Welcome to the official Psychotronic web site-

I’m Michael J. Weldon, from Cleveland, where I became obsessed at an early age by television, radio, and Mad magazine, followed by horror movie magazines, the British Invasion, garage and psych rock, and early FM underground radio. I spent as much time as possible watching movies on TV and in theaters (neighborhood and downtown) that are all long gone.  As a kid, my major male influences, all difficult talented eccentrics were Ernie, Forry and Billy. Ernie was Ernie Anderson (1923-97), who was Cleveland horror movie host Ghoulardi (1963-66). Forry was Forrest J. Ackerman (1916-2008), editor of Famous Monsters Of Filmland (1958-83). Billy was my father, Bill Weldon (1920-2006), Oklahoma born WWII vet magician, ventriloquist, hypnotist, magic and vaudeville historian, and Cleveland Press employee for 35 years.

I was in the right places (including Detroit, Cincinnati, Atlantic City, Atlanta, and Toronto) at the right time to see original (and/or most famous) line ups of the Alice Cooper, Allman Brothers,  the Band, B-52s, Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band, Clash, Cramps, Dead Boys, Devo, Doors, Grateful Dead, Hawkwind, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Led Zepplin, MC5, Mothers Of Invention, New York Dolls, Pere Ubu, Pink Floyd,  Prince and The Revolution,  Ramones, Runaways, Soft Machine, Spiders From Mars, Stooges, T Rex, Ventures, Who – plus James Brown, Tim Buckley, Miles Davis, Bo Diddley,  Janis Joplin, Bob Marley, Nico, Roy Orbison, Lou Reed, Sun Ra, Link Wray…, and even a lot of great music stars who are still alive and well! I was the rhythm guitarist of a 60s suburban high school band (River’s Edge) you never heard of and the minimal original drummer of an early 70s band (Mirrors) who at least made some recordings and had publicity photos.

My first published movie reviews were in Cle, which started at the Drome Record Store where I worked at the time  (1977/79). After relocating to New York City I created the original Psychotronic (1980/81), a weekly, xeroxed, hand lettered, alternate guide to movies on local TV stations. I wrote the Psychotronic Encyclopedia Of Film (Ballantine, 1983) before I had a VCR, The Psychotronic Video Guide (St.Martins’, 1996), before I was on line, and  published (with Mia), and edited Psychotronic Video magazine (1989 to 2006) before I got tired of being stiffed by distributors and watching way too many shitty recent direct to video movies. The original Psychotronic store was on East 9th St. in the East Village (which has become unaffordable and unrecognizable).  The current Psychotronic store (our 3rd) is on Broad St. in Augusta, GA, near the James Brown statue.

Psychotronic.com started in 2000, but after too many set backs and distractions, it went away for awhile. I want to write about a lot of things and at least for now this will be the place. Check here for articles and reviews (both old and new), collectible items for sale and more…  I might even manage to resurrect Psychotronic Radio (2006-12) as a live streaming internet show.