Art Bell

[Faustina]

i think..for it to grow..it is going to take the right guest more then anything else..someone not overly high profile but someone that has that..it factor i guess..someone thats sort of..pop culture famous...for example..though i would enjoy it..but not him specifically...neil degrasse tyson..someone along that avenue of "celebrity"

Giorgio Tsoukalos. 

[SciFiAuthor]

As fine a broadcaster as Art is, he's nearly as good as an author.  Sadly, few authors make a lot of money on books, and I think a new book by Art would face many of the same issues he's facing with MITD.  Unless he has a publisher that's willing to promote the hell of a new book, he's going to have to get the word out on his own.

It's just that a new paradigm has taken over in the publishing industry as far as promotion. Art's got that taken care of. He's got enough followers on FB and elsewhere to whip out a quickie book and put it up on Amazon and bring in some cash without having to worry about a publisher or agent. Plus Amazon's royalties are amazing. Probably won't make the NYT list, but it would be quickly profitable.

[Faustina]

Good ideas Faustina.  Not sure about Schrader though, it might queer his gigs on Coast.  But Ground Zero is a thumbs up.  All of this is my opinion of course.

I think an hour long interview of Art by Clyde Lewis would be fascinating listening.  Btw, Clyde will be an upcoming guest on MITD. 

[Uncle Duke]

It's just that a new paradigm has taken over in the publishing industry as far as promotion. Art's got that taken care of. He's got enough followers on FB and elsewhere to whip out a quickie book and put it up on Amazon and bring in some cash without having to worry about a publisher or agent. Plus Amazon's royalties are amazing. Probably won't make the NYT list, but it would be quickly profitable.

Interesting, and seemingly quite different than the tales of woe we hear from the authors who appear on C2C complaining how little they make on their books.  They must not have the number of Facebook/other followers Art has?

So help us all understand the economics of this scenario you described.  Does no publisher/agent imply Art would self-publish through one of the vanity press outfits?  What type of net profit per unit could an author expect selling a self-published book on Amazon?  Pulling a number out of the air, say a book Amazon is listing for $14.95, what would an author make on each copy Amazon sells?  Would that unit amount change as a function of total copies sold?  The "amazing royalties" you mentioned, is that essentially profit per unit sold or are they over and above that unit profit?  Is all this negotiable, or does Amazon have a standard deal for all such authors?

[Paradox]

I think an hour long interview of Art by Clyde Lewis would be fascinating listening.  Btw, Clyde will be an upcoming guest on MITD.

That is interesting.  Perhaps Art does not need to go on other shows if he has those hosts as guests? 

[SciFiAuthor]

Interesting, and seemingly quite different than the tales of woe we hear from the authors who appear on C2C complaining how little they make on their books.  They must not have the number of Facebook/other followers Art has?

They're just beholden to the old-school publishing industry and didn't keep up.

So help us all understand the economics of this scenario you described.  Does no publisher/agent imply Art would self-publish through one of the vanity press outfits?

Few care. Amazon lets you attribute your publisher to whomever you wish. Just set up a site that looks like an indie publisher, name it whatever -- Bellgab Publishing, since 1869 or whatever and fill in the box on Amazon and the vast majority won't get it. Only the media and book people look at who published something or whether you're under a major publisher or not, readers don't care.

  What type of net profit per unit could an author expect selling a self-published book on Amazon?

65% on e-books, POD books much less but still more substantial than if you're under an agent and publisher. Here are the rules:

https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/Royalties.jsp

The "amazing royalties" you mentioned, is that essentially profit per unit sold or are they over and above that unit profit?  Is all this negotiable, or does Amazon have a standard deal for all such authors?

Standardized. I write under a pen name for a real publisher, but did one book under my own name using the Amazon method and the fact is I made good money. It's all about working the system and not being egotistical. The real gold is being able to reach a social media audience to promote such a book and get your people to buy your book. Art's got that. If he wants to bring in 20-40 grand quick, well, spend a few months kicking out a book.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

I've got it.
A youtube video with two guys wearing those Daft Punk helmets. One guy opens up the helmet's face mask and its Art Bell.
The other guy opens up the helmet and its Hoagland.

That should appeal to some young people.

[pate]

... It was the same thing with analog TV, people hung on to it, out of habit, until the very end but when they shut off analog and went to digital, everyone was forced to go out and buy a new digital TV. Once terrestrial radio can no longer afford its light bill, everyone will be forced to use a smartphone or a computer.  That's just the way it's going to be...

Use the force, love it as a business model!

[Lt.Uhura]

Right, that's why 93 percent of the population listens to terrestrial radio. Joe Rogan is your reference? Are you kidding?
The average American listens to about 14 hours of AM or FM radio per week â€" more than the total amount of time spent per week using DVD players, streaming video on mobile devices and the Internet, using game consoles and using the Internet on a traditional computer, according to a survey of media use conducted by the measurement and data concern.  U.S. consumers spend more time only with TV, the study said â€" on the order of 35.1 hours per week.

Any statistic of "the average American" radio listener means nothing without considering the age of the listeners.  Specifically, when talk/news age demographics are taken into consideration, the audience is overwhelmingly older (see attached graph).  That's why you hear so many "Are you making frequent trips to the bathroom?" ads on talk radio.  They're clearly not speaking to 18-30 yr olds with money to burn.  They know and likely accept that their typical listeners are old.

Furthermore, with so many options to terrestrial radio, one can't assume an automatic replenishment of listeners as they age. 

I've been involved with community radio for nearly 10 years and we can't get young folks (especially teens) the least bit interested in radio.  In the 60s & 70s my friends and I would have jumped at the chance to work at a radio station, unpaid.  My teen son recently told me, "Mom face it. Radio's dead."  They're listening to low cost music subscription services (sans DJs) such as Spotify, or free at YouTube.  I don't know any teen or young person who listens to talk/news radio--either terrestrial or online. 

Art likely has younger listeners than one trick pony ranters like Rush.  I think the variety of Art's topics and guests would naturally invite a wider audience.  Still...it's not the 90s, which may have been the apex for talk/news radio.  I agree with Art--he should simply have fun, enjoy being his own boss and not worry about marketing like corporate radio.  Meanwhile, those of us who are his faithful listeners can continue The Blitz.

....What about a 'Ticket To Ride', which has been mentioned here in the past?  Maybe one of our artistic BellGabers can create a ticket with just the pertinent info for Art's show.  The ticket can be sent digitally, or printed out and passed around.

[Lt.Uhura]

Check out these amazing tickets for Burning Man.  Instant collectables.

[malliard]

guys, Art wants you to do the work and isnt going to do long form interviews...enjoy the clips of shows he has done.

[Skunk Ape]

I've got it.
A youtube video with two guys wearing those Daft Punk helmets. One guy opens up the helmet's face mask and its Art Bell.
The other guy opens up the helmet and its Hoagland.

That should appeal to some young people.

Now we're getting somewhere!

Get Jay-Z to wear a MitD shirt on stage, that'll get the Illuminati folks on board!

JBW could get Professor Griff's number, surely he can pass the word along. Lol

[Skunk Ape]

guys, Art wants you to do the work and isnt going to do long form interviews...enjoy the clips of shows he has done.

Appreciate you giving 100%

[BellBoy]

guys, Art wants you to do the work and isnt going to do long form interviews...enjoy the clips of shows he has done.

It sounds like someone is a bit butthurt that Art may have turned down his request for a long form interview on his tiny, completely unknown local radio show/podcast... Your Dave Noory interview was quite insufferable though!




http://www.tmr247.com/07212015.mp3

[Mind Flayer Monk]

Taylor Swift brings Art on stage with her when she visits Las Vegas on her "1989" tour.

[malliard]

No. I really don't care.

He is the one wanting people to prank call other shows.

If he did a bunch of interviews 15-20 minute interviews with other paranormal podcasters.

His name would back out there within the crowd he is trying to reach.


I see people mentioning a book. He could have had one wrote and released it before the return of his show.

[BellBoy]

No. I really don't care...

So he did say no...

[malliard]

Yes. He said no.

That's ok tho. Cause I am sure he will be fine.

It doesn't seem like there is much panic about the current state of his show.
Besides the new producer new email and sorting tho bell gab for new promo ideas.

[BellBoy]

Yes. He said no.

That's ok tho. Cause I am sure he will be fine.

It doesn't seem like there is much panic about the current state of his show.
Besides the new producer new email and sorting tho bell gab for new promo ideas.

OK... and just because he said "No, thank you" to one obscure podcaster (you), it hardly means that he will NEVER accept requests from any of the 15,455 licensed full power radio stations in the US (as of June 30, 2015)... or any of the thousands of television/net programs... or any of the virtually unlimited number of podcasters in the world, paranormal or otherwise!

It certainly doesn't justify your blanket statement that, "Art wants you to do the work and isn't going to do long form interviews."

I find your insinuation that Art is lazy and uninterested in promoting his own show to be rather insulting. Art apparently finds this forum to be a useful and productive sounding-board. He's asked us to brain-storm ideas and help get the word out... not to carry the full weight of his overall media strategy. Sorry, Art isn't Falkie.

(Sounds like bruised ego and sour-grapes, on your part, to me.)

[Paradox]

guys, Art wants you to do the work and isnt going to do long form interviews...enjoy the clips of shows he has done.

Actually his not wanting to do long term interviews on other shows relieves me.  I would rather things stay the way they are in that respect.

I would like to see some sort of youtube channel with current show squibs though.  If Jazmunda and SaucyRossy can find time in their schedules I would love it if they would change the text in their promo videos to reflect the show info and drop the july 20 stuff.  We could continue to use them on social media sites then without creating confusion. Believe me, the most simple things we take for granted can confuse people.
I will be using them anyway but would appreciate updates. 

[Surmo]

While like all of you I follow the financial/viability status of MITD closely, I think the worries over the state of the show are overblown.  Remember, if money was the big concern (and White Crow is right, it is always a concern), Art would have taken a modified radio package with the various radio stations, and opened up the financial spigots a bit.  But the price is less freedom, and a less friendly show from the listener's perspective.  And not, apparently, what Art wants to do.

I am not particularly worried about the survivability of MITD.  Art should take some of the marketing/publicity ideas being offered, as there are some great ones, and this would pick up the pace of the show's growth.  I would guess things have slowed down a bit more in the show's growth than they hoped, but those ideas should be enough alone to get show growth going at a more acceptable level.  DMDN's numbers on TunedIn have about doubled since MITD began, which is ok, but realistically I had hoped it would be up to 75,000 by now, and even 100,000 in my wildest dreams.  Currently it stands at nearly 58,000.

For me its more about keeping Art happy in his "job," for if that continues we'll keep getting shows.  For that reason I am more worried about technological issues, but I am reasonably sure Art, Keith and others will slowly sort through them and correct them one by one.  But the BellGab crowd can help things by continuing to make suggestions, for it is abundantly clear to all on this site that Art, Keith and certainly Redacted all read these posts (or sklm through them), and occasionally take them to heart.  Art is well aware he has a partially tapped pool of "idea people" out here, who do work for free, so we should keep the ideas, and even the complaints, coming.

Guests seem a bit better lately, to me, but I like a lot of tech subjects.  While I was disappointed in the Robbins interview, when I expected a good UFO show, that seems to be the exception and not the rule for Robbins personally (I usually like the guy) and the show.  Art seems willing to branch out and take new avenues, the Rogan interview being an example, and I expect this to continue.  If there is one area I do not worry about, it is the quality of Art's skills.

[Daggit]

Yes. He said no.

That's ok tho. Cause I am sure he will be fine.

It doesn't seem like there is much panic about the current state of his show.
Besides the new producer new email and sorting tho bell gab for new promo ideas.

What bitter little dick you sound like. Go back to suckling on Noory's teet. If you were good at what you do you perhaps would have been given the chance to get Churched.

[Danger!UFO]

Art, and Everyone

We'll need to nominte Art for next years Podcast Awards. I believe it takes place annually in Las Vegas. Maybe Art can make an appearance. Either way it is good exposure. I believe listeners like us will have to nominate Art. We should do the same for RCH. Take a look:

http://www.podcastawards.com/

[Danger!UFO]

Once voting starts I believe you can vote once a day everyday until the deadline. With all the boards and facebook included we might be able to help Art win an award. Good exposure for sure.

[chefist]

What bitter little dick you sound like. Go back to suckling on Noory's teet. If you were good at what you do you perhaps would have been given the chance to get Churched.

He's been trolling Art for the past couple of day on this thread...he's just bitter over being rejected...he has the ego of a chihuahua...MV tried to help him out a while back with some constructive criticism on his show and he went off the deep end...it's really not worth the effort responding to him...

[Paradox]

Art, and Everyone

We'll need to nominte Art for next years Podcast Awards. I believe it takes place annually in Las Vegas. Maybe Art can make an appearance. Either way it is good exposure. I believe listeners like us will have to nominate Art. We should do the same for RCH. Take a look:

http://www.podcastawards.com/

Great idea!  Of course we will have to be reminded.  Probably starting in November or December of 2015 since nominations open early 2016.  Kudos!

TuneIn-now there's a different tale.  I do not listen on a smart phone or tablet.  I am on a desktop and though I have Windows 10 (previously Windows 7 Pro) TuneIn sux for me.  It has since day one (when I was still using Win 7 Pro).  Doesn't matter if I sign in or not.  It was always stopping and starting, buffering or something.  I was always having to go goose it.  I now use Winamp to listen to Art and Richard, smooth sailing, no problems.  I have friends who use their phones and use TuneIn and they say it's great.  However when they are at their desktops they use WMP or Winamp.  My friends with tablets use the pop up player or TuneIn links on the DMDN page.

[sorefinger]

If he did a bunch of interviews 15-20 minute interviews with other paranormal podcasters.

Besides the paranormal market, there is also the opportunity with new enthusiasts.  New enthusiasts, I think, should be the goal.  Think about how you, yourself, first became an Art Bell enthusiast!  Me, I was bored listening to that gal that was on late-night radio in the late 80s, so I dial-surfed and found a talk lawyer that I listened to for a while, but he was such an egotistical maniac, bragging how he spent 60 bucks on white shirts, shirts that would be $300 in constant dollars today, so I resumed surfing AM until I found this program where rapid-fire callers were calling in every minute or two.  The show captured my attention.  There were few long, boring guests with English accents to aggravate and challenge my audio perception.  The first guest for me, as I recall, was Neil Freer, author of Breaking the Godspell, which book I immediately went out and bought and read cover to cover.  It is still on my bookshelf today.  And, yes, it was the Art Bell show.

We all became Art Bell enthusiasts at some point, and the objective now, I think, should be acquiring new enthusiasts.  If I could become an Art Bell enthusiast as a young adult, there's no reason to belive a young adult today can't become an Art Bell enthusiast, too.  Besides, new recruits already have smartphones. It's not like having to teach old AM radio dogs, listening to coast to coast, new tricks, giving up their radio and start using a smartphone.  Let's be realistic, Noory's Poligrip & Depends following would all rather just die before abandoning their set habits, going out and buying a smartphone.

Being objective, the show's format (rapid-fire call-ins) had captured my imagination more than Art Bell, himself.  I loved the show because it was an audible window to the nation.  Today this audible window is even more fascinating, because we're not talking just the nation now but the entire world.  Art could take this format to artistic expression by prompting callers with questions that help callers set the scene, characterize, describe sights, sounds, and sensations, in the same way a good novelist sketches & entertains.  Just imagine a caller on the front lines in Iraq or some other war-torn nation.  Or some guy on his catamaran cruising around the world.

Someone said Art had been grumpy.  I don't recall that back in the early days. However, once he sold out and lost his soul, yeah, he got grumpy. That's what selling out does, it makes you grumpy.  Art, do not sell out again!

[Danger!UFO]

Great idea!  Of course we will have to be reminded.  Probably starting in November or December of 2015 since nominations open early 2016.  Kudos!

TuneIn-now there's a different tale.  I do not listen on a smart phone or tablet.  I am on a desktop and though I have Windows 10 (previously Windows 7 Pro) TuneIn sux for me.  It has since day one (when I was still using Win 7 Pro).  Doesn't matter if I sign in or not.  It was always stopping and starting, buffering or something.  I was always having to go goose it.  I now use Winamp to listen to Art and Richard, smooth sailing, no problems.  I have friends who use their phones and use TuneIn and they say it's great.  However when they are at their desktops they use WMP or Winamp.  My friends with tablets use the pop up player or TuneIn links on the DMDN page.

I see they have a Science category which would be perfect for RCH. Even a nomination would get the name out there.

Art could be nominated in People's Choice or Entertainmet. Also a nomination could be made for  'Best Produced' show which would really be cool for Heather/(Redacted).

[Paradox]

I see they have a Science category which would be perfect for RCH. Even a nomination would get the name out there.

Art could be nominated in People's Choice or Entertainmet. Also a nomination could be made for  'Best Produced' show which would really be cool for Heather/(Redacted).

You should also post this over on the Blitz thread.  It will be easier to track there. I am putting this on my calendar to start reminding me in December so I can start posting about it.  This idea gets me excited!

[PB the Deplorable]

... For me its more about keeping Art happy in his "job," for if that continues we'll keep getting shows.  For that reason I am more worried about technological issues, but I am reasonably sure Art, Keith and others will slowly sort through them and correct them one by one...

One difference between the technical issues before with Dark Matter and the technical issues now is back then they were beyond Art's control at Sirius.  It's got to be a lot less frustrating for him to know that, while annoying, he has the power to address and fix them