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Coast to Coast AM is a late-night syndicated radio talk show in the United States which deals with a variety of topics, but most frequently ones that relate either to the paranormal, or to alleged conspiracies. It was created by Art Bell, airs seven nights a week 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Pacific Time, and is distributed by Premiere Radio Networks. It is currently hosted by George Noory weekdays and Art Bell on the weekends.
Format and subject matter
After the theme song is played (Giorgio Moroder's The Chase from Midnight Express), the broadcast is typically kicked off with a reading of current events or news stories by the host, usually with at least one bizarre or peculiar story, with callers weighing in if time permits. This is usually followed by a lengthy interview with the evening's guest, or hours of open phone lines. Occasionally, roundtable discussions are held on one of the show's common topics. During hours of "open lines", calls are taken and put on air without any screening, at least according to original host Art Bell. More recently, under George Noory, open lines have added topics for callers to share their experiences or stories about a particular issue or situation. The show has multiple call-in numbers, of which there are always at least five (as of 2005): for "east of the Rockies", "west of the Rockies", first-time callers, "international callers" and finally a "wild card" line. They are all announced at the beginning of each broadcast by Ross Mitchell. The show's opening, which is now famous, had been spoofed on the now defunct nationally-syndicated Phil Hendrie Show (which aired immediately prior to Coast to Coast AM), with Hendrie imitating Mitchell's trademark deep voice and repeating his one phone number for all four lines. On special occasions, Coast to Coast AM rolls out more numbers, including lines that are reserved for special "themed" callers, for example those who claim to be from other dimensions, time periods, and those possessed by spirits. The Halloween edition of Coast to Coast becomes Ghost to Ghost, as listeners call in with their ghost stories. The New Year's Eve show usually entails listeners calling in their predictions for the coming year, and the host (commonly Art Bell) rating the predictions made a year earlier. In recent years, the host of the New Year's Eve prediction show preface open line predictions that callers may not predict the assination or death of the president. Apparently such predictions made in the past have resulted in visits from the Secret Service to the host's home. Hosts
Bell's program was syndicated in 1990 as Coast to Coast AM and began airing on more stations. For a while it still kept the 1:00 AM starting time, but then moved to 11:00 PM to 3:00 AM and then to the present 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM schedule to better serve other time zones. Soon, Bell hosted the program every weeknight and Sundays from his residence in the town of Pahrump, located in Nye County, Nevada (often referred to on the program as The Kingdom of Nye). Bell is a skilled interviewer, drawing out his callers' improbable stories with a poker-faced but confidence-inspiring, "Oh, really?" He has retired and returned to the show many times since 1998; the first "retirement" lasted two weeks, and was brought on by alleged threats against his family. Late in 1999, Hilly Rose subbed for Art Bell, interviewing the computer hacker responsible for stopping all Amtrak Trains over Y2K (2000), but Art Bell's first actual successor as host of Coast to Coast was Mike Siegel. In 2001, Siegel stepped down as host due to pressure from Premiere Radio Networks and Bell, as ratings and affiliates fell sharply during his tenure. Bell then returned to weekday hosting duties, only to depart again the following year due to chronic back pain. He was replaced by frequent guest-host George Noory, and the weekday program officially became Coast to Coast AM with George Noory by the end of 2002. Bell made another comeback in 2003, this time replacing Barbara Simpson and Ian Punnett on the weekend broadcasts. Then in June 2005, he announced that he would be reducing his role to just two Sundays a month to leave more time for traveling with his wife. He also disclosed that Ian Punnett and Hilly Rose would take over the new vacancies. Previously, Rose had been a frequent guest-host of the program, and Punnett had regularly hosted Sunday evening broadcasts years ago. However, following the passing of his wife, Ramona Bell, on January 5, 2006, Art decided to return to the air on Saturdays and Sundays, stating in an emotion-filled[1] broadcast on Sunday, January 22, 2006, that he needed to keep busy. On April 8, 2006, concluding several months of mourning, Art Bell, 60, married 21 year old Airyn Ruiz, a resident of the Philippines whom he came to know through internet "dating." Art relocated to the Philippines and resumed hosting the show as of June 15, 2006, but has had difficulties with an ISDN line and hosts weekends as technology permits. Otherwise, George Noory substitute hosts the Sunday versions or a tape is played of a previous show. Saturdays are guest hosted when Bell is unavailable. On Saturday from 9 pm to 1 am Eastern Time, Punnett hosts Coast To Coast Live, a spin-off of the original Coast to Coast AM. On the Thursday Dec. 28th, 2006 show, Art Bell, filling in for the vacationing George Noory, announced that he was once again broadcasting from his longtime hometown of Pahrump, in Nye County, Nevada. He and his new wife Eiryn made the flight from Manila to the US; his return to the US was kept secret. During his 8 month stay in the Philippines, Art married Airyn, is now expecting a baby and Airyn is awaiting her status as a legal resident of the US. An earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale occurred in Tae-Won, sending a 3 ft. Tsunami towards the Philippines islands. Had Art not left Manila at the time he did, he would not have been able to do the Dec. 28th, 2006 show as all communications to the Philippines were cut off, including the ISDN line that Bell used to send his broadcast to the US. Bell stated that he "has no interest in returning to a 5-day work schedule" and will remain the Coast to Coast AM's Saturday and Sunday night host. Art's return sparked a deluge of "welcome back calls" from callers across North America. Many callers stated that they were shocked and pleasantly surprised at Art's return to the US. Eight months allowed Bell to acclimatize to the 90° weather and 100% humidity encountered in the Philippines. Airyn being a Filipino native along with Art, were simply shocked by the 39°F temperature and the 55mph winds as they deplaned in the US. Art decided to leave his HAM (amateur) radio equipment in the Philippines as checking it at customs on his flight to the Philippines was a difficulty he wanted to avoid on his way back to the US. George Noory remains host of the weeknight editions. He broadcasts from, alternately, Los Angeles, California and St. Louis, Missouri, and has had a continually positive effect on the program's ratings. He is consistently nonjudgmental in his responses to callers' comments, seemingly accepting at face value the credibility of their reported experience. He has promised listeners that he will "stick around" to host the show through 2012; his wish is to report on whatever might occur in relation to the many predictions of the world ending (or at least changing significantly) that year, as purportedly anticipated by the Mayan calendar, alleged bible code, and a number of spiritualist and other fantasy writers, prognosticators, predictors, shamans, the witch doctorate, and assorted prophets. Recently, Noory retracted that statement and now says that he will stay until he is "dragged out." Broadcast areaCoast to Coast is broadcast on about 500 United States affiliates, as well as numerous Canadian affiliates, several of which stream the show on their station's website. Coast to Coast's Streamlink offers live Internet feeds of the show by subscription. The program is also broadcast on XM Satellite Radio in the United States, on Talk Radio 165. Currently, the XM channel is not available to XM Radio Canada subscribers due to CanCon regulations limiting content produced outside of Canada. In addition, XM's operational assistance agreeement with Clear Channel provides the satcaster with exclusive rights to all Clear Channel content, and doesn't permit the broadcast of Coast to Coast AM on competitor Sirius Satellite Radio. Frequent guests
Popular callersBelow is a list of some widely popular or regular listener callers to the show.
DreamlandDreamland was another Art Bell creation, nearly identical to Coast-to-Coast AM but less caller driven. Bell hosted Dreamland on early Sunday evenings, until he relinquished control of the show to Whitley Strieber. It continued to precede Coast-to-Coast AM on most affiliate stations on Sunday nights but moved to Saturday night (after Premiere Radio began to syndicate Matt Drudge) and then dropped the program entirely. It is now heard over the Internet[1] exclusively. Dreamland continues to focus on many of the same topics as its sister program, although often with a more spiritual point-of-view, as well as an increased emphasis on extra-terrestrials. The name Dreamland was, in fact, at one time a radio call sign for the control tower at the The Air Force's Operating Location Near Groom Lake, Nevada, as described by the government in legal documents, but more commonly known as Area 51. Coast to Coast LiveOn Saturday from 9 pm to 1 am Eastern Time, Ian Punnett hosts Coast To Coast Live. A spin-off of the original Coast to Coast AM, the show covers similar topics as well. Punnett occasionally hosts the regular Saturday edition, giving him an eight hour shift. NewsletterThe radio show publishes a newsletter for subscribers called After Dark. It discusses matters covered on the show in greater detail. References in popular cultureCoast to Coast AM is spoofed in the popular video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, as a radio segment on WCTR aptly-named Area 53. Area 53's host and callers would make ludicrous claims, such as video games giving people malaria, or cheese being the "new weapon in the fight against communism". The show's slogan is "prepare to be appalled". In 2006, Bell was featured in the video game "Prey" and played himself. He hosts, as in real life, Coast to Coast AM, and the player is able to listen to the broadcast at several terminals throughout the game. The broadcasts detail what is happening on Earth during the time of the game. Sean Hogan released a song in 2006 called "Conspiracy Radio" about Coast to Coast AM and Art Bell. CriticismCoast to Coast has been criticized by rationalists and skeptics for its promotion of pseudoscience because callers and guests are rarely challenged to defend their views despite how unlikely or impossible the claims are.[citation needed] See also
References
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