• Welcome to BellGab.com Archive.
 

Art Bell Quits Dark Matter

Started by DesertFox, November 01, 2013, 08:13:24 AM

Quote from: nika01 on November 01, 2013, 08:08:25 PM
I just love being lectured Mr. Reaper sir. I bet you are a hit at parties.  Virtually everything you said is opinion, much like my post. I think business types, like you apparently, seem to be unable to think outside the box. Here is some news for you. Art Bell isnt owned by S/XM. He is not some neophyte that got a job  and is beholding to them. I believe he could walk out the door at any time he pleases. His show is getting ripped off nightly and you seem to think the S/XM is somehow in control. Seriously? They need to be outside of the shop worn box mentality, and giving it away for free is genius, in my opinion. I have wasted enough of my days on earth on this, I don't give a shit what happens. Life will go on.
Quick tip - don't call other people uninformed and lecture them if you can't handle being called out for doing the exact same thing.

For better or worse, SiriusXM is what it is. I don't think that's really arguable. If I was Art, I would have gone somewhere else. He clearly wants a bigger audience than they provide, and he deseves that. I just don't see how he gets that done while being with SiriusXM. They are not going to blow up their business model for his sake.



jazmunda

Quote from: SaucyRossy on November 01, 2013, 08:09:34 PM
because he does have a huge international fan base and they have no legal way to listen to art.

I'm pretty sure you just called me a criminal. ;)

All I did was lie about my address. I'm still a paying customer. :P

Quote from: BobGrau on November 01, 2013, 08:16:32 PM
  ;D Sorry, when I posted that for some reason I thought you had started the topic and I had this whole agent provocateur scenario worked out and so on. But you do seem a little... emotionally invested.
If I seem that way, it's only because a) I really enjoy listening to Art and b) it drives me crazy to read people saying that a free Art stream would help SiriusXM in any way. It just wouldn't. It makes no logical sense to say it would.

I'll back off this whole thing and just hope it works out for Art and for all of us so we can still keep listening. In the end,that's all that matters.

bateman

Quote from: jazmunda on November 01, 2013, 08:24:03 PM
I'm pretty sure you just called me a criminal. ;)

All I did was lie about my address. I'm still a paying customer. :P

I, for one, will refrain from making any prison colony cracks...

Okay. Move it along people. Nothing to see here. Go home to your families. Go on. Go on or we'll bring in the paddy wagon.

BobGrau

Quote from: jazmunda on November 01, 2013, 08:24:03 PM
I'm pretty sure you just called me a criminal. ;)

All I did was lie about my address. I'm still a paying customer. :P

I'm an overseas listener too, and I would be happy to pay to hear Art. But I'm not lieing about my address, that could concievably come back to haunt one someday.

The fact is, Sirius' business model already sucks. I see no reason why they can't let overseas customers subscribe online.

nika01

Apparently you cant read Mr. Reaper. There were a lot of uninformed posts. Mine was not one of them. You are stating what you perceive as fact that we all must swallow or we are stupid. If I said something that is not right, in an objective sense, spell it out. Your pronouncements have not addressed even one of my points. Since you are apparently dense, I will spell it out again. S/XM has NO CONTROL over the dissemination of the show. Argue that, if you can. Fact is you cant , so why don't you just stop. Your argument falls apart at step one. 

SaucyRossy

Quote from: bateman on November 01, 2013, 08:27:18 PM
I, for one, will refrain from making any prison colony cracks...

Jaz you're a criminal at heart I'm sure.

jazmunda

Quote from: SaucyRossy on November 01, 2013, 08:34:10 PM
Jaz you're a criminal at heart I'm sure.

A fun lovin criminal fo sure.

ItsOver

Quote from: bateman on November 01, 2013, 08:27:18 PM
I, for one, will refrain from making any prison colony cracks...

Hahaha...just a bunch of "fun lovin criminals."  ;)



Quote from: nika01 on November 01, 2013, 08:34:05 PM
Apparently you cant read Mr. Reaper. There were a lot of uninformed posts. Mine was not one of them. You are stating what you perceive as fact that we all must swallow or we are stupid. If I said something that is not right, in an objective sense, spell it out. Your pronouncements have not addressed even one of my points. Since you are apparently dense, I will spell it out again. S/XM has NO CONTROL over the dissemination of the show. Argue that, if you can. Fact is you cant , so why don't you just stop. Your argument falls apart at step one.
. Again. You accused people of being uninformed when you are clearly the same. Again, you accuse me by addressing your points when you fail to address mine.  I'm happy to address yours.

Are people pirating the show? Clearly. Does that mean that SiriusXM should respond by throwing heir hands up in the air and encouraging everyone to listen for free? Absolutely not. I don't care I'd someone pirates the shows or not. Have at it. But what is the point of SiriusXM even existing if they were to give away their product for free?

But you don't get to bully people by saying their arguments are uninformed if you aren't able to take beige challengers on your own points.

I'm not makin unilateral proclamations about an opinion of what SiriusXM's business model is. They want to make money. Giving away content for free doesn't make the money. Pretty sure that isn't an arguable point.

popple

Quote from: BobGrau on November 01, 2013, 08:33:43 PM
I'm an overseas listener too, and I would be happy to pay to hear Art. But I'm not lieing about my address, that could concievably come back to haunt one someday.

It was Art himself who suggested it! He is a bad influence :P

LOL If Art wants people to hear the show bad enough maybe he'll just set up a skype line and not answer any of the calls. Remember Jaz said you can hear the entire show and backstage funzies as well!

BobGrau

Quote from: popple on November 01, 2013, 09:29:56 PM
It was Art himself who suggested it! He is a bad influence :P

LOL If Art wants people to hear the show bad enough maybe he'll just set up a skype line and not answer any of the calls. Remember Jaz said you can hear the entire show and backstage funzies as well!

Like a director's commentary on a dvd!

jazmunda

Quote from: BobGrau on November 01, 2013, 08:33:43 PM
I'm an overseas listener too, and I would be happy to pay to hear Art. But I'm not lieing about my address, that could concievably come back to haunt one someday.

The fact is, Sirius' business model already sucks. I see no reason why they can't let overseas customers subscribe online.

How can it come back to haunt you? The worst they can do is cancel your account. I doubt they would take the matter further. I'm paying them. I'm not stealing.

I think the not allowing overseas customers has more to do with licensing issues. For example I cannot go on AMC's website and watch the latest episode of The Walking Dead because I am in Australia and not in the US. An Australian TV channel has licensed the episodes of The Walking Dead and therefore I am not allowed to watch it through a US distribution channel and I am geoblocked from accessing it from my computer. There are ways around it but that's another story.

I thought my 2 big stumbling blocks for paying for Sirius were going to be geoblocking, which they don't do, and not allowing my Australian credit card with a "fake" US address, which they allowed. As a result I am a proud paid subscriber supporting a broadcaster that I am happy to fork over my hard earned.

BobGrau

Quote from: jazmunda on November 01, 2013, 09:47:57 PM
How can it come back to haunt you? The worst they can do is cancel your account. I doubt they would take the matter further. I'm paying them. I'm not stealing...


I don't mean problems with sirius, I just think claiming a false address associated with a credit card might lead to admin wrangles down the road somewhere. I'm probably just being paranoid. Or mean.

El Kragen

When I heard Art say "All in" and then the announcement I thought it was him saying that he was putting his money up ie: a portion of what they pay him in order to make this free streaming thing happen. He's betting on it profiting him and Sirius/XM in the long run. The "no viable opition" comment was about him/us being stuck with the streaming that Sirius/XM offers if they decline.

onan

Quote from: El Kragen on November 01, 2013, 10:38:41 PM
When I heard Art say "All in" and then the announcement I thought it was him saying that he was putting his money up ie: a portion of what they pay him in order to make this free streaming thing happen. He's betting on it profiting him and Sirius/XM in the long run. The "no viable opition" comment was about him/us being stuck with the streaming that Sirius/XM offers if they decline.


What is this? Common sense? We will have none of that here, Sir... How dare you?

ksm32

@ desert fox.

Until you have an avatar? I can not take you in a serious manner. Show yourself demon. This is spiritual warfare you hussy :)

Stan_Holeman

I don't see how anyone can not take "all in" as meaning anything other than threatening to quit. He's an old school radio DJ with all the pluses and minuses that brings. Smoking, divorces, hating management, moving stations...the only things he hasn't done (to my knowledge) is drink too much and get suspended. So, it's in his nature to be difficult. Today, many label that "drama queen," but it's really just being a DJ.

"All in" means he's threatened to quit.

So, the bad part is that he's gone all in on something he can't possibly win--free streaming. The only thing Sirius can do is to promise to fix the issues. I hope that allows Art to save face, but then again, this is clearly not about streaming.  He's unhappy with the show.

He's an old man and doesn't want to have to work (probably doesn't have to). He's constantly talking about how few years he has left, and how he won't waste them. Doesn't sound like Art is going to put up with a show he doesn't like. It was just a couple of weeks ago he was talking about moving all his assets to the Philippines...that would have put the show very much in question too.

I hope he's able to calm down and just get into a routine again. His show is as good as ever, so he shouldn't be stressing out.

awguy

Quote from: indigoo on November 01, 2013, 06:31:26 PM
Sirius really needs to just invest in a better web app. Flash is dead, they should not be using it at this point.

That's the real issue here. The Sirius web player sucks... it really does. Time outs, crashes, the on demand slider bar disappears and I've had problems simply logging in when I know my username and password are correct.

I don't see SiriusXm allowing free streaming through Art's Website. What I can see happening is allowing listeners to use their SiriusXm Log-In on Art's website to listen on Art's separate web stream.

I signed up for satellite the moment I heard Art was coming back. I don't think I would drop the service if free streaming of Art's show was available. I have come to really love the service. Lots of great talk programming plus music you don't hear on mainstream radio. I'm so sick of today's current pop music scene. But that's another issue.

CornyCrow

Quote from: Dont Fear The Reaper on November 01, 2013, 05:00:49 PM
75k figure comes directly from Time Magazine. Not exactly a rumor.

So YOU say. 

I went to their website and searched for "Art Bell Salary" and sorted for newest first and nothing came up. 

Maybe you saw something that was retracted because it was incorrect. 

CornyCrow

Quote from: nooryisawesome on November 01, 2013, 05:01:40 PM





Re: Art Bell

« Reply #14347 on: September 12, 2013, 12:30:07 PM »



I hope you don't mind me posting this - it is from the subscriber content at Time.com - a pretty great article/interview with Art that they just posted, and it includes some pretty exciting tidbits about the show. Again, my apologies if posting something this long is frowned upon here.

Insomniac Radio King Art Bell Reclaims His Crown
The curious voice of late-night America returns to the airwaves
By Jack Dickey / Pahrump Monday, Sept. 23, 2013

Read more: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2151794,00.html#ixzz2ehU9iB4g

Not much happens in the patch of the Mojave Desert an hour's drive west of Las Vegas' nonstop carnival. It's hot during the day. Most nights the sky fills with stars. Sometimes there's a lightning or dust storm.

But since July, two events have shaken the typically sleepy region. After decades of obfuscation, the CIA acknowledged the existence and location of Area 51, a base for testing secret military aircraft that has long been central to UFO lore. And Art Bell, whose late-night radio show once attracted an audience of millions of loyal insomniacs, announced he was returning to the airwaves full time after more than 10 years away.

For Bell fans, the timing wasn't a coincidence. They are the sort of people inclined to believe the government knows more about mysterious shapes in the sky than it lets on. Bell has been speaking and listening to them since 1984, broadcasting first from Las Vegas and then, after 1988, from a studio in his home in Pahrump, an unincorporated town of 36,441 not far from Area 51.

From 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. E.T., six days a week, Bell held forth on all manner of science, science fiction and science-maybe-fiction in his smoky, spooky voice. He was a one-man band, cuing the bumper music, taking calls and interviewing guests entirely on his own, explaining everything from clairvoyance to the chupacabra in a relaxed but foreboding style. From 1997 to 2002, his Coast to Coast AM was one of the five most-listened-to shows on talk radio, syndicated to as many as 500 North American stations and attracting a peak weekly audience of 15 million. Then Bell walked away.

Bell had taken breaks before, most notably a two-week spell in 1998 after his son was molested by a teacher and a longer one in 2000 to deal with the ongoing fallout. When he retired in 2002, Bell agreed to host weekends, saying the lighter load would ease his back problems. Weeknights were ceded to George Noory, his eventual successor. As Noory took command, Bell's hosting duties gradually tapered off. He last appeared on the show he created in 2010.

Bell says the decision to come out of retirement was entirely his, a response to the direction that Noory has taken the show--closer to talk radio's overcaffeinated political chat (Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist best known for claiming that the government perpetrated the Boston bombings, is a regular guest) than the open-minded exploration of the supernatural that defined Bell's tenure. Noory, he says, has "ruined" the franchise. Noory declined to speak to Time; a spokesperson for his syndicator, Premiere Networks, said the company is "fortunate" to have him.

"Not a chance in hell," Bell says, when asked if he would ever return to his old show. "It's not personal. It's just an institutional hatred. I really hate them."

But he still loves radio, and listeners still love him. And that's why, at age 68, after a sojourn in the Philippines, Bell is back in Pahrump preparing for his return. From a studio in a double-wide trailer on his property, the onetime king of insomniac radio is working out the kinks of what will debut Sept. 16 on Sirius XM satellite radio as Art Bell's Dark Matter. It will run live from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. E.T., four nights a week (reruns will air the rest of the week), though Bell says he plans to go an extra hour most nights, putting his new show in competition with the first hour of his old one. Dark Matter will feel familiar to Coast fans: Bell plans to cover the same topics, with many of the same guests, and he's even recruited the old Coast announcer to set the mood.

But more than a decade away can sow doubts, even among the best. "Memories grow fond over time," Bell says, fretting over his return. "My listeners may remember me being better than I was."

Talking Through the Night

America's overnight army--insomniacs, long-haul truckers, emergency-room nurses--need something to keep them company while the rest of the country sleeps. Radio has long been a willing companion. The format favors good listeners and drawn-out discussion, an even keel over daytime's hot temper.

Long John Nebel, a New York City--based disc jockey, dominated the overnight air in the 1960s with a call-in show heavy on tales of ghosts, aliens and witches, according to Michael Keith, an expert in radio and American culture at Boston College. The supernatural gave way to political chat in the 1970s, with Larry King as the standard-bearer. But King's move to daytime in 1993 opened the door for a return of the weird, and Bell burst through it.

He moved away from politics and embraced the solitude of the night and the possibility of the desert. Who better to talk about Area 51, after all, than the man broadcasting from its shadow, who claimed to have seen things out there "that'd make your hair curl"?

Simply listening to Bell, though, could make your hair curl. It wasn't just the creepy topics--aliens, monsters, life after death, parallel universes--but the way he milked the theater of every moment. Callers often sounded impatient, breathless, as if they knew too much and were running out of time to share it. You, almost certainly alone somewhere in the dark, were scared. You had to be.

Bell ministered to the overnight army and added a large contingent of sci-fi junkies to its ranks. In the days before everyone had endless microtargeted media options on demand, Bell pitched a very big tent. And that audience remained during Bell's years away, hungry for his return. Every vague comeback rumor was met with a flurry of online anticipation.

That's what Sirius XM was after. Satellite radio's business model relies on hosts with fans passionate enough to pay for a subscription. The company had been hunting for an "Art Bell type," says Jeremy Coleman, Sirius XM's boss of talk programming. "Then I had one of those 'Duh' moments. What about actual Art Bell?" Coleman got to "stalking" Bell on social media, eventually paying to send him a priority message on Facebook. Coleman's pitch: "I told him that the show would work only if he actually spoke the truth ... We want one thing from Art Bell, and it's Art Bell."

Bell, who had resisted comeback offers from smaller syndicators, was sold. "I'm on extraterrestrial radio now," he says, relishing the turn of phrase.

Though the deal was modest by his standards--Bell says he'll earn $75,000 annually, plus half of the show's profits for three years--he was drawn by the freedom it offered: few commercial breaks, total creative control and the chance to prove that his brand of weird still has a following among America's overworked and underslept.

The audience for conspiracies and antigovernment screeds is vast, but Bell says he doesn't want them. "George can keep them," Bell says with a smile. He's after a different demographic: "The sane fringe."

On a recent August day, bell seems in better shape than he was the last time he was on the air regularly. He traded his Marlboro Lights for electronic cigarettes, and his 29-year-old fourth wife Airyn and their 6-year-old daughter Asia keep him spry. He looks like a droopier version of his 1990s self--not a bad outcome given the hours he keeps. (Bell never goes to bed before 2 a.m.) He says his time abroad rejuvenated him too. He moved to Manila to marry Airyn in 2006, three months after his wife's unexpected death from an asthma attack.

Night has long since fallen over the Kingdom of Nye, as Bell called his home county in the old Coast intro. The sky is pitch black; just a few stars are bright enough to slice through the inky pall. Normally you can see the Milky Way, but the unseasonable humidity, Bell says, has ruined the view.

"You know," he says, "I wish you had come on another night, to see it for yourself. It's really something." But it's not an option. I'll just have to take Art Bell's word for it.

Thank you, and I apologize to one and all.  I am not a subscriber, so the part about his salary was not available to me. 

I think the 'share of the profits' must be huge, no?  Or, maybe this move of his is to make those profits greater because they do not seem what he anticipated originally.     

nika01

Quote from: Dont Fear The Reaper on November 01, 2013, 08:20:38 PM
Quick tip - don't call other people uninformed and lecture them if you can't handle being called out for doing the exact same thing.

For better or worse, SiriusXM is what it is. I don't think that's really arguable. If I was Art, I would have gone somewhere else. He clearly wants a bigger audience than they provide, and he deseves that. I just don't see how he gets that done while being with SiriusXM. They are not going to blow up their business model for his sake.

What business model, oh you mean the one that doesn't work! I am beginning to think you work for S/XM. For the record, I pay for the service in my car and on the net.

Quote from: nika01 on November 02, 2013, 09:58:59 AM
What business model, oh you mean the one that doesn't work! I am beginning to think you work for S/XM. For the record, I pay for the service in my car and on the net.
Jesus Christ, so because I have the common sense to be able to see what a company's buisness model is that means I work for them? No, it means I have common sense. They have 27 million subscribers so it must be working on some level. I'm not sure why you felt the need to say that you pay for the service, but good for you I suppose.

You still haven't answered the only question I have - how will allowing Art's show to be streamed for free help SiriusXM get more subscribers? That is the only thing that matters to them.

Sardondi

I detest pro athletes who insist on the owners abiding by the terms of their contract so that they get paid even in those years when it was clear they weren't putting out the effort, their production was negligible and they weren't worth a tenth of what they were paid. But when the athlete has a great year - you know, one of those years which it was anticipated he would routinely have when he was negotiating his current contract - all of a sudden he wants to "renegotiate". That such situations are even eligible for "arbitration" is an offense to the very concept of a contract.

Art made a deal. He had 10 years to decide what he wanted and if he wanted to do it. So six weeks after he began the new contract he's apparently unhappy. Now, Art can be a man and abide by what he swore he would do. (But then a man wouldn't have started whining six weeks in, would he?) Or he can start a public campaign to alter the terms of his contract; while upping the ante by suddenly having back attacks which hurt him so much he can't talk.

Art is getting very close to my "had it up to here" line.   

Quote from: Stan_Holeman on November 02, 2013, 06:43:57 AM
....is drink too much and get suspended. So, it's in his nature to be difficult. Today, many label that "drama queen," .....

Come on Art


Quote from: CornyCrow on November 02, 2013, 09:46:38 AM
....I think the 'share of the profits' must be huge, no?  Or, maybe this move of his is to make those profits greater because they do not seem what he anticipated originally.     

Art gets half of the commercial revenue. Not sure what it cost to run a C Crean commercial though. :)

Quote from: Sardondi on November 02, 2013, 12:51:46 PM
I detest pro athletes who insist on the owners abiding by the terms of their contract so that they get paid even in those years when it was clear they weren't putting out the effort, their production was negligible and they weren't worth a tenth of what they were paid. But when the athlete has a great year - you know, one of those years which it was anticipated he would routinely have when he was negotiating his current contract - all of a sudden he wants to "renegotiate". That such situations are even eligible for "arbitration" is an offense to the very concept of a contract.

Art made a deal. He had 10 years to decide what he wanted and if he wanted to do it. So six weeks after he began the new contract he's apparently unhappy. Now, Art can be a man and abide by what he swore he would do. (But then a man wouldn't have started whining six weeks in, would he?) Or he can start a public campaign to alter the terms of his contract; while upping the ante by suddenly having back attacks which hurt him so much he can't talk.

Art is getting very close to my "had it up to here" line.   

Using the football metaphor - since Art is not arguing about the 75k or 50% commercial revenues terms of the contract - I process it as Art asking that the football games be available on broadcast networks and not only to ticket buyers who attend the actual game at the stadium. If the metaphor is exacted further, Art wants to install a revolutionary playing field and rip out the old FieldTurf.

In my opinion, Art is not trying to end what just began, but wants to work with his employers to make Dark Matter a better beast early on.

And here I was telling everyone to move on. Have to call the paddy wagon on myself it seems.

But that's nothing new. The Unis know where I live and are accustomed to my drama.


Powered by SMFPacks Menu Editor Mod