Art Bell is best known for discussing conspiracy theories and paranormal topics, Bell's interests and interviews were wide-ranging. He interviewed musicians Willie Nelson,[20]Crystal Gayle,[21] and Merle Haggard;[22] science fiction author Jerry Pournelle;[23] and comedians George Carlin[24] and Joe Rogan.[25] Author Dean Koontz was a fan of Coast to Coast AM, being interviewed on January 22, 2002 to promote his horror-suspense novel One Door Away from Heaven, which featured a brief reference to Bell. Koontz's 2002 novel By the Light of the Moon has a supporting character named Parish Lantern, described as the deep-voiced host of an overnight call-in show which discusses extraterrestrials.
On August 15, 1996, Bell interviewed William Luther Pierce, author of the novel The Turner Diaries.[27] Pierce, writing under the pseudonym "Andrew Macdonald", depicted a race war leading to the extermination of Jews, non-whites and homosexuals. Pierce denounced interracial marriage, calling white people who married non-whites "traitors to the white race". Bell agreed with Pierce on the dangers of politicians abusing their power, but rejected Pierce's racist views. Bell also interviewed neo-nazi Tom Metzger, and mentioned his Filipino wife: "'I am married to a brown-skinned Asian woman. What does that make me?' To which Metzger replied, 'A traitor to your race.'"[26]
One of Bell's most famous Coast to Coast interviews occurred in 1997 with a man who identified himself as Mel Waters and discussed what is known as "Mel's Hole" in rural Washington. The opening is said to be a fantastically deep vertical shaft which possesses bizarre properties. No such hole has ever been physically located by anyone attempting to verify this story.[28]
A caller in September 1997 claimed he had discovered an unknown threat and conspiracy from Area 51, and his life was in danger by even talking about it. For unknown reasons, Bell lost connection to his transmitter during the call and, just as the caller's voice became more and more agitated, the entire broadcast dramatically went silent. A confused Bell restored the signal about 20 minutes later.[30] The caller (or someone sounding similar) called in on a subsequent show and admitted it had been an elaborate hoax, which fooled many.[31]
Fans regarded Bell as a master showman, noting that he called his show "absolute entertainment"[16] and expressly said he did not necessarily accept every guest or caller's claims, but only offered a forum where they would not be openly ridiculed. Bell was one of the few talk show hosts who did not screen incoming calls, but this changed in 2006.
Beginning in late 1996, Bell was criticized for reporting rumors that Comet Hale–Bopp was being trailed by a UFO. Some speculated that members of the Heaven's Gate group committed mass suicide based on rumors Bell aired. Others dismissed the idea, noting that the Heaven's Gate website stated: "Whether Hale-Bopp has a 'companion' or not is irrelevant from our perspective."[17] Susan Wright reported that later, Bell was also "one of the first to publicize expert opinions refuting the 'alien' companion" said to have been shadowing Hale-Bopp,[18] such as that published in 1998 from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory suggesting that "the satellite's main diameter is ~30 km," (20 miles) and accordingly natural rather than artificial.
Arthur William Bell III (June 17, 1945 – April 13, 2018) was an American broadcaster and author. He was the founder and the original host of the paranormal-themed radio program Coast to Coast AM, which is syndicated on hundreds of radio stations in the United States and Canada.[3] He also created and hosted its companion show Dreamland. Coast to Coast still airs nightly, now hosted weeknights by George Noory. Bell's past shows from 1994 to 2002 are repeated on Premiere Networks on Saturday evenings. They are retitled Somewhere in Time with Art Bell.
In 2003, Bell partially retired from Coast to Coast AM. During the following four years, he hosted the show for many weekends on Premiere Networks. He announced his retirement from weekend hosting in 2007, but occasionally served as a guest host through 2010. He started a new nightly show, Art Bell's Dark Matter, on Sirius XM Radio, that aired for six weeks in 2013.[4][5]
In 2015, he returned to radio with a new show Midnight in the Desert, which was available online via TuneIn as well as some terrestrial radio stations. He retired on December 11, 2015, citing security concerns at his home in Pahrump, Nevada, west of Las Vegas.
Bell was the founder and original owner of Pahrump-based radio station KNYE 95.1 FM. His broadcast studio and transmitter were located near his home, where he also hosted Coast to Coast AM.
In the 1960s Bell underwent basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and served in the U.S. Air Force for four years as a medic during the Vietnam War. Although not involved in combat, he was stationed for a short time at a hospital in Da Nang. At this hospital and others, such as Clark Air Base in the Philippines, he witnessed the effects of the war first-hand, something he did not like to recall or talk about.[10]
While in the military, Bell, with a few friends on base, operated a pirate radio station at Amarillo Air Force Base. After receiving support from the base commander, they expanded the operation, playing music for the entire base; the signal was strong enough to be picked up in the city of Amarillo. When local radio stations learned of the pirate station's popularity after it appeared in the Arbitron ratings, it was forced to shut down after being on the air for a year. This was the start of Bell's radio career.[11]
After leaving military service in 1966, Bell worked at several radio stations in the States before moving to Okinawa, where he was a disc jockey for six years at KSBK, the only non-military English-language station in Japan. While there, he claimed to set two "world records", first by staying on the air without sleep for five days and nights (115 hours and 15 minutes). He later wrote that this extreme sleep deprivation was a strange experience and something he would never do again. He said that as he went about his normal routine, such as walking to the refrigerator during a break, it was as if he was "floating around in a different world", and things seemed "unreal".[12] The second "world record" he claimed to set was for the longest continuous broadcast while seesawing, after seesawing for 57 hours while broadcasting.[13]
Bell soon returned to the United States, where he had a career in rock music radio for the next 20 years.[14]
While working at a rock music station in Anchorage, Alaska, he learned about Amerasian children stranded in Saigon in the final days before the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam in 1975. He spoke about it on-air and listeners in Alaska started to send in donations. The money raised allowed the chartering of a Douglas DC-8 to fly to Vietnam and rescue approximately 120 orphans. They were brought to the United States and adopted by American families.[15]
Bell was a rock music disc jockey before he moved into talk radio. His original 1978 late-night Las Vegas program on KDWN was a political call-in show under the name West Coast AM.[6] In 1988, Bell and Alan Corbeth renamed the show Coast to Coast AM and moved its broadcast from the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas to Bell's home in Pahrump.[6]
Broadcast facilities of KNYE in Pahrump, Nevada
Bell abandoned conventional political talk in favor of topics such as gun control and conspiracy theories, leading to a significant increase in his overnight ratings. The show's focus again shifted significantly after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Many in the media did not want to be blamed for inciting anti-government or militia actions like the bombing. Subsequently, Bell discussed offbeat topics such as the paranormal, the occult, UFOs, protoscience and pseudoscience. During his tenure at KDWN Bell met and married his third wife, Ramona, who later handled production and management duties for the program.
An article in the February 23, 1997, edition of The Washington Post said that Bell was currently America's highest-rated late-night radio talk show host, broadcast on 328 stations. According to The Oregonian in its June 22, 1997, edition, Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell was on 460 stations. At its initial peak in popularity, Coast to Coast AM was syndicated on more than 500 radio stations and claimed 15 million listeners nightly. Bell's studios were located in his home in the town of Pahrump, located in Nye County, Nevada; hence, the voice-over catchphrase, "from the Kingdom of Nye".
