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That misses Art Bell's significance. Bell came to UFO and other paranormal subjects after a long career in broadcasting. Tired of the usual current events and politics talk topics on his local late night radio show in Nevada, Bell one night took up the UFO subject and talked of his own recent sighting. The call board lit up and ratings blew through the roof.

Fortuitously, a spurt of UFO sightings, media reports, and fresh books and articles gave Bell abundant new material to talk about and provided a flow of guests for his show. Paranormal subjects like ghosts and ESP were a natural addition. Yet Bell also had scientists like Michio Kaku and Alan Hale on, a wide range of inventors and experts, and authors like Malachi Martin, Dean Koontz, and others.

As Bell explained, some of his UFO and paranormal guests and subjects he believed in, while others he did not but presented in a fair and friendly manner for the audience to consider. Careful listeners could tell the difference. Guests who asked Bell what he thought risked being told, politely, that he did not quite agree.

I started listening to Art Bell when an old friend called to tell me of how, on a business trip to Sandia Labs, he had to stay an extra day because the scientists he was to meet with were preoccupied with analyzing video of a major UFO sighting in Phoenix. Returning home, he told his wife and found that she knew all about the Phoenix lights because she had been listening to Art Bell. As for the scientists at Sandia, they were or became UFO believers -- and one of them in later years became a guest on Bell's show on a paranormal subject.