Coaster Radio: The Original Theme Park Podcast

Mike Collins and E.B.
  • 4.8 (375)
  • Places & Travel
  • Updated Weekly

A weekly podcast dedicated to theme parks, roller coasters and thrill rides. During each show, we talk about the total theme park experience. We'll have interviews with the people making decisions at your favorite park, reviews and ratings of the newest rides and attractions, discussion about everyday park experiences and chances to win tickets and merchandise from parks around the country!

  1. 2d ago

    NightFlight Expedition: The Full Story

    Mike spends National Roller Coaster Day right where he wants to be: at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, riding walk-on after walk-on during the park's Brews & BBQ festival. Between food samples and short lines, he gets reacquainted with old favorites like Apollo's Chariot and Escape from Pompeii, takes the family on Roman Rapids for the first whitewater ride he's been on in years, and gives a full breakdown of Verbolten's surprising overnight refresh — new queue storytelling from an animatronic witch, reworked lighting and scrims inside the show building, and a genuinely creepy new glowing tree effect that makes the whole ride feel reborn without changing the layout at all. Then it's the segment you've been waiting for: the full, exclusive 30-minute interview with Erica Rutledge, Herschend's Senior Director of Guest Experience Development and Creative Director behind NightFlight Expedition, along with longtime Dollywood PR Vice President Pete Owens. They go deep on how the ride's Mack Rocking Boat vehicle came directly out of lessons learned building Big Bear Mountain, the full legend of Secret Lake and characters Cora and Jasper, how a chance conversation turned the ride into four completely different adventures in one — plus hidden Easter eggs connecting it to Big Bear Mountain's shared universe, and just how much work goes into an attraction that's still being "plussed" even after it opens.

    NightFlight Expedition: The Full Story

  2. Aug 11

    We Did the Math on Cedar Point's Priciest Fast Lane Yet

    Six Flags Great America is getting a brand-new family area called Camp Timber Trail, anchored by a Vekoma family suspended coaster that's essentially a clone of Phoenix at Deno's Wonderwheel Park. The area has nine attractions total, mixing new builds with clever re-themes of park classics. Mike and EB break down why these smaller, heavily-themed family coasters might matter more for a park's long-term health than another record-breaking mega-coaster. Then it's time for Quick Hits: Cedar Point's season-long Fast Lane add-on is going for a jaw-dropping $1,999 after the park closed last year's loophole of buying a cheaper Fast Lane at a different Six Flags park. Mike and EB do the actual math on how many visits it takes before that price tag makes any sense at all. Kings Dominion is running its classic dark ride Flight of Fear with the lights on every night in August, giving longtime fans a reason to ride a coaster they've been on a hundred times before. And in the biggest tease of the week, newly surfaced test footage...along with a mysterious social media post.... all but confirms that RMC's long-rumored Wild Moose coaster — a compact, maneuver-packed ride built entirely around those beloved pre-lift RMC moments — is headed to Kentucky Kingdom. Mike also circles back to Busch Gardens Williamsburg's still-mysterious Corkscrew Hill rebuild, wondering out loud what it could mean for the park's aging motion simulator theater. Coaster Radio also has a genuinely stacked week ahead: an early, embargoed interview with Hershend's creative director about Dollywood's NightFlight Expedition, a Silver Dollar City interview tied to their upcoming 2027 announcement, and Neil Patrick Harris himself joining the show to talk D23, Hong Kong Disneyland, and his connection to the Muppets' Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. The back half is this week's interactive topic, and it's a good one: listeners were asked what ride needs to leave their home park to make room for something better. Kings Island's outdated log flume, Six Flags Over Georgia's Blue Hawk, Lagoon's Double Thunder Raceway, Six Flags Great America's Superman, Cedar Point's Kiddy Kingdom, Hershey Park's train and monorail, Knott's Berry Farm's Accelerator, and Six Flags Magic Mountain's Scream, among many more.

    We Did the Math on Cedar Point's Priciest Fast Lane Yet

  3. Aug 4

    ArieForce One Is Gone: "Save This Ride"

    Closing weekend arrived for two very different roller coasters: ArieForce One at Fun Spot Atlanta and Kumba at Busch Gardens Tampa both took their final riders this past weekend, and Mike and EB dig into the real math behind why an $18 million RMC almost never survives in a family entertainment center, no matter how loudly the enthusiast line chants "save this ride." Listener trip reports roll in live from the queue. From there, the news comes in hot: Knott's Berry Farm's long-delayed MonteZOOMa: The Forbidden Fortress reportedly cost Six Flags a stunning $20 million for what's ultimately a 1978 shuttle loop with new paint and fog machines (and it's still not open), Universal is demolishing what's left of the beloved Poseidon's Fury show building as the Lost Continent disappears for good, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg drops a sneaky social media tease revealing a full rebuild is coming to the old Corkscrew Hill simulator building. Then the regional parks get serious about Halloween: Kings Island, Carowinds, and Six Flags Great Adventure are all getting a Friday the 13th-themed Jason house, SeaWorld parks are doing I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Busch Gardens is bringing Anaconda to life — which inspires the guys who bring Anaconda's villain Paul Sarone back from the dead to review every snake-named roller coaster in the country. After the break, Mike and EB get into the business side of the show, walking through a full overhaul of Coaster Radio's Patreon tiers — including a new producer-only Discord channel — before wrapping with a water park trip report from Crete and a juicy Screamscape rumor that Kings Island's aging Arrow suspended coaster, The Bat, might be on the chopping block to make room for something new.

    ArieForce One Is Gone: "Save This Ride"

  4. Jul 31

    Six Flags Just Revealed the Weirdest Roller Coaster We've Ever Seen

    A shorter episode this week, and a special one: Project Purple at Six Flags Great Adventure finally has a name and a POV video, and it might be the strangest thing we have ever seen a roller coaster do. Bakunawa — named for the moon-eating sea serpent of Filipino mythology — launches riders 60 mph out of the station, sends them upside down into a vertical stall while launching them a second time, then blasts them up a 382-ft tower at 100mph with zero floor beneath the seats before doing the entire thing again backwards. Mike and EB break down the three separate launches, debate whether "more of everything" is actually a substitute for something new, and land on the one moment in the ride that they think makes it worth the drive. After the break, Dollywood finally locks in an opening date for the long-delayed NightFlight Expedition: August 19th, following pass-holder previews. The guys will talk through why this ride could be the best of 2026. And then the news that prompted this shorter episode in the first place, Mike and EB officially announce Coaster Radio is moving its release date after more than 20 years of Thursday nights — new episodes will now drop early Tuesday mornings, timed to catch weekend park news and midweek commutes.

    Six Flags Just Revealed the Weirdest Roller Coaster We've Ever Seen

  5. Jul 24

    Silver Dollar City Teases Its Biggest Secret Yet

    This week opens on sad news: Dick Knoebel, the iconic owner of Knoebels's Amusement Resort, has passed away. He was one of the true greats of the family-owned park world. Mike and EB share a piece of an interview they did with him back in 2006, on the midway in front of the Phoenix, and talk about why Knoebels still feels different from every other park in the country — and why that's exactly what he wanted. From there, the news picks up: Fury 325 at Carowinds is back up and running after the park caught a foundation issue on one of its support columns during a routine inspection. Holiday World is extending Friday Night Live hours and adding two brand-new fall operating dates in November. And Mike and EB spend a solid chunk of the show gawking at a Heritage Auctions listing selling off actual Disney park memorabilia — a customized Big Thunder Mountain bench going for over $10,000, a Tomorrowland trash can pushing $2,000, and a Twilight Zone Tower of Terror chandelier that might, weirdly, be the one item on the list actually worth the price. Then there's the story the guys can't stop speculating about: Silver Dollar City has pulled its mine-train coaster Thunderation to make way for what it's calling the largest investment in the park's history, wrapped in an elaborate in-universe press release about a fictional 1880s mining company "returning to work" beneath Marvel Cave. Given the ride's footprint sits right next to the park's real cave tour entrance, Mike and EB dig into what an actual underground attraction at Silver Dollar City could look like — and why the August 14th reveal might be the most interesting theme park announcement of the year. The back half is a trip report showcase: a live in-park report on the brand new Tormenta Rampaging Run at Six Flags Over Texas, a visit to a certain small, deranged-millionaire-built park in Georgia, Flying Fox at Kentucky Kingdom, a listener's 150th ride on Wrath at California's Great America, and a family day at Lake Winnepesaukah that ends with a first roller coaster credit for a very lucky three-year-old. Also, there's some 80's pop nostalgia that you won't want to miss.

    Silver Dollar City Teases Its Biggest Secret Yet

  6. Jul 17

    One of the Best B&M Coasters Ever Built Is About to Disappear

    Busch Gardens Tampa is closing Kumba, one of the most beloved B&M sit-down coasters ever built and the fourth-oldest operating B&M in the world, on August 2nd. Mike and EB spend the first drop giving a 33-year-old classic its proper send-off — the terrain-hugging layout, the iconic photo op under the corkscrew, the fact that it opened the same year Mike graduated high school — before digging into what "Kumba's Revenge" and a $100 million investment might mean for the space it leaves behind. From there, the news gets genuinely interesting: a strong rumor that Disney World's Space Mountain could get fully gutted and rebuilt from the inside out (with the guys making the case for why the purists are wrong this time), a D23 session themed to the Carousel of Progress that's being hosted by none other than Coaster Radio's own announcer, Neil Patrick Harris, and a reveal date for Six Flags Great Adventure's mysterious Project Purple — teased via a barnacle-covered shipping container reading "GVV," which may or may not stand for a name neither host can bring themselves to like. After the break, EB dives into a genuinely enormous care package from a listener packed with park maps, hats, collectible coins, and ceramic bourbon poker chips, before the two get into the show's real centerpiece this week: BlooLoop's list of the 26 best theme park attractions in the world. It's a sprawling, hotly contested countdown spanning six continents' worth of dark rides, and Mike and EB don't hold back — disagreeing hard on Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, defending Pirates of the Caribbean's 60-year-old technology, and debating whether a ride that's been open for a matter of months deserves to be crowned the single best attraction on the planet.

    One of the Best B&M Coasters Ever Built Is About to Disappear

  7. Jul 10

    The Theme Park That Changed So Much It's Basically Unrecognizable

    Six Flags Over Texas finally "drops the gate" on Tormenta: Rampaging Run, the massive new B&M dive coaster, and the early word is exactly what you'd hope: no rattle, great reviews. Mike and EB break down what a park gets right when a new ride opens with an entire refurbished plaza around it, and whether "biggest dive coaster yet" actually means anything anymore to hardcore enthusiasts who've done this exact ride four times already. Then it's a packed news round covering a genuinely incredible Universal exhibition at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia (with a Star Wars follow-up already announced for the park's 50th anniversary), Universal Orlando's new after-hours "Universal Nights" event at Epic Universe going head-to-head with Halloween Horror Nights, and Disneyland officially welcoming its one billionth guest. That last one gets the full Coaster Radio treatment: an "exclusive" behind-the-scenes report from the Billionth Guest Command Center, featuring the triumphant return of Disney Podcast Guy, whose live-streamed quest for billionth-guest glory ends about as well as you'd expect. After the break: a trip report from two listeners who flew from Houston to Atlanta for one last ride on Arie Force One before it's gone, plus fresh chatter about whether RMC floating the idea of relocating the coaster means anything (spoiler: not until someone signs a check). Then the second half of the show is all yours — this week's interactive topic asked listeners which park has changed the most, for better or worse, over the last 20 years, and the answers cover Disney California Adventure's total reinvention, Dollywood's coaster boom, Carowinds' rise from unknown local park to must-visit and Hersheypark's transformation into a real destination.

  8. Jul 3

    Is A Top-Five Roller Coaster Getting Bulldozed?

    Sometimes the roller coaster world hands you a story so absurd you don't even need a punchline — you just need to read the facts out loud. This week on Coaster Radio, the original theme park podcast, Mike and EB dig into the sudden, bulldozer-bound death of one of the best roller coasters in America: Fun Spot Atlanta is closing on August 2nd, taking Arie Force One — an RMC hybrid barely four years old that regularly cracks top-five lists nationwide — down with it. No, it's not relocating. No, someone can't just "cut out the footprint" and paste it into their backyard. This thing is probably headed straight for the scrapyard, and the guys break down what made this coaster great and if there's any hope at all of it being saved.   From there, it's a genuinely stacked news week (there were two episodes' worth of stories backed up, and it shows): a viral video of a kid tumbling out of Disneyland's Tiana's Bayou Adventure that had half the internet convinced it was AI-generated, Pirates of the Caribbean's brand-new projection-mapped skeleton animatronic (and a pretty compelling argument for where Imagineering should have actually put it), Holiday World's all-American 2027 addition Cannonball — a family water coaster that splashes straight into a themed community pool — and a deep dive into the very mixed reviews rolling in from Universal's newly opened Kids Resort in Texas.   After the break: Six Flags Over Texas delays Tormenta, Cedar Point is selling literal chunks of Magnum XL-200 track for $300 a slice (and they're already sold out), Halloween Horror Nights brings Hellraiser to Hollywood and Orlando, Six Flags Great Adventure unveils its boardwalk-themed Shoreline Pier, and Knott's Berry Farm's long-dead Montezuma the Forbidden Fortress is back and testing with a powerful launch. And because it's the Fourth of July, the show closes out with the 20th-ish annual Coaster Radio tradition: the Sparktacular Explosaloosa, live from EB's back deck — now with video.

    Is A Top-Five Roller Coaster Getting Bulldozed?
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About

A weekly podcast dedicated to theme parks, roller coasters and thrill rides. During each show, we talk about the total theme park experience. We'll have interviews with the people making decisions at your favorite park, reviews and ratings of the newest rides and attractions, discussion about everyday park experiences and chances to win tickets and merchandise from parks around the country!

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