The June 2022 edition of Podcast Magazine named Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger’s New England Legends #2 on their list of Top 50 Dads Who Podcast. The five-page article and interview can be read in their online edition here.
Jeff joins host Ben Goldman on his podcast Filming the Supernatural to discuss how we capture haunts on film. We talk New England Legends as well as the recipe for a captivating ghost story. Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/filming-new-england-legends-with-jeff-belanger/id1625021946?i=1000562422843 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7tBWjUTWeezJOWCSaTCs4V
New England Legends Podcast Wins 2022 Communicator Award “Leaping Lumberjacks of Central Maine” episode wins for “Individual Episodes – Documentary for Podcasts” MILFORD, Mass. – May 11, 2022 – The New England Legends podcast series today announced they’ve won their first Communicator Award. Selected from more than 4,000 entries from all over the world, Episode 214: “The Leaping Lumberjacks of Central Maine” won for the “Individual Episodes – Documentary for Podcasts” category. Judged by members of the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts, the award recognizes big ideas and excellence in communication. “We’re thrilled to win our first Communicator Award for our weekly podcast,” said New England Legends co-host, founder, and writer Jeff Belanger. “This project has been a labor of love from the beginning. To earn this prestigious recognition validates all the hard work that goes into this production each week.” Since 2017, the New England Legends podcast has been on a mission to chronicle ever, legend in New England one story at a time. “The Leaping Lumberjacks of Central Maine” episode debuted September 23, 2021, and has been a fan favorite. “New England Legends is an independent production with no podcast network behind us,” said New England Legends co-host and producer Ray Auger. “We’ve built our audience through great storytelling, solid production, and grass-roots efforts by our friends and fans to share these stories. We’re proud to earn our first Communicator Award on behalf of all of our hard work.” In November of 2021, the New England Legends podcast won a Sound Bite Award from The Massachusetts Broadcasters Association, and the New England Legends television series has been nominated for two Emmy awards, and won an Aurora Award, and a Communicator Award. The podcast series has garnered more than 4 million downloads since its launch, and has been ranked in the top 1/2 percent of all podcasts as far as popularity according to Listen Notes. About The Communicator Awards: The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program honoring creative excellence for marketing and communications professionals. Founded by passionate communications professionals over two decades ago, The Communicator Awards is an annual competition honoring the best digital, video, podcasts, marketing, mobile, and print work the industry has to offer. The Communicator Awards is widely recognized as one of the largest and most coveted awards of its kind in the world. The Communicator Awards are judged and curated by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA). The AIVA is an assembly of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media. Current AIVA membership represents a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms including: GE Digital, Spotify, Condè Nast, Disney, Republica, Majestyk, Fast Company, Upstatement, and many others. See aiva.org for more information. About New England Legends: In 2013, New England Legends began as an independent television series created and produced by Jeff Belanger and Tony Dunne. In 2017, Belanger and Ray Auger launched the weekly New England Legends podcast series that has garnered more than 4 million downloads since its launch, and has been ranked in the top 1/2 percent of all podcasts according to Listen Notes. Visit the Web site at: ournewenglandlegends.com.
(Originally aired in 2017 on PBS.) Set to the eerie photography of Frank Grace, some of New England’s leading authorities on spooks and legends share the history and haunts of the region. The documentary includes the making of the stage show, plus in-depth interviews that explore the nature of ghost stories. Featuring: Jeff Belanger, Carl Johnson, Tim Weisberg, and Andrew Lake.
The Massachusetts Broadcasters Association has presented the New England Legends podcast with a Sound Bite 2021 award for “Excellence in Sound.” Shout out to Ray Auger, my co-host, and the sultan of our sound engineering, for making this happen. And thank YOU for listening to us each week wherever you get your podcasts!
In 2017, Jeff Belanger sat down with Laurie Cabot, the Official Witch of Salem, Massachusetts. Cabot discusses her life, her arrival in Salem in 1969, the history of witchcraft, Samhain and Halloween, and the role she played in turning the city of Salem into what it is today. Excerpts from this interview first aired in Episode 6 (Witchcraft: Uncovering the Hidden History of New England Witches) of the New England Legends television series on PBS.
The Boston Globe named Jeff Belanger’s New England Legends podcast to their Top 15 Preternatural Podcasts to Ring in the Spooky Season. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/10/22/lifestyle/15-preternatural-podcasts-ring-spooky-season/
In this extra from Episode 5: Eccentrics and Mad Scientists of the New England Legends television series, we take a deeper dive into the central courtyard of Hammond Castle in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Jeff Belanger takes a tour with curator John Pettibone.
David’s Basement of the Bizarre posted a recent review of Jeff’s New England Legends podcast, plus an interview. “I have been a fan of Jeff Belanger ever since I read his books “The World’s Most Haunted Places” and the “Encyclopedia of Haunted Places.” I have also been a follower of GHOSTVILLAGE.COM, his website of all things paranormal and supernatural. Just recently, I also started listening to his NEW ENGLAND LEGENDS PODCAST and couldn’t be happier. Being a Rhode Island native, most of the places that he and co-host Ray Auger visit hit really close to home. It is also really nice that I can visit many of these locations in a relatively short period of time…” Click here to keep reading!
App is the first to include an interactive map with over 150 stories and locales, many of which users can explore and visit from a socially safe distance. New England Legends app offers a resource for bizarre day trips. SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – August 24, 2020 – The New England Legends television series and podcast today announced the launch of its new, free mobile app. The New England Legends app features a feed to all of its weekly podcast episodes, a way to report new story leads with the producers through text, email, and even voice memos, plus an interactive map of New England featuring pins to every story covered so far. Each pin offers a link to that location’s podcast episode, plus driving directions for people who want to see the story for themselves. The app is now available for free download on the Google Play and Apple App Stores. Since 2013, New England Legends has covered hundreds of strange but true stories related to New England folklore and history on its PBS and Amazon Prime television series and weekly podcast. Whether ghostly tales, monsters, stories of out-of-this-world close encounters, or the just plain odd, New England Legends is on a mission to chronicle every one of them. “New England Legends is more than just a television series and weekly podcast,” said host, writer, and producer, Jeff Belanger. “It’s a movement. So many of our story leads are crowd-sourced at this point. People hear our weekly podcast, or see our television series, and then reach out to tell us about the strange stories from their hometowns. Quite often, those leads turn into future episodes. This mobile app is the next phase in interconnecting our community of legend-seekers. We’re building something big here.” “We live in a time when our towns and communities are losing their identity as they become homogenized with chain stores and strip malls,” said New England Legends podcast co-host and producer Ray Auger. “But these legends are unique and local. They make each town different than any other place on earth. They’re the stories we may tell around a campfire, but more than anything they connect us to each other and to our history.” The New England Legends app will be updated weekly with new pins, podcast episodes, and content, enabling users to explore the region and celebrate the strange history and oddities that make New England special. “Forest City Marketing was tasked with turning the New England Legends podcast and brand into an interactive and fun mobile app,” said Lauren Middleton, CEO of Forest City Marketing. “Fans of the podcast and television series always want to check out these stories for themselves, so the app offers a way to see how close they are to a story, a link to hear the podcast episode on that location, and a means to send in soundbites and leads for future episodes.” About New England Legends In 2013, New England Legends began as an independent television program created and produced by author Jeff Belanger and PBS television producer Tony Dunne. Since then, the award-winning, Emmy-nominated series has grown into a Web site, a weekly podcast, an active Facebook community of legend hunters, a mobile app, and a movement to chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. Visit the Web site at: ournewenglandlegends.com. About Forest City Marketing Forest City Marketing is a digital marketing agency based out of Middletown, Connecticut. The firm helps large and small businesses grow with responsive website designs, mobile app development, social media management, and paid campaigns, email marketing, lead generation, graphic design, and marketing consulting. Visit their Web site at: forestcitymarketingct.com. Download the App Search for “New England Legends” or find it on the Apple App Store here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/new-england-legends/id1527121148 and the Google Play Store here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app_newenglandlegends312.layout
