Paranormal Radio Is Alive and Well After Art Bell's Departure - Brief Article

It seems like only yesterday that Art Bell had announced he was leaving talk radio. At the time of his announcement, it was hard to believe that Bell was actually leaving--both because he chose April Fool's Eve and Day to release his decision, and because he had already "left the business" briefly in October 1998.

It's ironic that Bell cited the very thing on which his radio show has often thrived as one of the reasons that drove him out of the business. After years of feeding the nation's appetite for sensational rumors about UFO cover-ups and the like, Bell himself fell victim to the groundless accusation that he is a child molester: This claim particularly traumatized Bell because his own son, Art Bell IV, was sexually assaulted by a teacher in 1997.

Bell's departure is the end of an era, but not the end of "Coast to Coast AM." In May, Seattle-based radio talk show host Mike Siegel, who had filled in for Bell as host before, was selected as his replacement.

Siegel, a 25-year veteran of radio, began as host on "Coast to Coast AM" on April 27. According to the Seattle Times, Siegel previously worked at KRKO-AM and KVI-AM, where he was fired in 1996 for airing an unsubstantiated rumor about then-mayor Norm Rice. The rumor--which spread like wildfire through conservative talk radio--was that Rice had been shot by his wife when she discovered him in a sex act with his male deputy mayor.

Art Bell promised that Siegel would maintain the format and standards of Coast To Coast AM. So far, the new host has been faithful to the program's tradition as the premiere venue of paranormal and pseudoscience claims. Recent guests include UFOlogist and physicist Stanton Friedman (known as the "Father of Roswell"), Dr. Larry Dossey, who claimed scientific evidence for healing prayer in his 1993 book Healing Words, and Steve Gibbs, crank inventor of the "Hyper-Dimensional Resonator" the latest in time travel technology.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group