So here's my theory...

[Caruthers612]

    Recently, some night when I'd made the mistake of tuning in to Coast, and yet another Christian evangelist who'd posed as a guest who'd come on the show to talk about giants or the global economy or wheatgrass enemas was, big surprise, quoting Bible verses and touting the virtues of worshipping Jesus, I had an epiphany: This ain't Coast to Coast anymore. Let me 'splain.
      For the last several years, ever increasingly, we've been listening to a show called Coast to Coast AM which, along with millions of other listeners who became fans during Art's tenure, we took to be said show, but which has increasingly become a forum for Christian evangelism. This is when it hit me: Some other radio syndicator bought the rights to the name Coast to Coast AM and began slyly altering the content of the show from the genius that Art created to the Let's Worship Jesus Hour. And why not? With its built-in fifteen million listeners, the biggest overnight show there is, if you're enough of an amoral douche bag what better way to purchase wholesale a massive audience, granting both a huge advertizing base and a huge bunch of suckers to be surreptitiously slipped the Jesus Juice.
        The more I've listened the more convinced I've become of this. Two things am for sure, this ain't Coast as we've known it, and the evangelism is palpable.
        If they'd just be honest enough to come right out and say "This is a religious broadcast, prepare to be Bible'd", it'd be one thing, but (forgive me, this is my personal bias) that kind of honesty is too much to expect from them religious types.
        I have spoken. You may now hurl rotten tomatoes or provide me with nineteen-year-old Brazilian bikini models--your choice.

C

[M Knight]

    Recently, some night when I'd made the mistake of tuning in to Coast, and yet another Christian evangelist who'd posed as a guest who'd come on the show to talk about giants or the global economy or wheatgrass enemas was, big surprise, quoting Bible verses and touting the virtues of worshipping Jesus, I had an epiphany: This ain't Coast to Coast anymore. Let me 'splain.
      For the last several years, ever increasingly, we've been listening to a show called Coast to Coast AM which, along with millions of other listeners who became fans during Art's tenure, we took to be said show, but which has increasingly become a forum for Christian evangelism. This is when it hit me: Some other radio syndicator bought the rights to the name Coast to Coast AM and began slyly altering the content of the show from the genius that Art created to the Let's Worship Jesus Hour. And why not? With its built-in fifteen million listeners, the biggest overnight show there is, if you're enough of an amoral douche bag what better way to purchase wholesale a massive audience, granting both a huge advertizing base and a huge bunch of suckers to be surreptitiously slipped the Jesus Juice.
        The more I've listened the more convinced I've become of this. Two things am for sure, this ain't Coast as we've known it, and the evangelism is palpable.
        If they'd just be honest enough to come right out and say "This is a religious broadcast, prepare to be Bible'd", it'd be one thing, but (forgive me, this is my personal bias) that kind of honesty is too much to expect from them religious types.
        I have spoken. You may now hurl rotten tomatoes or provide me with nineteen-year-old Brazilian bikini models--your choice.

C

If Art restarted "the Art Bell Show" on his own he wouldn't be competing with anyone.

[stevesh]

      For the last several years, ever increasingly, we've been listening to a show called Coast to Coast AM which, along with millions of other listeners who became fans during Art's tenure, we took to be said show, but which has increasingly become a forum for Christian evangelism. This is when it hit me: Some other radio syndicator bought the rights to the name Coast to Coast AM and began slyly altering the content of the show from the genius that Art created to the Let's Worship Jesus Hour. And why not? With its built-in fifteen million listeners, the biggest overnight show there is, if you're enough of an amoral douche bag what better way to purchase wholesale a massive audience, granting both a huge advertizing base and a huge bunch of suckers to be surreptitiously slipped the Jesus Juice.
        The more I've listened the more convinced I've become of this. Two things am for sure, this ain't Coast as we've known it, and the evangelism is palpable.
        If they'd just be honest enough to come right out and say "This is a religious broadcast, prepare to be Bible'd", it'd be one thing, but (forgive me, this is my personal bias) that kind of honesty is too much to expect from them religious types.
        I have spoken. You may now hurl rotten tomatoes or provide me with nineteen-year-old Brazilian bikini models--your choice.

C

I'm all out of bikini models, but I have to say I'm not seeing the evangelical slant you're talking about. There are the usual regular guests who seem to need to spout that stuff (Steve Quayle, I'm looking right at you), Stan Deyo and some others, but they were that way when Art interviewd them. It's the callers lately, I think, that are all too often Jesus thumpers, and I'm tired of it too. Might be a screener thing.

Kind of reminds me of the good old days when Art was bedeviled on a regular basis by the moronic Scientologists.

[Caruthers612]

Kind of reminds me of the good old days when Art was bedeviled on a regular basis by the moronic Scientologists.

             Moronic Scientologists?! How dare you! Why some of history's leading 'tards were Scientologists. Millard Filmore, it is said, was the first to try starting a religion by living on a yacht and banging barely legal devotees all day. Ahead of his time, was old Filmore.

[WOTR]

I fully support your premise that this is no longer C2C.  I do take issue with the idea that it is now a Evangelical broadcast.  Be honest for a moment... how many "regular" little old ladies who attend church every Sunday are going to hear their preacher talk on wheat grass enemas or the bible supporting the idea of anunnaki?  (heck, how many will even know what the word refers to?)  I'm sorry, but to me it is more a new age show with smatterings of extreme Christian dogma mixed in and not anything resembling a main stream religion.  Does anybody believe that you could substitute a C2C show (no matter how slanted to religion or how many bible verses are quoted to support the bible teaching of aliens) for your grandparents televangelist without somebody noticing?  ***Please note that this is not an endorsement of televangelists or even the little old ladies neighbourhood preacher***

With that out of the way, you are correct that somebody bought themselves an audience of 15 million and proceeded to turn the show away from what it was and destroyed any potential it had for the future in the pursuit of $$$ (all right, that part sounds like religion again and is not helping me make my point...) 

[Lovely Bones]

I think WOTR is correct that C2C is all about $$$ these days, but not in the collection plate.  Hard for me to tell any more whether we're in commercial break or show minutes--either way, C2C is selling something.  I have no objection to guests mentioning their latest book or movie or whatever.  Heck, that's likely why half or more agree to let Noory read his canned questions to interview them. But for Noory, it's all about selling fear, then selling product, as far as I can see.  Afraid the dollar's gonna crash?  Buy gold.  Afraid of the revolution?  Buy efoodsdirect.  Afraid of cancer, toe nail fungus, old age?  Buy turmeric.  Afraid of erectile dysfunction?  Buy Master Prostate.  Take it from George.  It works great!   

[Frys Girl]

I think WOTR is correct that C2C is all about $$$ these days, but not in the collection plate.  Hard for me to tell any more whether we're in commercial break or show minutes--either way, C2C is selling something.  I have no objection to guests mentioning their latest book or movie or whatever.  Heck, that's likely why half or more agree to let Noory read his canned questions to interview them. But for Noory, it's all about selling fear, then selling product, as far as I can see.  Afraid the dollar's gonna crash?  Buy gold.  Afraid of the revolution?  Buy efoodsdirect.  Afraid of cancer, toe nail fungus, old age?  Buy turmeric.  Afraid of erectile dysfunction?  Buy Master Prostate.  Take it from George.  It works great!   

Turmeric pills. LMAO. Only in America. In Iran and India where they COOK with it, I think people would laugh if you told them some fool is selling turmeric pills on the radio.

[Hardshell]

This is gonna be short but LoveBones said it all--it is one big ad for them and the guest. Well said. i was on the notion of the question that it sounded much the way we lost America but afterall the summary was LovelyBones....a good say!

[beachcomber]

Turmeric pills. LMAO. Only in America. In Iran and India where they COOK with it, I think people would laugh if you told them some fool is selling turmeric pills on the radio.

Right. I heard the stuff isn't activated until heat is applied, as in cooking with it. Supposed to cool the cells via the bloodstream - relieve irritation especially around the heart.

[fysisist]

Too bad it doesn't relieve retardation.

[morphiaflow]

I have to support the OP here. I don't think Coast is 100 percent the evangelical Jesus hour, BUT I've pointed out many times here and elsewhere that Coast--like most of the other shows that Premiere syndicates--HAS fairly openly aligned itself with the political, social and religious right and more specifically the extreme fringe elements of same. When they do so many shows about creationism, about end times with a specifically Revelations slant, or talking about how Aliens are actually demons, and then throw Quayle in there with his giants--I'm going to guess that in a month you'll hear someone with a specifically evangelical/fundamentalist slant 7 to 10 out of 30 shows--that's an agenda. Coast may still pretend to be "out there" and cover paranormal stories, but even that coverage tends to be tainted and slanted. And again, nearly every social or political topic--environment and climate change, oil, the birther issue--tends to come from a fringe-right perspective (read: Tea Party). Now you may say it's the guests that bring this perspective, not the show or the host, but--who's doing the booking? The guests don't book themselves. And the host, or at least Noory (Knapp and Ian still show occasional cajones), seldom if ever challenges or plays devils' advocate, which is an implicit endorsement of the guests' agenda. Whether George or his bosses BELIEVE all this is another matter--but knowing that they are on largely conservative stations that also air Limbaught, Hannity, Coulter, Beck, Levin, Dr. Laura, et al, I think it makes it easier for them to both survive (by being less of a target for airing "demonic" subject matter like witchcraft and the occult/paranormal) and also because of course there is a lot of money to be made from the fringe right and the end times paranoia they believe in.

I'm not saying anything new here. Again, I've said this a million times. But I absolutely think the OP is onto something, so I'm reiterating my two cents, for whatever it's worth.

[Scully]

I'm gonna keep this short and sweet because it's late and I am tired.

One thing I haven't heard anyone else mention is the current death grip between religious fundamentalism, patriotism, and the political right wing.

I'm still recovering from an evangelical background, I've patiently sacrificed my husband's attentions to myself and our infant son so he could help fight in the hideous Vietnamese war 40 years ago, and I'm a left wing Democrat, all at the same time. This causes misunderstandings and hardship in my life.

All that is to say that I believe Coast's current agenda (and it is an agenda) is interwoven in the same exact way as society now dictates.  You can't be patriotic, morally and politically conservative, and NOT religious.  It's as simple as that.

[Frys Girl]

I'm gonna keep this short and sweet because it's late and I am tired.

One thing I haven't heard anyone else mention is the current death grip between religious fundamentalism, patriotism, and the political right wing.

I'm still recovering from an evangelical background, I've patiently sacrificed my husband's attentions to myself and our infant son so he could help fight in the hideous Vietnamese war 40 years ago, and I'm a left wing Democrat, all at the same time. This causes misunderstandings and hardship in my life.

All that is to say that I believe Coast's current agenda (and it is an agenda) is interwoven in the same exact way as society now dictates.  You can't be patriotic, morally and politically conservative, and NOT religious.  It's as simple as that.

It's funny how much they pretend to be alternative when really, George Noory and Premiere radio are offering nothing cutting edge or outside the box. Thanks for sharing all that. You're well qualified to judge.


I know the show may not be "Praise the Lord hour!" but it certainly has a tone that makes it obvious where George Noory stands and wants the show to stand with respect to faith and Christianity. We never hear about other religions.

[morphiaflow]

I'm gonna keep this short and sweet because it's late and I am tired.

One thing I haven't heard anyone else mention is the current death grip between religious fundamentalism, patriotism, and the political right wing.

I'm still recovering from an evangelical background, I've patiently sacrificed my husband's attentions to myself and our infant son so he could help fight in the hideous Vietnamese war 40 years ago, and I'm a left wing Democrat, all at the same time. This causes misunderstandings and hardship in my life.

All that is to say that I believe Coast's current agenda (and it is an agenda) is interwoven in the same exact way as society now dictates.  You can't be patriotic, morally and politically conservative, and NOT religious.  It's as simple as that.

You're not the only one recovering from an evangelical/fundamentalist background, and your statement on the death grip between patriotism, conservatism and religious extremism puts it far better than I ever could. I salute you. And you can damn well bet I'll be stealing the quote.