Was screening calls the beginning of the end of Coast to Coast?

[Kingdomofnye]

Seems to me the source of the downfall of the show.  The shows that have stuck with me, or rather the specific calls all are ones that are bizaare and oddball and just plain insane.  The Area 51 caller, Mels Hole.  Those types of calls.  The guy calling as he's flying over Area 51.  You dont get those calls when you screen the calls. 

Back in the day C2C used to capture my imagination and engage me.  Id be thinking about the scary, creepy or fascinating calls for weeks.  Even if Mels Hole was fake, the fact they strectched it for the entire show, or several shows, was amazing and so cool. 

Now its all about hitting those breaks.  Nothing is discussed too indepth.  No calls extend on and on like Mels Hole.  The hosts interrupt the caller, and its all about a quick "who what when where why" and then "goodbye thanks for calling". 

[Birdie]

I cannot stand the callers who gush all over George, telling him how wonderful he and the show are. And the screeners sure seem to put through a lot of those calls. IMHO, the call screening makes the show inauthentic.

[Morgus]

Yep, screened lines was poison for the show's open lines.
In the 1990s open lines shows were the primary part, now Noory avoids it

[PB the Deplorable]

To me it wasn't so much the callers that made Art's show - although there were plenty of great calls - a lot of the time Art would end the call, and in a couple of sentences summarize what he thought the caller was getting at and give an interesting response

[ItsOver]

Yep, screened lines was poison for the show's open lines.
In the 1990s open lines shows were the primary part, now Noory avoids it

Noory can't handle calls, like most everything else, let alone unscreened calls.  But was the screening of calls the beginning of the end of C2C?  I'd say it's more akin to a symptom.  Crappy hosts brought to us courtesy of PremRat, such as Jorchy, are the disease and the real downfall of C2C.