Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:424 Remembering Art Bell

Episode Date: April 18, 2018

Arthur William Bell III (June 17, 1945 – April 13, 2018) was an American broadcaster and author. He was the founder and the original host of the paranormal-themed radio program Coast to Coast AM, which is syndicated on hundreds of radio stations in the United States and Canada. He also created and hosted its companion show Dreamland. In 2003, Bell semi-retired from Coast to Coast AM. During the following four years, he hosted the show many weekends on Premiere Networks. He announced his retirement from weekend hosting on July 1, 2007, but occasionally served as a guest host through 2010. He attributed the reason for his retirement to a desire to spend time with his new wife and their daughter, born May 30, 2007. He added that unlike his previous "retirements", this one was permanent, but he left open the option to return to broadcasting. Bell hosted classic episodes of Coast to Coast AM that can be heard in some radio markets on Saturday nights under the name Somewhere in Time.  

All right, Charles, I'm at this point where I think I have enough information now to go with this story. So, stand by, folks. Here we go. We're getting reports, and we have been over the last 30-some minutes, that Art Bell has died. I'm trying to get my composure here, folks. He was 72 years old. our senior producer Tom Dadheiser and executive producer

Lisa Lyon and Jimmy Church have been working this story all night I'm going to go to Tom in the L.A. studio. George, I'm right here. It's a very sad night. I just got off the phone with George Knapp and a press release was sent to all the media. It simply read community announcement, longtime resident and radio show host Art Bell

died today at 72 years old in his home in prom. Nevada. It's truly a sad night. You know, Art and I were not that close. We had our differences. But he was one of those instrumental in me being where I am right now. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got Tony Merkel from the Confessionals, the Confessionalspodcast.com.

Tony, how are you? What's going on, brother? Good to be back. Yeah, yeah. I know. It's nice. to be back. And, you know, we were talking about Art Bell and kind of what Art Bell meant to guys like you and I, what we do. And I think he really was the godfather of this type of medium, you know, whether you want to call it podcasting, radio, he really was the godfather. He was the one that really started this and almost made it cool. You know what I mean? Art Bell really made this genre kind of cool. But what do you remember of Art Bell?

I was introduced to him kind of later in the years and stuff. But one of the things that I've picked up from Art Bell was that he was the godfather of this whole genre that we pursue. And there's hundreds of people who have come after art because of art. And, you know, I think that's a true sign of greatness when you are actually able to multiply yourself effectively. And that is something that he did in a way that you really can't. duplicate because, I mean, have you ever met Art Bell? No, I have never met Art Bell, but we've been deeply affected by what he did years ago today. And so for me, it's just like one of those great appreciations. And to be honest with you, like never, I never crossed my

mind that Art Bell wouldn't be around much longer. It's something that just, you know, you kind of take for granted at some points. And you're just, you know, oh yeah, Art Bell and George Norrie and Jimmy Church and you know, you got all these different people and it's just like, they're here and they're going to always be here. And when this, something like this happens, it, uh, it kind of smacks you in the face because all of a sudden you realize how fragile life is. You got people that you respect and that you care about, you know, they're not always going to be here tomorrow. And so it kind of wakes you up a little bit, you know? Yeah, it does. You know what I used to love about art? He would have some of the craziest guess on. I mean, some of the, everything from, you know,

time traveler to, I was raped by an alien or, you know, and art would be like, mm-hmm, okay, and what happened next, okay, mm-hmm, and he never really, I mean, he would call some people out, but in the Art Bell style of calling people out, he wouldn't directly come after you. But what I loved about him is he would listen to everyone. And he would give you an opportunity to make your case or tell your story or any and you never really felt like art was going to really beat up the guest um and even the callers that came in i mean this was like a one-man show i don't even think art really um screened his callers when they came in and he had some of the craziest callers yeah i mean you kind of you just look you learn from art in that kind of aspect too i mean i know you do and i do as

well when it comes to how you handle guests and stuff with respect uh you know it's easy to kind of jump on people on things, especially because, I mean, with what we do and stuff, there's times that you don't necessarily always agree with the person you have on, but art really laid the foundation for us to really know how to communicate with people in a respectful manner, even though maybe, you know, there is a disagreement. It's like, that's okay, because we're here to learn. We're talking about things that there is no handbook on, you know, like there is no class book on, you know, how to find Bigfoot or anything like that. It's just, We're talking about some things that science doesn't want to recognize.

And so we got to treat each other with respect. I couldn't agree more. I really couldn't agree more. You know, one of the calls that he had, someone called in, take a listen to this. One line, you're on the air. Hello. Hello, Art. Yes.

Hi. I don't have a whole lot of time. Well, look, let's begin by finding out whether you're using this line properly or not. Area 51. Yeah, that's right. Were you an employee or are you now? A former employee. Former employee.

I was let go on a medical discharge about a week ago. And I've kind of been running across the country. Oh, man, I don't know where to start. They're going to be triangulate on this position really, really soon. You can't spend a lot of time on the phone. So give us something quick. Okay. Okay, what we're thinking of as aliens are, they're extra-dimensional beings that an earlier precursor of the space program made contact with,

they are not what they claim to be. they have infiltrated a lot of of the military establishment, particularly the area 51. The disasters that are coming, they the military, I'm sorry, the government knows about them.

And there's a lot of safe areas in this world that they could begin moving the population to now are But they're not doing anything. They are not. They want the major population centers wiped out. Few that are left will be more easily controllable.

Discharge. So this is 1997. Art show actually goes off there. The network's playing, that were syndicating him at the time, started playing old shows of his. But as far as art goes, the whole system shuts down. And then he goes to a backup. In some way, something knocked us off the air, and we're on a backup system now.

It's the government or? I don't know. It has to be something, though. Well, did you hear, now you'd tell me because you were listening. That was awful strange. There was a really weird guy on the air when it went off? Yeah, real weird out. Like going sort of sounding paranoid, extraneous.

Like crying and everything. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And how far into the. conversation was it when it went off just a couple about 15 20 seconds i'd say oh you guys missed you really missed a call then and i've got a feeling somebody didn't want you to hear it yeah um because it was really strange all of a sudden i'm hearing mark firman and when i went that's right

well the network the network of course went immediately to a backup tape while we tried to figure out what blew up here uh-huh so that's what you heard happen uh-huh and then we're now on a backup link system to be on the air at all right now. So, well, I'm telling you. Am I on the air right now? You're on the air right now. Well, you better be, yes. And where are you, by the way?

I'm in Michigan. Michigan. Yeah, I called the other night. And I wanted to ask two things. Real quick. I wanted to say one thing and I wanted to ask another. Real quick. I wanted to ask if you could play that remote viewing.

One, when you were while you go to Egypt. Yes. And also, I wanted to know. all the stuff about like area 51 if it's like the government's trying to put it out there like that so like some other places isn't being watched as much in other words it's a big decoy i see what's there and apparently we'll be back after the news i think then he lost all transmit capability on this end here in nevada the transmitter went belly up suddenly for some unknown reason.

I've never seen it do this in all the years, all the years that we've been on the air. I have never seen the transmitter in this way just simply fail. A massive little fail, like a massive heart attack of some kind. And so we've gone to a backup system to get signal to you right now, and I presume it is getting to you right now.

Crazy call. And, you know, I know later on a guy called and said, oh, it was me and it was a hoax. But the guy that called back, act then said it was a hoax, he didn't sound like the same guy. They sound like two completely different people. And I'll tell you something else about that recording. Arbel was actually knocked off the air. His whole system went down when he was on the phone with that guy. Right. And if, you know, art's not, I realize art is, you know, he kind of is theatrical. He kind

creates the mood and everything. Art's not going to let his show go down. I do and you do what he does at a very, very small level. And you and I both know. there's no way in hell you're going to let your show go down, especially a live show go down. You're not going to risk something like that. So I think somebody shut our showdown. And I kind of think that was a real call. Like I said, a guy called afterwards and said, oh, you know, it was a big hoax, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let's say it was a hoax.

Why was our whole show brought down off the air? You know what I mean? Yeah, that's the whole thing. I mean, even if it was a hoax, how did the guy hoaxing take down art show? You know, because that that's a huge, well, it's just not a coincidence in my mind because like he's saying on the phone that he doesn't have a lot of time. They're going to triangulate him. And he starts talking and then the show goes down. So, I mean, at some point you say that's not a coincidence.

Those are very much in line with each other. No matter if the guy comes on or somebody pretending to be the guy comes on saying he was pranking, then you, if that's the case, then you have to come forward and say then how did you take that? at my show because those two go right together. Yeah, it's, it's very strange. It was a very strange one. But, you know, Art used to have a lot of strange callers. I mean, some of his best shows were he'd just like people come on and talk. I mean, outside of the guest, he would just allow people to come on and talk. And, you know, Art did so many, he was kind of a genius in the sense that if my show was live, if I was doing a live show again, I think I would do it around midnight, around that time frame to kind of set the mood for what you're talking about.

And he was just a genius in a lot of things that he did. And the way he handled the gas, the transition between gas, I think all of us copy what Art did. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, the late night talk show kind of thing, you're absolutely right. It definitely sets the mood. You know, you got a lot of truck.

I'm a truck driver, and my dad's a truck driver. My dad actually drives at night. And I didn't know this about my dad, but my dad listens to coast to coast all the time while he's driving at night. And he loves it. And so he says sometimes he actually has to change the channel because he's going down a dark stretch of road and they're talking about some stuff. He just can picture something jumping out in front of his truck. But, I mean, you're absolutely right about setting the mood because, you know, do you want to do it at noon or at midnight?

Of course, midnight. And so it just worked out great. The other call that really comes to mind relates to what you and I do, Tony. it was a guy named Bugs, and he called in and talked about killing a Sasquatch. And I know everyone says this is a hoax story. But if you listen to the story, I don't know that it's hoax because Bugs kind of puts himself in a bad position. He puts himself in bad light. I don't know if he's just making up a story.

You would think he would say it charged him. It came after him. But here's a clip from that show. And this had to be four, probably three, four, five. in the morning. I don't remember the exact time. Come around the bin and in it, and it's bottom there, just before you cross Elk Creek. So you're hunting with lights then?

Oh, yeah, we're using spotlights off the roof of the pickup. Using a 500-watt halogen bulbs. It would light up anything from within a half a mile. You can see where you're standing. See the ground good. And anything with eyes lights up real well. The thing about it is, after you hunted it as much as we did, you could tell but they're looking to set of eyes what they were.

If they were a cow, they were wide apart and they were red. If they were a cowlote, were mirror, I mean, just after a period of time, you just knew what, you could look at it scope and you knew what was there. I'm not a hunter, so I just take your word for you. Well, it was just out of way. I mean, but anyway, we come around this bend and come up over this ride, and there was a wheat field out in front of us, and just before we crossed this creek, and it was a valley down in there, and it's probably, oh, I'd say it has wheat land right there to the creek,

and it's probably a mile outside that creek, and it's flat and that's a bit. And we come around this bend, and up and over a little hill, and dropped into this valley. Well, just as we dropped into this valley, our lights hit, picked up and set out. eyes and I hit the brakes I was driving and decided he had a 300 and he'd come across the top I said where you got and he says I don't know that ain't something I ever seen for well when you said you said a set of eyes did you mean two eyes or four two eyes two eyes two eyes what color were they bugs if you don't mind they were furious red the redest eyes I've ever seen in my life really under those lights.

It was something we knew it wasn't a deer because of the eyes. And it was something. And so I pulled my rifle out. I used the 243. I put my scope on it. And I could see whatever it was is crouching. And so Bird Dog, he got out and leaned over the hood of the pickup where he could get him a good shot. And Jim, he come up over the top of the cab, and I don't even remember what he was.

I don't even remember what kind of... I think he was using the 270. I don't remember for sure. Over the cab, and we just had boatby spotlights on this farm at there, and I don't know what it is, and they don't either. And I said, well, it sure isn't nothing we know about it. Let's take it. And all three of us fired at the same time.

And all of a sudden this thing got up, and it must have been set up eight-foot-all at least. I don't know. Scared that heck out of us. I started running. They fired again. we knocked it down again. I guess it was probably 100, maybe 150 yards from the point we fired the first time

until it hit the fence and went into that creek. And we knocked it down. It's probably 25, 30 yards from the fence. It fell into a creek. No, not at this point. And just as it was crossing the creek, we hit it again. Now, was it, excuse me, was it running on four legs or two? It was running on two legs, just like a human being.

I mean, it was... Right, so it was running on two legs. Right. It's something you've never seen before, but you three guys cut down on it. Well, we had done shot, and we did not know what it was. It was hunched over. It really wasn't using its front legs. I mean, its arms, as much as it was, it wasn't standing up straight.

We still thought it was what I thought it was at first, to be honest with it, it was a bear. All right, so you had three of you fired initially, right? And we all fired three times. You guys are all non-vets, right? Right. And so you've had night combat, I'm sure. Right. Okay, so you have something getting up on two legs and running away,

and you still cut down on it. Okay, I have the picture. Go ahead, please. Okay. But like I said, I originally thought it was a bear. I did not even, I had no idea of, We had done fired on it at the point in time they were sitting out there. Once we fired, I don't know, I guess we just kept shooting.

The second time we shot it, it went over the fence. At this point in time, we were all getting scared because we thought, well, maybe this wasn't an animal. So we decided to drive around a while, about 5, 36. We went back over there, and we drove up there, and we went down, and we've seen blood. We've seen some tracks, probably 50-7. 25 yards east and then it turned back south. These tracks are going down the creek and they come out and they went right on east or the creek turned back south.

So 25, 30 yards, there was a plum ticket. And we were walking out and we in that plum thicket. So we decided, well, who goes in and see what it was. A growl. Yeah, and again, at this point we thought, well, it's a bear. We don't found a bear up here. For a magnifistol, I climbed into the plum thickets, and I got it. about in, oh, probably 20 feet at the most, come up at me.

It couldn't have been over, I'd say, six or seven feet from me. I didn't even see it until it was there. And it raised up. It's very similar to the one you have. You're talking about as he grabs for it, this one, I presume. Anything like that? Yeah, just the first one, not a repeat. Yeah, that first scream is said to be an authentic,

a big foot sound, Robert? Yeah, that's what they say. I have never heard them scream like that. I've heard them howl. I've heard them hoot, and I've heard them talk. You've never heard a scream like that? No. First of all, I've never

challenged them, so they don't proceed me as a threat of any sort, so they wouldn't try to... Understood. All right, so anyway, bugs, it sounded something like that. There's something similar to just the first part. It didn't go on and on. It's just one shrill. Right.

I'm basically on my all-forge in a crawl position, and I just brought my... I started plumping shells. The first one hit it, I just aiming right at the chest. Describe what this thing, since you were seeing it now full-on, what did it look like? Best you can. At that point...

Six feet tall. Probably, but it was not standing up, Ard, at that point. It was more in a hunched, squat-type position. All right. I mean, it'd come up. Would you describe this as human looking, as deep looking? Did it have hair covering it? What can you tell us about?

It had brownish red hair. It had hair on the face, completely covering the face. Its whole body was covered with hair. At that point, I just fired. It dropped down. It started back up, I fired again. And it then came back up, and I fired again, six to eight feet. The other guys were standing guard up on top watching, and they couldn't see nothing.

They heard me firing, and they yelled if I was all right, and I said, yeah, I got it. They came crawling in there, and where I was at, and they seen it, so we decided we'd drag it out. We got to looking, and all this thing had was. This was a female. You could tell it had breasts similar to a woman. It had a sexual organ. Really? Facial features were different than a human being.

Back in and we found a male probably, I'd say, 8, 10 foot behind where she was at. He was dead. He was dead. Yeah. So we drove him out. We laid him out side by side, six to eight inches taller. Estimating the male would probably be eight foot plus. If he looked at him.

We got scared because, like, in the male, he had sexual organs. We looked at their teeth. They were not human, human-type teeth. I can't say that they were an ape. I can't say that they were human. They looked. They had the features of human overall, but the details were not. Yeah, that's a crazy story.

I mean, it's a crazy, crazy an encounter. And I remember the first time I heard this, I actually kind of believe the guy. I think he actually did kill two of these creatures. probably did bury them and didn't really know what he had shot at the time. Yeah, I think that a lot of people, especially when I first started looking into the Bigfoot stuff, you know, it was just, I don't know,

it was just like a common thing. Everybody assumes these things are indestructible. These things can't be killed. These things, you know, you shoot them, and it's just going to irritate them. But then you do hear about these stories of people killing these things. And his was obviously really dramatic, you know, But, you know, I even did a show on my show about somebody who, you know, came on and he talked about how he killed the Bigfoot.

And, you know, I don't care what it is. If it has a head and you shoot it in the head at pretty close range, it's going to go down. So, you know, it's very interesting stuff for sure. Yeah. Now, our bell will be missed. And, you know, I just wanted to do a quick tribute to him and talk about him because he really did. He really was the godfather. He probably would have been in my top three people I'd ever want to.

interview. Arbel definitely would be in that list and he'll definitely be missed and he made a huge impact, you know, on all kinds of shows. You know, whether you listen to the show, you have your own podcast or whatever. You've got to tip your hat to Arbel, man. Absolutely. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. I used this example just this weekend and stuff with some of my patrons and stuff. I did a live video and I told him, I said, Art Bell was like a great coach in the NFL because in the NFL you have these great coaches. And from those great coaches, their assistants go out and become coaches. And you can see the coaching, the coaching tree grow throughout the NFL from one coach. And that's kind of like what Art Bell did with this stuff. I mean, he was the one guy. And from him, it just grew. And now

there's hundreds of us. It's amazing. Yeah, it is. It is. Here's to Art Bell. Cheers. Cheers, my brother. To Art Bell. And I think that pretty much wraps it up, unless you want to give us your honest opinion about that ex-satonist you had on your show on the confessions. Yeah, I can, I can, yeah, I can do that. You don't have to, man. I'm just messing with you. Oh, by the way, you are going to be on for the live show, right? Yeah, and for the audience out there, Tony's doing a, he had an ex-Satonist on the show, and it's kind of a tough show to listen to.

There's portions of it. I had a hard time listening to some of the things that they do. And when is the live show, Tony? The live show is going to be next Saturday, the 28th at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. We're going to have him back on where people can actually call into the show and talk to myself and the guests and you. The key is they have to be a patron, though. It's a patron only show. But I will say this, though.

I will say that I had him on and he, from a very young age, he started out in this stuff. and he actually when he first started he didn't know he was doing satanic stuff he just thought he was just doing some really cool stuff with really cool people and he turns out he's in a satanic coven and he loved what he was doing anyway so he became a full you know member of it and he describes some of the things they would be doing uh it gets hard to listen to at times but uh you know he just comes on and it kind of spills the beans as to you know what it meant to be a satanic high wizard in the satanic high wizard in the satan Satanism. Yeah, and I mean, I know a lot of people won't tune in for it, but it was fascinating. It was fascinating to hear what he had to say. A lot, most of it was hard to listen to. Some of the rituals that they do, I found myself being like, man, do I really want to keep listening to this?

But it's one of, it's like watching a car crash. You know what I mean? It's like you want to look away, but you're not going to. You're going to watch a car crash. And I don't know if that was the best way to describe it. But it was a good show. I mean, it kept my attention. And you know, Tony, I mean, hell, you and I talk every day, you know how hard it is to keep my attention. It kept my attention. And I can't wait. I guess go to the Confessionalspodcast.com and you can look to see to become a patron. I'll definitely join you for that, though. I got about 20 questions for him that I'd love answers to, and he'd probably be the one to answer it. So, yeah. So, I mean, like I said, it's a patron's only episode. So if people want to become patrons to kind of check it out and stuff, it's good a time to do it because this is a big guest that we're going to have on the show. So if you want to check it out, go to patreon.com backslash the confessions.

Patreon.com backslash the confessions. And you can check out all the different rewards and fun stuff there. Lots of rewards. Look at you, straight up hustler. I'm getting used to being a salesman. The country faster than the coronavirus and wagering week is your antidote. I'm Tom Barton, and I'm a veteran sports analyst and respected sports handicapper who will help build ESPN's brand. I've been recognized and awarded by Pro Football Weekly and Gaming Today magazine as the honest handicapper.

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