In Memory of Art Bell
April 13, 2022

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Art Bell, the creator of "Coast to Coast AM," passed away on today's date four years ago. Called the "mysterious narrator of the American nightscape" by the Washington Post, he is truly missed. Pictured is an honorary memorial plaque placed in a park in Pahrump, Nevada, the town where Art famously conducted many of his broadcasts from his desert compound in the "Kingdom of Nye."

Art Bell



Born: Arthur William Bell III; June 17, 1945; North Carolina, U.S
Died: April 13, 2018 (aged 72); Pahrump, Nevada, U.S.
Call sign: W6OBB (U.S.), 4F1AB (Philippines)
Website: artbell.com

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. He also created and hosted its companion show Dreamland. Coast to Coast still airs nightly.

In 2003, Bell semi-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 to 2010. Classic episodes of Coast to Coast AM can be heard in some radio markets on Saturday nights under the name Somewhere in Time hosted by Bell. He started a new nightly show, Art Bell's Dark Matter, on Sirius XM Radio, that aired for six weeks in 2013.

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 announced what would be his final retirement on December 11, 2015, citing security concerns at his home. He said that he and his family were subjected to repeated intrusions on his property in Pahrump, Nevada. The intrusions included gunshots, and he was in fear for his family's safety. He chose to leave the air and along with it public life because he believed that the intruder or intruders wanted him off the air.

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 in Pahrump, where he also hosted Coast to Coast AM.

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Broadcasting career

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Critical reputation

Fans regarded Bell as a master showman, noting that he called his show "absolute entertainment" 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 only a few talk show hosts who did not screen incoming calls, but this changed in 2006. On the October 31, 2006, edition of Coast to Coast AM, (renamed for the night to Ghost to Ghost AM), Bell was asked why he was now using call-screeners. The explanation given was that for him to use un-screened open phone lines while in the Philippines would require listeners to call there directly at enormous cost to them. Art admitted that he should have chosen New Zealand instead of the Philippines as an alternative to the USA. He said, "It was a bad choice, and I'll regret it, one day, in the near future."

Bell has earned praise from those who declare that the paranormal deserves a mature outlet of discussion in the media as well as the approval of those simply amused by the nightly parade of bizarre, typically fringe topics. Ed Dames, Richard C. Hoagland, Terence McKenna, Dannion Brinkley, David John Oates, and Robert Bigelow were all regular guests. Some of Bell's regular guests continue to appear on Coast to Coast AM now hosted by George Noory.

Bell's own interests, however, extended beyond the paranormal. He interviewed singers Crystal Gayle, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Eric Burdon and Gordon Lightfoot, comedian George Carlin, writer Dean Koontz, hard science fiction writer Greg Bear, X-Files writer/creator Chris Carter, TV talk host Regis Philbin, Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy, actor Dan Aykroyd, former Luftwaffe pilot Bruno Stolle, actress Jane Seymour, actress Ellen Muth, actor and TV host Robert Stack, human rights lawyer John Loftus, legendary disc jockey Casey Kasem, UFC commentator Joe Rogan and frequent guests physicist Michio Kaku and SETI astronomers Seth Shostak and H. Paul Shuch.

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, but 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." Susan Wright reported, however, that Bell was also "one of the first to publicize expert opinions refuting the 'alien' companion" said to have been shadowing Hale-Bopp, 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.

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Death

Art Bell died April 13, 2018, at age 72 at his home in Pahrump, Nevada. An autopsy was scheduled for the following days to determine the cause of his death. He had suffered from health problems in the previous years. He posted on his website in July 2016 that he was hospitalized for pneumonia and revealed at the time that he suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

On August 1, 2018, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported the Clark County coroner's office findings. The coroner's office stated that Bell died of an accidental overdose from a cocktail of prescription drugs. The coroner's office determined he had four prescription medications in his system: the opioids oxycodone or Roxicet and hydrocodone or Vicodin, diazepam or Valium, and carisoprodol or Soma, a muscle-relaxant. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertension also contributed to his death.

George Noory, current host of Coast To Coast AM, announced Bell's death and while struggling to keep his composure stated, "Art and I were not that close. We had our differences, but he was one of those instrumental in me being where I am right now."

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Giorgio Moroder - Chase (live by Kebu @ Sthlm Italo Disco Party 2015)
12,171,708 views Jul 31, 2015

Kebu
242K subscribers

This tune is now available on Kebu's "Live in Oslo" album:
http://ZYXDance.lnk.to/LIYi6KIp

Still a few copies left of the Limited Twilight Edition of my new album "Urban Dreams":
http://kebu.bandcamp.com

The regular version of "Urban Dreams" is also available on other music platforms and stores:
https://zyxdance.lnk.to/UrbanDreams
...
Kebu's all-analog synth cover of Giorgio Moroder's The Chase, performed live at the Sthlm Italo Disco Party 2015 at Nalen, Stockholm, 16.5.2015.

Thanks to Jean-Paul Meulendijks, Alexander Guskov, Heidi Väisänen, Tuulikki Väisänen, and Renaud Guérin for operating the cameras!

The first minute is my own composition, "Prelude to Chase", that I composed as an intro to Chase. My arrangement of Chase is a mixture of both the original version and JAIA's Express Remix - with a few of my own additions thrown in.

The song was performed using only analog synthesizers, either played live or sequenced. The performance was recorded directly from the mixer to a stereo track and later mixed together with the ambience from the room. A few mistakes have been cut out and replaced with the audio from a rehearsal take.

Equipment used in this song: Logan String Melody II; MXR EVH117 flanger; Roland TR-808, Juno 60, Alpha Juno 1&2; Korg Polysix, Poly 61, Mono/Poly, Micro-preset M500; Moog Source; DSI Tetra; Jomox AirBase99; Touched-by-sound DRM1; Oberheim Matrix 1000; Marion Prosynth; Akai MPC2500 (only for MIDI sequencing), M-Audio Trigger Finger; Yamaha 01v96; Lexicon MPX500 & MPX550, as well as a midi patchbay and additional preamps for my mixer.

www:
https://kebu.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/kebunator
http://kebu.fi

Thu Apr 14, 2022: 2. I remember he sometimes played this one as bumper music