Why do some people including Art Bell say the show has changed?

[stevesh]

Here is the crucial difference: For much of his time at the helm, Art basically ran the show by himself out of his house. It was a guy in his house sitting at a microphone with a cigarette burning in the ashtray fielding unscreened calls from late night truck drivers, kooks, and weirdos. He had people actually running his website and I believe handling the broadcast details, but he ran his own board, operated his own phone system, and punched up his own calls, all while cats were running underfoot and his wife was in the next room. It felt like guerrilla radio.

Coast today? Coast under George Noory et al? Have you heard the long list of people George thanks at the end of the show? These people produce the show. It's broadcast from a studio, the calls are screened, someone else is punching them up, someone else is helping make decisions about what to do next, it's all very produced. It feels very produced. And you could tell, toward the end of his guesting stint, that Art was growing very frustrated by that feeling of being controlled, produced, micromanaged.

A show like Coast needs to have some spontaneity. I mean, even things that are not spontaneous (like guest interviews) need that element of spontaneity. That's what Friday night open lines was all about. Throwing open the lines, not knowing what you'll get, dealing with whatever new topics are raised, and following those threads through. Spontaneous abandoning of one topic of conversation to pursue another.

But there's a clear attempt to minimize spontaneous live overnight talk radio at Coast today. Which is why I'm not listening.

Excellent comparison, and right on the money. The problem now is the host. Love him or hate him, I can't imagine anyone not admitting that George Noory just isn't 'quick' enough to take unscreened calls or exercise any kind of spontaneity. Doesn't necessarily make him stupid. He just doesn't have the quickness of mind to do the kind of show Art did.

Noory's shortcomings are also the reason C2C doesn't do remote broadcasts, I think. Shows from the Giza plateau with Noory and, say, William Henry or even Noory on one of Hoagland's cruises could be pretty good radio, but you need a host who can adlib when necessary, and we know what happens when Simple George tries that. He can't even tap dance when a guest's telephone connection is lost.

[Mels-hole1984]

I agree wit DAE...I've made countless emails to  mouth piece noory, tom and Lisa and never get a reply. I suppose its because I never signed up for coastzone to get that "special email" address. One of my earliest memories of hearing Art was the guy who shot bigfoot and wanted to show him where to dig it up...I used to subscribe to the Afterdark news letter for cripes sake. Whatever happenned to that anyways? Ive been listening since I was about 16 and I'm 28 now so I can attest to the fact that the show has definitely changed for the worse.One night I was into my cups and was so disgusted with the show I fired off an email to all of them and thanked them for ruining one of my favorite pastimes...I may have said some more colorful things as well8)

[Sardondi]

...One of my earliest memories of hearing Art was the guy who shot bigfoot and wanted to show him where to dig it up...I used to subscribe to the Afterdark news letter for cripes sake. Whatever happenned to that anyways?...

Hoax. http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/bugs-freakazoid/

What a surprise.

[Ben Shockley]

Hoax. http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/bugs-freakazoid/

What a surprise.

Mister Prosecutor, have you analyzed the obvious fake that was "Mel" of the so-named hole?
I am especially interested in what you would say, after your "30 years of determining truth in testimony" and especially after his second time on the phone with Art and including his repeated "I... I don't have words..."  Fake ass ~~

I apologize if you have addressed this before.

[Juan]

Who cares if Mel was fake - it was a great tall tale.  I can envision a group of idiots, drinking beer, dropping stuff into the hole until one guy pulls out a fishing rod and volunteers to find out how deep the hole is.  Just believable enough to be a great story.  The second call about the 1943 Roosevelt dime, not so great.

[ziznak]

I was just listening through my "Red Elk" stuff the other day and heard his explanation of the baby goat fetus thing they pulled out of the hole towards the end of the story... it was some sort of rock spirit or something.  Just like the Mel's hole tale Red Elks answers to everything are just as entertaining. 

Earlier this morning the Fine Art stream played an entertaining call from some Canadian? guy who claimed he ran over a BF!! Art for some reason got all the entertaining nutjobs.  Every nutjob they have on the show now just sucks I'm not sure if it's the Snoory effect or just sucking guests.

[Meggini]

Who cares if Mel was fake - it was a great tall tale.  I can envision a group of idiots, drinking beer, dropping stuff into the hole until one guy pulls out a fishing rod and volunteers to find out how deep the hole is.  Just believable enough to be a great story.  The second call about the 1943 Roosevelt dime, not so great.

Exactly. It really is all about the story, and Art was great at encouraging a good story. That's why he got the good callers. Why waste an entertaining tall tale on Noory if he's going to cut you off before you can deliver the punchline, or ask a stupid question that throws off the rhythm? A good story is like a good joke. It's got to build in just the right way.

[ChandlersDad]

Art Bell did promote stories that he knew were false, simply because it made "good radio". Case in point: Jonathan Reed and his frozen alien.  The entire case was exposed as a hoax, but Art continued to give the guy air time. At the time, I was disgusted that Art would do this, but in retrospect I see that Art knew how to create a great show, even if that meant letting a hoaxer tell his tale. The Jonathan Reed "an alien zapped my dog in the woods, I clobbered the alien and put him in my freezer but he was not dead and started shrieking, then a black op team came and took the alien away" tale was delicious, if absurd. Art knew how to milk the cow! 

[BobGrau]

Art knew how to milk the cow! 

Whereas noory goes straight for the mutilation...

[Chocolate coated jackboot]

how much is corporate radio to blame? seems like radio in general has become so sanitized and generic.  If a guy like Art were starting out today, the suits would laugh in his face. "You wanna broadcast from where?  AH-HAHAHA"

[Mels-hole1984]

Im understand alot of it was hoaxy but just the same entertaining. It was what got me hooked . Just because Stephen King writes fiction doesnt meanIm going to stop reading him...You dig?

[awguy]

The show definitely has changed. To me it comes down to one word: Entertainment

Back in Art's day, the show was entertaining... night in and night out. Even when he covered the more serious topics, it was done in a way that kept you on the edge of your seat and wondered what was going to happen next. Art knew how to get the most out of his guests and his callers. Even topics I wasn't all that interested in were somehow bearable when Art was at the microphone.

And the callers knew it was entertainment too. Listeners would call in with crazy stories so they could play along. Does anyone really think that Mel's Hole, The Alien in the freezer and the guy who flew into Area 51 were real? No... but it made for great radio.

Then there were the non-paranormal topics. Art knew how to have fun with the show. Truth or Trash, The guy who successfully cashed one of those junk mail cheques, the wacky 911 phone call guy who was on a few times.

The show really wasn't a paranormal show. It was a general interest show with paranormal leanings. And sadly, the paranormal part is all Art is ever remembered for.

So fast forward to the Noory era. They took what Art Bell was remembered for and attempted to turn the show into a serious journalistic approach on paranormal topics.

The result: The show is dumbed down, the callers are dumbed down. The callers you get now are the kooks... the people who believe they really HAVE been abducted by aliens. And UFO Phil... Man I hate that song.

I haven't listened regularly in about 3 years. I still tune in occasionally and check the coast website each Friday to see what's coming up in the hopes that maybe... just maybe, I'l be entertained once again.