The empire strikes back! Revenge of the 20th century
And to think… you thought terrestrial radio was dead..
Maybe not after all?
THE SAN ANTONIO PRESS noted, “iHEARTMEDIA INC. earned $106.04 million in the fourth quarter, breaking a string of 27 consecutive quarterly losses,” adding “debt-laden iHEARTMEDIA lost $93.3 million during the same period in 2015.”
Talk stream Live has released its ‘power 50’ list of the most influential and listened to streaming talk shows … A few notables: Michael Savage edged out Rush.. Alex Jones is in the top ten.. Clyde Lewis in the top 20.. And the newest addition: Heather Wade from MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT, makes the cut..
The list:
1 Michael Savage
2 Rush Limbaugh
3 Laura Ingraham
4 Sean Hannity
5 Mark Levin
6 Glenn Beck
7 Hugh Hewitt
8 Alex Jones
9 Howie Carr
10 George Noory
11 Tammy Bruce
12 Mike Gallagher
13 Dennis Prager
14 Herman Cain
15 Red Eye Radio
16 John Batchelor
17 Clyde Lewis
18 IMUS
19 The Dana Show
20 Chris Plante
21 Michael Medved
22 Larry Kudlow
23 Larry Elder
24 The Power Hour
25 Jeff Kuhner
26 Bill Cunningham
27 Lars Larson
28 Steve Deace
29 Jimmy Church
30 Jesse Lee Peterson
31 Kim Komando
32 America’s Morning News
33 Joe Pags
34 Bob Brinker
35 Dave Ramsey
36 Brian Sussman
37 Phil Valentine
38 Heather Wade
39 Texas Overnight
40 Aaron Klein
41 Joe Piscopo
42 Agenda 21 Radio
43 Brian Kilmeade
44 Leo Laporte
45 Jim Bohannon
46 Dr. Michio Kaku
47 Clark Howard
48 Armstrong & Getty
49 Robert Scott Bell
50 Mark Davis
Wade took over for Art Bell when he abruptly left his program in 2015. Throughout ’16 she worked to keep an audience and build a new one..
Art Bell went on Facebook hours ago to congratulate Wade, commenting this,
A really big congrats to Heather Wade who just made the big list! If you have not heard her program in a long time you will be shocked at how good she has become!
One of the best paranormal radio talkshow hosts has ended his show abruptly and iHeartRadio has ended the relationship with him and his cohost.
Dave Schrader announced late today that the show Darkness Radio has ceased to exist. A new podcast will be available five nights a week, on podcast1.com. The show will be free and archives will exist for 90 days. After the 90 day period, payment will have to be rendered to get all programs.
Schrader said during his Facebook live broadcast late today, “download them all” so you won’t have to pay later.
This also will mean that since Schrader will no longer be an employee of iHeartRadio, his frequent appearances as the guest host of Coast to Coast a.m. will undoubtedly also end.
A fan favorite from his program called true crime Tuesday will not be going with him to the new show. It’s likely that I heart iHeartRadio has maintained ownership over that specific content..
The new program will be called Beyond the Darkness.
Connie Willis has fast become one of my favorite radio hosts over the past few months.. While sometimes she goes a little too hardcore into the Bigfoot topic, she actually holds my interest. What I love about her hosting Coast is that she seems to have an endless amount of fun being on national radio ..
Her topics tonight, my likely given to her by the Premiere Radio network:
Founder and Director of the Trends Research Institute, Gerald Celente, joins Connie Willis to talk about what he sees on the horizon for the United States. He’ll address the looming presidential election, as well as major trends right now including baby boomers re-defining aging in a good way, moving from the digital age to the robotic age, and how everything from fashion to politics is undergoing major upheaval
It would appear that Celente is the only guest this evening.. Four hours of his voice may be difficult to endure..
A Facebook war erupted tonight between radio legend Clyde Lewis and Facebook trolls who seemingly invaded his page to insult his presence..
The GROUND ZERO host, who often gets into tussles with fans and foes on his Facebook page, got particularity cutting tonight after a few nastygram comments were sent his way..
You’re so full of shit. No wonder siriusxm dropped your crap show.
Clyde Lewis responded in kind:
Jesus you are just as ugly as Hillary — My computer crashed when I went to your face book page and trains took dirt roads. I see you eat what you tell me I’m full of I hear trolls eat a lot of it — right Mr. Shrek?
And more
Oh and my career isn’t failing — 300 stations and growing — I don’t need to hunt bigfoot when I can rent you out for children’s parties.. I’ll gladly chip in the unicycle red nose and floppy shoes — and balloon animals — can you twist an object shaped like a sausage — ???
Howard all of our shows got dropped because of Art Bell.. you got dropped because your mother couldn’t drill three holes in your head.
After several more rebounds from the Facebook trolling, Lewis said,
Speaking of which your put downs smell as bad as a bucket of buttholes
One user commented,
Another commenter mentioned that Lewis could “take lessons from the archives of Art Bell…”
Another quick response from Lewis joked,
“But that would mean I would have to resign every 6 months”
A few days ago, Art Bell announced the he was joining with Nexus to provide up to 4,000 stations the ability to ‘flip the switch’ and broadcast MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT to whatever program directors decide to pick up the show..
New Stations for MITD: First come first served: Starting in Dec KFMB SanDiego/La Starting early October: KFRH Fm 100KW Las Vegas 104.3 KBET 790 AM Las Vegas KTKN 930AM Ketchikan, AK KLZ 560 AM Denver, CO 5KW WDCD 1540 Albany, NY 50KW And so it begins, this is how we take back the night. Please call your local station and request MITD but make sure it is not the station that carries that other show but instead the competition.
And this tonight came from Bell on the same forum:
The Stations are coming fast now but I will not post them till we have signed agreements. It is because of what you all are doing in calling and asking them to pick up the show, please continue, IT WORKS. Available on XDS on Oct 1st. Art
The fan base has responded to his request for stations to pick up the program.
Though Bell began MIDNIGHT with the intention of an online only show, it is becoming increasingly likely that he is attempting to take back the night in a 20th century fashion–on radio — in stereo..
More stations surely will be announced as time goes.. Until then, it’s free to listen on ARTBELL.COM or TuneIN radio.. and the Dark Matter Radio Network. Time travelers, not locked in at $5, are paying $7 for post-show streaming..
No word from the Coast crowd by the Bellgabbers sure are gabbing.
And if you’re not listening to his program MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT, you’re missing out on a great chance to hear radio at its finest..
Art Bell posted this on Facebook tonight:
Ok, here is a report as I see it now. We have a damn good product, in my view easily the best product by a mile. We have quality programming, we have far better audio, we don’t whore the show out with infomercials, we have a small number of commercials, the RSS feed is up to Industry standard and the audio on it is awesome. We are continuing to get subs at 7.99 so all is well.
The only thing we need is to get the word out that we are here, most Don’t even know we exist, this is changing but slowly, we need some way to get the word out faster, I know there are a lot of good thinkers here so any idea’s are welcome. Most people joining now we’re told by somebody and say something like Wow I thought Art was still in the Philippines. So at this point it’s just getting the word out that we exist.
I’ll do my part..
He’s back in Pahrump..
He’s in the black of the night, broadcasting with a mysterious and reassuring voice..
He’s not George Noory. Noory has inherited Coast to Coast.
Bell is doing his own thing, saying no to advertisers who want to water down content.. Instead he is broadcasting from his home about aliens, ghosts, and Satan possessing callers on open line night.
Listen up.
Be a time traveler..It’s really cheap considering what you’ll get.
And be a part of a new generation that gets to listen to radio the way it should be..
IT’S MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT..
And it’s free to listen to live..
ABBA and other bumper music included.
In a message tonight posted on Facebook and thoroughly discussed on Bellgab and other sites that follow Art Bell and the program MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT, the master of the macabre stated this, in full:
MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT
We have a decision to make and I think I have made it. We can either serve our listener’s and Time Traveler’s or Radio Stations but not both because the stations want more Commercials. I am not going to do that. If they want to carry the show we will let them offset it to a later time but we will Not add more Commercial minutes. So what we can give them is ratings because what we are doing is clearly better in every way then anything else out there. For this reason I have said no to several big stations. I could build another big Network but then I would have what I left because it became something I could not live with. Those who do not learn from their mistakes repeat them.
Art
Recently the price of the ‘time traveler’ cost went from $5 to $7..
The program can also boast high interest, and undoubtedly a huge turnout of listeners Monday through Friday when it airs on the Dark Matter Radio Network and several other affiliates that have picked up the program..
Bell has reinforced his original message, saying that he will not dump stations but also will not change the format of his program to meet the needs of advertisers–undoubtedly advertisers who want desperately to get their products on during the newest incarnation of Art Bell in broadcasting.
Midnight in the Desert has been acclaimed as some of the best material from Bell since the 1990s when he hosted Coast to Coast AM nightly with over ten million listeners. Under the reign of George Noory, Coast’s success has diminished greatly.
Those who have followed the Art Bell roller coaster will remember ups when he began a Sirius show and downs when he seriously quit it. This go around, Bell seems relaxed and is having fun. Last Friday night, his ‘made a deal with the devil’ open lines was some of the most entertaining radio in years.
The newest message showcases that Bell is going to do this. His way.
The perfect quote, from Bell himself, to summarize the noticeably calmer, cooler, and energized 70-year-old talk show king:
Here it is in a nutshell, I can do what is fun or profitable, I am going for the fun, life is short
I agree too.. He is reinventing it and purposely so. He’s been on the cutting age of technology throughout his career .. And at 70 he’s more comfortable learning and using new things than those decades younger than him..
And in doing so, he’s going to change the way we get live radio delivered to the device if out choice—but most importantly, make listening to long form talk radio cool again. Each bumper song at a time…
I’ll do my part..
