Art Bell admits he faked famous radio incidents(?)

[TankAbbott]

From an Art Bell Fan Page on Facebook:

Quoting Anonymous:

"So this is pretty interesting and its buzzing around some of the Art Bell/C2C forums. I heard about it in one of my top secret Art show trading groups. But, recently, Art, and some of his HAM radio buddy's admitted that some of the more famous callers on the show, such as JC Webster, The Area 51 caller, Mel Waters, pretty much all the strange recurring callers you can name, were Arts ham radio friends and they would plan out the calls and characters before hand. Some people seem up in arms about it, but it does not bother me much, as I always thought a lot of those callers were kind of staged anyways."

 

[Guestx]

Boy, let me tell you, I used to listen the shit out of Coast to Coast. I first found the show soon after Noory took over as the regular host, but Art was still hosting every Sunday, if I remember correctly.

It's a shame how that show went downhill. Noory ended up kind of sucking, Art left, and then Punnet left, and all their replacements we're pretty shitty. The only good host that was (is?) left was George Knapp, who is a legit bad ass.

Regarding this news, it's interesting. Of course an online anonymous source doesn't mean shit--it is completely worthless in terms of being proof anything--but if this is in fact true then I admit I am disappointed. I would've expected Art to have more integrity than that.

JC could perhaps be excused, as he was an obvious gimmick caller anyway, but not Mel's Hole. Art always approached that one as a legitimate, serious subject.

 

[TheRuthlessOne]

John Titor told me Art Bell is legit

 

[bortt]

It's forgivable as far as I'm concerned, and no surprise at all. Those recurring guests were a lot of fun, but every time they came back for a follow-up show, their stories just got wilder and less believable. The way they unfolded over time it quickly became clear they were contrived. But Art had a wonderful variation of guests. Some were legit, some not, but nearly all were entertaining. Art had style, and sadly, there will never be another quite like him.

 

[bortt]

George "Snoory" is a good guy, but he really makes the show uninteresting. He's inattentive, unprepared for discussing most topics, asks dumb questions constantly which often derail the conversation, and never challenges the outrageous claims of his guests. Agreed on Knapp though, his shows are usually the only ones I tune in for these days.

 

[PlayswellwithLawnDarts]

You mean Owl man wasn’t real!
Bullshit!

 

[Guestx]

George "Snoory" is a good guy, but he really makes the show uninteresting. He's inattentive, unprepared for discussing most topics, asks dumb questions constantly which often derail the conversation, and never challenges the outrageous claims of his guests. Agreed on Knapp though, his shows are usually the only ones I tune in for these days.

Inattentive is right. That's the problem with George: He always seems bored to shit and seems to be running on autopilot most of the time.

 

[mb23100]

I still listen to old school Art Bell C2C while I fall asleep every night. Mostly Lear and Lazar stuff though

 

[bortt]

Inattentive is right. That's the problem with George: He always seems bored to shit and seems to be running on autopilot most of the time.

George will ask a question immediately after his guest just got through giving the answer to it. And he does this all the time! At this point it's almost as funny as it is irritating. I've come to expect no less from him. Hell, we could fill up this thread talking about Noory...

 

[Guestx]

George will ask a question immediately after his guest just got through giving the answer to it. And he does this all the time! At this point it's almost as funny as it is irritating. I've come to expect no less from him. Or the way he always tries to say "nuke-lee-ar" instead of "nuke-you-lar" but always ends up fucking it up. Hell, we could fill up this thread talking about Noory...

That's funny. The thing is, I really liked Noory at first. I thought he was a good host. And shit, maybe he really was better in his early years and it's not just my imagination.

But these days, yeah, he just doesn't seemed engaged. It's obvious sometimes that he's totally zoned out and when he's doing better he still gives these canned, robotic responses to shit.

Art pretty much ALWAYS seemed locked into the conversation and he was very natural on the mic.

 

[therealdope]

John Titor told me Art Bell is legit

LOL.

Many years ago someone I know tried selling me on this John Titor bullshit as if it was a pitch for a pyramid scheme. He sent me pics of a time machine and "proof" that it was all legit. So the pic has this green laser pen light and supposedly the light is bending because of the time machine. Honestly, it just looked like an optical fiber/diffuser that was curved with the laser pointer shooting into the fiber --- but never mind that. I tried to explain to the person just how much mass/gravity would have to be present to curve the path of photons, it would be like standing next to a massive black hole. But never mind that minor fact as well --- how come everything else in the picture isn't distorted? I mean the green laser light is being bent but all of the other photons travel in a straight path? Hmmm - that ain't happening.

So what does "I want to believe guy" respond with? "Well that proves that the time machine is real!! ".

@JSN

 

[ralphc1]

I often told people that many of the callers were scams that Art was likely involved in and others were just crazy people calling in. It was comical to find out what people believed. Lots of good laughs from that show when I plowed snow at night.

 

[JSN]

I’ve been catching up on Sword and Scale and the first ep I listened to was about that Heaven’s Gate cult. They played an extended piece of a Coast to Coast show and it is enjoyable in a really stupid way

 

[lts5025]

I used to listen to Coast to Coast when I worked graveyard shift. I always found it enjoyably creepy and goofy. I never figured we were meant to take it seriously. I thought it was akin to War of the Worlds.

 

[ralphc1]

I used to listen to Coast to Coast when I worked graveyard shift. I always found it enjoyably creepy and goofy. I never figured we were meant to take it seriously. I thought it was akin to War of the Worlds.

Unfortunately there are many who believed and still do.

 

[peytonlucy]

I worked late for many years and discovered Art Bell. I am skeptically about most everything but enjoyed the show, especially during my 30 minute commute home. I certainly HOPE that many of the calls were staged.

 

[artismyweapon]

That area 51 call is still creepy. The guy even called in a week later, I was bummed out for some reason! The great thing about Art Bell was he would suspend disbelief for his guests and callers (time travelers, werewolves etc.) So they could say their piece. My number one radio show of all time.

 

[aus101]

George will ask a question immediately after his guest just got through giving the answer to it. And he does this all the time! At this point it's almost as funny as it is irritating. I've come to expect no less from him. Then there's the way he always tries to say "nuke-lee-ar" instead of "nuke-you-lar" but always ends up fucking it up. Hell, we could fill up this thread talking about Noory...

I thought the two pronunciations for nuclear were the British new-cle-ah or American “nuke-cle-ergh (with brits saying “ah” not “ergh for the ar part at the end of the word whilst Americans rhyme it with ergh like how chingy pronounced thur for there in “right thurr”.

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

Art flat out said his show was for entertainment period. Although he did play it pretty straight prior to getting blamed for the death of the Heaven's Gate cult.

It's very similar to a lot of these political opinion radio shows parading as news when it's really just entertainment/commentary. There's a fine line.

 

[therealdope]

In 'murrican it's: "nu-ca-lurr".

We had a CEO of a $17B division who thought it was great idea to try to sound more folksy by saying "nu-ca-lurr". Fucking retard.