# Coast To Coast AM is absolutely the stupidest radio show I've ever heard. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 23, 2005, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coast-to-coast-am-is-absolutely-the-stupidest-radio-show-ive-ever-heard/286237 "2005-01-23T12:29:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coast-to-coast-am-is-absolutely-the-stupidest-radio-show-ive-ever-heard/286237/41 "2005-01-27T03:47:05Z")
> [@flickster](#): > > I used to listen on nights I couldn’t sleep. Got a lot of grins out of all the UFO’s, contrails, ghost, tales of some mythical beast from Central America, the ex-NASA guy who used to go on and on about life on Mars. I must admit though that the show lost it’s wacky entertainment value when it started becoming the remote viewing broadcast network. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I believe you are thinking of chemtrails. 🙂 I do agree the remote viewing stuff is boring. They once had a Creationist (who actually was a fairly legitimate sounding scientist, not just some random fundie) on the show, and scientist specializing in evolution on the next night, and they were both trying to debunk each other. Those were a couple of interesting nights, and the callers actually came up with some really good Qs. That was when art was still hosting though. Spring 2001 I think. I like the ghost shows because they’re creepy, but the ghost stuff doesn’t keep me awake at night. I have to be careful with the UFO stories, because even seeing one of those grey faces can have me sleeping only in the daytime for a week. I’ve had a pretty severe phobia of them since I was a little kid. Richard Hoagland is your life on Mars guy: [http://www.enterprisemission.com/](http://www.enterprisemission.com/) He’s pretty out there but he’s an entertaining fellow to listen to. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coast-to-coast-am-is-absolutely-the-stupidest-radio-show-ive-ever-heard/286237/42 "2005-01-27T04:43:57Z")
First off, > [@Airman Doors](#): > > (a knight?!?! In Florida?!?!)), [Knave.](http://ucfathletics.collegesports.com/ot/ucf-mascot.html) > [@](#): > > Anyway, they get all manner of lunatic on that show, and since I’m sitting in a pickup truck guarding a flightline overnight I have plenty of time to listen to this stuff. There’s all manner of mind control, UFO, and end of the world pseudo-scientific psychic idiotbabble, and I have to believe that the callers are sincere in their beliefs, which scares me to no end. The hosts, however, I’m not sure about. Muxh the way I discovered it: working the 7 pm-7 am shift driving a cab. Some of the stuff when Art Bell was on was not utterly freakazoid, just “edgy.” Stuff like “what are the odds of an asteroid hitting Earth” or having some scientist on to try and explain String theory. Some of this was quite educational. But then on the next night, he’d say, totally deadpan … “line one will be reserved for Time Travellers. Please call line one only if you are in fact a visitor from the future.” So long as you don’t think about the fact that many of these callers are in fact deeply disturbed people running around loose, it can be very funny. In [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=109647) thread, I told my favorite Art Bell moment. He asked for callers who thought they were the second coming of Christ. > [@](#): > > Caller: I have not been told my destiny yet. I am either the second coming of Christ, or the Antichrist. The Father has not yet revealed to me whether I will save the world, or lead it into eternal damnation. > > \ > > Art Bell (in the driest voice possible): Yes, I can see how you’d want a decision on that. I tend to think George Noory buys a lot more of the paranormal stuff, and the show has gone downhill; it’s lost the balance it used to have and become completely the province of the nutjobs. ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coast-to-coast-am-is-absolutely-the-stupidest-radio-show-ive-ever-heard/286237/43 "2005-01-27T04:54:23Z")
> [@jinwicked](#): > > I believe you are thinking of chemtrails. 🙂 LOL All this time I thought they were talking about contrails (and silently wondering WTF?) I’ll blame it on poor reception and low volume level so as not to wake the Mrs. ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coast-to-coast-am-is-absolutely-the-stupidest-radio-show-ive-ever-heard/286237/44 "2005-01-27T05:07:07Z")
> [@flickster](#): > > LOL > All this time I thought they were talking about contrails (and silently wondering WTF?) I’ll blame it on poor reception and low volume level so as not to wake the Mrs. Sometimes I am absolutely convinced the people who write Dale from _King of the Hill_ get most of their material from C2CAM. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coast-to-coast-am-is-absolutely-the-stupidest-radio-show-ive-ever-heard/286237/45 "2005-01-27T05:57:38Z")
> [@Can Handle the Truth](#): > > I have heard Art Bell claim that he was abducted by a UFO. I don’t recall ever hearing that, but he _did_ claim that he saw one once: driving across the Nevada desert at night with his wife. A giant, silent, floating black triangle the size of a football field, “so low, if I’d have thrown a rock, I practically could have hit the thing” (or words to that effect). The only other really paranormal experience that I recall him relating was having an out-of-body experince when he got the chance to lay in the sarcophagus in the Cheops pyramid (Art is a good friend of Zahi Hawass, the “[Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and Director of the Giza Pyramids Excavation](http://www.guardians.net/hawass/)”). Several people have nailed the appeal of this show: rather like watching old “Outer Limits” episodes, or sitting out on the porch on a summer’s night, drinking beer and trading ghost stories. I, like others, don’t listen so much since Art quit (and came back, and quit, and came back, and quit), but I see he’s on weekends now. I may have to tune back in. The ghost story nights were my favorites, but does anybody remember the Jonathan Reed story, where an alien he found in the woods killed his dog? So what does he do? He clubs it with a tree branch and takes it home and puts it in his freezer…where it REVIVES! He made three or four shows, I think, each one more outlandish than the last. [Totally bogus, of course](http://www.ufowatchdog.com/reedufofraud.html), but it made for some great late night listening. The true story behind it is almost more entertaining than the original yarn. Then there was Mel’s Hole…so many memories… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coast-to-coast-am-is-absolutely-the-stupidest-radio-show-ive-ever-heard/286237.md?page=2)