R.I.P. Art Bell

[blogslut]

http://news3lv.com/news/local/radio-host-art-bell-dies-at-72-in-pahrump-home

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Radio host Arthur William Bell passed away Friday, April 13.

Arthur Bell, also known as Art Bell was the original owner of Pahrump based radio station KNYE 95.1 FM. And perhaps best known for his conspiracy theory in the paranormal, with his radio show "Coast to Coast" - which was syndicated across the nation.

The Nye County Sheriff's Office says Bell died at his home in Pahrump, Nevada.

Bell is scheduled for an autopsy later this week to determine the cause of death.

He was 72-years-old.

[NewsCenter28]

1. Sad

Loved him when he was on CNN on LKL in the 1990s!

[rawtribe]

2. So many sleepless nights. R.I.P.

[mr_lebowski]

3. He was in one of my all-time favorite video games "Prey" from 2006 (I think)

There's a reboot from last year which is also excellent but the earlier one was so great ... about this giant organic alien ship that basically went round the universe seeding 'life' so it could come back a billion years later and 'harvest' the organic life on the seeded planets for 'nutrition', which sustained the ship itself and it's alien life onboard.

Anyways, as your character walked around this space ship after being 'sucked up', while the alien ship was orbiting earth, various terminals onboard would feature blurbs of radio broadcasts of Bell doing interviews with people on Earth like on his real show ... but they're seeing all kinds of weird shit that the aliens were doing to the planet ... and he played it so perfect, just like his show.

RIP Art ...

[Mike Nelson]

4. I used to...

...listen to his radio show. There were all kinds of wild things said... haven't seen any evidence any of it was true. I wonder if he believed it all? Or, was Art Bell just a businessman, doing a job for a market?

[Mariana]

9. All these radio show hosts are performers.

Anyway, I used to listen to Bell's show a lot. Art Bell would sometimes have real scientists on his show, and they would discuss real science. Bell's tone seemed quite different when he was interviewing real scientists, and I don't think that was my imagination. I think he had a level of respect for them and their work that he didn't have for most of the others. As for the wild stories, I think Bell enjoyed a good yarn as much as anyone else, and they were certainly entertaining. I never got the sense he really believed most of them.

[RhodeIslandOne]

12. He was a guy telling campfire tales....

....unfortunately there are too many morons who can’t handle a little fairy dust and end up pushing it as fact.

[DangerousRhythm]

5. R.I.P.

[cbdo2007]

6. RIP Art. I've missed you on the radio the past decade or so...

As you opened my eyes to many wonders of life and the universe. I hope you discover all the answers in the afterlife.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Off to the greatest

Long time listener and hated when Noory would fill in.

R.I.P.

[TheRealNorth]

8. I have wondered

Last edited Sat Apr 14, 2018, 11:18 PM - Edit history (1)

whether shows like his give rise to people like Alex Jones.

Art said he was a Libertarian, but when I listened to him he mostly kept apolitical. However, I feel like he created the opening that Alex Jones filled with his politically-charged conspiracy theories.

[JHB]

15. I don't. Jones is (or started off as) a mix between Bell and Wingnut...

..."stabbed in the back" cults that grew up after Vietnam, which made a virtue of unbridled never-ending hatred of hippies, Dan Rather, John Kerry, Jane Fonda, etc., and believed with all their might that Vietnam still had American POWs in bamboo cages.

Plus evangelicals already acclimated to nonsense like "KISS (the band) stands for Knights In Service of Satan" or the Proctor & Gamble moon logo was a Satanic symbol.

There were other factors, and bigger ones, but yes, Bell helped popularize a certain dissociation from reality that's made Jones' career possible.

[HipChick]

10. Of course he died Fri April 13th...

[Kingofalldems]

11. Phil Hendrie on Art Bell:

Link to tweet

[UTUSN]

13. Holy Zeus on plural levels: 1- Died on Fri the 13th; 2- He was (only) 72! *I'm* 71!1

The Fri/13th gave me the first thought it was a spoof. I picked up on him late in his game, but he was attention grabbing all right: First, he scared the shit out of me with some of his performances. Then he shocked the shit out of me with some of his escapades, the death of his (first?) wife then marrying a young woman and moving to the Philippines, and quitting and coming back a time or two, then the weird stories about being threatened (or something). Gave me an uncomfortable feeling, not that my approval is called for, but the voice and showmanship!1

[cbdo2007]

18. Yeah I remember the weird time his son was threatened...

Or something, by Men In Black I think,and he went off the air abruptly for a few years after that. He insinuated of course that he got too close to the truth.

[Liberal In Texas]

14. RIP Art

The end of another chapter of my past.
How I remember sitting in the dark listening to his distinctive voice.
I don't think he was very well the last few years, I remember seeing a pic of him in a hospital bed on one of his websites awhile back.
I was a real fan back in the day, even though in the light of day you had to take his callers and guests with a whole shaker of salt.
You were one of kind Art.

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[Archae]

16. Recently he sued Michael Savage for slander.

Savage said Art Bell had gone to Thailand for a child bride.

Bell's wife is Filipino, and of legal age.

Savage ended up settling out of court.

[jeffreyi]

17. Remember the roses

Dipped in Real Gold? You could have your own!
And the son was involved in some true life wierdness. As was the dad. At least he was decent to Terence McKenna. Before Coast to Coast he was on some Las Vegas 50k watt station and had a right wing political talk show. Used to be the only thing our rural area could receive at night, besides KGO and Ray Taliaferro.