Art Bell

[smithy]

Everytime I heard Ian hosting a show I would find myself yelling at the radio for him to shut up and let the guest talk a bit.  Mister know-it-all Ian always had to act like he knew more about the topic than the guest!  I wondered why he even needed guests since he knew all there was to know, about the stuff, all the time....

I clocked one of Ian's questions at around 5 minutes (in which he thought out loud during the time he was formulating the question.) As a reporter, I just wanted him to get to the point.  I also contacted Clear Channel on both him and Dave complaining about the quality of hosts. It was one of those run-arounds where they sent me to my local radio station to complain, then that station sent me back to Clear Channel to complain --these were actual phone calls in which I finally realized no one cared. I wasted enough time and quit listening.  Ian lasted another 5 years or whatever. And Dave is still going strong. I compare Ian to a version of Jimmy Church on steroids with a high vocal set and bigger vocabulary.

[Heather Wade]

I was listening to a old show with leer as the guest. I completely forgot about a call in I made in the mid 90's as a 5th grader. I dialed my little heart out for 4 nights straight. I finally got through and panicked. I had this animal noise maker I used to use to annoy my brother with. I was to scared to talk when I heard east of the Rockies you are on the air. So I just pushed the monkey noise button.

Art was nice enough to say anything else? No, well I guess that's all he had to say.

Lmao, that's awesome.  Always love your green chicks.

[laserjock]

Now, if you wanna talk about being full of themselves, John ***B*** Wells (anyone that makes a point of being their middle initial is an egotist), Wells was full of himself.  He accentuated his deep voice trying to sound cool.  I think he thinks he's a crooner, he's in love with his own voice, at least that's how it seems.  But Wells always failed to challenge guests intelligently, like Alex Jones, he pushed a crazy loon agenda and didn't allow for anything not in that agenda.  He didn't think critically.

[nika01]

I agree with you here.  Ian didn't come across as cocky at all, quite the opposite.  The fact that he is strong in his religious beliefs really seems to send people off the deep end also.  However he always was honest and let you know where he stood.  And it never came across as forcing those beliefs on you.  Can't ask for much more in my book.     

It's like people are hearing the same guy in two entirely different ways. I'm firmly in the " arrogant sob " camp regarding Ian. Seems obvious. I think he wanted to pretend to be smart and reasonable, just never quite pulled it off for me.

[laserjock]

He grated against you, but Wells grated against me.  I found Wells arrogant and Ian unassuming.  And when Ian talked a lot, I enjoyed it because what he had to say I agreed with, while Wells was just a crazy loon.  Interesting how polarized you and I are.

[jerry]

It's like people are hearing the same guy in two entirely different ways. I'm firmly in the " arrogant sob " camp regarding Ian. Seems obvious. I think he wanted to pretend to be smart and reasonable, just never quite pulled it off for me.

I agree 100%.  Ian was cocky, full of himself, would answer callers questions that were directed to the guest instead of letting the guest answer.  He was one of the MOST annoying hosts on CTC.  His religious or political opinions don't even enter the equation, it was his style and traits on air that made him difficult to put up with.

What he said was less the problem with him.. it was HOW he conducted himself.

[Skunk Ape]

Now, if you wanna talk about being full of themselves, John ***B*** Wells (anyone that makes a point of being their middle initial is an egotist), Wells was full of himself.  He accentuated his deep voice trying to sound cool.  I think he thinks he's a crooner, he's in love with his own voice, at least that's how it seems.  But Wells always failed to challenge guests intelligently, like Alex Jones, he pushed a crazy loon agenda and didn't allow for anything not in that agenda.  He didn't think critically.

When I first heard Wells I was impressed. I guess the voice fooled me. He pushed for those $500 Geiger counters a little too hard. The biggest thing that annoyed me though was how he would, and does still on CTM tell the guests to "ride with it a little longer" instead of asking a follow up question.

I paid the 99 cents to hear his interview with Hoagland and was not impressed with the show at all. Plus his show can't be good for the people who choose to watch it rather than listen.

[Heather Wade]

What Leo Laporte does is he has a website and apps and on his app you can select from any of his shows to stream on demand.  He also allows listening live.  Your Dark Matter radio would change if you were to adopt this.  Each show on Dark Matter would be available via the app and any time, and each show would have a little light advertising in it to support the whole thing.  This would mean asking all your program holders to allow advertising, but that's a way to pay the bills, it's not heinous.  Leo does about 5 minutes of advertising by talking about the advertised things during his shows, and he sells things he believes in.

I've worked as a sales person and as long as I believed in what I sold, it was good.  My BIL agrees with me that we liked when you would do a short talk about CCrane and other things, when it came right from your mouth we were cool with it.

But Art, whatever you do, try to remember that some of us are very poor (you have no idea how poor), so don't forget us, either, please.

Art knows, my laserjock friend, Art knows.

[Skunk Ape]

Also Wells did decent VO work on Unsealed Alien Files, although the show itself was horrible.

[SaucyRossy]

Art knows, my laserjock friend, Art knows.

Hence why he wanted to make the live stream free for all.....Art is a man of the geo people.

[albrecht]

From what I can gather off the internet, it seems that at about any given time, there are roughly 1000 people streaming your old shows online from various sources, illegally I might add, but listening nonetheless.  A thousand people!  Listening to 20 year old long form talk radio programs from the 90's!  Just on a tuesday afternoon or whatever.  That's pretty astounding, really.  I don't think ANY host's show can compete with that.  Can you imagine ANY OTHER SHOW that would have that kind of attraction 20 years later?  Anything else would be so dated that you just wouldn't want to listen.  Who would listen to a Rush Limbaugh Classic Show stream?  Pretty much nobody.  And there's a half dozen different sources streaming different shows?  It's pretty amazing, Art.

To avoid any "rights" issues I'm sure that Art cannot be involved. But it would be nice for those "stations" streaming the old shows, the people who have put up torrents, those have posted YouTubes, archive.org, etc etc have a plug for the new show (once dates/methods are announced.) Like an unsolicited commercial, some text with URL and new show info in the show description, or so on. That would spread the word.

[heater]

If Art told me us at midnight tonight he was going to talk into an empty tin can in his kitchen I would make sure to have an equally empty tin can situated near my ear to tune in.  I would even take off the aluminum foil cap to get better reception.

[nika01]

Also Wells did decent VO work on Unsealed Alien Files, although the show itself was horrible.

Wells' belief in chem trails and John Lear makes me wonder about his sincerity

[nika01]

He grated against you, but Wells grated against me.  I found Wells arrogant and Ian unassuming.  And when Ian talked a lot, I enjoyed it because what he had to say I agreed with, while Wells was just a crazy loon.  Interesting how polarized you and I are.

It is interesting. At one time I liked Ian, but he changed.

Not a wells fan either.

[UnscreenedCaller]

Don't like Welles as a host. Didn't like the geiger counter infomercials, or the nonstop paranoia,but for voice overs there's no one better than him. That's his strength. He's got a great voice.

[laserjock]

Well, you know...  It's the spice of life that we each respond differently to stuff.  For instance, I've had a couple black girlfriends when I was younger, they were gorgeous and really cool people, but one of my sisters said to me "eww!  A darkie?"  For her, that is what they are, for me, they are just people.  I've dated women of almost every race and for me, a woman is a woman is a woman, but some guys can't get past certain things.  We're all different, even not taking into account something such as racism, we still each like different stuff.

When I was still just a young guy I told a friend that I couldn't ever imagine a Filipino girl friend because I had a stereotype about them.  Now I'm so in love with one that I'd die for her in a heartbeat because she's the best person I've ever known, her heart is a heart of gold, what I thought at one time was the case about Filipinos has been stood on its head.  I like her culture better than my culture.

And that's another important thing:  What we like and admire changes over time.  I used to be super far right wing, now I am moderate left wing.  We change.  I can understand what some of you say about Punnet, but still, I enjoyed his shows a lot.  Thank goodness we are all a little different, if the world was all vanilla it would suck.

I suppose that Art doesn't polarize people that way.  Some people have the effect of polarizing others, some do the opposite.

[spellerine]

I stopped listening to Coast a while before Ian left, but when I was listening I always enjoyed his interviews with Dean Koontz, who was my favourite fiction author at the time.

I remember the "Horse" interviews.  I will say it was something to listen to on my Ipod while stocking the grocery shelves all night.  But not Ian's best moment.

But, keeping on the "Art Bell" topic, I am not sure I would be really excited for Ian to be doing weekends on MiTD.  His voice just didn't "do it" for me. 

[laserjock]

No, that is true, Ian doesn't have "the" voice.  Not everybody is so endowed.  But whenever I think "oh, that's a nice voice" I think to myself, vocal cords are gross to look at, too.  If a woman has too breathy of a voice, sometimes it is annoying, especially if they are accentuating that, using an affect to a voice is fake and it annoys me.  It's the only thing that annoys me with some of my gay friends, is the affect in the voice, it's not genuine.  But to each her own.

Oh yeah, and the horse shows?  yuch.  I was a dog in some of my previous lives, or a wolf, so what, I don't claim to be a dog now. 

[Mind Flayer Monk]

No, that is true, Ian doesn't have "the" voice.  Not everybody is so endowed.  But whenever I think "oh, that's a nice voice" I think to myself, vocal cords are gross to look at, too.  If a woman has too breathy of a voice, sometimes it is annoying, especially if they are accentuating that, using an affect to a voice is fake and it annoys me.  It's the only thing that annoys me with some of my gay friends, is the affect in the voice, it's not genuine.  But to each her own.

He could have spent some time training his voice, like a singer. He just didn't have the voice.

[spellerine]

No, that is true, Ian doesn't have "the" voice.  Not everybody is so endowed.  But whenever I think "oh, that's a nice voice" I think to myself, vocal cords are gross to look at, too.  If a woman has too breathy of a voice, sometimes it is annoying, especially if they are accentuating that, using an affect to a voice is fake and it annoys me.  It's the only thing that annoys me with some of my gay friends, is the affect in the voice, it's not genuine.  But to each her own.

Oh yeah, and the horse shows?  yuch.  I was a dog in some of my previous lives, or a wolf, so what, I don't claim to be a dog now.

I know exactly what you mean about affected voices....very annoying!  I don't think Ian was trying to be anything other than he was...his voice was genuinely just OK.  But I think if you are going to be on radio you should at least have an interesting voice or cadence to listen to. 

[laserjock]

I have a good radio type voice, went to a radio school and they pretty much begged me to sign up, told me I was born for it, but I chose photonics instead.  Maybe I'd be making money today, maybe not.  I have a voice, but it takes more than a voice, you need cadence, extemporaneousness, wisdom, perserverence, literacy, skill, confidence (something I lack), and the desire to be heard (and I don't know if I want to push my ideas on anyone else that hard, I've got more questions than answers).  Maybe some of us have a radio gene, but you still have to think you should do it. 

[DesertFox]

How about agree to disagree on Ian and move it to the Ian Punnett thread since this is the Art Bell thread--lol. 

Now Art--there is one fine, damn broadcaster!

[jazmunda]

Now Art--there is one fine, damn broadcaster!

Art? As in Art Bell? I thought he quit.

Is it July yet?

[nooryisawesome]

Now Art--there is one fine, damn broadcaster!

Yes I can not wait until July. I really want to call in. I am pretty sure MV does too. I am not sure whose original phone call was worse, a stupid question about computers being thrown away or monkey noises.

[bateman]

Art? As in Art Bell? I thought he quit.

Is it July yet?

Art Linkletter. He died a few years ago, unfortunately.

[jazmunda]

Yes I can not wait until July. I really want to call in. I am pretty sure MV does too. I am not sure whose original phone call was worse, a stupid question about computers being thrown away or monkey noises.

When was the monkey noises show?

[HK-50]

Art? As in Art Bell? I thought he quit.

Is it July yet?

"He's winding down folks; he's winding down"...  

Yes, come on July!  Let's get this show on the road!

[The General]

To avoid any "rights" issues I'm sure that Art cannot be involved. But it would be nice for those "stations" streaming the old shows, the people who have put up torrents, those have posted YouTubes, archive.org, etc etc have a plug for the new show (once dates/methods are announced.) Like an unsolicited commercial, some text with URL and new show info in the show description, or so on. That would spread the word.

I bet that some of the streams will promote the show.  I read on U7's facebook that they'll stop streaming during Art's new show during those hours.  And I'm sure they'll promote the new show.

If Premiere is so upset about illegal streams, they should have their own "official" Vintage Art Bell stream.  They won't do it though, because it shines a light on how bad the show is now.

[jazmunda]

I bet that some of the streams will promote the show.  I read on U7's facebook that they'll stop streaming during Art's new show during those hours.  And I'm sure they'll promote the new show.

If Premiere is so upset about illegal streams, they should have their own "official" Vintage Art Bell stream.  They won't do it though, because it shines a light on how bad the show is now.

They don't provide a George one either for the very same reason.

[laserjock]

Indeed, back to Art in Art's thread, thanks for that.  I'm craving July.  You know what would be cool?  IF his first show was on my birthday!  Who did that July Morning rock song, Uriah Heep, right?  There I was, on a July morning...