Late night talk radio innovator Art Bell has died at the age of 72. He passed away in his sleep, at home in Pahrump, Nevada on Friday, April 13.
For the night owls, insomniacs, late-shift and early-morning workers, Bell was a comforting voice crackling through the AM airwaves on his shows “Coast to Coast AM” and “Dreamland” from the late 80s until 2007, when he left broadcast radio. He was known for lending an open mic and an open ear to all forms of beliefs and experiences lying outside the mainstream, from alien abductions and near-death experiences, to conspiracy theories and pirate radio. Guests and callers alike could expect a respectful reception from Bell, who yet managed to balance his receptivity with a mild skepticism, sometimes signaled only with a drawn out “Ummmm hmmmmm.”
In many ways Bell popularized and nationalized a form of freeform radio that had been in existence for at least a couple of decades prior. It’s actually not a far leap from Bob Fass’ “Radio Unameable” show, airing on New York community radio station WBAI since 1963, to “Coast to Coast AM.” Sure, Fass’ program has always been more distinctly political, strongly aligned with the counter-culture, giving airtime to Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies and broadcasting live from the 1968 DNC in Chicago. But Bell was not allergic to politics. Though it tended to be embedded in a foundation of a cynical sort of libertarianism, wary of government conspiracies and cover-ups, rather than forthrightly oppositional, left-wing or anti-capitalist.
Yet, “Radio Unnameable” is just one of the most well-known examples of late-night call-in radio born in the 60s, that then found a home on community and college radio stations when the taming of FM corporate rock radio exterminated freeform from the commercial airwaves. Talk of conspiracies, fringe health practices and even aliens have nearly always had a home on community radio, especially in the hours when management and other staffers aren’t listening, and may barely care about what’s being broadcast, especially since the FCC’s “safe harbor” rules pretty much eliminate the risk of fines for accidentally (or purposely) airing a profane caller’s rant.
For instance, last year my colleague Matthew Lasar recalled Mae Brussell, who held forth on shows like “Dialogue Conspiracy” on community stations in California during the 1970s and 80s. And that’s just one particularly durable example. Certainly many overnight conspiracy call-ins have come and gone, leaving nary a trace.
Yet Bell, himself, was always careful to maintain the role of moderator more than an evangelist for conspiracy theories, even though his choice of guests and repartee with listeners revealed his sympathies. Perhaps he was at least a little aware that his national prominence and job security might rely on such balance. He couldn’t rely on the bigger national advertisers that his daytime counterparts like Rush Limbaugh had, giving them significantly greater revenue leverage when their more indiscreet partisan (and worse) ravings triggered public blowback.
By the late 90s “Coast to Coast” could be heard just about anywhere in the U.S., on hundreds of stations. One taking a late-night road trip across the country could easily stay tuned in to the show just by hitting the seek button every couple of hundred miles. Of course, this was thanks to the industry consolidation wrought by the Telecom Act of 1996, and the fact that airing his show was likely the most economically viable choice for many AM stations.
It should be noted that “Coast to Coast” was (and is) distributed by Premiere Radio Networks, the nation’s largest radio syndicator, owned by the nation’s largest radio owner, iHeartMedia, formerly Clear Channel. It’s likely that “Coast to Coast” replaced dozens of local talk shows, as stations got bought, budgets got cut, and airing a satellite feed became cheaper than having a live human in the studio. While living in Central Illinois I can remember when Chicago’s clear channel WLS-AM dropped the locally produced Nate Clay show from weeknights in favor of “Coast to Coast,” sometime in the early 2000s.
Still, when the receivable late night alternatives often were limited to right-wing garbage, endless sports talk, tightly-playlisted automated music and easy listening, listening to Bell could be an entertaining relief. You didn’t have to believe in order to find interest, and not everything on the show was unbelievable. I enjoyed listening to him interview folks like Merle Haggard, physicists Michio Kaku and pirate radio expert Andrew Yoder.
Because of his willingness to give airtime to all manner of conspiratorial thinking, pseudoscience and fringe views, some might draw a line from Bell’s work to the post-truth, “fake news,” conspiracy-mongering broadcasters and internet media outlets of today. But I think it’s unfair to target him with much individual blame. He was never a fire-breathing partisan, and he didn’t invent this form of open-minded call-in radio so much as refine it and popularize it.
I think his friend and fellow broadcaster Whitley Strieber clearly identifies in his own remembrance what was unique about Bell:
“He was more a listener than a talker by nature, and he had a very open mind. It wasn’t that he would believe anything, but rather that he wouldn’t disbelieve things simply because they violated consensus reality.”
I’m not here to defend Art Bell, nor is his work and legacy immune from criticism. He certainly made some of his living selling an unknown fortune in MREs, gold and other survivalist accoutrements to paranoid listeners preparing for the meltdown of global order. Not every idea he gave platform to was benign or harmless. But I think that even if he had never taken to the airwaves, politically we’d still be where we are today.
Radio, however, wouldn’t be the same. And for a good two decades, syndicated corporate talk radio would never have been as colorful or entertaining.
Although “Coast to Coast” has continued on with replacement host George Noory, Bell acolytes would contend it’s a pale imitation of the original. I agree with that sentiment.
For better or worse, Bell didn’t leave behind a school of broadcasters following in his footsteps.
To learn more about Bell’s life, career and influence I recommend The Washington Post’s obituary as the best I’ve read so far.
