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This may be a little silly but . . .

Started by karameh1, October 07, 2018, 02:10:10 PM

karameh1


Shortly after his passing I wrote up this very sketchy biography of Art, and by the time it occurred to me that I could have submitted it to BellGab, the site seemed to have disappeared.  That was months ago.  Now that it has reemerged I'd like you to have a look at it, not so much for the ego-satisfaction but instead to have readers fact-check it for me. All data included here was gleaned by me strictly from listening to Mr. Bell's program thru the years, plus maybe bits and pieces from BellGab.  No further research was done from any other sources.

Thanks,  Ren


     Arthur William Bell, III died on Friday.

     He was 71 or thereabouts.  His was born June 17th, two days after my birth day.

     He served as an Air Force medic in East Asia, Okinawa I believe, and "got so tired of eating Sushi".  A longtime Ham radio aficionado, Art was making his living doing commercial radio when Premier Radio (or its predecessor) put him behind their mic as a call-in talk host and told him "go with it".   The rest is history, but I don't expect many of you to be too familiar with that history . . .

     His very first night on the air turned to the topic of unidentified flying objects, in today's parlance expanded to unidentified submersible objects, unidentified aerial phenomenon, Dr. Alan Hynek's suggestion of "daylight disks" which didn't seem to go anywhere, and on and on.  Top level management hit the roof, and put it squarely in his face almost immediately -- UFO's and weird stuff in 1993 were still strictly off limits, at least as founding subject matter on this Coast to Coast AM maiden voyage.

     What amounted to being fired-and-hired in one day drew the shit back into the fan as Art's newly forming fan base delivered enthusiastic kudos for this upstart offering of nationwide fare of what had for some time been popular culture and urban mythology.  Quickly the discussion broadened into the paranormal-at-large, including government and Black-Ops conspiracies, Sasquatch (Bigfoot), ghosts and apparitions, Near-Death Experiences (NDE's), Out-of-Body experiences (OBE's) eventually an array of there-to-fore unknown observations and research into startling new areas of the darker side of life.

     Altho I was aware of his celebrity, my first evening with the Master of the strange happened by accident after turning in for the night, and tuning into Art Bell on the dial.  The entire evening was dedicated to listeners phoning in their own personal ghost stories, and they kept me up until 2am.  I found myself lamenting that I had failed to avail myself of this exciting past-time up to that point, yet quickly I discovered that this arena of common interest was already showing signs of unraveling; even before that initial night of ghost stories it made national news that Art Bell suddenly resigned, apparently due to a serious family problem when his 16-year-old son was kidnapped by a school teacher and taken across state lines in violation of the federal Mann Act.  As it turned out, Art returned to the console a month later.  At roughly the same time a major scandal brought his moral fiber into question when what turned out to be a bogus report attributed a highly racist news article in a Filipino paper as Art's own doing, relegating the people of those islands to subhuman status.  Interestingly, Art had resided in that country for a time and married a Filipino woman.  This sick episode again resulted in a brief retirement from Coast to Coast AM.  He put Mike Siegel in to replace him, a DJ who never really caught on with Art's original crowd.  In what was becoming an expected turn of events, Mr. Bell retook the reigns of control one year later.

     VERY shortly after his lauded and much anticipated return to the airwaves, Mr. Bell was suddenly afflicted with paralyzing back problems, speaking to his listeners lying on his back on the floor of his house studio in Pahrump, Nevada -- front yard to of all places, Area 51 at Groom Lake, the mysterious Naval Station -- unable to incline from that position for the rest of the show; this brought in a plethora of guest hosts, including George Noory, severely pockmarking his appearances.  Recuperation from his ailment was taking a painfully long time, until he was forced from his permanent seat and replaced by Noory.  Around that time his dear and longtime wife Ramona died from a fatal asthma attack.

     Expressing bitter regret for ever having Mr. Noory take over for him (in good company from throngs of listeners many of who didn't like him at all, including this writer), Bell attempted a comeback on Sirius Internet radio, which folded before too long.  Finally, he simply launched his own digital radio network with a growing allotment of same-genre programs filling the 24 hour schedule, in competition with Premier Radio.  About half a year passed when out of the blue death threats came over his personal number, followed by some deranged(?) gunman who opened fire into his home, endangering his life and those of his new wife and baby daughter.  Having no hope of continuing this labour of love, Art quit this venue of broadcast, eventually still making noises about returning soon.

     Bell had personally witnessed UFO's including the not-so-illusive "floating Triangle" appearing across the Western U.S. and staying airborne and hovering in complete silence.  Also he was fond of retelling the one OBE he had while vacationing in Paris, zipping over the rooftops.

     Art Bell served not only as great entertainment, he inspired me to landing my own programs on Free Radio.

     Ren Tawil

GravitySucks

Quote from: karameh1 on October 07, 2018, 02:10:10 PM
Shortly after his passing I wrote up this very sketchy biography of Art, and by the time it occurred to me that I could have submitted it to BellGab, the site seemed to have disappeared.  That was months ago.  Now that it has reemerged I'd like you to have a look at it, not so much for the ego-satisfaction but instead to have readers fact-check it for me. All data included here was gleaned by me strictly from listening to Mr. Bell's program thru the years, plus maybe bits and pieces from BellGab.  No further research was done from any other sources.

Thanks,  Ren


     Arthur William Bell, III died on Friday.

     He was 71 or thereabouts.  His was born June 17th, two days after my birth day.

     He served as an Air Force medic in East Asia, Okinawa I believe, and "got so tired of eating Sushi".  A longtime Ham radio aficionado, Art was making his living doing commercial radio when Premier Radio (or its predecessor) put him behind their mic as a call-in talk host and told him "go with it".   The rest is history, but I don't expect many of you to be too familiar with that history . . .

     His very first night on the air turned to the topic of unidentified flying objects, in today's parlance expanded to unidentified submersible objects, unidentified aerial phenomenon, Dr. Alan Hynek's suggestion of "daylight disks" which didn't seem to go anywhere, and on and on.  Top level management hit the roof, and put it squarely in his face almost immediately -- UFO's and weird stuff in 1993 were still strictly off limits, at least as founding subject matter on this Coast to Coast AM maiden voyage.

     What amounted to being fired-and-hired in one day drew the shit back into the fan as Art's newly forming fan base delivered enthusiastic kudos for this upstart offering of nationwide fare of what had for some time been popular culture and urban mythology.  Quickly the discussion broadened into the paranormal-at-large, including government and Black-Ops conspiracies, Sasquatch (Bigfoot), ghosts and apparitions, Near-Death Experiences (NDE's), Out-of-Body experiences (OBE's) eventually an array of there-to-fore unknown observations and research into startling new areas of the darker side of life.

     Altho I was aware of his celebrity, my first evening with the Master of the strange happened by accident after turning in for the night, and tuning into Art Bell on the dial.  The entire evening was dedicated to listeners phoning in their own personal ghost stories, and they kept me up until 2am.  I found myself lamenting that I had failed to avail myself of this exciting past-time up to that point, yet quickly I discovered that this arena of common interest was already showing signs of unraveling; even before that initial night of ghost stories it made national news that Art Bell suddenly resigned, apparently due to a serious family problem when his 16-year-old son was kidnapped by a school teacher and taken across state lines in violation of the federal Mann Act.  As it turned out, Art returned to the console a month later.  At roughly the same time a major scandal brought his moral fiber into question when what turned out to be a bogus report attributed a highly racist news article in a Filipino paper as Art's own doing, relegating the people of those islands to subhuman status.  Interestingly, Art had resided in that country for a time and married a Filipino woman.  This sick episode again resulted in a brief retirement from Coast to Coast AM.  He put Mike Siegel in to replace him, a DJ who never really caught on with Art's original crowd.  In what was becoming an expected turn of events, Mr. Bell retook the reigns of control one year later.

     VERY shortly after his lauded and much anticipated return to the airwaves, Mr. Bell was suddenly afflicted with paralyzing back problems, speaking to his listeners lying on his back on the floor of his house studio in Pahrump, Nevada -- front yard to of all places, Area 51 at Groom Lake, the mysterious Naval Station -- unable to incline from that position for the rest of the show; this brought in a plethora of guest hosts, including George Noory, severely pockmarking his appearances.  Recuperation from his ailment was taking a painfully long time, until he was forced from his permanent seat and replaced by Noory.  Around that time his dear and longtime wife Ramona died from a fatal asthma attack.

     Expressing bitter regret for ever having Mr. Noory take over for him (in good company from throngs of listeners many of who didn't like him at all, including this writer), Bell attempted a comeback on Sirius Internet radio, which folded before too long.  Finally, he simply launched his own digital radio network with a growing allotment of same-genre programs filling the 24 hour schedule, in competition with Premier Radio.  About half a year passed when out of the blue death threats came over his personal number, followed by some deranged(?) gunman who opened fire into his home, endangering his life and those of his new wife and baby daughter.  Having no hope of continuing this labour of love, Art quit this venue of broadcast, eventually still making noises about returning soon.

     Bell had personally witnessed UFO's including the not-so-illusive "floating Triangle" appearing across the Western U.S. and staying airborne and hovering in complete silence.  Also he was fond of retelling the one OBE he had while vacationing in Paris, zipping over the rooftops.

     Art Bell served not only as great entertainment, he inspired me to landing my own programs on Free Radio.

     Ren Tawil

Except for having a whole bunch of your historical facts wrong, thanks for posting your thoughts.

karameh1

Well thanks a bunch dude/dudette -- how about a little substance to your critique so that I may stand properly corrected ??!

GravitySucks

Quote from: karameh1 on October 07, 2018, 03:43:58 PM
Well thanks a bunch dude/dudette -- how about a little substance to your critique so that I may stand properly corrected ??!

For one, Art and Ramona met while working at the same radio station in Las Vegas. She was only part Filipino. Art listed her heritage once. Hawaiian, Jamaican, Filipino, Native American and maybe Dutch.

He started his on show on that radio station and it was Ramona’s drive and determination to syndicate it. Premier didn’t buy it until much later. Listen to the archives. You will hear the liners for “CBC”. The syndication company he started with Alan.



WhiteCrow

Excellent write up and bio of Arts broadcasting career.

I didn't know a lot of the things you wrote about Art.
Mandela Effected Wikipedia worthy?


WOTR

More was said of substance in those paragraphs that on a show run by his legacy.  Nice write up.



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