If you don’t already follow and subscribe to the Why Files, you really should. A new video put out by the channel this weekend is showcasing some cool old Art Bell Coast to Coast AM phone calls and adding some context and some more fun to them for a new generation!
The alien in the freezer.. the Mohave phone booth.. and the famous Area 51 call to Art when the show’s transmission was cut ..
The video submitted for your enjoyment:
From Alex’s description:
On The Air: The Silenced Caller, The Mojave Phone Booth and The Alien In The Freezer Gather round for three campfire stories from the golden era of late-night radio, when Art Bell kept the lights on for millions of people who couldn’t sleep and couldn’t stop listening.
A psychologist in the Cascade Mountains encounters something in the woods—and brings it home. A frantic caller reaches Art Bell with a warning, and the satellite goes dark before he can finish.
A phone booth stands alone in the Mojave Desert for decades, and the calls that come through aren’t always from strangers. These aren’t ghost stories passed around a fire.
They’re documented, recorded, and still unresolved. Pull up a chair. The night is long, and some questions don’t have clean answers.
The passage of time is strange and painful. Art Bell died in April 2018.. it’s already been years. For those of us who cherished his voice in the dark, it still hurts not having those late-night updates about the “AB’s”—as he used to call them. The silence left in his absence has been deafening.
But tonight, there’s actually a flicker of Art Bell news—and it’s something truly special for long time fans.
The new but old info will bring pages back online under the current Art Bell Legacy website run by Rowland. For longtime fans, this will be like cracking open a time capsule buried deep in the digital sands of the late ’90s and early 2000s.
Fans of the radio host George Noory may have noticed some changes in recent years. Listeners of Coast to Coast AM, many of whom have tuned in faithfully for decades, are well aware that Noory is now well into his 70s.
He has officially hosted the show for 23 years after Art Bell’s retirement *one of them* .. though there were brief periods where other hosts– such as Art Bell as well—took the reins on weekends. Other familiar voices, like the late Ian Punnett and great George Knapp, who still occasionally fills in, have also contributed to the show over the years.
Other newer hosts include Richard Syrett, Rich Berra, Lisa Garr, and Connie Willis.
However, lately, Noory’s voice has noticeably aged. His style has also become slower–you can hear and feel it as you listen. The show is filled with mostly ads that take up the hour, and product placement voice spots between breaks that seemingly are taking over the show.
Niche fans and critics have long debated Noory’s role on Coast to Coast AM, with some arguing he never quite matched the presence or talent of Art Bell. Bell, after all, set a nearly impossible standard to follow. Despite this, Noory has shown remarkable staying power, defying predictions that he would be canceled or replaced by Premiere Radio Networks. Yet, as time passes, some fans have become less inclined to tune in nightly, and Noory’s shaky voice has become harder to ignore.
After listening to the show a show this week, there’s a distinct change in George Noory’s delivery. Words often blur together, sentences lack clarity, and his voice no longer carries the strength it once did. Noory’s broadcasting from St. Louis, rather than Los Angeles, due to the fires in California, but even this shift doesn’t fully explain the noticeable decline. It almost feels as though he’s phoning in the show—and forgetting he’s made the call.
It’s difficult to listen to, and despite past criticisms, it’s sad to hearing the declining vitality of a host who has been the cornerstone of the program for so long. This raises a significant question: What happens when Noory can no longer host the show?
Premiere Radio Networks has seemingly tested potential successors over the years, but none have truly resonated with audiences. At one point, deep-voiced John B. Wells gained traction in the early 2010s, but his tenure was short-lived for reasons never specified publicly by Coast.
As Coast to Coast AM faces this uncertain future, Premiere will soon need to decide how to preserve the show’s legacy.
Art Bell, who passed away in 2018, remains a legendary figure among fans, and his old broadcasts from the 1990s and early 2000s continue to attract a younger audience discovering his work for the first time. Yet, with the current state of the program and the inevitable decline of Noory’s tenure, Coast to Coast AM finds itself at a crossroads.
A decision will have to be made to ensure the dynasty continues, or the show may face an uncertain and diminished future.
Art Bell was an iconic figure in the realm of paranormal and unexplained phenomena broadcasting. His deep, resonant voice and open-minded approach to the mysteries of the night made his show, ‘Coast to Coast AM,’ a beacon for those seeking to explore the unknown. Bell’s legacy continues to influence the world of paranormal media, inspiring countless individuals to look beyond the veil of ordinary reality. This article pays homage to the man who captivated the airwaves with tales of the strange and supernatural, inviting us to ponder the endless possibilities that exist just beyond the edge of our understanding.
All that was good..
But the images presented showcasing the Coast to Coast AM host were .. questionable.
AI at its finest–or worst..
As the story opens, the image used showcases Art to be in a Stephen Hawking-like position overlooking the planet from space..
But it gets weirder..
Meet Art as a strange elderly mall cop … we’ve all seen this guy at the local dive bar at 1am..
And if you don’t like that, why not trying to buy a car from this version, he’ll take good care of you and get you into something nice..
Grandpa Art is coming over later with his hard candies..
And finally.. the closest we get to something that sorta somewhat looks like Art Bell showcases Art hotwiring his radio sound board like he’s stealing it, and his broken middle finger on the right hand makes it look like things went horribly wrong.
AI when used properly can be fine. AI when used like this–when there are tons of real images of people–get weird. And these? These were even weirder than Art’s show itself..
If Art Bell was alive today he would absolutely love the idea of artificial intelligence creating artwork. It deserves a lot of attention and a lot of questions as well.
What is this art? Why is it so dark? We may explore more about this ..
In the meantime enjoy what Coast to Coast a.m.’s website showcased: a listener to the program asked AI to come up with what it perceived Art Bell as being ..
A Coast listener going back nearly 25 years, James writes, “What I have found is AI art can be very realistic…to prophetic…to simply creepy. I feel the spirit of Art coming through in some of these AI-prompted creations.” “The AI images I create are done through the AI program Midjourney. To create an image, you need to input a prompt into the AI. This can be as simple as, “Create an image of a wolf”…or, you can get more complicated and give the AI exact details such as; style, influence, lens/camera used, rendering style etc.”
Perhaps our favorite image of all from the collection presented:
During the Facebook live, Schrader mentioned that his longtime friend Tim Dennis and he are not as friendly as they once were. Well they have a professional relationship and Dennis will be taking over the hosting duties on the radio program, Schrader said he is stepping back from it at this point.
Schrader left open the door for a potential podcasting or radio hosting in the future. It also seems that he is amped up to continue his work in the paranormal world in some way..
There is one thing that Schrader has bragging rights to. He has been with Darkness Radio for 16 years, but beyond that he is the only radio host to have this under his belt: Art Bell and Schrader are the only two people to be able to say that they hosted both Coast to Coast AM and Midnight in the Desert!
As for the future, it seems that it’s all just always developing..
Whitley Strieber was first to talk about the COMING GLOBAL SUPERSTORM, but then freaky Christmastime ghosts took over afterwards for the duration of the show .. Brendan Cook and Barbara McBeth shared their EVP recordings..
Cook and McBeth were guests so often–but for some reason this exact show sticks out in my memory..
I recall that night I was listening to it, the Christmas season after 9/11.. we were all freaked out by the mass death that occurred just months prior. Twenty years later the mass death of a virus has far exceed that which occurred in 2001…
Also I think–just a fading memory–that I listened to this Art Bell show partially on the car radio coming home from a bar or bowling that night and finishing up at home …
And I recall listening until the sun came up…
20 years ago. So many years ago, but seemingly like just yesterday.
One of the most amazing parts about Art airing the ghost EVPs is that they were credible –at least on his show– and his reactions were just as all of ours would have been. What were these voices in the night, in the darkness. Did these strange voices mean anything? Were they from beyond.. are they stuck here? Art seemed to get so freaked out during these EVP sessions. 20 years later as we listen here at Horror Report central, we are confronted with the same chills that we had that very night December 2001…
On a personal note, so much changes in 20 years. My mom, now deceased for only weeks, was alive then. We were preparing for Christmas with family that were young and now old, and those who exist now did not then. Our national crisis of 9/11 then is a global pandemic of COVID in ’21..
Twas the best of times. And the worst of times.
And Art Bell listening to a child’s EVP saying “stay with me” in the darkness of the night is as scary in 2021 as it was in 2001..
Almost a year since the famed radio talk show host died of a drug overdose on Friday the 13th, a bench –a bench– will soon be dedicated in his honor in Pahrump Nevada.. But thanks to events on social media online, it’s not without controversy…
‘On The Fringe Friends of Heather Wade FaceBook Group’, which is now known as Paranormal Pandemonium received approval from Nye County to have a bench erected in Calvada Eye Park.
The bench would have a bronze plaque attached to it, with a picture of Art Bell, and his popular catch phrase, “Wanna Take A Ride?”
What is the controversy over an obscure park bench, you ponder?
Bell fans on both sides reacting, was at the bottom of the plaque where it referenced the Facebook group’s name, which included Bell’s successor, Heather Wade’s name.
As plans for Bell’s memorial bench circulated within the late-night, UFO, and paranormal community, other Art Bell fans, who have not been pleased with, nor supportive of the manner in which his Midnight In The Desert Radio Show was handled after he died, felt the names on the plaque would dishonor Bell’s memory, and most of all, upset his widow and their children. Contacts were made to the Nye County Licensing Department, acknowledging procedures which had been followed by the FaceBook group, and subsequent approval of their request to have the bench erected. When asked if approval for erecting Mr Bell’s memorial bench had been rescinded in any way, the response was negative. A person from Nye County who could speak on this subject stated to the SOR News Wire, ”Approval has not been rescinded; however, I have contacted a close family friend, and the family themselves, in an effort to make sure their wishes are respected. The County will not place a memorial with any one group named as a contributor (aside from itself).” Nye County is hoping to have the bench erected with an approved plaque by the first anniversary of Art Bell’s death. But it appears the Heather Wade FaceBook group’s name will not be placed on the plaque as a contributor. The county believes the bench will be a fitting memorial for their world wide celebrity who impacted late night radio into millions of fans and listeners.
And now almost a year since Bell passed away, his protege has vanished as well…
Art Bell calmly prided himself as a voice within the darkness of the night to be mysterious and reassuring.. Nothing since his untimely passing has been anything but…
