by CHASE WEAVER, Contributing Writer

An announcement from the second episode of “Welcome to Night Vale” states that “Saturday, the public library will be unknowable. Citizens will forget the existence of the library from 6 a.m. Saturday morning until 11 p.m. that night. The library will be under a sort of renovation. It is not important what kind of renovation.”

This kind of announcement is par for the course in the program, and one of the many reasons why it’s so
popular.

In the little more than a year since its conception, “Welcome to Night Vale” has risen from unknown quixotic radio show to the number one most downloaded podcast in the iTunes store.

During its run, the program has accumulated an immense cult following due to its sarcastic and sometimes borderline-schizophrenic sense of humor.

The program is presented as a community news broadcast for a small desert town called Night Vale. Cecil Baldwin, a reporter with a hypnotizing voice, presents the everyday happenings around the community in the nonchalant manner of any local newscaster, but not every town considers mysterious figures, secret police, and floating cats in the radio station’s bathroom normal occurrences.

All of the eerie events are unquestionably accepted by Cecil and the townsfolk, perfectly depicting the dystopic utopia in which they live.

Show creator Joseph Fink stated in an interview with NPR that he “came up with this idea of a town in that desert where all conspiracy theories were real, and we would just go from there with that understood.”

This show is perfect ear candy for listeners who have a taste for conspiracies and dark satire. Every story is interwoven with highly philosophical commentary wrapped in disturbingly funny packaging.

Anyone looking for a long-playing, cohesive storyline should continue their search elsewhere, but “Welcome to Night Vale” offers a thrilling dose of the weird and the amusing for listeners with little time or a less-than-stellar attention span.

You can download the podcast for free on iTunes or Stitcher, or you can listen online on Feedburner, Libsyn or Soundcloud.

For more information, visit the podcast’s website here.