Art Bell

We're forced to say goodbye to another legend, long before his time.
King of the paranormal nighttime airwaves, Art Bell, left us on Friday the 13th. He was 72 and the cause of death is unknown; an autopsy will be performed.

Art created the nighttime show Coast to Coast AM, which aired on hundreds of stations across American and Canada. Who is on the road at strange hours of the morning? Truckers. Art became a favorite of truckers and anyone else up overnight. He had a very balanced view on most topics, including whatever his guests brought with them, but he was always fair.

Art was a ham (amateur radio operator, W6OBB) and could be heard now and then on 80meters, chatting with others. There's a recording, possibly on YouTube, of Art 'broadcasting', which consists largely of loud snoring. He fell asleep at the transmitter.

His main foil and partner was his wife, Ramona, who would pop on air now and then, but mainly was stuff of legend. She passed around 2006. Art met Airyn in the Philippines and eventually married her, staying there for a while until returning home to Pahrump, NV, near Area 51. They have a daughter.

Wikipedia lists cause of death as complications from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder. This might make sense, in light of his chronic obstructive smoking. Even publicity pics featured a cigarette. Ramona Bell died from asthma, I believe.
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Art featured it all: from local wiccans to conspiracies to a pilot calling from a small plane, venturing into Area 51's no fly zone (probably a hoax but great listening). Another famous story was Mel's Hole, featuring (oddly enough) Mel, who discovered a hole on his property. He'd throw significant things down the hole and never hear anything to indicate it hit. After he went away for a few days, guys in uniform without patches suggested he did not want to live there anymore and he was kicked off his own land.

Mad Man Markum was a handy guy. He bought, stole, and cobbled together something he called a time machine. Judging from what he used to build it, I'd worry less about time travel than serious electrocution. He used transformers that power companies use.

Jonathan Reed took his dog out for a walk, when he came upon something that had landed. His dog went nuts on a thing walking around the landed object and the thing killed the dog. Reed shot the thing, brought it back to his house, and put it in his freezer. This was the start of all sorts of intrigue, involving all sorts of unmarked vans, aliens waking up in a freezer and banging to get out, unnamed agencies, and lots of guns.

You can read about all of these events and decide for yourself if any happened or were hoaxes. They were certainly good listening.

Father Malachi Martin, an Irish priest who might've been an exorcist, was a frequent guest, and a very interesting one. One night he talked about multiple personalities being a real disorder and not being caused by demons. You have to respect a man like that. He was very intelligent and fun to listen to.

Art had a series of odd events happening, usually around retiring and returning to radio. One involved a lawsuit around his son. He stayed permanently retired from Coast to Coast AM, where George Noory resides (who has a phenomenal Indian rug). George, to put it politely, isn't as exciting or endearing as Art.

Finally Art decided to go his own way and start broadcasting from home, over shortwave and internet, hoping to build up another network of stations. In the evening, due to atmospheric conditions, high power AM stations can travel hundreds of miles. I listened to a Boston station in Maryland clearly. This can help popularize shows. Within a very short time, there were gunshots outside of his house and the police were called. I don't know if it was ever solved, but Art did not want to put his family in jeopardy, so he left, continuing to advise and record promos.

There were other suspicious happenings on the air. Whole transmission lines would go down during interesting guests. Segments of the show would magically disappear. One might expect that certain people or agencies would be upset with him, but if you stop and think about it, he wasn't bringing Top Secret Stuff out. Yet this interference persisted.

Thrust into the hot seat was Heather Wade, the former producer of the show. Heather has an incredible on-air voice, is very pleasant, asks good questions, and seems to be well liked. Just days ago she said she purchased Art's guest house and moved from what I believe was the Northwest. She has the ThermionicEmissions seal of approval (yippee for her). I listen most nights. For info, go to Midnightinthedesert.com

Art won the Snuffed Candle Award from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry's Council for Media Integrity, for propagating bullshit. If you piss CSI off, you're doing a great job. They consist of Michael "don't bother me when I've made my mind up" Shermer and Seth "I'm completely scientific when I say it doesn't exist" Shostak, head of SETI.


We bid the king farewell and thanks for all those nights. We hope he has the answers now. And that they allow smoking wherever he is.