Art Bell photographed preparing for his comeback at his home studio on Sept. 1, 2013 in Pahrump, Nev.
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But he still loves radio, and listeners still love him. And that's why, at age 68, after a sojourn in the Philippines, Bell is back in Pahrump preparing for his return. From a studio in a double-wide trailer on his property, the onetime king of insomniac radio is working out the kinks of what will debut Sept. 16 on Sirius XM satellite radio as Art Bell's Dark Matter. It will run live from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. E.T., four nights a week (reruns will air the rest of the week), though Bell says he plans to go an extra hour most nights, putting his new show in competition with the first hour of his old one. Dark Matter will feel familiar to Coast fans: Bell plans to cover the same topics, with many of the same guests, and he's even recruited the old Coast announcer to set the mood.
But more than a decade away can sow doubts, even among the best. "Memories grow fond over time," Bell says, fretting over his return. "My listeners may remember me being better than I was."
Talking Through the Night
America's overnight army--insomniacs, long-haul truckers, emergency-room nurses--need something to keep them company while the rest of the country sleeps. Radio has long been a willing companion. The format favors good listeners and drawn-out discussion, an even keel over daytime's hot temper.
Long John Nebel, a New York City--based disc jockey, dominated the overnight air in the 1960s with a call-in show heavy on tales of ghosts, aliens and witches, according to Michael Keith, an expert in radio and American culture at Boston College. The supernatural gave way to political chat in the 1970s, with Larry King as the standard-bearer. But King's move to daytime in 1993 opened the door for a return of the weird, and Bell burst through it.
He moved away from politics and embraced the solitude of the night and the possibility of the desert. Who better to talk about Area 51, after all, than the man broadcasting from its shadow, who claimed to have seen things out there "that'd make your hair curl"?
Simply listening to Bell, though, could make your hair curl. It wasn't just the creepy topics--aliens, monsters, life after death, parallel universes--but the way he milked the theater of every moment. Callers often sounded impatient, breathless, as if they knew too much and were running out of time to share it. You, almost certainly alone somewhere in the dark, were scared. You had to be.
Bell ministered to the overnight army and added a large contingent of sci-fi junkies to its ranks. In the days before everyone had endless microtargeted media options on demand, Bell pitched a very big tent. And that audience remained during Bell's years away, hungry for his return. Every vague comeback rumor was met with a flurry of online anticipation.