Radio's Master of Paranormal, Art Bell, Dead at 72

On Friday the 13th, no less
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 15, 2018 5:33 AM CDT
Radio's Master of Paranormal, Art Bell, Dead at 72
In this 1997 photo, late night talk show host Art Bell sits near a satellite dish at his Pahrump, Nev., home. Bell was perhaps best known for his conspiracy theory in the paranormal, with his radio show "Coast to Coast." The Nye County Sheriff's Office says Bell died at his home.   (Aaron Mayes/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

Art Bell, best known for a paranormal-themed radio show syndicated on hundreds of stations in the 1990s, has died at his home in southern Nevada. Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly announced in a Facebook video that Bell died Friday in Pahrump. He was 72, reports the AP. An autopsy will be conducted to determine cause of death. Bell hosted the popular radio talk show "Coast to Coast AM" before he left the airwaves in 2002. He broadcast the show from his radio station, KNYE, in Pahrump. The program focused on Bell's conspiracy theories, fascination with the paranormal, and unexplained phenomenon such as UFOs and crop circles. "As he begins his journey on the ‘other side,’ we take solace in the hope that he is now finding out all of the answers to the mysteries he pursued for so many nights with all of us," Coast to Coast said in a statement, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Fans, including celebrities like William Shatner and singer Josh Groban, took to Twitter to praise Bell. Groban recalled staying up late to listen to the host's "one of a kind" voice and how "his shows were so weird & spooky but somehow managed to hold off your skepticism." Former business partner Alan Corbeth said during Bell's 2008 induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame that nobody was better than Bell at understanding "how to create theater of the mind..." At his peak, Bell was heard on some 500 radio stations nationwide. He retired more than once and had a brief run on SiriusXM satellite radio in 2013. Bell, who grew up in a military family, became an FCC-licensed radio technician by the age of 13, according to the "Coast to Coast AM" website. He later enlisted in the U.S. Air Force while also starting his own pirate radio station.

(More obituary stories.)

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