Art Bell Returns

[dspete]

KTKK 630 am will air the new Midnight In The Desert show with Art Bell starting on July 20th as long as your on the South side of 9800 south and west of Redwood Road You'll be able to hear it

[CAwasinNJ]

I've honestly never understood Art Bell except as comedy. I'd never heard of him when I accidentally ran into Coast to Coast AM some 15 years ago and thought it was hilarious. Apparently some people take him seriously. I can't see listening to that kind of stuff on a regular basis though. I guess enough people do, and he seems to be doing all right for himself.

As for KTKK...do you know if they'll be airing it live? I think it's Midnight to 3AM eastern time, which would be 10PM-1AM here if cleared live.

[David]

I view Bell as an entertainer (or comedian, if you prefer). After all, how can you take someone seriously when they've "retired" and then returned to the air more times than I change socks in a month?  I happened to hear Art on the 80 meter amateur radio band a few years ago when he was driving his RV on I-15 in the Ogden/Clearfield area, and his amateur radio persona is very similar to his broadcast radio persona. In fact, Bell and some of his ham radio cohorts got into hot water with the FCC about a dozen or so years ago for airing one-way transmissions on 3.830 kHz. Bell and another ham operator were asking shortwave listeners to call the number for their one-way phone patch, and they actually put some of the callers on air. Of course, broadcasting, i.e. one way transmissions, are strictly prohibited under FCC amateur radio rules. Bell seems to enjoy entertaining himself as well as his listeners, be they shortwave or terrestrial radio listeners. If you have a shortwave radio or communications receiver with single side band (SSB) capability, listen for Bell on 3.830 or 3.840 kHz lower side band and hear for yourself. His amateur radio call sign is W60BB.

By the way, KTKK actually has a pretty decent night time signal in my little corner of Ogden, but then again I use a Grundig Field Radio or a GE communications receiver from the mid 1980's that's a clone of Panasonic's RF-2600 for night time AM listening.