Guests from the Stars

A late night pirate broadcast

Yıldızlardan Misafirler (Guests from the Stars) first appeared on Turkish airwaves in 1983 shortly before the first elections following the 1980 coup. The broadcasts often changed frequencies and appeared to be from different locations each time. Today it is mostly remembered for broadcasting an empty set for most of the day, but guest speakers often appeared late at night to talk about a limited range of topics mostly revolving around the values of traditional Turkish culture. After about an hour or so of discussion, active broadcast would end with a brief performance of Turkish folkloric dance. These were reinterpratations of regional dances, often incorporating new sounds and instruments from the psychedelic rock genre which was immensely popular in Turkey during the 70s’. The dancers costumes also often brought new elements from global fashion trends.

Speculations abound about the origins about the broadcast but most afficionados of the show seem to agree that they were from a small organisation known as Scientific Research Group (Bilim Araştırma Grubu) founded by Bedri Ruhselman in 1950. Ruhselman who passed away in 1960 was a spiritualist thinker who wrote extensively about reincarnation and interstellar travel. Although these themes were never directly mentioned in the brief discussions, frequent references were made to Gelecek Olay (the Upcoming Event) which involved a Global Ruhsal Tazelenme (Spiritual Renewal) springing from the ruins of ancient Anatolian civilisations.

Viewers of the show were often left beffudled by the meaning of the broadcasts and viewers at the time were mainly concerned about how the show was able to continue at a time when the military still had such strict control over TV broadcasts. Some conspiracy theorists still continue to believe that the entire show was staged by the military itself as a hypnotising experiment to brainwash the entire nation.

Today, most have forgotten the show existed at all. The few who remember it barely recall the conversations about ancient Anatolian civilisations. Most of what remain from the show which ran until 1992 are faint recollections of the gawdy decorations which appeared on the screen for most of the day.