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Some Thoughts on Art Bell's Retirement By: Allegra Gellar on 10/21/2001; 6:10 PM All my life, Ive been an insomniac. I've always had the radio on, to keep me company through long, restless nights. From time to time, I would listen to talk radio, only to flip back to music programs after getting tired real quick of each host and their guests and stories and callers, who all ended up sounding the same, night after night. I discovered the Art Bell show one night, eight years ago, looking once again for something interesting to listen to. The show only got my attention, because the first show I listened to centered around UFO subject matter. I had been dating a man, for whom this area of intrigue held endless fascination. I listened in on several nights, hoping to remember where and at what time I'd found the show. I could then tell my boyfriend. Several years and countless shows later, my boyfriend and I were confirmed fans of the Art Bell show. I'm now married to someone who couldn't care less about UFOs, Gulf War syndrome, Ghosts, Exorcism, String theory, cattle mutilations, crop circles or remote viewing-but he is getting hooked on the show, too. My poor husband will not have the long range fun experience of hearing this unusual talk show for years, as I have, because in less than ten days from now, as of this writing, Art Bell will retire. Even though he has promised the forum will continue as always, I know I won't be the only one who will miss Bell's style. I won't miss guests like "Harlot", self-proclaimed Satanist, or the woman who insisted she had had relations with space lizard-men. I won't miss the "Alien in the Freezer" guy, the "Click Your Amygdala" person, or the first several shows Whitley Streiber hosted in Art's place, although he got much better later on. I will miss "Ghost to Ghost", a play on the title of Art's weekday show, Coast to Coast-Art used to set aside Halloween night only for people who wished to call in with their allegedly "true" ghost stories.it was like sitting around a virtual campfire and scaring the willies out of each other. Art obviously got into getting scared, often repeating particularly creepy parts of stories right before going to break- ("..He felt a COLD, NAKED FOOT under the couch, while feeling around for his toy truck? I would have been out of there!") I will miss "Truth or Trash", which is when Art would have people call in and first one caller would spin some yarn, or tell some allegedly true story, then other callers would vote whether the story was true or made up, then the tale teller would confess. Another fun thing would be when Art would set aside a particular line, only for people who professed to be vampires, the anti-Christ, time travelers, and employees of Area 51. Some of the most interesting calls came over those lines. Because Art Bell broadcasts his nightly, five-hour show from his house in Pahrunp, Nevada, he gives us glimpses of his personal life we wouldn't ordinarily have with any other radio talk show host. Bell's wife often calls out info to him from another room, when he can't think of the name of something or other. He has regaled us with the saga of comet, the cat he tamed, after finding it under his house when Hale-Bopp was overhead. He has complained about rabbits getting into his garden, and related the joys of spying on them with night vision goggles. One memorable night, he went off the air for awhile, then came back on, explaining that he had been having a new deck put on, and had forgotten that his old deck wasn't there anymore and had stepped outside, as was his habit during breaks, to have a cigarette, and walked right off the edge of his house and fell to the ground. During sadder times, he went off the air and returned hours later, explaining that his wife, Ramona, had experienced a life-threatening asthma attack and had to be taken to the emergency room. Five years ago, I could (and did) ask most people around me if they listened to the Art Bell Show, and hardly anyone would even have heard of him. I boycotted watching The X-files for years, because I was certain (and still am) that many of the ideas were lifted straight from Dreamland and Coast to Coast. Now, listener-ship of Art's weekend and weekday shows has grown to huge proportions, and along with increased visibility has come some odd media issues and attacks to his character. I do not wish to go in to this area, as there is more than adequate information available on the net and in the news, from varied sources. Who else will let Richard Hoaglund ramble on until he gets to his point? Who else will gracefully and politely let anyone avow an unpopular opinion or belief, and then offer his own viewpoint without attacking people personally? Who else will admit on the air, that there are certain enigmas he doesn't profess to know the answers to, and that's why he wants to hear every possible opinion, research results, or held belief (spirituality, and UFOs and anomalous contrails, to name a few)? Who else has as great a taste in bumper music? I'm going to miss Art Bell. His shows have provoked my imagination, and inspired me to seek out more information on the subjects that catch my interest.mArt Bell has been fun to listen to, just as a fellow human being who doesn't get much sleep at night, who would much rather sit up with a few hundred people on his virtual porch, and talk about scary and mysterious things. And sometimes just tell tall tales around the campfire and try to guess who's telling truth or trash. I would recommend finding and listening in to one of his final shows, before he retires, April 28, 2000. You won't know what you've missed.
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