The Legendary Art Bell

[KSM]

So, when you're done this evening, we will know how much of a nightlife you have in Metro Denver
😁😁😁

Thanks for checking. Seriously.

While it wasn't the most enthralling show (Dan Aykroyd wasn't the most interesting one, it was his buddy), still, they interrupted a discussion with those tones.

Art did give his blessing to U7... Unless that was AIArt

Maybe AI-Audio, a la Peter Jackson's system, can finally fix all those ½ speed AM radio cassette recordings.  U7 dude said he level-balanced the recordings (eh, not all the shows), but a giant clean-up is due.

Ackroyd tends to grate on me a bit and he comes of like a blowhard. Sereda has a whiny pitchy voice so I won't be listening to the other one tonight because the chicken lady is coming over. I'm making 2.5" beef fillets topped with sautéed garlic butter mushrooms, grilled asparagus, loaded baked potato with Irish whiskey for a finish.

She may bring cigars..

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[sean92008]

@KSM try grilled asparagus with a touch of soy sauce and sesame seed... There's a Japanese dish with that, great stuff. Texture and taste!

[sean92008]

U7 had Tess Gerritson's first appearance. The show touched on Hawaiian volcanoes, hurricanes, political stuff and media propaganda. Very contemporary.

Ramona bought him the book. RIP.

[sean92008]

I wonder if the surviving Flirtations knew Art played NBaH as his bumper music.

[KSM]

I do not recall how many times Art retired, or what the approximate dates were but I think he retired 3 times? First was in 2000 or shortly after?  Apparently he had a net of 10 Million at death, but back in the days of his first retirement he must have been worth 3 to 5 million around the turn of the century. In 1993 thing were just starting to go in the right direction, the C2C with Art Bell direction, but his bank account would have been nowhere near retirement levels according to The Art Of Talk. 95 thru 2001 must have been amazing for him as the affiliates and cash poured in. He and Ramona still had a mortgage on the Pahrump place in the early 90's..

I have no idea what the actual fuck I'm posting here but it is fairly accurate.  I'm making a ham tonight.

[sean92008]

I do not recall how many times Art retired, or what the approximate dates were but I think he retired 3 times? First was in 2000 or shortly after?  Apparently he had a net of 10 Million at death, but back in the days of his first retirement he must have been worth 3 to 5 million around the turn of the century. In 1993 thing were just starting to go in the right direction, the C2C with Art Bell direction, but his bank account would have been nowhere near retirement levels according to The Art Of Talk. 95 thru 2001 must have been amazing for him as the affiliates and cash poured in. He and Ramona still had a mortgage on the Pahrump place in the early 90's..

I have no idea what the actual fuck I'm posting here but it is fairly accurate.  I'm making a ham tonight.

Sooo...  A lot to unpack here.

1) Are you antisemitic? Ham is an insult to all Jews everywhere!!! 🙄

2) Thinking of Art while making a ham is logical. Art probably did more for ham radio in the 90s than anyone else.

3) In the old country, I repeated the estimated net worth from the webosphere and Art himself denied that was the case. He made it sound like he was well under a million, if I recall correctly.  I guess checking the box office for that movie might help... Considering where he lived, if he didn't blow it on liquor and whores*, he probably was doing OK until Ramona died. I remember him recounting soon after her death that she had prepaid a bunch of bills and had a system of keeping the books clean.

To be honest, I would suspect that any possible egregious outflow would have been after Ramona. Young woman, from the third world, near the gambling capital of the world and family probably flying in at a high rate...
*

[KSM]

Sooo...  A lot to unpack here.

1) Are you antisemitic? Ham is an insult to all Jews everywhere!!! 🙄

2) Thinking of Art while making a ham is logical. Art probably did more for ham radio in the 90s than anyone else.

3) In the old country, I repeated the estimated net worth from the webosphere and Art himself denied that was the case. He made it sound like he was well under a million, if I recall correctly.  I guess checking the box office for that movie might help... Considering where he lived, if he didn't blow it on liquor and whores*, he probably was doing OK until Ramona died. I remember him recounting soon after her death that she had prepaid a bunch of bills and had a system of keeping the books clean.

To be honest, I would suspect that any possible egregious outflow would have been after Ramona. Young woman, from the third world, near the gambling capital of the world and family probably flying in at a high rate...
*

Would you like my glazed HAM call letters?

He was worth enough in 2000 and beyond to retire, but not in 1995. Everybody (Except Trump) with any real money almost always downplays their net worth. If he was to retire in, say.. 01 and his place was paid for, he could have lived a simple life on 750K or maybe even less back then. His house was completely solar powered by 98 so there's that little tidbit as well. His son was mentioning the the millions of dollars in an interview after Art's death and that he was not in the will, nor did he care. That was from the MV interview.
Annnd when he bought the Pahrump place it was nothing more than a doublewide in the sand on a 5 acre lot. All the additions would come in years to follow but not later than 2000. Those additions, buildings/his antennas ETC would not be cheap.

I can't stand Trailer Park Boys!

[Morgus]

Art Bell's history is listed here:
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/art-bell-9903.php

His first quitening was in Oct 1998 which came out of the blue with no warning  - at the end of a show one night he ended it saying this is my last show. Fill in guest hosts were used like Hilly Rose for a few weeks until Art returned.

Art then planned his next retirement for 2000 and this time let listeners know months in advance.  So the network carefully prepared a permanent replacement host this time Mike Seagel who even visited Art's  place in Pahrump - I remember photos of that were at Art's website back then.

 But Siegel was terrible and so after a year the network begged Art to return again and he did in early 2001 with conditions like reducing the amount of ads per hour which had doubled while Art was gone. They agreed.

Art hosted again for a couple years but his back kept giving him increasingly worse pain (or so he claimed) and was having to miss lots of nights so guest hosts were common. They were effectively auditioning for replacement host and Noory was one of those. So he was picked by the network in early 2003 when Art retired again. Interestingly as soon as Noory took over for Art permanently the ads per hour doubled - showing Noory was just another network stooge. Noory has continued to increase the ads over the past 20 years too - adding his own as well for his side hussels including personal events and dating services and expensive so called health supplements.

Art did host again for a time on weekends only after this on and off for a few years during which his wife Ramona died and he moved to the Philippines to marry a young woman there. Art even got the network to buy him lots of expensive equipment to broadcast from a Manila condo on weekends.  He did so for a few months until he moved back to Pahrump.  But soon after the network did something he didn't like so he quit c2c for the last time.

A year or so after he did the Sirius radio deal but that only lasted a few weeks unti he quit it too. Then a couple years after that he tried his own streaming radio show Midnight the Desert for awhile but he quit that soon as well after claiming someone tried to shoot at him so he turned it over to his producer assistant Heather Wade and that was his final quittening until his death.

[Morgus]

Mike Seagel who even visited Art's  place in Pahrump - I remember photos of that were at Art's website back then.

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[Morgus]

Another thing I remember was when Art Bell came back sometime after his 2003 retirement to host c2c weekends only only to quit again after awhile.
The network after that gave the weekend hosting to Ian Punnett.
When Art a year or two later wanted to return to weekend hosting after the death of Ramona, the network agreed and poor Ian was reduced to hosting his own early saturday night show (3 hours before c2c) instead.  Thats when Ian had guests like the guy who thought he was a reincarnated horse, etc.
Later when Ian himself had to leave due to worsening tinnitus, that time slot switched to the current Art Bell - Somewhere in Time reruns!

[sean92008]

Rabbit holing. Siegel subbed for Michael Reagan.  Michael Reagan's website hasn't updated since 2013.

[KSM]

Art Bell's history is listed here:
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/art-bell-9903.php

His first quitening was in Oct 1998 which came out of the blue with no warning  - at the end of a show one night he ended it saying this is my last show. Fill in guest hosts were used like Hilly Rose for a few weeks until Art returned.

Art then planned his next retirement for 2000 and this time let listeners know months in advance.  So the network carefully prepared a permanent replacement host this time Mike Seagel who even visited Art's  place in Pahrump - I remember photos of that were at Art's website back then.

 But Siegel was terrible and so after a year the network begged Art to return again and he did in early 2001 with conditions like reducing the amount of ads per hour which had doubled while Art was gone. They agreed.

Art hosted again for a couple years but his back kept giving him increasingly worse pain (or so he claimed) and was having to miss lots of nights so guest hosts were common. They were effectively auditioning for replacement host and Noory was one of those. So he was picked by the network in early 2003 when Art retired again. Interestingly as soon as Noory took over for Art permanently the ads per hour doubled - showing Noory was just another network stooge. Noory has continued to increase the ads over the past 20 years too - adding his own as well for his side hussels including personal events and dating services and expensive so called health supplements.

Art did host again for a time on weekends only after this on and off for a few years during which his wife Ramona died and he moved to the Philippines to marry a young woman there. Art even got the network to buy him lots of expensive equipment to broadcast from a Manila condo on weekends.  He did so for a few months until he moved back to Pahrump.  But soon after the network did something he didn't like so he quit c2c for the last time.

A year or so after he did the Sirius radio deal but that only lasted a few weeks unti he quit it too. Then a couple years after that he tried his own streaming radio show Midnight the Desert for awhile but he quit that soon as well after claiming someone tried to shoot at him so he turned it over to his producer assistant Heather Wade and that was his final quittening until his death.

Good stuff @Morgus

Yes, I thought that there may have been a late 90's quitting but really wasn't sure. I'm pretty sure that his guests that 98 night were George Lutz of (Amityville) in the first half, and then RCH for the remainder until they said their goodbyes. Tells me that he must have amassed enough to retire even by 98. That's some serious cash flow between 94/95 - 98.

Someone should have done a parody song of Whole Lotta shakin' Going On. Whole Lotta Quitten' Goin' On!

[KSM]

An elusive classic open lines show; 11/03/95
Can't find it anywhere.. 

[bateman]

I do not recall how many times Art retired, or what the approximate dates were but I think he retired 3 times? First was in 2000 or shortly after?  Apparently he had a net of 10 Million at death, but back in the days of his first retirement he must have been worth 3 to 5 million around the turn of the century. In 1993 thing were just starting to go in the right direction, the C2C with Art Bell direction, but his bank account would have been nowhere near retirement levels according to The Art Of Talk. 95 thru 2001 must have been amazing for him as the affiliates and cash poured in. He and Ramona still had a mortgage on the Pahrump place in the early 90's..

I have no idea what the actual fuck I'm posting here but it is fairly accurate.  I'm making a ham tonight.

Didn't he net $9 million or so when he sold C2C?

[sean92008]

Didn't he net $9 million or so when he sold C2C?

I remember him heartlessly acknowledging all the people who were going to be losing their jobs when you sold out to PremSuck. If I recall correctly, one of the people from Oregon is still with the show, maybe Lisa.