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Art Bell

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

onan

Quote from: anagrammy on January 05, 2011, 02:50:02 AM
the circular comments,

*Passes the popcorn*

Noory isn't smart enough to understand the concept of a circle... he goes from point A to... crap he never leaves point A.

RoadDog

Here's a thought, yes more speculation from the unwashed masses, but in lieu of any actual word, all we can do is speculate. Art Bell, to me, embodied skepticism. Pure, unadulterated, though often quite polite, and always fair, skepticism. How long has the show not represented that ideal? The preponderance of unchallenged guests, as well as the definitively chicken little attitude of Mr. Noory, would, were I Mr.Bell, make me cringe to hear it, especially in light of the fact that the show was meant to be a forum where normal folks could question some of the more outrageous claims out there.

Art was a master of giving guests enough rope to hang themselves, and THEN getting guests to actually do so. Then there's George. He's more the type to forget what he was doing, and knit a hammock for his guests with that said same rope. It would be like starting the Library of Congress all by yourself, then having the next librarian decide that we only need to save Where's Waldo books. I would be pissed too.

ArtBellFan

Quote from: anagrammy on January 05, 2011, 02:50:02 AM
I've been trying to get to bottom of my anger. Peeling back many layers, I was startled to find that I'm angry that George Noory forces me to hear only his opinion. I am angry because I thought Coast-2-Coast valued the listeners.

Why would you or anyone for that matter listen to someone who makes you angry, I just don't get it, I turned him off when I first heard him do a fill in show for Art and have never listened since, I knew what was to come.  If I can't have quality I would rather sleep.  As a matter of fact it can't be healthy to listen to someone who continually makes you angry.

MV/Liberace!

Quote from: ringthane on January 04, 2011, 08:31:56 PM
You're not really rolling on the floor. How do I know?

Witchcraft.

That is all. Resume thread.
come ooooooon!!  why you have to out me like that???!!!???

MV/Liberace!

Quote from: ArtBellFan on January 05, 2011, 11:41:55 AM
I turned him off when I first heard him do a fill in show for Art and have never listened since...
i envy you.

ArtBellFan

Quote from: MV on January 05, 2011, 11:49:49 AM
i envy you.

It's easy my friend, there is a little knob or button on your radio that's for turning it off, try it sometime you may just like it. :o

minnehan

    Norry fanned the flames of his endtimes prophecy by having Dr. Doom MAJOR Ed Dames last night profess how we were all going to be dead by 2013 from economic collapse, pandemic flu mutations and his famous "kill shot" from the sun... so the return of Art Bell is a moot point anyway, isn't it?

    Suddenly our dramatic backstabbing plot has turned into a disaster movie.  Will the hero of the story swoop in on time to save us?  Better make more popcorn!

Quote from: minnehan on January 05, 2011, 12:56:27 PM
    Norry fanned the flames of his endtimes prophecy by having Dr. Doom MAJOR Ed Dames last night profess how we were all going to be dead by 2013 from economic collapse, pandemic flu mutations and his famous "kill shot" from the sun... so the return of Art Bell is a moot point anyway, isn't it?

    Suddenly our dramatic backstabbing plot has turned into a disaster movie.  Will the hero of the story swoop in on time to save us?  Better make more popcorn!

Well, at least watching the end of the world is going to be really cool.  ;D

Quote from: RoadDog on January 05, 2011, 09:11:05 AMArt Bell, to me, embodied skepticism. Pure, unadulterated, though often quite polite, and always fair, skepticism.

:o

He had his moments, and in his own mind probably doubted most of what he put on the air, sure. There were often guests on Coast that he made a point of disagreeing with. But I have a real problem with the statement that Art Bell embodied skepticism.

How many times did Ed Dames come back under Art?  How many different sets of alien and ghost photos did Art post on his webpage with the preface that "You've GOT to check this out"? I'm not trying to slight the guy but that's not the work of a skeptic, it's the work of a shrewd businessman who knows how to keep his listeners and advertisers interested in a show that takes on topics unheard of in talk radio.

/ begin rant

And another thing...

It bothers me that in the climate of these kinds of issues, and the "paranormal" in general, the word "skeptic" has become a dirty word and that calling someone by this title has a negative connotation. Every time I hear someone say "he's a skeptic" they have to throw in that "he's still a nice guy" or some kind of qualifying statement about that persons character.

Thinking critically about new ideas and being skeptical of bizarre explanations is a *good* thing. At least some degree of skepticism is absolutely needed when listening to C2C and more generally any other media source. People shouldn't be ashamed because they have doubts, requiring evidence before belief should be encouraged in our society and I'm put off by the fact that it isn't. There's an amazing amount of bullshit out there and everyone really does need a filter for getting that stuff out of their incoming information lines.  Otherwise you will wind up buying every kit of apocalypse seeds you hear about and pass off the bigfoot in the freezer as a legitimate specimen.  ;)

Art never *really* took any of his guests to task over their claims even though he easily could have worked them over. This would have made for some entertaining radio but overall damaged the reputation of the show and limited the roster of future guests since no one would come back if Art sent them packing last time they were on. In order to get a guy like Ed Dames back over and over, you have to suspend your disbelief. Art has come out and really challenged guests from time to time but in the interests of the business Art usually kept it holstered. He was usually more apt to do this with callers. This is also one of the reasons why Ian appeals to me so much as a host, he has a more critical way of looking at things that appeals to me.

In the same vein, anyone remember the show that Art did with Jose Escamilia on "rods"? As I recall Art found a website that debunked Escamilia's claims and explained the rods as bugs that were quickly moving through the frame near to the camera at the time the photo was taken. Essentially, by zooming in or out you can make any ordinary cloud of insects into a mass of rod like monsters Escamilia style. Art really did hold him over the fire on this one and after that I never heard anything out of Escamilia again on the show. One of my all time favorite pwnings.

Anyway I've got popcorn to get back to. Just throwing in my $0.02, for what it's worth.

/ end rant

MV/Liberace!

Quote from: ArtBellFan on January 05, 2011, 12:28:00 PM

It's easy my friend, there is a little knob or button on your radio that's for turning it off, try it sometime you may just like it. :o
oh, no... don't get me wrong.  i haven't heard noory since 2006.  i gave up on him long ago.  it's just that i wish i hadn't attempted to endure for that first three years.  unlike yourself, my purity was taken from me.

MV/Liberace!

agent orange - a thoughtful post.  i particularly liked the part about ed dames' incessant returns to the show.

MV/Liberace!

i have NO IDEA why this thread wasn't stickied until 1 minute ago.  wtf.

ArtBellFan

Quote from: MV on January 05, 2011, 02:21:32 PM
oh, no... don't get me wrong.  i haven't heard noory since 2006.  i gave up on him long ago.  it's just that i wish i hadn't attempted to endure for that first three years.  unlike yourself, my purity was taken from me.

At least there is something about me that is pure. :o

RoadDog

Just to be clear, I do NOT, in any way, shape, or form, consider skepticism to be a bad thing, nor a dirty word, and if I gave that impression, I apologize. I actually consider it an obligation to be skeptical of everything. That is how the truth gets borne out eventually.  I think my point was more, and no I didn't really state it, that he may see that skepticism being turned into unabashed idiocy, and mayhap he has seen that it's a grave he, himself, dug for the show. My "embodied" statement was posed in the past tense, and I apologize again for not being more clear. And lets be fair, once he moved to major syndication, he started giving away small bits of control over the show, and all idealism aside, the guy who writes the checks has the ultimate say in programming(my only effort to address the Ed Dames point. I think he's an idiot as well). 

I'll put it like this, have you ever made a decision that turned out, years down the road, to be a terrible idea with ramifications that didn't become apparent till that much later date? Well, magnify it by the number of people who were/are affected by C2C, and maybe you can see what I'm trying to get at. The best laid plans of mice and men, and all that jazz.

He was an entertainer first, but that is not what he stayed, whether he likes it or not(and I am 99% sure it's not). He became an icon, much to his chagrin, while attempting to be an iconoclast. After his wife Ramona's death, do you think he actually gave a shit about the show beyond needing that sense of normalcy? I don't. All of these wonderings are still just speculation, and will remain such until either enough time has passed for people to really get over the hope that he's coming back, or he says so himself. Time will tell.

Thanks for the well thought out response Agent Orange, it does help me flesh stuff out, in my own head, to hear counterpoints to my own ruminations. 

ArtBellFan

I don't think we are going to hear from Art, FF is monitored by Coast very closely and Art will not post anything that he doesn't want them to read, so methinks he has gone off into the night. 

I would love to hear from him but on the other hand he has no obligation to me or anyone else, he may want to live in peace at last. If he did post and explain his position the rampant speculators would still read something else into it, you can never satisfy everyone.

anagrammy

Turning off the radio is no more possible than NOT looking at a trainwreck when you used to ride the thing every day.  Of course, I'm going to keep listening, but my point is that I am listening to George Noory for other reasons.  I like seeing glimpses of his Freudian slip--it's entertaining, like watching a guy who can't swim try to dog paddle in a race and then telling the public, "That was just my version of the Australian crawl.  Everyone has their own style."

For example, on December 9th, GN was interviewing a guy about man-made monsters and as the talk wound around to Frankenstein, the galvanic response was brought up by the guest.  George blurted that "They had a thing, machine thing that hooked up to your skin and they used it in the early days of TV to evaluate the TV anchor hosts."

That didn't pop out of his subconscious from nowhere.  Blurting is commonly known to be extremely revelatory of the speakers true train of thought.  Since we know that shortly after this time, a wide variety of radio hosts were brought in and George, who offers himself on a communion plate for live shows on Christmas, was given (IMHO) a mandatory one week vaca so they could try on some new people.

He was foreshadowing his own forthcoming evaluation, after which, we received the result as his announcement of discussions re 2-1/2 year renewal (odd time - what's the 1/2 for?), and he's reassuring his remaining audience of lonely widows that he will be here for "us" for a LONG LONG time as they are discussing a 5 year renewal after that.

Yes, of course I/we are speculating because we have listened for years to guests doing this very thing on the air.  Trying to deduce from the color of the energy balls if they were the "same" balls as those seen over Florida,  and did those aliens have skin that looked like bark, did you say, more to the gray or the brown, and tell me, Linda, could those have been the same bark-like reptilian brownish-grayish child-like telepathic....etc. And she answers with impeccable logic, "Yes and this is the  113th, no 114th, person who has reported that the mouth did NOT move, therefore these EBEs communicate telepathically."

Carrying on, I intuit that George's 2-1/2 year upcoming renewal is conditional.  If something changes (and he promised it would), he will be given a 5 year contract.  Great news from our point of view because 1) Clear Channel is aware of the problem and has given GN a performance review, and 2) they are cuing in (ostensibly) Art's replacement, which is actually simultaneously an audition for George's job should he not meet their requirements.

Now for the fun:  what might these requirements be?  (pass the popcorn boys and girls)

1) ELIMINATE THE TEASE.  Never again cut to a commercial after someone says something really wild, you repeat it and call it your "tease:"

GUEST:  "...and then, the interrogators  forced me to eat my own foot..."

NOORY: "...let's go into that foot-eating in detail and learn whether our guest used silverware, and if he ate the toes first or went right for the ankle--after a word from our sponsors.:

There are so many--your turn!

Anagrammy

ArtBellFan

QuoteThat didn't pop out of his subconscious from nowhere.  Blurting is commonly known to be extremely revelatory of the speakers true train of thought.  Since we know that shortly after this time, a wide variety of radio hosts were brought in and George, who offers himself on a communion plate for live shows on Christmas, was given (IMHO) a mandatory one week vaca so they could try on some new people.

I highly doubt that, they have fill in hosts every year during the holidays, since Ian has a day job and so does Knapp they cannot fill in nightly for a whole week they bring in others to do it, now since Art quit they couldn't use him to fill in.  John B Wells has done three other shows in the past so he isn't new.  Simone is new and am sure they just needed someone else to take one of the night, I liked him but may never hear from him again.

If they had any intention of getting rid of Noory they would have done it a long time ago, why they keep him is beyond me, another question I have is he said many years ago that he had a solid contract until 2012, guess when it comes to him the truth doesn't matter, that had to have been a lie since he is now negotiating another contract..there is one other little thing, contract or not they can get rid of him anytime they please, there is alway an opt out for Clear Channel, they cover their butts not the hosts.



minnehan

Quote from: From Somewhere Out There on January 05, 2011, 01:25:37 PM
Well, at least watching the end of the world is going to be really cool.  ;D

   Not if you're the first one zapped by the "Kill Strike"...

   or we run out of popcorn.

Quote from: RoadDog on January 05, 2011, 03:38:44 PM
Just to be clear, I do NOT, in any way, shape, or form, consider skepticism to be a bad thing, nor a dirty word, and if I gave that impression, I apologize. I actually consider it an obligation to be skeptical of everything. That is how the truth gets borne out eventually.  I think my point was more, and no I didn't really state it, that he may see that skepticism being turned into unabashed idiocy, and mayhap he has seen that it's a grave he, himself, dug for the show. My "embodied" statement was posed in the past tense, and I apologize again for not being more clear. And lets be fair, once he moved to major syndication, he started giving away small bits of control over the show, and all idealism aside, the guy who writes the checks has the ultimate say in programming(my only effort to address the Ed Dames point. I think he's an idiot as well). 

After I wrote my response I thought that it would probably look like I was on the offensive after reading your comment. I'm to blame for this, my message came off more briskly than I wanted it to. I didn't mean to point the finger at YOU specifically - just that in general in the paranormal/"alternative media" circles, "skeptic" generally carries a negative association with it. And that's annoying.

Ed Dames was a repeat guest even back in the day when Art was hosting. This, I think, is completely due to Art as he was calling the shots on the show in it's heyday. He made plenty of mistakes with guests too - I'm specifically thinking of the story regarding the supposed "object" that trailed Comet Hale-Bopp that he and Whitley Streiber "broke" on the show. This was complete and utter BS that was done with the intention of stirring up some attention for the show and for Whitley. I was surprised at the time that Art put as much effort into hyping that scoop as he did - once the Heaven's Gate story came to it's horrifying conclusion we heard nothing more of this and with good reason. I don't blame the guy, he's human, he's a businessman and it's his job to keep people interested, listening, talking and thinking about the material on his show. He's as prone to errors or lapses in judgment as anyone. However, this argues my point well that Arts role wasn't to provide a logical point of view or to rationalize, it was to sensationalize and get people and advertisers interested in the show. Far from being a balanced or unbiased perspective.

I also don't really understand what you mean by this:
Quote from: RoadDog on January 05, 2011, 03:38:44 PM
<snip>...he may see that skepticism being turned into unabashed idiocy, and mayhap he has seen that it's a grave he, himself, dug for the show.
Right now with the state of the show, Noory behaves as though he believes ALL of what the guests throw at him. This is the opposite of the critical thinking I'm referring to. If anything I don't think the problem was that Art was too critical or too skeptical of his guests - the show has become a parody of itself because what little grain there was of that attitude in the first place is now completely gone, opening the door wide to the weirdest kind of buffoonery.
"Oh, you're a time travelling angel? Please, tell me moar..."

I do agree with you that the current direction of the show was likely not a choice of Art or his contemporaries, it really does seem like "the network" took a more heavy handed approach to where the show wound up going. The callers nowadays are ridiculous whereas in the past Art seemed to be tapping in to something special when he did open lines.

Y2K. Hale-Bopp. Dames. Hoagland. David Anderson. Sean Morton. Even the ghost tapers. All frauds and hoaxers! Who cares? Bell's first desire was to create good radio. Factual accuracy was second, often ignored in favor of a nice tall tale. This is why we listened! And it's why Knapp gets so little love here.

Fly By Night

I've enjoyed reading these posts. It's comforting to see others are as frustrated as I am in Art's lack of communication, as well as Snoory's futile attempt to muster an ounce of intrigue during interviews. As frustrating as it is not to hear from Art I think all would do well to take it in stride. Art was entertaining to listen to because he was as much a showman as he was a fine interviewer. Art loved to create an atmosphere of mystery around his personal life just as much as the mystery of the show. He always seemed to have a big announcement at the beginning of his shows, but he always seem to have to wait for it to be announced. He received alleged UFO wreckage and called them Art's Parts. He airs an obviously fictitious call from a man flying into Area 51. He takes crazy calls from guys who know of Mel's Hole and from a guy who shot a Bigfoot. Art knew most of these events were a bit out there, but he knew they were fun so he went with it. He also allowed us into some of his personal life, which also brought us closer to him. He would talk about his wife and cats and places he went on vacation. We knew of his hobbies and favorite music all of which created the illusion that he was an open book. At the same time he obviously had secrets that he wished not to be public such as his first two adult children that he never speaks of or his ex-wives. My point is that while it seems like we all know Art, I think we need to remember that he has a part of his life that he keeps secretive. Art may be waiting to make an announcement because that keeps us talking and thinking about him. Art may never make an announcement because of some personal facet of his life we know nothing of. Either way, that man is 65. We can't expect him to come back and save C2C. It's going to take a person like Knapp doing Monday through Friday, with a twice monthly sprinkling of Art  to put C2C back to it's former self.

My one cent.

PS I love to drive around listening to Art's bumper music on my mix CD thinking of better times.

ourobouros2k2

Just found this forum yesterday after trying to keep up with recent events. I was informed via a friend's tweet of rumors of Art quitting coast and starting a new show out of NV. Regardless of the reality of that statement, it started me down the road of looking into it. Seeing Art's name removed from host link, as well as reading the Wiki on the subject, I found this great forum.

I would hate to think that Art's voice may no longer carry on the non amateur radio airwaves. I do not think that people understand truly what a treasure the show was with Art at the helm. Regardless of what may happen in the future, the man transformed overnight talk radio with wonderful explorations into the unknown. As many posters in this thread mention, he had an ability to create an air of mystery and compelled a listener to tune in. Some of my favorite shows were his dealing with the subject of shadow people (any archives?).

I hope he comes back in some capacity, but if not, I respect it. My gut tells me if nothing else, he will find a forum to occasionally do a show. I doubt it will be anything regular, but I just don't think that he could hang up the passion that he obviously has for the mic.

At any rate, I just wanted to chime in here on this forum. I have been looking around and am relieved to see many people whose opinion's of the current incarnation of C2C are in alignment with mine. I could bitch on and on about what it has become but why bother. It just sucks.  I only tune in for guests of merit, but they are rare and infrequent and Noory does a piss poor job of exploring their chosen topic. I do enjoy Knapp on sundays though.

I'm off to look around the forum here...

regards,
Andy

Queen

Quote from: Do you think it was angels? on January 05, 2011, 09:55:52 PM
Y2K. Hale-Bopp. Dames. Hoagland. David Anderson. Sean Morton. Even the ghost tapers. All frauds and hoaxers! Who cares? Bell's first desire was to create good radio. Factual accuracy was second, often ignored in favor of a nice tall tale. This is why we listened! And it's why Knapp gets so little love here.


you did not just say the GIS are fake

Fly By Night and Do You Think It Was Angels - you guys nailed it.

I loved that the show always had that "around the campfire" feel and that Art could make any topic - even updates about his cats - interesting and entertaining.

MV/Liberace!

Quote from: ArtBellFan on January 05, 2011, 04:26:25 PM
If they had any intention of getting rid of Noory they would have done it a long time ago...
this.

Queen Gumbo

Quote from: anagrammyI like seeing glimpses of his Freudian slip--it's entertaining, like watching a guy who can't swim try to dog paddle in a race and then telling the public, "That was just my version of the Australian crawl.  Everyone has their own style."
;D Where's the evil laugh smiley?  LIKE your style, anagrammy!  8)  I seem to have fallen into the same twisted pot of entertainment.

MV/Liberace!

Quote from: Do you think it was angels? on January 05, 2011, 09:55:52 PM
Y2K. Hale-Bopp. Dames. Hoagland. David Anderson. Sean Morton. Even the ghost tapers. All frauds and hoaxers!
i agree with you up to the point of brendan and barbara from the GIS.  they are, in my view, two of the show's very few honest guests.  i've recorded several EVPs of my own, and as a result, i have little (if any) reason to doubt them.

MV/Liberace!

Quote from: ourobouros2k2 on January 05, 2011, 10:33:02 PM
I was informed via a friend's tweet of rumors of Art quitting coast and starting a new show out of NV.
hi, andy.  an excellent first post.


i can't tell you how much i hope these rumors turn out to be true.


and welcome to the forums.  post often.

FortRock

THIS NEWS JUST IN:

Glenn Beck's production company is now forming a partnership with former Premire Radio Network's President Kraig Kitchen's Los Angeles company called Sound Mind LLC. This from the Glenn Beck's own website, this added to the statement that Beck misses Art Bell on the air. We know of the Kitchen/Bell connection, could this be the "in" to bring Art Bell back? Time to watch Las Vegas Beck affiliate KDWN-AM 720, the old Bell stomping grounds in Vegas. Beck is trying to create a new radio network called Mercury Radio Arts, in association with Premire. This may end all association of Premire with Clear Channel. This news was released at 3:30PM this afternoon Pacific Time. Beck's line-up of stations may become the new MRA Radio Network! Is this Art Bell's vehicle? I hope so!!!!!!!

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