Art Bell returning?

(Coast to Coast AM) ^ | April 4 2015 | (self)

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Whoa.

I was just listening to Coast to Coast AM.

And there was a guy who called, asking what was up with Art Bell. Art Bell is the guy who brought Coast to Coast AM to prominence. Recently however Art has recently not been on the show.

The show has for years, featured George Noory.

[Yardstick]

Yeah, Art had a great voice and was so stylish in the way he handled his guests. Noory doesn’t quite have the touch that Art did — not that he’s terrible or anything but Art was just made to host that show.

I never was a regular listener and never bought into any of the subject matter, but when I did happen to catch it I always greatly appreciated Art’s skill.

[Yaelle]

I don’t really like either and I wish there was a show on at night that only dealt with real things. I only like the political or true crime, historical or medical episodes.

Art Bell’s story about his wife dying seemed horrible, like he didn’t get her enough help. Then, conveniently, her ghost went out and found him a much younger, cuter Filippina to marry. And his voice makes me cough, it’s so smoky.

[Yardstick]

The thing about Noory is that he cheerleads but it’s dishonest cheerleading. You can tell he’s just indulging them to keep them talking. Art would do the same thing, sort of, but was less committal somehow.

[Cowman]

I only like the political or true crime

Isn't that redundant?

[Yardstick]

I hadn’t heard the story about his wife. His voice is smokey in the tradition of nearly everyone you hear on a microphone from back in the day. Nicotine damages elastin which makes the vocal cords less flexible, and creates this very distinct reediness to the tone. I think it’s a great sound, personally.

Duke Ellington was a lifetime smoker with that kind of voice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf5SgPArT9Y

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Just wanted to advise you I’ve listened to the first two of the seven interviews with Malachi Martin.

They are very good. Have the rest linked for later review. (at three hours a piece, it takes a while.)

Again thanks.

[Nepeta]

The thing about Noory is that he cheerleads but it’s dishonest cheerleading. You can tell he’s just indulging them to keep them talking. Art would do the same thing, sort of, but was less committal somehow.

George will cheerlead anything. Sometimes things become more absurd than entertaining, and I have to turn off the radio.

Art was the most skilled interviewer I ever heard. He could handle an absolute hard science guy with as much skill as a loon claiming to have an alien in his freezer. People kept their dignity around Art, and so they kept talking and telling their own story. Bell even handled the woman who claimed an alien reptilian lover with gentleness.

Listening to Bell's show was like sitting around a campfire all night swapping stories. I miss it very much, and hope Art really is coming back. In a number of cities, stations that dropped Coast after Art left are open, if he goes the broadcast route. George still has a high number of affiliates, but his audience is way down and the affiliates are no longer the local blowtorches.

[Las Vegas Dave]

Found this “latest” about Art Bell, see below:
(Note, dated Feb. 6, no year shows, I assume this is current. No comments shown as of this freepmail date.)

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=109935

Weird Radio Host Art Bell Returns
Late-night radio’s king of the weird, Art Bell, took to the airwaves early Tuesday after he spent nearly a year in self-imposed exile to deal with personal and legal troubles.

Bell, who broadcasts from his home in the Nevada desert, tackled UFOs, conspiracies, cover-ups, chupacabras and more for some 15 years before his sudden retirement last year. Now, he’s promising to stick around for “years.”

“The negotiation was brutal and bloody!” Bell said in a press release. “The result... fewer commercials and back to five hours.”

The commercials may be fewer, but they are still significant — while no official number or comparison was immediately available, tuning in Monday night found between 20 and 25 minutes of ads in a single hour of the five-hour broadcast.

King of the Weird, King of the Airwaves

With an estimated 10 million listeners, Bell’s show was at the time of his retirement the most listened-to late-night radio program, and fourth overall behind Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern, and Dr. Laura. But many stations, including those in key markets such as New York and Los Angeles, dropped “Coast to Coast AM” as ratings fell under replacement host Mike Siegel.

“If the show had been sizzling along in great form, I wouldn’t have even thought about it,” Bell told radio trade magazine Talkers. “But you know, this is a program that I built from the first brick, brick by brick. And to see it dismantled... was not something I was prepared to see.”

Art Bell can be heard again nightly from 1-6 a.m. ET in more than 400 markets. Monday night, Bell could be seen on the show’s live Web cam in his trademark oversized dark sunglasses as he took calls on UFOs and other topics.

Bell’s once-popular and newly reopened Web site was at times difficult to access during the broadcast, suggesting heavy use.

Personal, Legal Battles Resolved

Bell bowed out of his show last April, saying personal and legal distractions became too much. One involved his teenage son, who was kidnapped and raped by an HIV-positive substitute teacher in 1997.

The other involved a defamation suit Bell launched against a Tennessee radio station, on which he was accused of child molestation. The suit was reportedly settled and Bell received an apology and retraction.

“I am ecstatic to welcome Art Bell back to his program,” said Kraig T. Kitchin, president of Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates the show. “It was a bloody negotiation — pulling someone out of retirement always is.”

The negotiations, however, did not center around more money for Bell — instead, Bell wanted the number of commercials cut in half.

“The net effect of cutting commercials in half is a fairly serious economic reality for Premier, and for me” Bell, who stands to lose at the profit-sharing end of the dial, told Talkers. “The program was over commercially loaded, in my opinion, and I want to take the program back to basics.”

Reaching Out Across the Universe

Bell also characteristically tells the magazine he expects alien life to be discovered soon, and the unusual weather is “going to get stranger, faster.”

This morning’s show began with a nod to Mike Siegel, the man who tried to fill Bell’s paranormally huge shoes.

“He stepped into a really tough position to fill,” Bell said during the opening minutes of the broadcast. “He did a wonderful job for a long time.”

He then spoke of a “miracle” — his cat’s recovery from a deadly liver disease, and asked that callers not waste time welcoming him back.

[saintgermaine]

Glad to hear the good news as I missed him

[Fresh Wind]

During a bit of insomnia last night, I tuned in.

Noory was doing an infomercial for somebody’s health “miracle” product that was touted as a cure for diabetes and maybe even AIDS and Ebola.

Thanks, but no thanks.

[BBB333]

Art ‘retired’ three times before leaving the show as a full time host.

One of the times was to deal with the legal problems encountered when his son, Art Bell Jr. was abducted by a male HS teacher - with AIDS - taken over the state line and sodomized. Some nut radio host in Kalispell, MT (I’m pretty sure that where the dude was from) announced that Art Bell was under charges for child porn.

It was a real mess.

The network refused to help Art - so he solved the legal issues himself. Then the network begged him to come back - offered him anything.

He told them that there would be two minutes less commercials per half hour - a real bite in the budget...

[Windflier]

Thanks for the ping, Dave. I’ll look to see if Art is on in the DFW market.

I really do miss his show. Noory never did do it for me. Like others have said, he just doesn’t have the same indefinable qualities that Art does.

[Las Vegas Dave]

http://www.strangerdimensions.com/2015/01/02/art-bell-return-july/

Update 3/20/2015: Art Bell’s Dark Matter has been renamed to Midnight in the Desert.

Update 1/31/2015: Art Bell has officially announced that he will return this July with his show, Dark Matter, on the Dark Matter Radio Network. Five nights a week, 9PM to 12AM PST, free for all. Read the official announcement at ArtBell.com.

Let’s go back to September 2013. Art Bell starts a new show on SiriusXM called Dark Matter. It’s okay. It’s cool. But six weeks later, right after the Halloween “Spooky Matter” show, it’s all over. Sometimes when you go all in, you lose, or something like that.

The end.

I was pretty miffed when that happened. I didn’t think the show was doing that badly. The audience was smaller, sure, and there could have been more guests talking about things we hadn’t heard before. But six weeks? That’s hardly enough time to settle in, let the show build some character of its own. And then there were the streaming issues…

But I guess that’s just the past. I’m late to the party on this one, but word on the street is that Art Bell intends to return, in some manner, this July on the Dark Matter Radio Network. “Art is planning to return to broadcasting on the Internet when his non-compete clause with SiriusXM expires in July 2015,” reads his official website, and despite some apparent drama back in November, things appear optimistic:

[Mr. K]

The last attempt and a new show had one of the mot well known guest- a doctor who claimed he had encountered an alien being while hiking in the hills who had killed his dog.

Then he hit it on a stick and brought it home, where it came back to life- and then the government broke in and stole it... Or at least that was the first version of the story.

VERY credible sounding and had photos and everything...

Then he appeared on Arts new show last year and said the creature used to disappear through his garage walls, and then he said it occasionally came back to visit him. Even Art was not buying it anymore- I have never heard tat level of disbelief and disappointment from his voice before

I think it knocked him back a few notches- this was one of the ‘star’ guests of his original show and the guy made a career out of traveling and selling his story. Which clearly turned out to be bull$hit and I think it hurt Art Bell very badly. I even imagined him screaming at the guy afterwards never to contact him again...

Art may have believed nearly every story that came his way, but he was honest enough never to try to push forward anything he KNEW to be horse manure.