“Safe harbor” is one of Cleveland’s most popular destinations. But it is not a place where boaters can put in. It’s more of a state of mind.

The term refers to Federal Communications Commission rules about what is allowed (or not) on the radio. After midnight, the FCC generously assumes, little kids are more likely to be safely asleep, and that’s when any sort of adults-only weirdness can be unleashed over the airwaves. Transgressive rock or spoken-word material by way-out bands, anarchic media-collages, campy soundtracks from old exploitation-movie trailers, and, best of all, no-holds barred call-in talk shows, with the opinions, raunchy jokes and running feuds of third-shift workers, party-all-nighters, insomniacs, or anyone else with nothing better to do at 3 a.m. in the morning around Cleveland.

If there were a Safe Harbormaster, it would be Craig Callander of Rocky River — aka Dr. Lance Underpants and Uncle Sassafrass. For 10 years now, Callander has been a star in the most zoned-out twilight hours of college radio on Cleveland State University’s station WCSB 89.3 FM.

“I’ve always been a fan of those older college radio shows that were on WCSB, like ‘Wainstead All Night,’ back in the ‘90s,” said Callander, who grew up in North Olmsted and went to both St. Ignatius and North Olmsted High School. While attending Kent State University he got his first hands-on radio experience, via a low-wattage AM student station piped into the dormitories.

It was when he started majoring in communications at Cleveland State University that Callander gained access to the legendary WCSB studios, perched high atop Rhodes Tower, with a signal strength reaching out to the suburbs. He rose through the ranks to become program director for a time, and though he graduated and holds a nonradio day job (where and what and when he’s in necessarily kept a secret from the unruly fandom), he still broadcasts “669,” a freeform show of call-ins and pre-recorded madness, heard from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. Saturday.

Listener discretion is advised. Early in his WCSB career, in 1997, Callander made headlines by coordinating “Hands Across Brookpark,” also known as “Save Our Smut,” a faux demonstration in favor of preserving the dingy strip of dirty bookstores and strip clubs on Brookpark Road. (Who says today’s student population is apathetic?) He has unleashed his phone-in hordes against corporate mainstream Cleveland radio during their own talk shows and overseen rock-concert benefits such as “Loserpalooza.”

He’s had in-studio guests whose presence had to be explained to the next shift on Saturday morning, who do a format of traditional folk and bluegrass music.

“The folk guys would come up and end up getting accosted by a drunken stripper on Ecstacy,” Callander said.

Callander’s regulars range from an unseen movie-science-fiction-classic-animation expert known as “No-Money Mark from Middleburg Heights,” and the night crew of the downtown U.S. Postal Service to Marc Brown, manager of Norton Furniture, located near the CSU campus, whose oddball TV commercials (“If you can’t get credit in my store, you can’t get credit anywhere”) have made him a regional celebrity. And he’s connected musically. Cleveland hard-rock legends Mushroomhead were among the headliners at the Save Our Smut musical component.

The strangest incident that’s happened to him over the past 10 years? “Too much to list,” Callander said. “I’ve had people arrested outside the station. A drunk guy came to the station who didn’t appreciate my humor … he ended up fighting the police. And he’s now the No.1 fan of the show.”

Last Friday found Callander in Elyria just before going on the air; it was incumbent upon him as Marc Brown’s cohort to attend the festivities in advance of a special screening at the Midway Mall of the infamous horror-comedy “The Toxic Avenger,” with New York City filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman, the Burning River Roller Girls local roller-derby troupe and Cleveland-Detroit TV horror-host the Ghoul. 

Right now Callander is worried about the future of the Memphis Drive-In movie theater, one of his favorite hangouts, lately rumored destined for retail development. “I’m … working on doing a sort of a farewell,” he said.

He thinks an autumn save-our-ozoner show might tie in well with “Freak Orthodox Halloween,” a trick-or-treat concert-revel he’s been doing annually the week after the normal Halloween observance. “Norton hosted that with me.”

Then there’s talk of a Marc Brown/Norton Furniture/669 TV show variety-hour of some kind. Callander also has all his old programs stored on CD, for potential archiving online, another back-burner project. Right now you can visit the Web at www.wcsb.org for more on radio station WCSB-FM.