You ain’t shittin, dc…
:eek:
-Rav
I"ve been a semi-regular Coast listener for years, and the show has definitely gone downhill. It used to be great- wide range of paranormal stuff ranging from demonic possession to UFO abductions, freaky science and/or pseudoscience, futurists and trend watchers. I really liked the fact that even though Art Bell is at times skeptical, he still keeps an open mind.
Then a few things happened. (not necessarily in the following order)
Father Malachi Martin died, which lead to a dearth of genuinely scary tales of excorcism and demonic possession as well as freaky Vatican politics.
Major Ed Dames remote viewed Satan. He hasn’t been the same since. Oh, and Ed, still waiting for that solar flare that’s supposed to wipe out all life on the planet except for Hawaii, or whatever.
Art had a couple of personal mishappenings. His back went off on him, severely, so that he just couldn’t sit in that chair for four to five hours a night. During the same period of time, his teenaged son was sexually assaulted by a teacher, so there were the legal and emotional stresses he had to deal with.
Forget the guy’s name, with the cat named Vanna who filled in, but he was pretty cool, then George Noory took over with Art back on weekends. I think George is a host/interviewer on a par with Art Bell, but he just doesn’t have the name recognition Art had, so he doesn’t seem to be able to attract the great variety of guests, thus the show has become monotonous. Art always had several semi-regulars, but at intervals great enough not to become boring. Now, I tend to get a case of “Oh, no, not this guy/chick again” and turn the radio off.
I’ll often listen on my nights off work. long enough to find out who the guest is, and what the topic is. If it piques my interest, I’ll listen. But lately, I’m much more likely to turn the radio off and just go to sleep.
The only thing scary about Martin was that after publishing several books on what was “really” going to happen with Vatican politics–and being 100% wrong on every prognostication he made–people considered him to have any credibility at all.
(Which made him a good candidate for Bell’s show, of course.)
This show has to be a guilty pleasure for any doper, but I guess it’s one of mine.
I like how soothing it is. The host’s calm, friendly way of speaking is the perfect counterpoint to the sheer lunacy of whatever it is they happen to be talking about, and since basically every conspiracy theory is amenable to every other conspiracy theory you rarely get any arguments. Any disagreement just thickens the plot!
There also has to be some value in the way the show basically reflects American values. Fundamentally sympathetic, yet it exclusively deals with subject matter that is so bizarre any possible distaste for politics or taking sides (as real news or talk shows about things that actually happen inevitably lead to) is totally blunted.
Stupidest show? C’mon, what about Rush?
There is no doubt in my mind.
“No one in this world, so far as I know … has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.” -H. L. Mencken
I’m a regular listener of Coast to Coast. I’ll be the first to admit that it can be pretty stupid sometimes, but it isn’t always that way. I enjoy hearing other points of view on many topics (somewhat like the SDMB).
One of the great things about when Art Bell is hosting is that he doesn’t screen calls. If you get through, you get on the air. That really adds some interesting moments!
Even Art and George have their limits of credulity, as well. I’ve heard both of them end interviews part way through the show when they just couldn’t take it any more. But it has to be really wild to get to that point - they are both usually willing to give anyone a chance to say their piece.
Besides the UFO experts, the remote viewers and the EVP people, they do occasionally have some pretty impressive guests. Michio Kaku is a regular, as is The Bad Astronomer.
Rush Limbaugh is a paragon of honest reporting compared to Art Bell. There’s a difference between wild interpretation of facts and wild interpretation of utter crap. The stuff that Art Bell has on his show is so far out there that no rational human being could ever believe it.
Then don’t believe it. I listen to this show with some regularity because it’s entertaining and it’s a good break from all the depressing news of reality, and it’s fun to consider the possibility that maybe one of the guests is on to something.
The show itself is pretty impartial. I think Art was better at staying neutral than George is, but he’s still fairly good about it. They have a lot of nutters on, but that’s kind of the point. They’ve also had Bad Astronomer on there several times debunking a lot of the things previous guests had said. They frequently have guests on consecutive nights that turn around and completely contradict things from previous guests when asked about it. They have guests on that they know have grudges towards other guests. There is much conflict in the nutter community.
C2CAM doesn’t “report” anything, nor have I ever heard them claim to. You can’t even compare their show to Rush. The hosts don’t advocate a one-minded groupthink, and though the guests might, the hosts don’t try to pass the guests off as the gospel truth. The hosts just let the callers talk. Everything is up to your interpretation.
I’m glad the show exists, myself. I think it makes life more interesting.
I play hockey three hours away from home so I get to listen to C2C at least once a week on my drive home. Late nights on a lonely highway with loons on the radio…it’s great. Well, it’s not great but it’s something to listen to.
I agree tha Art Bell had a warmer on-air presence than George Norry, who had the unenvyable task of filling Art’s shoes during the week.
Ah well. It’s mildly entertaining and it beats listenig to a music station play the artist of the month 4 times an hour.
Maybe it’s like a big game of Mornington Crescent. They’re all making it up and humoring each other. 
Whether Martin was credible or not isn’t the issue. The issue is that he had a lot of entertainment value.
I agree! Coast to Coast is like a great big slumber party on the air. I listen for a half hour or so every night. Art Bell is wickedly funny…the wilder the story or the nuttier the caller…the more he eggs them on. George Noory seems much kinder.
The show is definitely the best thing on late night radio. (IMHO). But sometimes I feel sorry for the callers…some of them are obviously mentally ill. 
Oooh, tonight George is reporting on the rash of mysterious murders of scientists! I think it’s all part of the C2C plan to take over the world.
Sorry. I was only reacting to the claim of “scary.” I have gotten imense entertainment from Martin.
I laughed and laughed.
I thought you were telling me how it was different than Rush… 
I love “Coast 2 Coast” but then I also love the “Weekly World News”.
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 do agree that Art never professed to believing any of the crap (and said so many times), he just gave them a stage.
Could you be thinking of the Chupacabra? OTTOMH the Goatsucker is a figure of Mexican folklore. It’s described as something like a deformed dog or baboon. It prowls at night, sinking it’s great fangs into small livestock and draining their blood.
The legend of the Chupacabra was mentioned in an episode of the X Files, and the Chupacabra has made appearances on Mucha Lucha.
That’s it. I was sitting at work thinking chunga - no, chubu, no LOL I knew I was close just couldn’t nail it down
Oh yes, the Chupacabra was the star of many C2C shows.