Art Bell

[bateman]

Also, I just came across this link - http://lasvegascitylife.com/sections/news/return-art-bell.html . It appears to be written by George Knapp and drawn from his recent TV interview with Art, but there are some quotes from Art that I don't think were used in the TV interview.

... they told me to put the breaks wherever I want them. I can do three hours, four hours, five hours, so that’s very different.

[DontFearTheReaper]

I've said before elsewhere, but I really think Dark Matter is going to have the feel of Art's Coast shows during the Chancellor Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) days - more free-wheeling, more nights of open lines, the ability to extend the show if the night's events warrant, etc.

[CampsieNP]

I've said before elsewhere, but I really think Dark Matter is going to have the feel of Art's Coast shows during the Chancellor Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) days - more free-wheeling, more nights of open lines, the ability to extend the show if the night's events warrant, etc.

I was not on board during the CBC days so I am not aware of how that show was. I do agree with you it will be a more free-wheeling show on Satellite. At first I was disappointed his new show will be on Satellite. But after thinking it over, paying for my subscription and taking some time to accept it, I am happy with Art's decision. He will have so much more freedom.

Does anyone remember years ago towards the end of the over-night replay of C2C, Art came back on the air live at about 5am CST to announce he just experienced an earthquake? I was driving in my car and it was as if Art just hopped in the passenger seat to talk to me as I drove. I think the new show will be like that. Anything can happen at anytime.
I feel just like a little kid on Christmas Eve waiting for my presents.

[DontFearTheReaper]

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.

[bateman]

Good lord, the news gets better & better. A 3 year deal, plus Ross Mitchell is back.

4 days, 8 hours, 20 minutes, 31 seconds

[DontFearTheReaper]

Good lord, the news gets better & better. A 3 year deal, plus Ross Mitchell is back.

4 days, 8 hours, 20 minutes, 31 seconds

It's amazing, isn't it? In my wildest dreams, even a few short months ago, I could have never imagined that any of this would be happening. Art is going to knock this thing clear out of the park. SO READY.

[DontFearTheReaper]

For anyone who doesn't want to read through the whole thing, the high points are:

- Ross Mitchell is coming back
- Art signed at least a 3 year deal
- Art clearly isn't doing this for the money, given the salary quoted in the article
- Art says Noory "ruined" Coast, says he will never return to Coast, and says "George can keep them" in regards to the current Coast audience

[The General]

I hope you don't mind me posting this ...

Excellent article, thank you for posting it.

[Surmo]

I have always held out hope Art would return, when the naysayers here said no, but
in my wildest dreams I could not have imagined this.

A year ago, if you asked me for what I wished for regardless of likelihood of it occurring
as to a show by Art, I would never have asked for this.  It is like a lifetime of Christmas'
all occurring at one time.  Hell, even my ex-wife emailed me how glad she was for me
that the Overlord of the Night is returning.

Let the festivities begin!  It is a Festivus for the Rest of Us!

[Sardondi]

...
"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."...

Holy crap. That's an amazing interview. Art unbound!

[HorrorRetro]

Excellent interview.  I'm getting seriously excited for Monday! 

[kingdomofsigh]

Welcome back Art! May Pizza Rolls be a sponsor... 

[qaddisin]

That was awesome. Every part from Art's excitement to Noory declining to comment.

[DontFearTheReaper]

That was awesome. Every part from Art's excitement to Noory declining to comment.

Thanks for pointing out the Noory declining to comment thing - and how about Premiere only saying "we're fortunate to have him"? Not exactly the exuberant reaction you'd expect them to have. The slide to irrelevance for Noory and Coast hits warp speed on Sept. 16th.

[CampsieNP]

Outstanding well-written article. Thank you for posting.
I loved it.

[bateman]

That was awesome. Every part from Art's excitement to Noory declining to comment.

"ABSHOLUTELY NOT"

[qaddisin]

"ABSHOLUTELY NOT"

Haw, haw, haw. Unless he asked me to.

[The General]

Haw, haw, haw. Unless he asked me to.

At this point, I think Oates has a higher chance of appearing on Art's new show than George does.

[lonevoice]

I hope you don't mind me posting this -

Mind?  Not a chance in hell!  That's one of the best articles about Art I've ever read and it's full of so much exciting news, I can't even.   If you hadn't been "here", we would most likely have missed reading this.   Plus the article you posted from lasvegascitylife is terrific too.  Between those, your knowledge of the Chancellor Broadcasting Corporation days, all your help on the SiriusXM thread...just damn, skippy!

Your contributions here have been invaluable, Reaper.  Post often, and make 'em long. 

[DontFearTheReaper]

Mind?  Not a chance in hell!  That's one of the best articles about Art I've ever read and it's full of so much exciting news, I can't even.   If you hadn't been "here", we would most likely have missed reading this.   Plus the article you posted from lasvegascitylife is terrific too.  Between those, your knowledge of the Chancellor Broadcasting Corporation days, all your help on the SiriusXM thread...just damn, skippy!

Your contributions here have been invaluable, Reaper.  Post often, and make 'em long. 

Ha! Thanks for the kind words. I've lurked here for ages but only started posting recently - I'll definitely be sticking around!

[dan7800]

I wonder what 1/2 the shows profits will be. That is where the real $$$ is.

[Chine]

Excellent article, thank you for posting it.

So stoked. I can't wait. The pains and exhaust of enduring this drivel and slop has finally come to an end. I'm new here, and after reading this now... I have to get this out.

Read a fascinating interview with Breaking Bad actor, Gianacarlo Esposito. In it, he made the comment of "Taking care of what takes care of you."

As a fellow artist, actor.. this applies really to all mediums in our skills /occupations. So, I considered this. If your work supplies you well, you treat it well. The tools, the clients (audience, etc.) George has abused what Art took care of. His work took care of George far too f*&^king long...

Continue to abuse it, it will slowly coil and abuse you. Devour you.

Art.. I am so ready.

[IcicleTrepan]

Now all we need is for JC to call in the first night

[popple]

- Art says Noory "ruined" Coast, says he will never return to Coast, and says "George can keep them" in regards to the current Coast audience

We're blasting off to new exciting worlds that require some higher intelligence. Sorry, but we don't have room for all that dead weight

[sleeplessinca]

"Taking care of what takes care of you."

If your work supplies you well, you treat it well. The tools, the clients (audience, etc.) George has abused what Art took care of. His work took care of George far too f*&^king long...

Glad to have you post and so well put.  I'm not sure if GN  reads past the GNS thread but I hope he reads this.  He has been riding those coattails too long.

I also look forward to Dark matter and won't miss anything GN brought to the air like I have missed Art's work.

[coaster]

So I guess Art is one of the "haters" Great interview btw. Thanks for posting it.

[Tinfoil Hat]

Wow this is some great info! Thanks, Reaper!

I was surprised about the bit where Art said people may remember him as better than he actually was. He doesn't have to worry. His old shows are absolutely riveting! I'm more excited than ever about his return and that he's bringing Ross with him!

Come on Sept. 16th!

[IcicleTrepan]

I think it shows how humble he really is, he really is nervous about going back on the air and doing a good show.  I think it's that attitude that makes him work hard to make a good show instead of just thinking that it'll be great all he has to do is show up.

[SaucyRossy]

Reaper thank you so much for posting that interview!!! BRILLIANT!
And look at this photo! Art is for sure 'practicing' his new show.

LOVE it.
I love SiriusXM, they trulty 'get it'
I may end up being a lifelong customer just because of them bringing Art back.

SO EXCITED.

Also, TIME magazine!!! TIME!!!

I wonder if this is in the newest issue?

[Sardondi]

So I guess Art is one of the "haters" Great interview btw. Thanks for posting it.

Art might be a "loser" or "bottom feeder" . Along with "hater" these form the three Kingdoms in George Noory's Lowlife Classhificashun Shistum, very similar to Kingdoms of "Flora" "Fauna", "Fungi", etc. in the binomial nomenclature system of Biological Classification of all life forms. Noory's system, however, distinguishes and categorizes the personality and character types of humans who have tried to stand in his way and prevent the success which is his destiny.

It should be noted, however, that there is considerable controversy within the Nooriana community over his use of the term "living in parents' basement". Some feel Noory uses this derogation as a fourth, entirely separate Kingdom; while others feel just as strongly that Noory wishes those he abjures as post-adolescent residents of the childhood domicile to be a Phylum or even Class under Kingdom "loser". A few even think basement dwellers should be placed under "bottom-feeder"; but since Noory appears to have intended "bottom-feeders" to contain an element of greed or fraudulent intent if not outright theft, majority opinion would place them under "loser". 

I hope this has been of assistance.