Coast-to-Coast AM

One late night in the fall of 1997, I was listening in my living room to the play-by-play broadcast of the Miami Dolphins-Chicago Bears football game on the radio. The Dolphins, who had an overpowering defense under coach Jimmie Johnson, had come from behind to take a seemingly insurmountable 33-18 lead late in the game. But unexpectedly, the Bears, under their coach Dave Wannstadt, came back to tie the game and send it into overtime. Finally, the Bears prevailed in this very long game 36-33. But I had dozed off on my couch. When I awoke a little while later, a deep-voiced announcer was announcing how listeners could reach Art Bell on the "Wild Card Line". And then Art came on the air. That was the first of many times that I listened to Art Bell as well as future hosts of the late night nationally-syndicated radio show Coast-to-Coast AM. This program examined topics not covered in the mainstream media such as moon-landing denial, reverse speech, remote viewing, the Third Secret of Fatima, chem-trails, yeti, the face on Mars, UFO sightings, the Roswell (New Mexico) incident, ghost stories, and anything else unconventional enough to attract a listening audience. And it did, bringing the show to more than 500 stations at one time (I don't know how it's doing now).

For the first few years after that first show, my work shift was such that I heard many of Art Bell's late, late night shows. Sadly, he had some family tragedies and health problems that sidelined him from the radio. Ultimately, he came back to do weekend shows while George Noory came on to host the weekday shows. Back around 2000, Mike Siegel had, for a while, been the main host of Coast-to-Coast AM, but the program's ratings dipped and many stations dropped it from their schedules. That's too bad, for I thought Mike did a great job. Apparently, listeners wanted to hear Art Bell at the time and it was a no-win situation for Mike. Ironically, it was a late 2000 Mike Siegel interview with Jack Anderson about the JFK assassination that was my favorite Coast-to-Coast AM show. That was an instance of serious journalism, but most of the Coast-to-Coast AM shows I accept as entertainment to be taken with a grain of salt. My favorite all-time guest? Native American Red Elk, who expressed some very unorthodox views, to say the least. I also have come to really like the "bumper music" that leads into the show's segments.

I have a different work schedule now, so I don't hear as much of this program as I used to. But on my drive home from work, I usually tune in to hear what's going on. I used to click on to the Coast-to-Coast AM website archive to listen to earlier shows that I had missed, but had to stop when they began to charge a fee for that service. Still, I like the program (and so, apparently, do many cross-country truck drivers who call in and toot their horns over the air!).