Famed Coast-to-Coast paranormal radio host, Art Bell, had died at the age of seventy-two. -- Las Vegas Review-Journal. Interestingly, for a paranormal talk-show host, he died on Friday the 13th.
He died at his home on Pahrump so he apparently wasn't feeling sick, at least not to the point where he was concerned.
I spent years with Art Bell on the radio while I was sleeping. He, his guests, and his topics made for some interesting dreams. George Noory has never come close to being as interesting, although Coast to Coast has been in his hands for a long time now.
I listened to Art Bell at night (while dozing intermittently ), and agree that Art had a lot more interesting people on his show than what George Noory does now. One of my favorite Art Bell episodes was about “Mel’s Hole” which was supposed to be located in the mountains surrounding the Ellensburg, Washington area. Since I lived most of my life in either Idaho or Washington, this was even more interesting to me than it might have been if Mel’s Hole had been in some other state where I had never been. The story went on for what I remember as months, with Mel showing up at odd intervals to tell us some new adventure that he had with the hole itself, or the mountains around it, and I think that the military (which has some kind of a training base between Ellensburg and Yakima) were somehow involved in the story, as well. I also like John B. Wells, who sometimes hosted C2C, and now has his own show , called Caravan to Midnight.
Mel's Hole was great. There were, I think, three episodes with Mel, and they were good. My favorite though, was the guy who was flying into Area 51 in an experimental aircraft. Some of these guys were so good that, if they were telling the truth, it would be fascinating but if they were making it up, good for them - they did a good job of it. I still listen to Art Bell a lot, as there are several podcasts available. In fact, I am listening to his last episode before one of his retirements right now. JC was always good for a laugh too.
Does anyone remember the early Art Bell shows when he was heavy into politics? I think I started listening to him around 1992 or 1993. He had some wild characters on then. I can't recall all the names, but I think one was Pablo, who was a Communist, and another was a Customs worker on the border near San Diego. Some of those guys were really wild. He was also quite an innovator. I think he was one of the first "entertainers" to have a website and podcasts. He certainly was one of the only one-man shows with no on-site producers or engineers--and I think he still is the only one to do that on a nationwide basis. Does anyone know what happened to his son, Art Bell, Jr. who was kidnapped by one of his high school teachers?
No, I was aware that he originally did politics rather than paranormal, but I wasn't listening to him then. I have been listening to him for many years, however. His kid was always somewhat of a mystery. Aside from the mysterious allegations, he rarely spoke of him. He was just so good at what he did, though. Once in a while, you could get a clue that he thought one of his guests was off his rocker but usually he treated everyone with a large degree fo respect, and it was hard to tell what or how much of it he actually believed. He was so enthusiastic about what he did that after doing a five-hour radio show, with no call screener, he would continue the show on ham radio.