Art Bell ... The Good, The Bad & The Ugly ...

The Good:

I first started listening to Art Bell around 1994. I was still living in Eagle River and Anchorage, Alaska and I was either working night shifts for an outfit called Carr's Grocery Store or working in Security at the Anchorage Power Company, or both. When you spend years working nights and it becomes the norm, you start looking for something to pass the time with in the darker hours of the day. Art Bell on AM Radio was that person for a lot of other nightowls like myself. For any person that has ever done time working nights, it's very likely they tuned into Art Bell. If this is your life now, you're likely familiar with his toners-almost-dry facsimiled successor, George Noory, who isn't really THAT interesting. I worked almost non-stop nights between seventeen and thirty-three, and for several years I thought that would be my entire life. Thankfully, it wasn't.Art Bell spoke a lot about what was called “Alternative Information Sets” in those days and what was really shocking about a lot of his show was that he very often pre-empted the Mainstream News with breaking stories by two or three days and sometimes even a few months. He would talk about disasters and even spoke about 9-11, before it happened. Yes, he talked a lot about UFO's, but he was living out in Pahrump, Nevada right next door to the infamous Government Black Site Area 51. That fact alone "Coming from the High Desert" gave him just enough credibility to be really interesting, at least for three hours in the middle of the night.

If you listened to his show, when things occurred, you very often had an understanding or an education about it because he wasn't always bringing on kooks and weirdos like his replacement George Noory who likely killed the format for most rational people. George Noory was probably the guy who made working nightshift for a lot of people unbearable, lol. For many years, Art Bell put out a quality show and it's a rare gem to find a show willing to tackle a broad range of topics and present you with a three hour 'deep dive' into whatever that subject was. From Nuclear Science, to Cosmology, Motion Picture History, Air Force Generals discussing weather research to ... yes, UFO's, Aliens, Alien Abductions (which has all but faded away apparently) to basic things like unbiased news coverage, Historical Presidential Politics, music and so on.I have a few harddrives in one of my bottom drawers which were used as online servers that I ran over MIRC for several years. MIRC was once the very beginning of the Internet, as some might remember. On those drives, I probably have five or six years of show archives that had been shared to the drive as well as most of his “greatest shows.” He was interviewing people like Terrance McKenna long before he was mainstream, Michio Kaku when he had first started publishing and even Stephen King. Art Bell's shows are honestly compelling to listen to. Their like live-moving books-on-tape.Art Bell was also the beginning format for people like Alex Jones, except Bell wasn't making millions selling lies and bogus supplements to a fully duped audience. He was often pitching his own books, mostly 'The Quickening' as well as materials from MUFON and survival gear like battery-less wind up radios, wind-up flashlights, camping radios and the like. During his time, his show was very thoughtful and very thought provoking.

The Bad:
For me, however, things took a dark turn and I lost interest after the death of his third wife Ramona. Art talked often about her asthma, her constant need for medicine, inhalers, breathing treatments, their many cats and so on.Long story short, he comes on one night and tells the story about how 'the night before' his wife Ramona had passed away in the most unconvincing and awkward three hours of his entire career. It sounded to me like he was fully trying to broadcast an alibi.“Ramona needed constant breathing treatments and inhalers and we decided to go for a long drive out into the middle of the desert to watch the night sky. We had taken our cats along for the ride, something we usually don't do and which she complained about, but I didn't see no harm in. Later in the night she began having difficulties breathing and it was only then I remembered that I had forgotten to grab her large bag that had the nebulizer, her inhalers and pills in. Everything got left behind. It was an honest mistake. She was wheezing horribly and starting to suffocate, so in a panic I ran outside of the RV to see if there was anyone near us at all, when the door to the RV closed behind me and jammed shut. I couldn't get back in and I was beating on the door trying to get it open. (Sobbing).”This was the paraphrased story he told on air about that – literally the night after it happened. That story alone should've found him face to face with the law, but that never occurred. No, everything went on as normal. I continued to listen on out of habit working nights … and then lo and behold … about a month later … he comes on and explains how “Once again, in this old man's life I have found love!”Fast forward. The girl was 22 years old and he had met her during a previous trip to the Philippines with his long-time wife Ramona. This girl was a family friend. Later he admits on air that he had long talks and a relationship with this girl while Ramona was still alive but that it was innocent and she was intelligent and so on and so forth. They're quickly married, she's in the US and you know the rest.

That was the moment I stopped listening for good as it was so cringe-inducing and sickening that I couldn't take part as a listener any longer.

The Ugly:
For better or for worse, and even as compelling as Art Bell was, he was the precursor to this Conspiracy Laden and fringe fictional Information Set which took over the country and invaded and usurped our once-functional government. Jones and his brand of stupidity isn't a singular thing as there are many copy-cats doing the same thing and happy to take his place, when and if he vacates. Art often spoke about Carl Sagan's quote: “The greatest threat to humanity isn't science, but psuedo-science,” which is what all that garbage is. He knew it, the listeners knew it, but before Ramona died, he was cognizant of it and maintained that line. Afterwards, yeah not at all. Sagan was correct and the low-information voter took over and AM talk radio became mainstream with the help of people like Alex Jones, Rush and Fox News.

Art Bell's “Coming to you from the High Desert ...[Insert: Lightning Strike Sound] [Queue Maxine Nightingale's song: Right Back Where We Started From]” will always be stuck in my head like an earworm and unforgettable. For better or for worse.

Adios, Pal.