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Art Bell

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Arthur "Art" Bell, III (born June 17, 1945) is the founder and longtime host of the paranormal-themed radio program Coast to Coast AM. Though his work is much less frequent than in the past, he remains an occasional host. He is also the owner of radio station KNYE 95.1 FM in Pahrump, Nevada.

Early years

Bell was born to Arthur Bell, Jr., a United States Marine Corps Captain, and Jane Bell, a Marine drill instructor. He was always interested in radio and at the age of 13 he became a licensed amateur radio operator. Bell served in U.S. Air Force as a medic during the Vietnam War, and in his free time operated a pirate radio station on his base. He would go out of his way to play antiwar music (like "Eve of Destruction" and "Fortunate Son") that was not being played on the American Forces Network.

After leaving military service he stayed in the Far East, residing on the Japanese island of Okinawa where he worked as a disc jockey for KSBK, the only non-military English-language station in Japan.

While in Anchorage, Alaska at radio station KENI he set a Guinness record for staying on the air 116 hours and 15 minutes. He also set the world record for seesawing while broadcasting for 57 hours. The money raised there allowed Art to charter a DC 8, fly to Vietnam and rescue 130 Vietnamese Orphans stranded in Saigon at the war's end. They were eventually all brought to America and adopted by American families.

He returned to the United States and studied engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. He dropped out and went back to radio, this time as a board operator and chief engineer. Being around the stations he got a few opportunities to be on the air. For several years he worked back and forth behind and in front of the microphone. After a period of working in cable television, in 1989 the 50,000-watt KDWN in Las Vegas, Nevada offered Bell a five-hour time slot in the middle of the night.

Background

Bell's original program in Las Vegas was a political call-in talk radio show, but he tired of the format, believing there were too many such programs, especially in the wake of Rush Limbaugh's massive success.

Bell abandoned political talk and began highlighting his long interest in UFOs, time travel and other oddities, gaining a large following after it was syndicated in the early 1990s. At his peak popularity, Bell's program was syndicated on over 500 radio stations, and claimed 15 million listeners nightly. Now the show recieves 30+milliom with Art as a co-host [1] Bell broadcasts from his home in Pahrump, Nevada.

Bell's guests' topics often deal with the paranormal, occult knowledge, conspiracy theories, UFOs, protoscience and pseudo-science.

Some critics see Bell as a kook, and some guests have been criticized as cranks or quacks; Coast-to-Coast is subject to frequent ridicule and criticism on the usenet group alt.fan.art-bell, and in certain AOL chatrooms. Radio host Phil Hendrie occasionally lampoons Bell, his guests, and the unusual products offered by advertisers.

Others regard Bell as a masterful showman, noting that he calls his show "absolute entertainment" [2], and further noting his statements that he does not necessarily accept every guest or caller's claims, but only offers a forum where they will not be ridiculed. Bell is one of few talk show hosts who does not screen calls. His calm attitude, patient questions and ability to tease substance from the sometimes nebulous statements of callers and guests gave his show a relaxed and serious atmosphere earning him much praise from those who contend the paranormal deserved a mature outlet of discussion in the media. Ed Dames, Richard C. Hoagland and Terence McKenna were regular guests who typically discussed "fringe" topics.

Bell's interests, however, extend beyond the paranormal, interviewing singers Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, comedian George Carlin, writer Dean Koontz, and frequent guest physicist Michio Kaku.

There are two annual features on Bell's program: On Halloween, his show is renamed "Ghost to Ghost A.M.", and is devoted to callers relating their allegedly real-life encounters with ghosts. Every New Year's Eve, Bell invites callers to make a prediction for the coming year; the predictions are then reviewed at the close of the next year.

Beginning in late 1996, Bell was criticized for reporting rumors that comet Hale-Bopp was being closely followed by an Unidentified Flying Object. It was speculated that members of the Heaven's Gate group committed mass suicide based on rumors Bell aired, but others discounted this, noting that the Heaven's Gate website stated that "Whether Hale-Bopp has a 'companion' or not is irrelevant from our perspective." [3] Susan Wright notes, however, that Bell was also "one of the first to publicise expert opinions debunking the 'alien companion'" said to have been shadowing Hale-Bopp (Wright, 187)

Bell is well known in the world of amateur radio by his callsign, W6OBB. Art and many of his fans can be heard nightly on the 80-meter amateur radio band at frequency 3840 kHz.

Art's wife, Ramona Bell, died on January 5, 2005.

Retirements and comebacks, again

Bell has retired and returned to Coast to Coast several times. His first retirement, which he announced unexpectedly on October 13, 1998, was due to unspecified threats made against his family. He returned after about two weeks. [4]

In April, 2000, Bell again retired, but offered no details other than stating he intended to "resolve a family crisis"; Mike Siegel took over the program. Bell returned in February of 2001, saying he had left to deal with the aftermath of his son's rape, but was now confident the issue was resolved. Bell also had another legal matter as he was falsely [5] accused of once being a child molester. Bell also noted that since his departure, Coast to Coast had lost a number of affiliates, and that Seigel had taken the program in a "different direction" that Bell apparently did not approve of. As Coast to Coast's creator, Bell retained some authority over the program, and thus felt his return was necessary.

Bell last retired in late 2002, citing recurring back pain, and was replaced by George Noory. Bell again returned in September, 2003, to host all weekend broadcasts.

In June 2005, he announced a 'semi-retirement'. For the time being, he will only host the last two Sundays of every month.

At the beginning of the January 5, 2006 broadcast of Coast to Coast AM, George Noory announced that Art's wife Ramona had passed away earlier in the day.

Philippine allegations

A hoax e-mail recounting Bell's allegedly racist statements, calling the Philippines "a disgusting and filthy place" on-air, has been circulating online since the 1990s. Bell has repeatedly denied making such a statement, furthermore noting that his wife Ramona was partly of Philippine heritage.

In 2001, Bell sued the Philippine Daily Inquirer after the newspaper published the e-mail as fact; the Inquirer published a retraction and apologized to Bell.

Books

Bell has written, or co-written, several books. They include, but may not be limited to, The Quickening: Today's Trends, Tomorrow's World, The Art of Talk (an autobiography), The Source, The Edge: Man's Mysterious Past & Incredible Future, and The Coming Global Superstorm, which became the basis for the popular movie, The Day After Tomorrow.

See also

Sources

  • Wright, Susan: UFO Headquarters : Investigations On Current Extraterrestrial Activity In Area 51St. Martin's Press, 1999 ISBN 0312971818
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