The following is a transcript, transcribed by Keith Morgan, of a radio broadcast from Dallas Texas on September 14, 1989 by radio station KOA.
"The big story is, did alien beings build monuments on Mars? Well, for years space buffs with the so called Mars Project have been eyeing and drooling over photos of Mars Cydonia region. They believe Cydonia is home to a field of pyramids and other rock formations built by alien beings. One rock in the same zone looks a lot like a human face. And for years NASA has... they've laughed at the notion, but now the space agency has agreed to send the Mars Observer spacecraft to check it out. The Mars Observer is set for launch three year from now, and a New Jersey democratic Congressman Robert Roe convinced NASA to change its plans and use the space craft to photograph that region of Mars."
"I've been around long enough to know, and have seen so much happen in our science and technology committee in the last fifty years that I just don't take anything for granted, and anything is possible."
"Roe says, he's seen the photos, and he thinks that it would be stupid not to investigate the Martian like formations."
"There was a large... appeared to be a large formation of a face and also other pyramids and so forth that just appeared could not be of normal... Uh... you know just Uh... what you'd say natural existence... that it looked like it had to be fashioned by some intelligent being."
"That's New Jersey Congressman Robert Roe, he's the chairman of the House Science & Space Committee."
"Could the Congressman be spaced out himself there, could there be some reality to this? Richard Hoagland has written a book about this very topic, The Monuments of Mars. And as you look at some of these pictures, these photographs... that I assume these are NASA photographs, is that right Richard?"
"Yes they are Steve."
"Fascinating, I mean Uh... who could argue with these if in fact they are real."
"Well, you know the context for all of this, and we don't have a lot of time so we need to catch people up on some things. This is not far out, this is the inevitable out come of a space program that will some day is going to bump into somebody. The question has always been where, and when, and in what form. Now, when we had our meeting with Congressman Roe... Chairman Roe... Uh back in May, Uh... Dr. Carlotto, and Erol Torun of Defense Mapping, and I spent about an hour briefing the Chairman on the photographs, the analysis, the data, the six years of intensive effort that we put into this, all the scientist at all the institutions outside of NASA who have put in time, and labor, and love to try and bring a credibility to this search that NASA should have done 13 years ago in '76 when the photographs were first taken during Viking, in which NASA never did."
"And what we said at the end of the meeting was simply look, this is now a scientific hypotheses and it needs to be tested. The way to test it is to simply go to Mars and take the pictures. The Mars Observer is going to be there, it has a camera, it'll be in polar orbit every thirty some days it'll pass directly over this sight, why don't... why doesn't NASA simply test the idea?
"Snap a few shoots there and get a good close-up look."
"And what the Congressman apparently did after our meeting, and he requested a set of recommendations from me at the end of the meeting... ways in which we could, you know Uh... test the idea on earth using the existing photography. And on one of those points I simply said, simply ask NASA if they will take the pictures. Well, apparently he want and did that, and NASA has now, both in the person of the principle science... Uh... Uh... project scientist, and the principle investigator for the camera, Dr. Mike Mallon at Arizona State University, they said this morning an article in the Wall Street Journal, that in fact, they had agreed to in principle, try to get the photographs and put this controversy, this 13 year old controversy, which will be 17 years old by the time we get there, put it to rest."
Mr. Hoagland, what if your theory that these Uh... were built by aliens, lets say, is disproved by the pictures NASA takes.
But that's what we want, we want to find out, Kelly. The point is in science... if it is science you can tested. And for many many years the problem has been we thought it was science. It has been published in the journals, its been refereed, we've created more and more hard data, I'm talking about mathematical coincidences, alignments, specific relationships, constants that we found at this sight. What we need now is a kind of aerial archaeological survey, but we couldn't get it because the agency kept waltzing around and saying; Well, we can't focus the camera, or it's going to be on the wrong day, or we're not interested, or what ever.
But...
"But finally, through the political process, and I must tell you that through a lot of programs like yours an awful lot of Americans have been writing and calling and faxing the Congressmen..."
"Hump..."
"...to let them know that they in fact would like to find out."
"We..."
"And the political process was served. And I must tell you that one reporter in Florida when he heard the news he said, My God the democratic process works."
"Richard we're going to let you go, but very briefly, how much extra is this going to cost NASA?"
"Exactly, that's the neat question it cost zero extra. It does not cost one penny more because they will be there with the camera. All they have to do is take the picture when it is under feet, literally under the spacecraft."
"My kinda cost, there. Richard Hoagland, if you would like to investigate it further, Monuments of Mars the name of the book.
It is fascinating. Thank you very much, Richard."
"Ok Steve."