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Art Bell

Started by sillydog, April 07, 2008, 11:21:45 PM

anagrammy

Thank you, Aldous, for your vote of confidence and your thoughts.  Aguagoat, what you said has a lot of merit as well.

All joking and speculation aside, here are my serious thoughts:  We are like a small group of disgruntled employees who write to the Board of Directors of a big corporation to complain about decisions the boss made.  No chance in hell.

Premier Networks and Clear Channel do not care what we write because they are corporations and have no soul, no allegiance to anything.  They are legal entities.  A corporation is like an amoeba--easy to understand what it's all about: money and ratings=money.  The radio host is like a pseudopod: it brings in food or it is absorbed and another takes its place.  WOR dumped Glenn Beck without a backward glance when his audience moved away--their spokesman said, "We were surprised...."  Note the lack of feelings; no loyalty, nothing.  It is a waste of time to communicate with an amoeba about anything but food.  It is a waste of time to write an appeal to Premier on the basis a decline of the quality of the show, even if we can prove it.  Does the amoeba care what the pseudopod brings in ?  NO!    They don't care.  If that program on recipes that they punked on April Fool's Day last year would have brought more $$ in ratings, George Noory would be speaking at a cooking conference instead of a UFO conference.  "There must be billions of chocolate chips in this cake..."  He'd peer into the oven, "Something's going on in there!"  Amazing!  Absolutely!  He is a whore who reads a comic book during the act--hello, not really here.

But the thing is--Premier doesn't give a shit if he's a shill or not.  Do we have audience share, yes or no.  Unless the amoeba gets hungry, nothing happens and we can't really do anything about Noory creating a lonely hearts club out of what used to be a program involving a witty thinking man examining extraordinary claims of extraordinary events.

That's the reality as I see it, folks, once I brush my hair and try to get that gawdawful bumper song out of my mind that I heard when John Wells was hosting.  Yeah, they can't even do that right (see the John Wells thread)

I like Aqua Goat's approach for several reasons.  Art Bell actually cares enough about the integrity of the program to do more than just hold his nose when it began to stink.  He packed his bag and moved out.  That's classic Art--he is not going to compromise because he knows it is an insult to the audience.  We all feel it and that's why we are angry.   

Why would Art care what we think?  Is he planning something new for radio?  George Knapp seems to "know" something he isn't saying (and many of us feel the Nevada Knappster is the heir apparent if Noory's aging audience finds a new Liberace). Speculation about Art quitting just to enjoy family could only be true if Art were sick or had a (gulp) terminal diagnosis.  His child is a girl and is going off to school; her mother is also a girl and when you get old, what you've got going is your mind and decades of memories.  Art has no one to talk to.  Anyone catch that sad moment on the Joan Rivers bio documentary where her long  l  o  n  g  time manager just walks out one day and never comes back.  She tears up and says something profound which I truly applies to Art Bell, "Now I have no one to say 'remember that time.....' "  Joan lost her husband, who was a keeper of memories and Art lost Ramona.  He has an unbelievably rich past which DESERVES to be cherished and re-experienced as a comfort to him, an iconic radio host legend.  When all's said and done, where's Art's lifetime achievement award going to come from?  You don't see Art Bell listed in any of these UFO conferences now, do you?

I would love to see Art run a commentary on his own old shows.  A kind of then and now--Travis Walton and how his story's changed -- or has it?  Most of our knowledge of the past guests is very spotty.  I'm always wishing I could hear an update from a Somewhere in Time show.  They are in the public domain now, so he could reprise these guests and have an actually (oh merciful Lord how sweet it would be!) CONVERSATION about a topic.
With all the shit that's coming down on all the conspiracies, the dimensional, OMG imagine Art owning Ed Dames and that other primping prissy full-of-me-and-only-me Richard Hoagland.  Where do I sign?

So I am recommending we write a great email directly to Art Bell and offering a suggestion (mine or others) and offer our viral marketing support for any other project he may have in mind.  Onan notes that it took years to build up C2C and Art might not be willing, but I'd like to present to him the argument that times are different now.  With social networking behind him, a "Bring Back Art" campaign is something we definitely can do.  I'm thinking of the marketing strategy of "The Secret" which came out last year in a book, you guessed it, "The Secret of the Secret."  (For the record, I think the secret is way too materialistic and if it worked Amway would be a Fortune 100 company today).  Short version of said secret:  ask all stakeholders to put an ad on their website.  I could see Alex Jonesing, Linda Moulting Howl and all the jackwagons lining up to Bring Back Art. 

We focus on bringing back Art with a Then and Now format, if he's interested and if it's possible.  I'm not suggesting every night, either.  I'd like to hear Art's commentary on unfolding events in any form at all (and most of us feel this way).

What do you think?

Anagrammy









Marc.Knight

I think we should just hope that Art is doing exactly what he wants to do with the remainder of the healthy years of his life.  And leave it at that.

Anyone is free to voice their wishes for what should be, but we need to be careful not to paint a picture that we think Art wants, but is somehow held back from doing.  More than likely the picture we paint is what we want at this point, and not what Art wants.

anagrammy

Marc, it is what I want.  And it is healthy to ask for what you want.  After all, didn't the current Mrs. Bell start out as a person encouraging Art via email?  That's what Art says, so what harm can it do?  Besides, how do you know he's doing what he wants?  How do you know he isn't thinking, "Gosh, if I only had a rock solid fanbase that hasn't been Snooried away, I'd go for it, I'm so bored..."

Realistically, he probably won't even answer, but I think it is at worst a compliment and at best the only thing we can do as an "audience without a performer."

Anagrammy

Marc.Knight

Quote from: anagrammy on February 27, 2011, 12:19:50 AM
Marc, it is what I want.  And it is healthy to ask for what you want.  After all, didn't the current Mrs. Bell start out as a person encouraging Art via email?  That's what Art says, so what harm can it do?  Besides, how do you know he's doing what he wants?  How do you know he isn't thinking, "Gosh, if I only had a rock solid fanbase that hasn't been Snooried away, I'd go for it, I'm so bored..."

Realistically, he probably won't even answer, but I think it is at worst a compliment and at best the only thing we can do as an "audience without a performer."

Anagrammy




You just might get an answer.

aquagoat

My ever faithful pooch Layla just channelled Vonnegut ---- now Anagrammy, can you PLEASE find a way for me to LOWER my arm?      ;)

bmd88

As much as I'd thank God for one of the greatest gift's I've had in years if it did happen, I don't think Art will be doing another overnight radio show so long as Coast is still on the air.  If he did, I can see the competing ratings producing a lot of drama that Art would probably want to avoid at this stage in life.  If he did another show, I would imagine it would air when Coast is not.

Sy-Klone

I don't see Art ever launching another radio program. He retired in 2003. He retired for a reason. He doesn't want to host a radio show full-time anymore. He doesn't want to be tied to a regular schedule, chasing affiliates and ratings and ad revenue. Since 2003, he's only served as occasional fill-in host, in part because radio (ham or otherwise) is a hobby for him. It's in his blood.

So, I'd speculate that our only hope for more Art Bell radio rests on two possibilities:

(1) If he starts missing the microphone too much, he might mend fences with the C2C producers and come back every now and again. If the producers are to be believed, the door is open to Art. It's Art himself that's holding back. His reasons...well, there are 30 pages of speculation about those reasons. :) But for now, this doesn't seem likely.

OR

(2) Because radio is in his blood and because he might like to continue it as a hobby, I hold out hope that we might get something like occasional podcasts...something that he can record from home, interviewing guests or talking about news, and make the MP3 files available for download. It's cheap, it's completely disconnected from radio syndicators or network executives, he'd have complete and total control over guests and content, and it wouldn't be all that difficult for Art to set up by himself. I've got a friend who hosts a weekly podcast. It's not that difficult. I could see Art setting his own schedule and doing something like that for himself, if only as leisure (not work).

aldousburbank

Quote from: anagrammy on February 26, 2011, 11:59:46 PM
Why would Art care what we think?  Is he planning something new for radio?  George Knapp seems to "know" something he isn't saying (and many of us feel the Nevada Knappster is the heir apparent if Noory's aging audience finds a new Liberace). Speculation about Art quitting just to enjoy family could only be true if Art were sick or had a (gulp) terminal diagnosis.  His child is a girl and is going off to school; her mother is also a girl and when you get old, what you've got going is your mind and decades of memories.  Art has no one to talk to.  Anyone catch that sad moment on the Joan Rivers bio documentary where her long  l  o  n  g  time manager just walks out one day and never comes back.  She tears up and says something profound which I truly applies to Art Bell, "Now I have no one to say 'remember that time.....' "  Joan lost her husband, who was a keeper of memories and Art lost Ramona.  He has an unbelievably rich past which DESERVES to be cherished and re-experienced as a comfort to him, an iconic radio host legend.  When all's said and done, where's Art's lifetime achievement award going to come from?  You don't see Art Bell listed in any of these UFO conferences now, do you?

George Knapp, Liberace, Joan Rivers, and Art Bell- All in one paragraph!  Nice.

When I found CoastGab recently, I had heard George Knapp (as I recall) say something about his for sure adios and had already mourned that.  The quick mention hardly seemed informative but definite.  After finding this forum I was surprised to see that we had holdouts, I was glad actually.  In a previous response Anagrammy mentioned it boiled down to writing Art just because, no expectation of effect or response.  I like the idea simply because we all know Art likes us, his former radio neighborhood.  Think of it as, we never sent him a thank you or happy retirement card. 

Speaking from experience, when you're an older male human organism and you sire and raise a young human organism, it does something to your brain.  Every parent can tell you something about this but a new >50 parent doesn't have the time to talk about it because they see time racing by at 186,000 miles per second and they barely have the moment to grab the camera and the diaper.  And strangely, it seems like it's the best time you ever had and you might just find yourself wanting to do it all the time they're not at school or asleep.  Strange.  It is biology's bermuda triangle my friends, steer clear of these waters lest ye looseth thy desire and not seeketh thyest way out!

PS If you've also got tunes, good food, clean water, a warm place, and maybe a little coochi coo, it's not such a bad deal.


morphiaflow

I think Aquagoat and Anagrammy nailed it. Kudos, guys.

I heard part of the Wells show the other night and at first I thought "awesome, an antidote to Noory!" but then I heard the guest and it was the same old Revelations-End Times-Antichrist-666 Chip type script Noory loves, and I had to lower my head in disappointment. Only difference is someone with a greater intellect and a better voice and command of the language was hosting. The agenda was the same as it ever was.

I may draft "An Open Letter to Art Bell" and post it here for you guys to see, comment on and suggest changes for. Maybe that would at least be a start.

anagrammy

Sounds great, Morphiaflow, but before you do that PICK A DAMN AVATAR!  I'm sick of pinkie.  We can work together on a letter via PM and then submit our best effort to the group.  Sound ok to you? 

One thing I want to know as a pre-requisite to a group letter is whether or not Nighthawk or Fab Forum has commented about the cryptic message Art sent disguised as comments about Asia.  Are the other forums agreeing with us?  Does anybody know?  It would be great to be able to say we're the ones who get Art's message.

I tried to sign up and apparently it's a Skull and Bones situation...the Illuminati are running it and no riffraff need apply?  Ha!

Anagrammy

aquagoat

Completely off topic and leading to nothing talk radio related -- I just have to share this with as much of the world as possible.



Rolling Stone on line  for a period is running a CD review of Gregg Allman's first solo offering in over a decade. The review site also offers a sound player and the complete CD for our listening pleasure.  And Lawdy lawdy Ms Claudy, what a pleasure it is.  Given up for the walking dead due to illness from  his self abusive lifestyle choices years ago, Allman has been clean and sober for a decade or more, yet the damage was done. Still, he did what he knew - kept on keeping on.


Gregg, now at 64 and the recipient of a new liver, is also - obviously - the recipient of a new lease on life.  And "low country blues" is testament to the fact that no matter whether there's more life in the rearview than through the windshield, it ain't never too late to get some of a body's best work done.  If any of you have a penchant for the real thing - grown up music, not Idol worship, pie-of-the-month drivel, nor boy=band Top of the Pops, but the honest down to earth country blues that ain't cute, aint pretty, but in that little dark corner of our hearts where we tuck the hurt away, it is a thing of beauty.


So - long after being assigned the role of a somewhat passee un-relevent oldtimer with little left to offer - Mr. Allman, to my ear, has created a recording that come 12 months from now we will be honoring with a Grammy. *(not that a Grammy is the final arbiter of whether a CD is good or not - but it certainly will validate that age is not the barrier the Corporate Shills would make it out to be.


OR - , as Art pointed out in his Forum missive - "Never say Never",

Sp there - I guess there was a tad of a relatable link to the "Come Back Art: talk we've being hashing out this week.
EMJOY:Go ahead folks and stick this in your ear: http://www1.rollingstone.com/hearitnow/player/allman.html


"I got one more
Silver dollar . . . .
but I ain't gonna let em catch me no . . .
not gonna let em catch
The Midhight Rider"


Rick O'Shea Rabbit


PS - just so Marc doesn't have to plutz over what an 'Aquagoat' is anymore ..... its all about being born under AQUArius, in the CHinese Year of the mountain GOAT.

MV/Liberace!

Quote from: b_dubb on February 26, 2011, 11:46:47 AM
hey did you guys hear that Art Bell quit Coast to Coast?!!!
This sounds like bullshit. Where did u hear it?

Sent from my Droid X.

MV/Liberace!

Aquagoat... u seem like a fine gentleman with whom a chap could enjoy a marijuana cigarette or two. Perhaps someday I'll look you up.

Sent from my Droid X.

MikeD

I dunno. Maybe it's just me, but this should be more about delivering a type of content Art's interested in that Coast is gradually not for Art, not rebuilding the wheel.

The man doesn't have to do a 4 hour show, overnight 365. If Art had a weekly internet radio show that went back to the roots of C2C I'm sure it could happen without the added drama of things like a blood feud over "Well who owns Richard Hoagland?" I mean, is there really gonna be fights over these guests?

Something like that seems more than plausible.

MV/Liberace!

Quote from: MikeD on February 28, 2011, 02:02:42 AM

Something like that seems more than plausible.
And enjoyable.

Sent from my Droid X.

aldousburbank


Damn AquaGoat!  I knew I recognized you from somewhere!

aldousburbank

Quote from: Michael V. on February 28, 2011, 01:41:00 AM
Aquagoat... u seem like a fine gentleman with whom a chap could enjoy a marijuana cigarette or two. Perhaps someday I'll look you up.

Sent from my Droid X.

Michael V., you have just made Aqua and I most paranoid.

Good morning!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

aldousburbank

Dude, you're not using that book for rolling papers are you?

No sir!

Club papers, but I don't roll that often anymore. I already burn through roughly 3.5 grams a day, joints would add to that! But I did use joints to quit smoking cigarettes several years ago.

I usually just pack a small bowl with some cold-water hash on top. Try to stick to vape during the day though (lungs).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

b_dubb

Quote from: guildnavigator on February 28, 2011, 10:37:05 AM
Good morning!

nothing like a nice helping of space cabbage to start the day

FortRock

AFTER 3 DAYS AWAY FROM HOME, I AM PROUD OF ALL OF YOU!

You wish to get active with emails, etc? Here are four suggestions OTHER than Art's email address to try, plus one wild card!
1. Contact the C Crane Company using the online-contact form! You know Art would not make a move without Bob Crane's involvement somehow! Here is that addy: http://www.ccrane.com/ssl/contact-us.aspx.

2. You all know of my contacts with Karen Jackson at KNYE Radio Pahrump. Here's her contact info: Karen@knye.com

3. If Art stays true to his history of broadcasting, he'll want KDWN as his Las Vegas affiliate! They are under new ownership, but they know the history too! Contact they're General Manager: tom.humm@bbgilv.com.

4. Everyone knows of Art's friendship with Whitley Strieber, and most know I'm a volunteer reporter for www.unknowncountry.com. Contact Whitley at this addy: Whitley@Strieber.com.

5. One toss-up, most insiders know that Art's secret News Editor was George Knapp! Write George Knapp at: Georgeknapp@coasttocoastam.com. His emails are NOT censored by the Ogre!

Here's that Wild Card Line! Write a letter, snailmail, to Art's Pahrump address, and see if it gets forwarded by USPS, or Tom, the current resident! Here's that snailmail:
Art Bell
9041 Desert Lane
Pahrump, NV. 89048

This may start the ball rolling!

FortRock

OH ONE THING GOT LEFT OUT!

Many of you have mentioned Richard C. Hoagland, here is his email addy: enterprisemissionmail@yahoo.com.

For those who are Fantastic Forum Members, PLEASE spread this information around liberally!

MV/Liberace!

Quote from: Fort Rock on February 28, 2011, 11:33:11 AM
Art Bell
9041 Desert Lane
Pahrump, NV. 89048

This may start the ball rolling!
are you sure this is right?  google street view doesn't show there to be a 9xxx block on that street.  furthermore, none of the houses in street view look like art's house to me.  i've seen pictures of it several times... and these are not it.

MV/Liberace!

Quote from: Fort Rock on February 28, 2011, 11:43:33 AM
OH ONE THING GOT LEFT OUT!

Many of you have mentioned Richard C. Hoagland, here is his email addy: enterprisemissionmail@yahoo.com.

For those who are Fantastic Forum Members, PLEASE spread this information around liberally!
hoagland is using a yahoo email address? 


figures.

mib12890

Quote from: Michael V. on February 28, 2011, 11:44:20 AM
are you sure this is right?  google street view doesn't show there to be a 9xxx block on that street.  furthermore, none of the houses in street view look like art's house to me.  i've seen pictures of it several times... and these are not it.

use street view and go right up to his house. it's art's house. you can see the poles for his loop antenna and his front yard.

Marc.Knight

Quote from: aldousburbank on February 28, 2011, 09:48:29 AM
Michael V., you have just made Aqua and I most paranoid.

Are you sure it is not just a symptom of overindulgence?

aldousburbank

Quote from: Marc Knight on February 28, 2011, 12:11:09 PM
Are you sure it is not just a symptom of overindulgence?

I think definitely, uhhh, not.

MV/Liberace!

Quote from: mib12890 on February 28, 2011, 12:04:50 PM
use street view and go right up to his house. it's art's house. you can see the poles for his loop antenna and his front yard.
are you talking about this house?


MV/Liberace!

Quote from: Michael V. on February 28, 2011, 02:09:08 PM
are you talking about this house?
ok, it's this house... across the street.  god... the exposure on the google street view car is AWFUL.  you'd think they'd have used better equipment for this.

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