Terrifying & True | The Battle of Los Angeles — 1,400 Shells, No Enemy Aircraft

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Hey, my spookies. Before we
start tonight's show, I just want to

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say thank you so much for all
the help you've all given me in paying

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for my dog, Chicano's chemotherapy treatments. We've raised almost half of the amount

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necessary to pay for his treatment,
and it does appear like he's in remission.

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So we've raised over four thousand dollars
and anything would help. So if

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you want to help us out,
just go to Weekly Spooky dot com and

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click on help my Dog. But
now, my friends, it's time for

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a fresh tale. That is definitely
true. If you live in the United

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States of America, you've always had
a sense of isolation and safety from even

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the idea of war. But that
sense was shattered following Pearl Harbor. And

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that wasn't the only example. But
this example we're talking about tonight, I

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never heard about in school. What
you were about to continue. Based on

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witness accounts, testimonies, and public
record, this is terrifying and the concept

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of war really is, pardon the
pun, foreign to most Americans like myself.

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Since the Civil War, there has
been no battle on American soil.

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However, there have been attacks,
and the most famous attack on American soil

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from a sovereign nation is Pearl Harbor. But I didn't even know about this

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until we prepared this episode. There
were other attacks and other near misses in

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World War two, and this one
is the most mysterious of them all.

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What's become coined as the Battle of
Los Angeles. We'll talk all about it

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after these quick words from our sponsor. So get comfortable, because this one

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is truly scary. The Battle of
Los Angeles, also known as the Great

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Los Angeles Air Raid, occurred in
nineteen forty two after an infamous false alarm

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caused the American military to unleash anti
aircraft fire in the skies over Los Angeles

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and out for news of our own
left coast, we take you to Los

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Angeles and the report of Byron Palmer
and the aircraft guns went into action against

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unidentified aircraft in the Los Angeles area
shortly after three am Pacific wartime this morning.

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Yet aircraft guns began barking during a
blackout ordered by the Fourth Interceptor Command

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at two twenty five am. The
unidentified object, which some sources thought might

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be a blimp, moved slowly down
the Pacific coast from Santa Monica and disappeared

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south of Long Beach. Army officials
declined to comment on the possibility that the

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object might have been a blimp.
However, it required nearly thirty minutes to

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travel some twenty five miles, far
slower than an airplane. Watchers on the

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rooftop of the Columbia Broadcasting Building in
the heart of Hollywood could plainly see the

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flashes of guns and searchlights sweeping the
skies in a white arc along the coastal

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area. Compassion of the shelves could
be felt in downtown Los Angeles, fifteen

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miles away. The US Army planes
quickly took to the dark sky, but

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whether they contacted the object has not
been announced. Army officials say they will

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not comment until they receive a full
report of the act. Although some watchers

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say they saw airplanes in the air, semi official sources say they probably when

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the US Armies pursued. Several observers
say they saw one or more planes spotlighted

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by twenty or thirty searchlights. The
object moved southward, presumably over Huntington Park

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at the western edge of Los Angeles, and on southward to about Long Beach

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on the coast By three thirty am, observers said the object appeared to be

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over the south of Long Beach.
Search lights closely followed the object down the

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coast and kept it centered in their
glare. Challs frequently could be seen bursting

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here the object, but none appeared
to hid it. The shooting stopped about

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three thirty am. The shooting brought
warfare to the front door this city of

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a million and a quarter population for
the first time since December seventh. Already,

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it was alert to the presence off
the southern California coast of a Japanese

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submarine, which had pumped twenty five
shelves into an oil field north of Santa

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Barbara Monday evening. Because of the
presence of the submarine, a three hour

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alert was ordered at dusk last night, and civilian authorities stood at their post

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while the Army and Navy continued their
search for the submersible. The evening alert

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ended at ten twenty three PM,
but another was sounded at two twenty two

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am, and the blackout followed within
three minutes. It covered Los Angeles County

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from Santa Monica Supermona. At two
twenty seven all Southern California radio stations were

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ordered off the air, except those
in San Diego. Approximately twenty minutes after

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the firing died down, the ship
returned and headed westward from Long Beach towards

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Santa Monic. The guns went into
action again, earling round after round of

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shells at the up the second barrage
appeared to be closer to downtown Los Angeles,

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and Blachs could hear the concussion of
the guns more clearly, and the

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flash of bursting shells was brighter than
The ship disappeared for a second time over

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the oath. The Imperial Japanese Navy
attacked Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen

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forty one, and the United States
entered World War Two on December eleventh,

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nineteen forty one. Locals on the
West coast were both angry and paranoid,

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fearing the Japanese would attack the United
States. Residents in Alaska's capital, Juno,

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were told to cover their windows for
a nightly blackout due to rumors of

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Japanese submarines lurking along the southeast Alaskan
coast. People would minimize outdoor light or

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lights that reflected during a blackout during
a war to prepare for the impending attack.

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Blackouts prevented enemy aircraft crews from identifying
their targets by sight. More rumors

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circulated that a Japanese aircraft was cruising
off the coast of the San Francisco Bay

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area, prompting the city of Oakland
to close schools and declare a blackout.

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Civil defense sirens, which have been
used in wars and tornadoes warre in the

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general public of impending danger. The
Oakland Police Department installed sirens on patrol cars,

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which were heard throughout the city,
and radio silence was ordered, which

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means that all radio stations in the
area were asked to stop transmitting for safety

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reasons. Residents in Seattle, Washington, also implemented a blackout of all buildings

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and vehicles, and owners who left
lights on in their buildings would have their

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businesses destroyed. The US Army dispatched
five hundred troops to the Walt Disney Studio's

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lot in Burbank, California, to
defend the Hollywood facility and nearby factories.

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While the United States prepares for war, anti aircraft guns are being installed,

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bunkers are being built, and air
raid precautions are being drilled into place.

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Across the country. From December nineteen
forty one to February nineteen forty two,

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US merchant ships were attacked by Japanese
submarines off the west coast. Those ships

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included the S S Agwi World,
which escaped, the S S Medio which

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was sunk, the S S Samoa
which escaped, the SS Larry Doheny which

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was sunk, the SS Dorothy Phillips
damaged, the sshm Story escaped but sank

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later, the SS Cynthia Olsen which
was sunk, the SS Camden which was

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sunk, the SS Absaroka damaged,
the Coast Trader which was sank, and

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the S S Montebello, which was
sank due to minor damage. At seven

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to fifteen PM on February twenty fourth, nineteen forty two, President Franklin D.

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Roosevelt delivered a fireside chat, which
was a series of evening radio addresses

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to people across the country. When
the Japanese submarine I seventeen surfaced off the

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coast of Santa Barbara and bombed the
Elwood oil fields in Goletta. The damages

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were minor, approximately five hundred dollars
in damage, which equates to nine thousand

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and five hundred dollars in today's money, and no one was injured. After

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four months, Japanese forces bombed Dutch
Harbor in Unalaska, Alaska, and landed

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troops in the Aleutian Islands. On
February twenty fourth, nineteen forty two,

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the Office of Naval Intelligence issued a
warning that an attack on California's mainland was

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imminent. The alert was issued at
seven eighteen pm and was lifted at ten

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twenty three pm. The same activities
began the following morning, February twenty fifth,

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At two twenty five am, air
raid sirens were heard throughout Los Angeles

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County. In addition, a total
blackout was ordered and thousands of air raid

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wardens were stationed. Air raid wardens
ensured that everything was blacked out, that

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the air raid sirens were activated,
that people were placed in shelters, that

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gas masks were issued, that areas
around unexploded bombs were evacuated, and that

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the people were accommodated for The thirty
seventh Coast Artillery Brigade began firing their fifty

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caliber and twelve point eight pound anti
aircraft shells at three sixteen am. The

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shells were fired into the air at
the reported aircraft. Over fourteen hundred of

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them were fired in total. The
artillery remained firing until four fourteen am,

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when the all clear was sounded and
the blackout order was lifted. Buildings and

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vehicles were damaged by shell fragments,
and five civilians died as a result of

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the anti aircraft fire. Three died
in car accidents, and two died from

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heart attacks caused by the stress.
After the air raid, Secretary of the

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Navy Frank Knox, held a press
conference and stated that the entire incident was

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a false alarm caused by anxiety and
quote war nerves. The Army issued a

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statement the next day claiming that the
incident was caused by enemy agents using commercial

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planes in a psychological warfare campaign in
order to cause mass panic. Some news

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organizations suspected a cover up. Quote. There is a mysterious reticence about the

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whole affair, and it appears that
some form of censorship is a tempting to

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halt discussion on the matter, wrote
a writer for the Long Beach Independent.

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There were theories that a secret base
in northern Mexico existed, as well as

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Japanese submarines stationed offshore capable of carrying
airplanes. Others speculated that the incident was

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staged or exaggerated in order to give
the coastal defense an excuse to move further

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inland. After the war, the
Japanese government claimed that they flew no planes

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over Los Angeles during the war,
but submarines were indeed used in Seattle.

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A review of the evidence suggested that
the meteorological balloons released over Los Angeles may

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have set off the alarm. On
February twenty six, the nineteen forty two

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a photograph of searchlights focused on an
alien spaceship was published in the Los Angeles

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Times, but the photograph was heavily
edited before publication and was featured in the

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conspiracy theory about UFOs. According to
a writer named Larry Harnish, the retouched

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photograph and fake newspaper headlines were featured
in the twenty eleven movie Battle Los Angeles.

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He said quote, if the publicity
campaign wanted to establish UFO research as

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nothing but lies and fakeery, it
could have done a better job. The

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incident occurred in the heart of the
film industry. According to the journalist The

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New York Times reported in March of
nineteen forty two that Hollywood, the quote,

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world's pre eminent fabricator of make believe, appeared to have hosted a battle

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that was quote, just another illusion. In the end, no one knows

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what triggered the shootout over Los Angeles. When the Japanese military claimed that they

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had never flown a plane over the
city, it sparked a slew of conspiracy

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theories involving the government, experimental aircraft, and of course, extraterrestrials. To

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this day, there is no shortage
of theories about what happened on that day

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in Los Angeles. I really had
never heard a peep about any of the

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incidents described in today's show, and
I have a good suspicion many of you

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have not as well. So I
hope it brought you a little more knowledge

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of the world, albeit in a
unpleasantly scary way. And thank you so

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much for hanging out with us on
this Monday for another episode of Terrifying and

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True. I've really enjoyed bringing you
true horror stories, true mysteries of history

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every week, and I hope you've
enjoyed it too. And if you love

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We're wide open to any suggestions.
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a blackout. Terrifying and True is
narrated by Enrique Couta. It's executive produced

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by Rob Fields, produced by Daniel
Wilder, with the original theme music by

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Ray Maddis. If you have a
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At, Jack Ker and Craig Cohen. Thank you all so very much and

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we'll see you next Monday.