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Art Bell went into immediate permanent retirement very shortly after this article about Vincent Pontius and his sister, son & daughter of Art Bell was available online.

Lost in Space | News and Opinion | Philadelphia Weekly

July 4, 2007

.....He and his younger sister grew up without knowing their birth father, a man who left when Pontius was just 3 years old. His mother remarried about two years later but that man left when Pontius was around 13.

Issues? Pontius had them. Trust issues. Abandonment issues. He always needed to be in a relationship. He just couldn't maintain one. Both he and his sister say they were sexually abused in the years after their birth father left. (The person they allege preyed upon them isn't named anywhere in this article because no criminal charges have been filed.) Only the last few years have brought him any peace.

Two years ago he discovered he had a 12-year-old daughter of his own. He's now 41, married, the father of a little girl he didn't know existed until recently, and he and his wife are expecting a child of their own in January. He supervises the mailroom at Philadelphia magazine, tucked away in a windowless office on the 36th floor of a sleek city office tower that boasts views stretching miles.

His interest in the paranormal continues unabated. In some ways that facet of his personality may seem more important now than it did when he was a child. Because about 10 years ago his sister made contact with their birth father, who was by then the king of the paranormal--radio talk show legend Art Bell.

Bell founded the Coast to Coast radio show, specializing in paranormal topics, in the '90s, tapping into an interest in UFOs and ghosts that few before knew existed on quite this scale. Though he's been in a kind of semiretirement for several years now, broadcasting mostly on the weekends, the Coast brand has continued on, hosted by George Noory and available in Philadelphia on 1210 WPHT-AM from 2 to 5 a.m. weekdays. The show's website lists roughly 520 affiliates, literally extending from coast to coast, uniting millions of listeners around the subject of the paranormal, and potentially casting some light on Pontius' paranormal fixation.

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