Art Bell Quits Dark Matter

[ItsOver]

...But the way he chose to end the show without warning was pure shit.

Agree.  This is just WRONG!!! 

[ringthane]

How will Art doing a stream on his website fix this? Whatever he charges for will be pirated. No paid model will work.

Art, like many others, can run an interrupt-free stream which apparently Sirius can't/won't figure out.

Said stream is available to anyone on the internet, not just US/Canada/Andrew in Australia (just kidding, hi Andrew)

Art wouldn't be making money from subscriptions, he would be making money from his advertisers. Pirating is moot.

[BillW50]

Art missed his calling in life... it should have been a salesmen. As I am sure Art and Bob Crane are laughing all the way to the bank. As when he suckered countless of AB loyal fans to spend 200 bucks for Bob's Grace Victoria WiFi Radio just to listen to Dark Matter.

[nooryisawesome]

http://www.smeter.net/art-bell/phone-call.php

Lol art and george

[BillW50]

My prediction is the future Dark Matter archive will later be known as the Sucking Black Hole collection.

[RealCool Daddio]

Is it a 100% done deal? As it sits, yes. It is my position that if they let me stream until the problems are fixed I would be back at the mike in a second
but I think they will not do so. That is the situation in a nutshell. BTW my Producer agrees as does my friend Bob Crane who saw his sales start
well, get better, then sharply decline as people got frustrated and dropped.

                                                                                                                                                  Art

Oh, well, as long as he is getting positive re-enforcement from his circle of friends and colleagues, he must be right, huh?  What a crock of shit.  If Noory had posted here that he made some hair brained decision, and that Tommy and Hoagland agreed with him, he would have been eviscerated with negative comments. 

Art's numbers were not good enough to support a caller driven show, and he is blaming SXM rather than adapting.  He is quitting, again, plain and simple.

And another thing - almost every night Art was taking cheap shots at Dave, and Dave took the high road. He is still on night after night, and Art is raging in the night in a double wide in the middle of nowhere. 

Dave wins radio.

[nooryisawesome]

Dave sucks!! He took cheap shots to guest poaching etc.

Then he plays it's over like a lame turd.
George still sucks and art is still a flighty quitter.
I'm going to listen to podcasters who actully prepare unlike george and care about their listeners unlike art.

[Centurion40]

Beyond the obvious deep disappointment and feeling of betrayal, I feel the need to express a couple of thoughts.

Sirius/XM should learn from this experience that there is a market interested in hearing the type of programming that was provided by Dark Matter.  With all of their channels, I truly believe that one dedicated to UFOs, ghosts, paranormal, etc., etc. would fly.  Maybe it could even give Riley Martin a bit more air time!   

Coast-to-Coast AM should understand that they need to keep searching for a host that can resonate with a larger audience.  My assumption here is that the "Noory sucks" crowd is more than just a small fringe group within the larger fringe group of people interested in the paranormal.

Regarding Art, in my observation people seem to tolerate less bullshit, and they tend to do whatever they want (in the exact way that they want), as their age rolls past 50.  Understanding this helps me to accept what Art has done.  He's way past 50.  His time is short and he wants to do what he wants to do, in the way that he wants to do it, period.  He's not going to (in his mind) waste time to build anything; he wants immediate satisfaction (time is short) and nothing less will do.  Therefore I truly believe that this is the end of Art's radio career, unless he returns to Coast-to-Coast AM (audience is already established), or he's prepared to give a new platform time to build the sort of audience that he want- OR he decides to change formats and run with an all-politics type call-in show on AM or FM radio.  He's just managed to deeply piss-off his hardcore fan base.  He's burned bridges with Sirius and with some regular guests (Good, Houge).  IMHO, he's done.

[swler007]

Like I wrote in my first post (I signed up last night because of this), I cancelled after Art made the announcement on his facebook page. The lady I spoke with mentioned that she was handling a lot of cancellations that night and seemed kind of flustered but was very nice. She asked if I wanted to end my subscription now, and reminded me that it re-bills on the 15th and I could continue to listen until then (I was not foolish enough to go for longer than month-to-month until I knew for sure if Art was staying or not. Big fan, so I know the history).

If the issue gets resolved favorably (the show continues) then I'll restart my subscription. There are a few things I like on Sirius (one sports show, Carlin's Corner, some of the music channels) but not enough to keep me as a subscriber without Art. DEFINITELY not enough to keep me at $15 a month when I can get Netflix and Hulu Plus for just a few more dollars than that COMBINED.

They offered me 2 free months but I declined. Between free services like Pandora and Iheartradio I'm pretty covered. Also I listen to quite a number of online streaming sites that play a lot of non mainstream music which I like.

[swler007]

Anyone else think the topics/guests in the paranormal/fringe radio genre are getting pretty stale?

[RealCool Daddio]

Anyone else think the topics/guests in the paranormal/fringe radio genre are getting pretty stale?

Nah.  I'm sure Art could have gone at least another six weeks before running out of new material.

[dan7800]

Anyone else think the topics/guests in the paranormal/fringe radio genre are getting pretty stale?

I don't. Some of the guests were crap, some were great. I really liked the SETI interview.

[bateman]

Oh, well, as long as he is getting positive re-enforcement from his circle of friends and colleagues, he must be right, huh?  What a crock of shit.  If Noory had posted here that he made some hair brained decision, and that Tommy and Hoagland agreed with him, he would have been eviscerated with negative comments. 

Art's numbers were not good enough to support a caller driven show, and he is blaming SXM rather than adapting.  He is quitting, again, plain and simple.

And another thing - almost every night Art was taking cheap shots at Dave, and Dave took the high road. He is still on night after night, and Art is raging in the night in a double wide in the middle of nowhere. 

Dave wins radio.

Cold, hard truth. What kills me is how patient we've been with him through the years. Through the website teases, the false starts, false hope, and then when we get what we've been wanting for years, he pulls a Lucy with the football. He gave this endeavor a month & a half. A little patience, Art, give your listeners the same courtesy we, maybe naively, extended to you.

[BillW50]

Regarding Art, in my observation people seem to tolerate less bullshit, and they tend to do whatever they want (in the exact way that they want), as their age rolls past 50.  Understanding this helps me to accept what Art has done.

That would be one thing, but Bell has acted like a spoiled little brat his whole life. He didn't change at all after 50! If everything doesn't go exactly his way, he kicks and screams. And he didn't learn this from Asia either, rather Asia learned it from him!

[bateman]

Anyone else think the topics/guests in the paranormal/fringe radio genre are getting pretty stale?

The guests have worn thin, but some of the topics can still be compelling if presented properly.

[HMC]

I'm in need of C2C and DM replacements. Recommendations? (feel free to PM me if it's not ok to post it here)

[HMC]

Cold, hard truth. What kills me is how patient we've been with him through the years. Through the website teases, the false starts, false hope, and then when we get what we've been wanting for years, he pulls a Lucy with the football. He gave this endeavor a month & a half. A little patience, Art, give your listeners the same courtesy we, maybe naively, extended to you.

THIS is what pisses me off the most. I think the build up to the show lasted longer than the show itself!

[maren]

Anyone else think the topics/guests in the paranormal/fringe radio genre are getting pretty stale?

Yeah, kind of -- especially for those of us who have been listening since the 90's.   But it's still interesting -- we just don't need another "Will There Be Disclosure??" show. 

Guests like Michio Kaku, Michio Kaku and Charles Faddis were the best -- thought provoking.  Throw in a Whitley or Tobias McGriff and I think it would be ideal.  IF we had a show to listen to.   

[Centurion40]

That would be one thing, but Bell has acted like a spoiled little brat his whole life. He didn't change at all after 50! If everything doesn't go exactly his way, he kicks and screams. And he didn't learn this from Asia either, rather Asia learned it from him!

True.

It also occurs to me, after reflecting upon Art repeatedly saying that he was prepared to give up on America and flee to the Philippines (during the short existence of Dark Matter), that if he is so quick to give-up on his own nation, why would he not be so quick to give up on his own show?

[SixWeekTenure(tm)]

Art should have handled this situation like an adult. First, if you're going to disappear without explanation, at least apologize to your fans rather than falling back on some excuse about the internet stream or cell phones when we've put money into radio equipment expecting a show to run for three years. Honor your contract and work with SiriusXM behind closed to doors on making the service better, for international listeners that have to fake a U.S. address and those who were online only users and dependent on the app to work. Instead, he gave management an ultimatum and quit when he didn't get his way. Didn't like the number of repeat callers? Adapt, take a Dreamland approach rather than blame others - it takes time to build a new following and Dark Matter deserved more than a six week run. The fact is, Art Bell flaked once again and he has no one to blame but himself when he could have done his job without acting like a diva, working out the kinks as the show went on.

[Mhayhurst]

Anyone else think the topics/guests in the paranormal/fringe radio genre are getting pretty stale?

I was thrilled to find out Graham Hancock was going to be on the program…of course I was then floored when Art quit. I think there are plenty out there, Art just chose some safe rehash (although I loved every minute of it….well, maybe not Jeremy)

[Centurion40]

Yeah, kind of -- especially for those of us who have been listening since the 90's.   But it's still interesting -- we just don't need another "Will There Be Disclosure??" show. 

Guests like Michio Kaku, Michio Kaku and Charles Faddis were the best -- thought provoking.  Throw in a Whitley or Tobias McGriff and I think it would be ideal.  IF we had a show to listen to.   

Again, lesson for Sirius.  If they can float a Martha Stewart channel, why not a paranormal content channel?

[dan7800]

Art should have handled this situation like an adult. First, if you're going to disappear without explanation, at least apologize to your fans rather than falling back on some excuse about the internet stream or cell phones when we've put money into radio equipment expecting a show to run for three years. Honor your contract and work with SiriusXM behind closed to doors on making the service better, for international listeners that have to fake a U.S. address and those who were online only users and dependent on the app to work. Instead, he gave management an ultimatum and quit when he didn't get his way. Didn't like the number of repeat callers? Adapt, take a Dreamland approach rather than blame others - it takes time to build a new following and Dark Matter deserved more than a six week run. The fact is, Art Bell flaked once again and he has no one to blame but himself when he could have done his job without acting like a diva, working out the kinks as the show went on.

Well said and nice avatar.

[Mhayhurst]

Art should have handled this situation like an adult. First, if you're going to disappear without explanation, at least apologize to your fans rather than falling back on some excuse about the internet stream or cell phones when we've put money into radio equipment expecting a show to run for three years. Honor your contract and work with SiriusXM behind closed to doors on making the service better, for international listeners that have to fake a U.S. address and those who were online only users and dependent on the app to work. Instead, he gave management an ultimatum and quit when he didn't get his way. Didn't like the number of repeat callers? Adapt, take a Dreamland approach rather than blame others - it takes time to build a new following and Dark Matter deserved more than a six week run. The fact is, Art Bell flaked once again and he has no one to blame but himself when he could have done his job without acting like a diva, working out the kinks as the show went on.

+1 Right on!

[UnscreenedCaller]

Get this shit: when I was on wifi, I got an error maybe 3 or 4 times out of the whole 6 weeks, but when I'd turn off the wifi and switch to 4g or whatever I have on this damned phone, the cell signal was more stable than the wifi. Never dropped when using 4g, only on wifi.

Me too. I dove back and forth from work with On Demand and never got dropped once. On the laptop, I got dropped a lot.

[bateman]

I'm in need of C2C and DM replacements. Recommendations? (feel free to PM me if it's not ok to post it here)

http://bellgab.com/index.php?topic=5028.0

New one coming this weekend. 

[Quick Karl]

The longer you live, the less willing you are to tolerate stupidity and bullshit, no matter who it pisses off.

I know that I reached that point in my life right around 50, so stupid shit like a web-service dropping off in the middle of a show, when the only excuse for that is a lack of foresight and competence, is something that would take me about 3-seconds to refuse to 'accept' as status quo.

[Mhayhurst]

http://bellgab.com/index.php?topic=5028.0

New one coming this weekend. 

Can't wait! I immediately thought of your new show after the grieving subsided with yesterday's news. Your Tobias McGriff interview was great.

[Eddie Coyle]

True.

It also occurs to me, after reflecting upon Art repeatedly saying that he was prepared to give up on America and flee to the Philippines (during the short existence of Dark Matter), that if he is so quick to give-up on his own nation, why would he not be so quick to give up on his own show?

       The wreckage of that man's life makes it clear that walking away is his instinct.

[HMC]

http://bellgab.com/index.php?topic=5028.0

New one coming this weekend. 

Awesome. Thanks.