Local 58
| Local 58 | |
|---|---|
| A website for the webseries Local58 | |
| Type | Official |
| Creator | Kris Straub |
| Discovered | 2021-09-13 |
Main Page > List of Investigations > Local 58
Local 58 is an online "analog horror" web series created by Kris Straub. The series can be viewed on YouTube on the official Local 58 YouTube channel.
Starting in September 2021, the official Local 58 website began updating with cryptic messages and clues. It is unknown what these clues may lead towards, but the ominous nature of many of the messages uncovered on the Local 58 website is in keeping with the tone of the series as a whole.
Contents
2021-09-13
On this date, Kris Straub (the creator of Local 58) tweeted the following:
[Local 58 is] far from over. genuinely surprised no one has found something that's been sitting for months with no comment.[1]
Shortly thereafter, some easter eggs were discovered on Local 58's 404 page. Note that most of these easter eggs have been since lost due to website updates. These easter eggs were as follows:
- A nearly-invisible span element at the bottom of the 404 page contained the following text: "© 2021 Thought Research Initiative LLC" (deleted after its discovery). Thought Research Initative is an entity in the Local 58 universe that appears in the Real Sleep episode of Local 58.
- The word "Server" in the HTTP server info string had a link leading to https://local58.tv/1244790000/ (deleted on 2021-09-15). This number was identified as a UNIX timestamp for June 12, 2009 - the day the FCC mandated that all broadcast stations switch to a digital format. This date is explicitly mentioned on the FCC page that was linked on the main Local 58 homepage as of 2021-09-13.
- The HTTP server info string read as follows:
Apogee/2.1.7 (Win32) PHP/5.2.13 Server at local58.tv Port 80
There is no publicly-available web server named "Apogee", but the word Apogee refers to "the point in the orbit of the moon, a planet or other object in space when it is furthest from the planet, for example the earth, around which it turns" according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The moon is of great significance in the Local 58 story. It is likely the word "Apogee" was chosen both for this reason and because it is a play on "Apache", a prominent web server. - A subtle "glitching" gif was found behind the word "Server" on the 404 page (deleted after its discovery). The filename for this image was "0000574544524f574e494e48494d.gif". Decoded from hex, this string reads as follows: "WEDROWNINHIM", which is similar to a phrase that was used in the Weather Service episode of Local 58. Removing the leading zeroes on this file name led to versions of the file that became progressively more "glitched" and distorted. Another file named "008ad7bd58e7556d95afa5528eb43113a9.gif" was also found commented out in the website files (though never actually displayed until later). These comments, and the file itself, were also deleted after its discovery. While the name of this GIF has not yet been meaningfully deciphered, removing the leading zeroes in the same manner as the first file led to progressively more intense versions of the glitch effect.
Discoveries from this date are also compiled in this Reddit post.
2021-09-23
On this date, the official Local 58 Twitter account tweeted the following:
ｌｉｋｅ ｈａｖｉｎｇ ａ ｔｅｌｅｖｉｓｉｏｎ ｓｔｕｄｉｏ ｉｎｓｉｄｅ ｙｏｕｒ ｈｏｕｓｅ[2]
This tweet prompted users prompted to check out the Local 58 website, which had been replaced with a banner for a service called "LookBack Web Archive". This banner appeared to be a play on real web archiving services like the Wayback Machine.
After the 10 seconds had elapsed, users were redirected to https://local58.tv/null. This webpage revealed the following image:
A distorted QR code can be found on the TV screen in the bottom right corner of the image. When cleaned and scanned, this QR code reads the following text:
a predator cannot differentiate prey from accompliceThis text was found to be the the caption on one of Kris Straub's Instagram posts, though this caption was deleted from the Instagram post shortly after its discovery.
2021-09-30
On this date, the official Local 58 Twitter account tweeted the following:
Ｗｅ ａｐｏｌｏｇｉｚｅ ｆｏｒ ｔｈｅ ｓｅｒｖｉｃｅ ｉｎｔｅｒｒｕｐｔｉｏｎ[3]
Again, this tweet coincided with a change in the Local 58 website. The news clipping titled "The Era of Home Recording" had been removed, replaced with the following glitched image:
If you look closely, there is a visible "T", slanted "R" and a pixilated "I" as well as the word "Research" which suggest this is the logo of the company called "Thought Research Initiative".
2021-10-07 - 1999 Cache
On this date, the official Local 58 Twitter account tweeted the following:
ｔｅｃｈｎｉｃ
ａｌｄｉｆｆｉ
ｃｕｌｔｉｅｓ[4]
Again, this tweet coincided with a change in the Local 58 website. A link had appeared in the 1999 section of the "LookBack Web Archive" header at the top of the screen. The link led to a 1999-styled version of the Local 58 website, albeit with many broken links and glitched text. A scanned document detailing a device called a "Vestigial Lowband Filter" was also prominently featured.
Vestigial Lowband Filter
Here is the transcribed text of the "Vestigial Lowband Filter" document:
VESTIGIAL LOWBAND FILTER Function This filter attenuates the lowest-end "vestigial bands" of the visual transmitter and provides a constant impedance load for the output stage of the visual power amplifier. The services in the frequency band below the television channel are protected against unwanted picture interference, and the factory-tuned filter simplifies operation by making further broadcast-time adjustments unnecessary. Specification The vestigial lowband filter is a component of the television transmitter. As the power amplifier of the visual transmitter is matched with a standing-wave ratio of 1.2 to 1, the lowband that falls below the channel are attenuated by 40 db or more. There is a minimum attenuation in the range of frequencies utilized by the home receiver from approximately three-quarters of a megacycle below the picture carrier wave to a maximum of four and a half megacycles above the picture carrier wave. The transmit- (blanked) -d at the output of the filter so that the insertion loss of the unit need not be considered in computing the effective radiated power of the television station. The filter system is a self-contained coaxial transmission line network, with input and output dimensions for 3 1/? inch and 1 ?/? inch transmission lines. The current unit has a characteristic impedance of 55.8 ohms. For optimum operating conditions, the transmission line connecting the power amplifier to the filter should not be greater than five feet. Electrical cables and other power routing conduits for separate equipment should be kept at least fifteen feet from the body of the filter to avoid signal degradation. The outer housing of the vestigial lowband filter should only be removed to check the connection points on the input and output coaxial cables. Replace the outer housing as soon as possible. Repair and Maintenance Do not attempt to repair the vestigial lowband filter. Total replacement of the unit is covered by all standard warranties. Tampering with the vestigial lowband filter is forbidden by law.
Additionally, the image contained a concealed QR code in its bottom right corner. This QR Code became visible by altering the thresholds of the image. Scanning the QR code yielded the following phrase:
parasite : host :: inhabitant : enivronmentCached 404 Page
Also added to the Local 58 site was a new 404 page, visible at https://local58.tv/web19991103cache/404.html. Much like the original 404 page, this new 404 page contained a number of easter eggs:
- A
data-textattribute had been added to several of the HTML elements on the page. This "data-text" attribute was found to contain a series of ominous messages:- "Not Found" had a
data-textattribute ofNot Blood - "The requested page could not be located." had a
data-textattribute ofwhat you need is no longer there - Where there had previously been server information, instead there was a distorted line of text that read "beyond a certain point watching is no different from doing" (
data-textattribute ofpast certain pt watching is doing)
- "Not Found" had a
- A subtle "static" GIF was being used as the background for the entire 404 page. The filename of this GIF was 0008ad7bd58e7556d95afa5528eb43113a9.gif, identical to the GIF found at the start of the ARG. Also, a more intense variant of the static GIF was found by using 1 leading zero instead of 3 (i.e. 08ad7bd58e7556d95afa5528eb43113a9.gif).
2021-10-31 - Digital Transition
Historically, many Local 58 videos were uploaded on October 31st, and on 2021-10-31 a new video was indeed uploaded to the Local 58 channel. This new video was titled "Digital Transition," and it revolves around the Local 58 station's transition away from analog broadcasting. The video heavily referenced various material that had previously been discovered in the ARG, including:
- The FCC mandate and the associated UNIX timestamp (see 2021-09-13)
- The Vestigial Lowband Filter
The "Digital Transition" video also contained a phone number (845-622-5580) and a link to http://local58.tv/digital.
Digital Transition Phone Number
Calling the number displayed in the video yielded the following message:
The phone message contained Morse code, which yielded the following message:
THERE ARE OTHER RECEIVERS
Texting the phone number also yielded a response, which was simply the same message in plaintext.
This phrase was prominent in the Digital Transition video as well as the Local 58 Station ID.
Digital Website
Navigating to http://local58.tv/digital led to a webpage that ostensibly displays instructions on how to prepare your television for receiving digital signals. However, the images displayed on this page are highly deformed and glitched. This page also displays the phrase "There are other receivers."
2021-11-01 - 2001 Cache
On this date, two new links were added to the LookBack header:
- https://local58.tv/web20010109lbk/ (alt text:
January 9, 2001 (1 capture)) - https://local58.tv/web20010317lbk/ (alt text:
March 17, 2001 (4 captures))
The first of these links led to a version of the Local 58 website that was prominently displaying the following error logs:
[09/Jan/2001:01:46:31] info: successful server startup [09/Jan/2001 20:21:40] warning: host trying to GET /index.html, append-trailer reports: error opening /usr/local58admin/server1/ (No such file or directory) [09/Jan/2001 20:21:55] directory permissions reset by host [09/Jan/2001 20:22:08] warning: contact administrator to restore server permissions (rwxrw-rw-) [09/Jan/2001 20:25:10] max filesize (1MB) exceeded in /usr/local58admin/server1/error_log
NOTE: while it seems that these logs expose some information about Local 58's underlying web service, Kris Straub (the creator of Local 58) made the following statement via Twitter:
for the record, no actual hacking or breaking into databases/logins is necessary to enjoy http://local58.tv. i only upload new goods right before i tweet about it; it’s not waiting on the server idly to be data-mined[5]
The second of these links led to a more "complete" version of the website, with the broken image links resolved into actual assets and the glitching becoming less prominent.
Asset Comparison
It was discovered that the image paths from the 2001 version of the Local 58 website were valid paths on the 1999 cached version, and that they led to completely different images that were corrupted or otherwise glitched. A full listing is below:
1999 version of images/990s.jpg
1999 version of images/latemov.jpg
1999 version of images/p_eye.jpg
1999 version of images/skywtch.jpg (identical to 2001 version)
1999 version of images/stilllfe.jpg
Finally, the images/broadcastday.jpg path on the 1999 site redirected to an unlisted Local58 video, titled ＬＯＣＡＬ５８ＴＶ - NSSA-3 (atypical).
