My top ten Art Bell Moments

[WestBorder]

new web cam pic of Art.

Good old Art!! I wondered if he and the family were still in the States or had hightailed it to the Philippines yet.

I was also wondering if we would ever see another webcam shot...and there he is.

For me, this photo is MYSTERIOUS and REASSURING.

[Galadriel]

My first, best and favorite memory:

It was the late '90's and I was making many car trips between home (near Baton Rouge, LA) and Memphis, TN. I had heard the name "Art Bell" someplace, sometime, and it conjured up some vague sort of outer space-y image of little green men, something perhaps comical but I wasn't entirely sure.

Around this time I also heard a radio commercial for Art's program that had me really curious about who he actually was. It was something about people who like to talk about spaceships -- then it went on to say something about "but Art Bell RIDES in them – AND talks to their occupants!"

So that was the sum total of my knowledge when late one night, I decided to surf around the AM waves, having gone as far as I wanted to with music for the night. I was somewhere deep in the woods, probably between Liberty and McComb, MS, not yet to I-55, when I started to catch snippets of an educated British accent. I picked it up a couple of times and tried to tune it in. Gosh, it began to sound like some man telling a fascinating story, and I LOVE that kind of stuff!

I couldn't quite make out what he was saying because the air waves are so contrary late at night, and because I’d picked him up midway through his story. I became obsessed, going from channel to channel to find the best reception. Finally I got to a place where I could hear him clearly, just in time to catch my very first earful of the Master, Art Bell, as he said something like "Let's hold it right there, Maurice, what a cliffhanger. Folks, my guest is Maurice Cotterell and you’re hearing this from the high desert, in the middle of the night, exactly where we do this sort of thing best . . . ."

I stopped the darn car on the side of Highway 24 between hick towns in the Mississippi backwoods and sat there with my mouth wide open, staring wildly at the radio, my heart thumping, and I knew, somehow just KNEW, that I was living through a great moment in time, in the time that is my own life – somehow I would never be quite the same; something had changed forever and the adventures would never end.

There were to be many nights of chasing his voice across many stations between cities, and even occasions of stopping, turning around, and going back to the last place I'd been able to pick up his voice, just trying not to miss anything. And there were to be many nights of lost sleep before Streamlink happened.

My warmest memory is always that one when I first heard Maurice Cotterell, and I thought he must be one of those guys who read or tell stories on the air. I can still recall the exact flavor of mystery through the too-serious British accent, the taste of that little adventure into the unknown in my auto.

And I recall exactly the effect of that melodious golden voice that came sliding through the night and into my soul, bringing the music with it, stopping Maurice's sentence as it stopped my own heart, marking and changing me forever.

[Shirleypal]

Galadriel my story is similar to yours on May 30, 1994 I was driving back from Michigan to Berkeley, Ca and in the Nevada Desert somewhere between Salt Lake City and Reno I heard that voice and I thought oh my God who is this, I had to wait until the bottom of the hour to hear this is Art Bell from the High Desert, will like you the rest is history, the only shows I missed all these years was when I went to Germany for 3-4 weeks every year and was in withdrawal the whole time I was gone. Thank you for your great post, you speak for many of us.

[Galadriel]

ShirleyPal, oh, yes! Surely I know exactly the way you felt between Salt Lake and Reno! It's a feeling you'd like to be able to catch in a bottle and just sit and . . . . feel it, I guess, ha ha.

But you scoundrel, you remember the date! I'm jealous. I've always felt like I'm missing something important, not having any idea about when I first heard him. Not even the year!

One thing I do know: I resent it so much that I missed him for so long. How could we have occupied the same planet, and how could he have been there for me so many, many nights, and I was just off doing some dumb thing and totally unaware of him?! It really breaks my heart that I missed out on him for all those years.

If only I were computer-literate and I could upload (or is it download?) some of those old programs that are right here at my fingertips, in this computer -- mine for the taking, thanks to you guys on the Forum!!

Life can be so harsh.

[Shirleypal]

For two years I listened to Art on the Las Vegas station, static and fading, I still listened, than finally in 96 KSFO in San Francisco picked up the show, I was listening that night to Art and heard him say we have a new affiliate, KSFO in San Francisco, I switched stations so fast I almost tripped. Loud and clear from that day forward.

[Galadriel]

I can definitely relate, Shirley! It's funny now.

For me, the "home" station was WJBO, 1150AM in Baton Rouge, can barely get it up here 30 miles north of BTR in St. Francisville! It would go in and out, out and in, I'd be stomping and cursing, slamming doors inside/outside, trying my big yellow DeWalt workman's radio, and the various tuners inside, plus I quickly got the CC Radio plus, which was no better than my work radio. I was like a nut case dragging radios around, running around the yard with a radio in each arm looking for the "right" spot.

Sometimes I could get it on 1200, that San Antonio station, and there were one or two others. It was just enough spinning of the dials to drive me to the brink of insanity.

My dogs got plenty of extra rides in the car in the wee hours, which they loved, but still, the only way I could be sure of getting it was to go to Baton Rouge, or close to it. It drove me wild.

Then somehow I became aware of Streamlink and got that little black box from C.Crane so I could hear it clear as a Bell from every speaker in or out of the house and it was a Godsend. Small price to pay!!

Now I'm in the doldrums of deep down despair, thinking, "Is it worth $6.95/month for one night of Ian and the off chance that a Classic Show will be one I don't already have?"

We got big problems, here. I guess I'm pretty lucky I don't have a lot of nit-picking problems like how to solve Social Security, or paying down the national debt.

[Shirleypal]

Galadriel you are just as nuts as I am when it comes to Art, I am not going to tell any of my stories, it would be redundant since they are so similar to yours. I have 2 C-Plus radios plus an antenna but I do have a station that comes in great, CKLW in Windsor, Ont about 25 miles from here, what was so cool is at the breaks it went local so I never hear one commercial.

[Galadriel]

Wow. Wish I lived somewhere with radio airwaves. (Anywhere other than LousyAnna.)

Yes, I relate to you often. Wonder about your son-in-law (didn't he have open heart surgery) and the grand-kids -- mine are in Memphis.

I wish you would tell some of your Art stories!

[Galadriel]

Shirley, I have never been impressed with the CC Radio Plus or whatever it's called. I sent the first one back, second was no better. That big work radio, DeWalt, is better.

BUT my husband got Crane's Sangean shortwave (he's a ham). It is WONDERFUL! It was $200 or $300 I think, it's a "world band ATS R.D.S. 306 memory-FM stereo/MW/LW/SW."

How do you have your "almost 2000" Art Bell shows saved? What kind of medium?

[Shirleypal]

Thank you so much for asking, yes my son in law had a heart transplant on March 15, 2007, he is doing great and back to work, a Miracle for sure.

Maybe I will tell some Art stories someday, but not today.

[Liatris]

SHIRLEY - Thanks for filling me in on the glueing and the non-exitistant porch. Just wondering - was he on the air (on a break) when he fell off the porch that wasn't there ?! Or was it something he mentioned that had happened to him off-air ? ALSO - How on earth did you get a recent webcam shot of our Art ? Does he turn it on now and then and did he send it to some place that you are able to access or directly to you ? Glad he thought to say "Hi" that way to whomever (us?). I guess he knows we are all "jonesing".

Thanks again,

Liatris

[Shirleypal]

He was on air both times Liatris so we heard about in real time.

[Liatris]

Shirley - as you say, it could have been serious but now that we know it was ok, I agree with you when you say, ":D " ! hee, hee -truly classic Art Bell moments. Not so much because something weird happened on the air - but more the fact that he shares so much with us - THAT is what makes those moments so endearing. A true Gemini - really wanting to share what is going on. Thus, his love of sharing all sorts of interesting information with us. I relate to this because, although my Sun was not in Gemini when I was born, the moon was. Thanks for filling me in ---- .

[Shirleypal]

I have some Art Bell Clips bookmarked somewhere, I will post the link here when I find it.

[Shirleypal]

This isn't the one I was talking about.

http://web.archive.org/web/199707230800 ... sound.html