
Radio host Art Bell has died - eplanit
https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-nevada/pahrump-based-radio-host-art-bell-dies-at-72/
======
fragsworth
I grew up in the High Desert of California (around Apple Valley, Victorville,
Hesperia, Barstow). I can't count how many times I was driving alone down the
desert highways at night, not a single other car on the road, and Art Bell was
the only thing on the radio. And he'd be interviewing people or talking about
UFOs, aliens, ghosts, government conspiracies, or whatever else he thought
would be great to spook people with at the time.

He made those lonely, dark night road trips into amazing experiences. No
matter how rational you are, his show really could creep you out when you were
driving alone at night on a long stretch of road. And not in a bad way. It
felt like watching a really scary movie, one that cut kinda close to reality.
And I like to think that's exactly what he was going for. His show was
amazing.

George Noory is great too, but I've since moved from the desert and don't take
long night road trips anymore.

~~~
rjkennedy98
Art Bell is a completely difference experience when you are driving through
the middle of the Nevada or California desert. Its hard to explain to people
who have never done it, but somehow on those long desolate drives, his radio
show just made sense somehow.

~~~
JeremyNT
Art Bell's show was a bizarrely formative experience for me in my early teens.
I lived in rural NC where we got very poor FM reception, but one AM station
carried Coast to Coast AM, rebroadcasting the previous night before moving on
to the live one (due to the time zone difference). Some nights I would listen
through until dawn. There was such a striking sense of place he invoked in the
show, and I would fall asleep dreaming of those roads I'd never seen.

I've still never been to the high desert, but one of my favorite things to do
recently has been to play American Truck Simulator in Nevada or California
while streaming his archives.

I know Art left and returned to radio several times over his career, and I
held out hope he might do so yet again. I'm not one to really mourn the loss
of celebrities, but the world is a little less mysterious and interesting
without Art Bell.

------
AndrewKemendo
Coast to Coast AM was my go-to bedtime routine as a kid. I'd get tucked in and
then sneakily turn my am radio on and listen for hours.

It wasn't even that I liked the content so much, as I liked hearing Art talk
to callers and how he was never condescending and just took their stories as
though they were telling the truth. It really stuck with me then that he just
had a crazy open mind - and I feel like that's had lifelong impacts.

It also really got me into radio and eventually I ran our college radio
station - engineering and all - to try and recreate the excitement of live
radio.

He had a great call with George Carlin that was really fun and interesting one
time that is worth a listen.

~~~
serf
> He had a great call with George Carlin that was really fun and interesting
> one time that is worth a listen.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckY-
LmBItUc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckY-LmBItUc)

two of my favorite speakers in a conversation with one another. Great.

------
rhema
Art Bell was a great interviewer. He entertained a number of guests on his
show that he clearly did not believe fully. Instead of calling them crazy or
brushing them aside, he drew out what he could. He entered their world and
suspended his own and his listeners disbelief as a form of empathy and
childlike wonder.

If more people could hold a meaningful conversation with people they think are
crazy, like he could, people would understand each other better.

~~~
jjirsa
Counter-point:

He took clearly incredible people and introduced them to his audience, and in
doing so, granted them a shred of legitimacy when they deserved none. His show
caused vulnerable people to become entrenched in nonsensical conspiracy
theories that even the hosts realized were crazy.

~~~
wolco
His show added to the conversation bring fridge topics to the mainstream. Many
guests brought light to government activities, military and unexplained
activities. Forcing everyone to accept a white washed version of events by
labeling everything else nonsensical is doing more of a disservice to the
public. People need to be allowed to make up there own mind.

------
_JamesA_
Thanks for the memories Art. Sleep well my friend.

In the 90's we would spend all night hacking and/or gaming while listening to
Coast to Coast AM with Art. It was time to wrap it up after 6 AM when "America
in the Morning with Jim Bohannon" came on.

~~~
brightsize
I first came across Art in the mid 90s too. I commuted home in the black of
midnight on back roads from Redmond (WA) out into the mountains. A good 40min
at least but Art and C2C were there every night, filling my head with tales of
wonder and intrigue from the Land of Nye.

Whenever I hear the term "remote sensing" used in a GIS context now, I can't
help but think of Art's show where I first learned about "remote viewing"[1].
The latter doesn't seem to have caught-on, I guess scientists don't spend as
much time with late-nite paranormal AM radio as the rest of us.

So long Art, thanks for all the memories, and be sure to let us know what you
find out there.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_viewing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_viewing)

------
zorkw4rg
I love art bell, really sad about this :( There is so many things I could
point to, but probably my most memorable interview he ever had was with "mel
waters" about a bottomless hole in his back yard. Just a fantastic creepy
mystery fiction:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA5KIRChve0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA5KIRChve0)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel%27s_Hole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel%27s_Hole)

------
bouvin
In 2000, I spent five months in Boulder, Colorado, as part of my graduate
work. I saw no reason to buy a TV, but I did buy an AM/FM radio, and Coast to
Coast with Art Bell was all I had hoped for in strange American late night
talk radio. Pyramids and faces on Mars, and people calling from phone booths
fearing to be abducted by the Greys. Good times.

------
xvf22
I remember reading about his large ham radio antenna setup in the desert. I
heard him a few times on the bands over the years as well.

Sad to hear he's a SK, have fond memories of staying up to listen to coast to
coast as a kid.

~~~
themodelplumber
He talked ham radio in this interview with QSO Today. I thought it was pretty
impressive that he was logging QSOs with California from Okinawa using bamboo
poles wrapped in tinfoil.

[https://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/w6obb](https://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/w6obb)

There's some fascinating info about his home antennas here:

[http://overunity.com/11449/free-energy-from-
antenna/#.WtKViZ...](http://overunity.com/11449/free-energy-from-
antenna/#.WtKViZNlDxM)

------
protomyth
I did a lot of night driving in the 90's. Late night with a whole lot of hours
left to go. The CDs I brought with me weren't keeping me awake, and I hadn't
really go into audiobooks because that's just a lot more CDs. Flipping across
the AM radio looking for anything, and then come across Coast to Coast AM with
Art Bell. It is insane and amazing and scary and should be the background
sound on every scifi movie set in the present era. I never heard him say to
any of his guest and insulting word, but you got to wonder, in the end, what
he actually believed. I miss him like I miss the freedom of driving in the
middle of the night and the cool things you find on the radio. Sometimes the
chaos is fun.

------
JPLeRouzic
19 years old John Titor will be sad tonight in his alternate universe.

~~~
jeffbarr
The man rumored to be John Titor is currently in jail for drugging and raping
at least four women:
[http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/10/post_37...](http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/10/post_373.html)

~~~
atheist
John Titor was born in early 1998. Marlin Pohlman is in his 40s.

------
classichasclass
In the words of K from Men in Black, "He didn't die. He just went home."

Thanks for keeping me awake on many late drives.

------
0x445442
This is very sad news. I was entertained for many nights by his provocative
guests and his superb interviews. Also, I hard pressed to think of a better
voice for radio.

He will be missed by many.

------
jhallenworld
I remember that some of the Coast to Coast episodes were quite technically
interesting. There was at least one about home made radio telescopes (for SETI
of course!).

Some were totally fun, as when the Russians penetrated Hell when they drilled
a deep well (probably referring to the Kola Superdeep Borehole). "I will play
the best tape someone sends me of the actual sounds of Hell that the Russians
heard from their well."

------
olivermarks
[https://www.coasttocoastam.com/article/r-i-p-art-
bell-1945-2...](https://www.coasttocoastam.com/article/r-i-p-art-
bell-1945-2018/)

I didn't know what he looked like until today, I assumed he was similar
looking to Jeff Rense for some reason. Something bigger than Art just died, we
live in a post radio world...

------
DrScump
He was incredibly prolific during his prime. He did _twenty-eight hours_ of
live radio programming a week -- almost double the typical 15 hour weeks of
national talkhosts. He did 5 hours of content Monday-Friday nights plus the
3-hour "Dreamland" show on Sundays.

A fan recorded a tribute song called "Ballad of the Grays" that can nowadays
be found on Art's website:

[http://midnightinthedesert.com/the-ballad-of-the-
grays/](http://midnightinthedesert.com/the-ballad-of-the-grays/)

------
bhc3
He was still doing weekends when I discovered Coast to Coast AM. As others
have said, his ability to hold two opposing points of view in mind (i. this
guy I'm talking to is crazy, ii. let's get weird) was wonderful. I enjoyed the
way he played his interviews. On the west coast, it's a 10 pm show. To this
day, I still like to put Coast to Coast AM on 1-hour sleep timer when I go to
bed. Fun to hear all the crazy perspectives. Art Bell, you lived well.

------
Rjevski
What a sad coincidence - just yesterday I was watching a video about the "Area
51" caller he got on his radio show. Rest in peace.

~~~
Spooky23
Funny you say that, someone sent me the 9/11 time traveler guy yesterday.

------
GrinningFool
As a kid, I remember listening to him regularly after bedtime hours. I don't
remember the content too well, but I really enjoyed listening to him talk and
interact with guests.

I also remember thinking how cool it was that we'd pick up the signal at
night, when (iirc) they boosted the power on the am frequency.

~~~
themodelplumber
Some stations could boost; others had to cut power. This was IIRC an industry
solution to the problem of there being only so much band available, and under
such great propagation conditions in the evening you'd have multiple stations
sitting on each 10 kHz step and interfering with one another.

------
madengr
I’d listen to him Friday and Saturday nights, lights out, with a 6-pack. Also
biking into work at 4 AM on a quiet road.

I think the best episode was the one with Bob Lazar talking about Area 51,
reversing engineering UFOs, and element 151.

What ever happened to Art’s Parts? He supposedly had materials of
extraterrestrial origin.

------
jayess
Sad news. I remember listening to Art late nights in the mid 90s. Some.of my
favorite topics: exorcist Malachi Martin, Mel's hole, and the guy who called
in while "flying" over area 51 and was "shot down" on the air by a rail gun...

Rest in peace.

------
ddingus
Sad day. Thanks Art. Thanks for great entertainment during long drives, late
nights.

End of an era.

------
farnsworthy
12-packs:

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEX_Btnpd5GWYCOIXtFpb1g/vid...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEX_Btnpd5GWYCOIXtFpb1g/videos)

------
franzmafka
As the sasquatch who did this is swept away in a flying saucer to an
illumanati base on the moon let me just say i will miss that guy as well.

------
blattimwind
Art Bell also made episodes of his radio show appearing in Prey (2006).

------
dfsegoat
Many fond memories of late nights listening to Art. He will be missed.

------
drakenot
Is there an archive of his show that we can listen to?

~~~
audiometry
YouTube has a fair amount. I’ve always suspected there were some big torrents
around but dunno where. The raw recordings are the best, where he reads the
news — all the issues feel so quaint compared to the awful stuff today.

