Radio Legend Art Bell Returns Sept 16th!
Posted by: Guy Edwards on July 30th, 2013
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| This publicity image released by SiriusXM shows Art Bell in his home studio in Pahrump, Nev. The title art is ours. |
For many of us, Art Bell is an icon that would keep us up at night with topics stranger than you could imagine. It wasn’t the topics alone that made Art Bell’s radio show so successful, it was his ability to be truly interested in his guests while still being honest about his own opinion. Without Art Bell there would be no X-Files.
Although Art Bell covered UFO’s, Aliens, Ghosts, Demons and everything else that went bump in the night. once in a while he would take on the topic of Bigfoot. One significant episode was with a man named “Bugs.” Bugs was an aging farmer who has repeatedly told of his account of shooting and burying two Bigfoot creatures back in the 1970s in the Texas Panhandle, initially thinking they were bears. Bugs has mailed a map of the location of this “burial” to Art Bell, to be released to the public upon Bugs’ death. During his first appearance in 1996, Bugs said he had taken a dozen Polaroid photos of the creatures he would be willing to send to Bell. None of the alleged photos have yet been made available. You can listen to the 2006 rebroadcast at the end of this post. You can also read what eventually became of the 12-year running “Bugs” saga right here at Cryptomundo.
For many of us Bigfooters this is great news. We also did our homework, Art is returning to Sirius XM Satellite radio. You can get Sirius XM streamed on the internet or as an app for your smart phone. Here is the an excerpt from the AP report announcing Art Bell’s return:
NEW YORK (AP) — Art Bell, radio’s master of the paranormal and outward edges of science, will return to the microphone on Sept. 16 with a new nighttime show on Sirius XM Radio.
Bell was one of radio’s top syndicated voices in the 1990s before walking away from his nightly show in 2002 due to family issues. He worked occasionally after that but hasn’t been on the air since Halloween 2010.
“I missed it terribly,” said Bell, 68, whose weeknight show will air live from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. ET. Sirius is building a studio at Bell’s rural Nevada home where he will work.
A Sirius representative contacted Bell through social media a few months ago, leading to the formation of his show, “Art Bell’s Dark Matter.” He’ll talk about things like UFOs, ghosts, near-death experiences and weird aspects of science. He’ll do interviews and take calls from viewers.
Scott Greenstein, Sirius XM president and chief content officer, said the show will be “uncensored, unrestricted, uncluttered and utterly unique.”
“There’s probably more interest in the genre now than when I did it,” Bell said. “When I did it, I was damned near alone.”AP report
Art Bell also shares his opinion of his successor George Noory. Get the rest of the AP story at Bigfoot Lunch Club.
About Guy Edwards
Psychology reduces to biology, all biology to chemistry, chemistry to physics, and finally physics to mathematical logic.
Guy Edwards is host of the Portland, OR event HopsSquatch.com.
I was a listener to “Coast To Coast” up until Y2K. It was then that I realized that all of Art Bell’s media aim was to sell products geared toward his fringe-society listeners – of which I had become one. His scare tactics during the 2 year lead-up to Y2K and the impending calamities that were going to be caused by the grid collapses and computer malfunctions were used to sell “Prepper” gear and survival items. Mind you, this is the profession of radio and the aim of all programs to increase listenership and advertising and I don’t have any problem with that. I didn’t fall for all the panic programing, but when the clock on my old HP desktop calmly went from 12/31/99 to 1/1/00, I began to better understand Bell’s programming/advertising shtick.
Basically the purveyor of tall tales and practical jokes of insomniacs, for insomniacs, with a little aura of paranoia thrown in for good measure. Add to that all the dubious guests with their whole cloth realities (calling Whitley Strieber), Art Bell was the Howard Stern of PG radio for the unusual. I became an infrequent listener after Y2K and stopped altogether when Bell retired and re-retired. Without Art and his parts, Coast To Coast just doesn’t have that slightly giddy, off-balance feel to it anymore and is now mostly New-Age oriented and just plain-old boring.
cryptokellie: You hit the nail on the head with “the purveyor of tall tales…,” and “….dubious guests with their whole cloth realities.” I listened to him within that same timeframe, and wound up on the air talking to him, when calling in on more than one occasion. The story that had my rapt attention, when originally broadcast, came to be known as “Mel’s Hole.” I tuned in each night hoping for another new development in the saga. Listening to his show was a bit like seeing a magic act and forgetting that it is only illusions.
With Ian Punnett retired from C2C and George Knapp doing two Sundays a month, I don’t much tune in to Coast to Coast AM any more…really can’t stand George Noory’s blank-stare interview style and John B. Wells is a little too conspiratorial for my taste.
I’m so glad Art’s back on and with Sirius On Demand, I can listen to his shows in their entirety and commercial free whenever I want.
Can’t wait for September 16!
I agree with the above poster – George Noory is hapless, feckless and well, just less of everything that one needs to intelligently discuss a wide range of subjects. I really enjoyed the show when Art hosted, but GN just doesn’t seem to be interested in talking to his guests…I swear you can hear him browsing the net while he’s on the air.