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Comment by tlholaday | Hacker News Reader

Request for advice: I don't know Art Bell, though the name seems like one I have heard previously. Would you advise me to just start listening, or would you advise me to use a search engine first? As a guide to your advice, were it Andy Kaufman or Henry Fielding, the advice I'd want would be "just start watching" or "just start reading"; but if it were Robin Hanson, the advice I'd want would be "read this report about Hanson at the academic philanthropy meeting first."

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Just dive in. You could find a list of the more far-out episodes. But the fun of Art was not knowing what to expect. Even when the guest was boring, there might be a caller who wants to talk in detail about the starship that abducted them last night.

Art Bell 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. Coast to Coast still airs nightly.

He died in 2018.

There are some real classic episodes that are an amazing introduction. There’s one where a guy calls in from his cell phone while ion a Cessna about to fly over Area 51. Art urges him not to do it . The last we hear from him is his reports of fighter jets approaching.

That’s not even an interview it’s just a caller!

Even if completely fake, the entertainment value was huge.

I’ll reply later with some links to 2-3 of the best classics in my opinion.

Here's a link to an MP3 of that 'dude flying into Area 51' call: https://www.area51.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Man-tries-...

Thanks! Remember “Mel’s Hole”? The bottomless pit in rural Oregon or Washington where people had been throwing down all sort of stuff (like refrigerators) without the hole filling up in the slightest. It was taken over by the military, according to Mel, on his second interview.

I listened to Art Bell's coast to coast AM program a few times as a kid, and I think it doesn't need to much in the way of introduction. I vote that you just dive in, but I will say that just diving in is a strong bias of mine.

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