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I do not know the whole story behind Art Bell, but I am beginning to think he is a person who has difficulty dealing with the obvious radio talent he was given. Or it could be just a case of having to deal with too many looney-tunes characters. I have listened to Art for several years and, when he is on, he has definately grown much shorter-tempered with his callers.

My favorite remains the Arkansas guy who built the Jacobs-ladder time machine out of stolen City electrical parts. That one bounced me out of bed with laughter.

Muleteam1

If I remember correctly, Art bell first retired suddenly to deal with very personal family problems. His son was molested by a school offical (?) and that person had AIDS. Art had to ensure his son's safety. His son I believe either attemtpted or wanted to attempt to commit suicide.

Art informed listeners at the time at the end of a program that he was leaving. His family was more important than a radio career.

Replacements did not fare well for the Coast to Coast Program. Mike Siegal from Seattle was settled upon and for nearly a year he tried to keep the format afloat. It didn;t work. TRN brought Art back out of retirement to bring Coast to Coast back to life. Continuing back problems for Bell resulted in him retiring once again for health reasons. THe back problems resulted from a fallfrom atop a power pole while working as a lineman many years earlier. A new replacemnt was needed.

George Nory was more to style for the Coast to Coast format and a couple of years ago he settled in. Art moved to weekends and then finally pared that schedule back to once or twice a month.

Art Bell created night time radio, much as Rush created day time radio. Its infortainment and Bell on many an occassion has said he doesn't buy into much of what the guests spout, but hey, its entertaiment and we are all adults.

One of Bells favorite radio personalities is Phil Hendrie, who used to precede on station KFI. Bell would listen in to Hendrie's show while prepping for his. If you ever get a chance, listen to Hendrie's raost of Bell with the General Jamison segment (a refeerence to remore view Major Ed Dames)...

THe casual listener will think Coast to Coast purports all its guest to be spoutng absolute truths...No...But its a format that allows an in-depth look into a variety of "late-night" subjects. Take it for what it is..

On a personal note we first dialed into Art Bell one night on 395 in southern Oregon back in 1997. Going through the am dial we heard some host saying that they had a report of a Chupacabra (winged goat sucker kinda animal) around Paisely, Oregon. Lo and behold we look up and there was a sign for Paisley, Oregon. I told my wife to lock the car doors and turn up the radio...We had many miles to go and through the years, Art Bell and Coast to Coast has filled the long roads we travel plying our trade--going from county fair to county fair....

That in a nut shell is what I know about Art Bell and Coast to Coast and Bell's retirement.