentary on Virginia based horror hosts. (I bought it on DVD years ago.)
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