I am sorry, I am woefully out of the loop. I am guessing that radio talk show personality Art Bell is no longer working? Or what is this? I checked out his web site, ( http://www.artbell.com ) and there is this other weird guy smiling out at me, with his cat. NOT Art Bell. So what gives?
I used to listen to him talk about UFOs and faces on Mars, and all sorts of crackpot stuff. (I’m a crackpot, so I like hearing about such stuff! ) I have been out of touch, haven’t been listening for a long time. So - what happened? I tried to do an internet search, but couldn’t find anything. I even tried to search SDMB, that didn’t help either.
I’m dying of curiousity! Is he on vacation? Did the black helicopters finally get him? What?
Art Bell got fed up and retired at the end of April. It’s a complicated story, but he was dealing both with a major family problem, and some particularly nasty lies being spread by a shortwave station. For more information see Art Bell retires and Art Bell Pervails in Defamation Hearing
His shows, Coast to Coast AM and Dreamland live on with another host, a guy named Mike Siegel. Mostly the same sort of thing, from what I’ve managed to gather - I can usually only stand to listen for a short time.
After Bell quit, I believe that many stations dropped the shows from syndication - Siegel just doesn’t seem to be pulling in the ratings that Bell could. Here in Los Angeles, KABC still carries them at the same time (although I’ve read in some radio gossip columns that they’re contemplating dumping them).
Thanks everyone! I remember hearing about some sort of turmoil regarding his son (of course he did not get into specifics on his show) but I didn’t hear anything after that. How sad that it all ended like that.
Hello?
How can you prove a majority of the things Art Bell dealt with? This was the reason for the open discussion. I agree that Art dealt with many crackpots, but Cecil also lets you post.
Having listened to Bell a few times while he was on the air I can only imagine that the highest public service he performed was offering a seemingly sympathetic and credulous ear to any earnest paranoiac who could pick up a phone. This alone probably prevented countless episodes of these poor frustrated souls “goin’ postal”, decapitating the elderly maiden aunts with whom they lived and then dancing wild naked tarantellas through the downtown business district.
Police departments all across the nation should get together and buy him a condo in appreciation for the “misundertood” people he kept off the streets at night.
Always clothe your tarantula. (I find they like little pink tutus and bonnets.)
Art used open discussion forums to discuss topics generally strayed from by the regular media. This is good. Open discussion is good. This helps to fight ingnorance.
Yes, his topics were sometimes over the edge - well, most of the times - but they were entertaining.
In comparing the two, there are is a lot of common ground between Art Bell’s program and the SDMB. Each allows freedom of expression, anyone can post, no topic is taboo, and each is a form of entertainment.
There was no ‘open discussion’ on Art’s show. He was totally credulous. He never asked tough questions. He wasn’t a skeptic. Richard Hoagland would come on, say that he had proof that the Face on Mars was a giant monkey or something, and Art would say, “And the government has stonewalled you, I’ll bet. That’s a SHAME.”
It was a never ending parade of psychics, flake archaology, bad astronomy, and cultists. And Art had a kind word for all of them.
I think you have stated everything that I enjoyed about the show! By the way, what are the tough questions?
“That’s it!!
I’m moving to New Mexico and starting my own UFO religeon.”
I personally don’t agree with that statement, but more importantly, I don’t think it has any reason to be in this discussion. Cecil is not the SDMB. Cecil writes a question and answer column. He writes columns based on facts. I don’t know exactly how many columns he has written to debunk things that people hear on the Art Bell show, but there have been a few.
Art Bell is a guy who had a show on which any crackpot could say any crazy thing and Art would blame the government. Art Bell’s show contributed to ignorance, it didn’t fight it. Art Bell’s show was not a forum for open discussion. Did anyone ever discuss that cattle mutilations were probably caused by insects? Did anyone ever say that while the pyramids are impressivly large, their construction can easily be explained as whole bunch of people working very hard for many years?
I personally don’t agree with that statement, but more importantly, I don’t think it has any reason to be in this discussion.
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This discussion is about Art Bell. Are you in the wrong column?
Art would look at stories from all angles and had an extreme variety of guests. The guests and callers covered almost every possible angle. Never did the show ‘tell’ anyone what to believe, it simply gave options. Society is full of perceptions and a majority of these are controlled by media who are in turn controlled by money. I respected Art for having the balls to have ‘crackpots’ on his show.
If Art Bell were around at the time of Nicolaus Copernicus or Galileo they would have been on his show. Both had been condmemed by their society as ‘crackpots’.
Incorrect. Galileo was restricted to house arrest by the Holy Office (the Inquisition, basically) of the Roman Catholic Church. Copernicus’ theories were published barely before his death, leaving no time for him to be condemmed. Neither were condemmed by their society. In Galileo was a well respected scientist (at least, as the term was understood in those days before Bacon). Just because he was restricted by fraidy-cats does not make him an outlaw of his time.
It’s a tactic. Really. Art never disagreed with anyone he was talking to. Never. Not that I heard. Really, Sam, how the hell are you going to disagree with Richard Hoagland? The guy’s mental. He’s off the deep end. He’s buh-bye. And you want to ask him a tough question? Like what?
“Do you have any proof, Richard?”
“Proof? You want proof? They took a picture of that face! And they went back, and they faked the latest picture, so it doesn’t really look like a face! And another thing…”
I think Art just wanted to enjoy the ride–and I think there were just as many people like me who listened to Art from time to time thinking, “these people have lost their bloody minds,” as there were people saying, “it happened to me too.” Same reason I might listen to Rush Limbaugh, until the nausea sets in. Just like there are people out there who read Cecil and say, “No, something really did happen at Roswell.” Sigh. What are you going to do?
It’s fun. Just like fighting ignorance is fun, too. Sure, one’s substance and one’s fluff. One’s vegetables and one’s a cream puff. But both are overblown in similar ways. A skeptic might call one hyperbole and the other fantasy. But really, the world’s smartest man? Taking a chunk out of human ignorance with a weekly column of a few hundred words? Those are some cold, cold winds blowing out there.
I don’t have to believe, hell, I don’t even want to believe. But I’m with yosemitebabe. I’m a crackpot. I like this stuff…
Hell, I never really took most of what he said seriously. Some of it - I thought “Hmmm…that might be true! Wouldn’t that be a trip if it were true?” And then I’d forget all about whatever it was they were so earnestly discussing.
I used to listen to Art Bell when I was in my pottery room. I just had this clay-encrusted old radio, and it got the station where Art was on well. So I’d listen. I have been away from pottery for a while, so I haven’t been listening. But I am back in the clay room, and I miss Art! Listening to his show was great entertainment, as I sit there throwing on the potter’s wheel. I dunno - there’s a pun there - I work on pots, I listen to a crackpot… Uh, never mind. My mind wanders.
Side note: I used to listen to this other crackpot, “Art Bell-esque” program sometimes. One day a guy named “Horst” called in. He had a heavy German accent. He earnestly claimed that there were 120 year old Nazis still alive, and they were responsible for the cattle mutilations. Something in the mutilations was keeping these old Nazis alive and young. “Horst” spun a great yarn about these Nazis. (You just had to not wonder how come they were so OLD already. 120 years seems a bit much.) The thing that caught my attention was that he said there was a Center for Germans, (or some society or organization) that could verify what he was saying. He said this organization was in Gorman, California. I know Gorman. It’s a little widening in the road, up by the 5 freeway, about an hour from LA. I think it has only one gas station. All it is known for is having great blooming wildflowers in the spring. But now each time I pass Gorman, I think of the Secret Society of Germans living there! (And perhaps some ancient Nazis, as well!)
You can’t get this level of entertainment just anywhere, folks!
You might be interested to know that there are a number of Art Bell fans who are pretty fed up with the downturn the show (and website) has taken since Art left. They started up another website with message boards, etc. You can find them at The Fantastic Forum. Keep up on the latest news and rumors of Art’s possible return to broadcasting.
I miss the guy, too. He’d get one caller every once in a while called “JC” (no relation to our JC, I hope) who was a raving lunatic. Bible-thumpin’ homophobic redneck kinda guy, who would call up and preach at Art. Art would get him so worked up, I thought the poor guy was going to blow a circuit. “Bigfoot?!? That’s demonic activity!” Everybody was a bunch of Satanic Communists, and Art was the Devil’s mouthpiece. He was a riot. I miss that show. It ain’t the same no mo’.
) I have been out of touch, haven’t been listening for a long time. So - what happened? I tried to do an internet search, but couldn’t find anything. I even tried to search SDMB, that didn’t help either.