Comprehensive information and links about Art Bell

Art Bell (born June 17, 1945Art Bell is the founder and longtime host of the paranormal-themed radio program Coast to Coast AM. Though his work is much less frequent than in the past, he remains an occasional host. He is also the owner of radio station KNYE 95.1 FM in Pahrump, Nevada.

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Early years

Bell was born to Arthur Bell, Jr., a United States Marine Corps Captain, and Jane Bell, a Marine drill instructor. He was always interested in radio and at the age of 13 he became a licensed amateur radio operator. Bell served in U.S. Air Force as a medic during the Vietnam War, and in his free time operated a pirate radio station on his base. He would go out of his way to play antiwar music (like "Eve of Destruction" and "Fortunate Son") that was not being played on the American Forces Network.

After leaving military service he stayed in the Far East, residing on the Japanese island of Okinawa where he worked as a disc jockey for KSBK, the only non-military English-language station in Japan.

While in Anchorage, Alaska at radio station KENI he set a Guinness record for staying on the air 116 hours and 15 minutes. He also set the world record for seesawing while broadcasting for 57 hours. The money raised there allowed Art to charter a DC 8, fly to Vietnam and rescue 130 Vietnamese Orphans stranded in Saigon at the war's end. They were eventually all brought to America and adopted by American families.

He returned to the United States and studied engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. He dropped out and went back to radio, this time as a board operator and chief engineer. Being around the stations he got a few opportunities to be on the air. For several years he worked back and forth behind and in front of the microphone. After a period of working in cable television, in 1989 the 50,000-watt KDWN in Las Vegas, Nevada offered Bell a five-hour time slot in the middle of the night.

Background

Bell's original program in Las Vegas was a political call-in talk radio show, but he tired of the format, believing there were too many such programs, especially in the wake of Rush Limbaugh's massive success.

Bell abandoned political talk and began highlighting his long interest in UFOs, time travel, and other oddities, gaining a large following after he was syndicated in the early 1990s. At his peak popularity, Bell's program was syndicated on over 500 radio stations, and it claimed 15 million listeners nightly. In its current form, the show receives upwards of 30 million listeners with Bell as a co-host. [1] Bell broadcasts from his home in Pahrump, Nevada.

Bell's guests' topics often deal with the paranormal, occult knowledge, conspiracy theories, UFOs, protoscience, and pseudo-science.

Some critics see Bell as a kook, and some guests have been criticized as cranks or quacks; Coast-to-Coast is subject to frequent ridicule and criticism on the usenet group alt.fan.art-bell, in certain AOL chatrooms, and other blogs. Radio host Phil Hendrie occasionally lampoons Bell, his guests, and the unusual products offered by advertisers.

Others regard Bell as simply a master showman, noting that he calls his show "absolute entertainment" [2], and further noting his statements that he does not necessarily accept every guest or caller's claims, but only offers a forum where they will not be ridiculed. Bell is one of only a few talk show hosts who do screen calls. His calm attitude, patient questions, and ability to tease substance from the sometimes nebulous statements of callers and guests gave his show a relaxed and serious atmosphere earning him much praise from those who contend the paranormal deserved a mature outlet of discussion in the media. Ed Dames, Richard C. Hoagland, Terence McKenna, Dannion Brinkley, and Robert Bigelow were all regular guests who typically discussed "fringe" topics.

Bell's interests, however, extended beyond the paranormal, interviewing singers Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, comedian George Carlin, writer Dean Koontz, and frequent guest physicist Michio Kaku.

There are two annual features on Bell's program: On Halloween, his show is renamed "Ghost to Ghost A.M.", and is devoted to callers relating their allegedly real-life encounters with ghosts. Every New Year's Eve, Bell invites callers to make a prediction for the coming year; the predictions are then reviewed at the close of the next year and given a verbal "Ding" if they are deemed to have been correct, or a "Bonk" if the prediction did not come true.

Beginning in late 1996, Bell was criticized for reporting rumors that comet Hale-Bopp was being closely followed by an Unidentified Flying Object. It was speculated that members of the Heaven's Gate group committed mass suicide based on rumors Bell aired, but others discounted this, noting that the Heaven's Gate website stated that: "Whether Hale-Bopp has a 'companion' or not is irrelevant from our perspective." [3] Susan Wright notes, however, that Bell was also "one of the first to publicise expert opinions debunking the 'alien companion'" said to have been shadowing Hale-Bopp (Wright, 187).

Bell is well known in the world of amateur radio by his callsign, W6OBB. Art and many of his fans can be heard nightly on the 80-meter amateur radio band at frequency 3840 kHz.

Retirements and comebacks

Bell has retired and returned to Coast to Coast several times. His first unexpected retirement was announced on October 13, 1998 which many people thought was a publicity stunt. He returned after about two weeks.

In April, 2000, Bell again retired, but offered no details other than stating he intended to "resolve a family crisis"; Mike Siegel took over the program.

Bell returned in February of 2001, saying he had left to deal with the aftermath of his son's rape. Unbeknownst to listeners, on May 16th, 1997, Art Bell IV was kidnapped and raped by a substitute teacher from his high school. Art Bell IV was 16 at the time and experinced psychological trauma from the incident.

To make matters worse, on December 9th, 1997 Bell also was falsely [4] accused of being a child molester by broadcasters on WWCR. Bell also noted that since his departure, Coast to Coast had lost a number of affiliates, and that Siegel had taken the program in a "different direction" that Bell apparently did not approve of. As Coast to Coast's creator, Bell retained some authority over the program, and thus felt his return was necessary.

Bell last retired in late 2002, citing recurring back pain, and was replaced by George Noory. Bell returned in September, 2003, to host all weekend broadcasts.

In June 2005, he announced a 'semi-retirement', for which he only hosted the last last two Sundays of every month.

Art's wife, Ramona, died of an acute asthma attack on January 5, 2006 in Laughlin, Nevada, where the couple were taking a short vacation. Ramona Bell was 47 years old.

On January 21, 2006, it was announced that Art would return to Coast to Coast on Saturdays and Sundays, replacing Ian Punnett on Saturdays, and George Noory on the first two Sundays of the month. Art returned to the airwaves following his wife's death on January 22, 2006.

Art announced on his first show back on January 22 that Ian Punnett will not be unemployed. Ian now works the prefeed live for 4 hours before Art Bell's slot on Saturday nights from 9pm-1am EST, 6pm-10pm PST. Ian's new show is titled : Chemtrail theory, Classified information, SETI, Time travel, Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, Albert Einstein, Ufology, paranormal, string theory, near-death experience, ghosts, electronic voice phenomena, Dannion Brinkley, Carl Sagan, solar system, peak oil, biodiesel