Coast to Coast AM

Coordinates: 34°9′12″N 118°27′56″W / 34.15333°N 118.46556°W / 34.15333; -118.46556

Coast to Coast AM
Genre Talk radio
Running time 175 minutes, 20 seconds
Country United States
Canada
Philippines (2006–2010)
Syndicates Premiere Networks
Hosted by George Noory (weeknights and 1st Sunday)
George Knapp (Sundays)
Announcer Dick Ervasti
Created by Art Bell
Recording studio Sherman Oaks, California
Remote studios Los Angeles, California (Noory)
St. Louis, Missouri (Noory)
Las Vegas, Nevada (Knapp)
Air dates since 1984
Opening theme "Chase (Theme from Midnight Express)" by Giorgio Moroder
Ending theme "Inca Dance" or "Ghost Dance" by Cusco (Shows hosted by Noory and Knapp)
"Listening to Coast to Coast" by UFO Phil (Fridays)
"Midnight in the Desert" by Crystal Gayle
Website www.coasttocoastam.com
Podcast Streamlink

Coast to Coast AM is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. The program is distributed by Premiere Networks, both as part of its talk network and separately as a syndicated program. The program now airs seven nights a week 1:00 a.m. – 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time Zone.[1]

Created and originally hosted by Art Bell, the program is now hosted on most nights by George Noory. According to estimates by Talkers Magazine, Coast to Coast AM has a cumulative weekly audience of around 2.75 million unique listeners listening for at least five minutes, making it the most listened-to program in its time slot.[2] Today, the program is heard on more than 600 stations in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Guam.[3]

Format and subject matter

The Coast to Coast AM format consists of a combination of live callers and long-format interviews. The subject matter covers unusual topics and is full of personal stories related to callers, junk science, pseudo-experts and non-peer-reviewed scientists. While program content is often focused on paranormal and fringe subjects, sometimes, world-class scientists such as Michio Kaku and Brian Greene are featured in long-format interviews. Topics discussed include the near-death experience, climate change, cosmology, quantum physics, remote viewing, hauntings, contact with extraterrestrials, psychic reading, metaphysics, science and religion, conspiracy theories, Area 51, crop circles, cryptozoology, Bigfoot, the Hollow Earth hypothesis, and science fiction literature, among others. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the events of that day (as well as alternate theories surrounding them) and current U.S. counter-terrorism strategy have also become frequent themes. George Noory, the main host since Art Bell retired, also took interest in the 2012 phenomenon and believed that something could happen; but stated many times on air that he believed we would still be here on December 22, 2012.

After the theme song is played (Giorgio Moroder's "Chase" from Midnight Express), the broadcast is typically kicked off with a reading of current events or news stories by the host, usually with at least one bizarre or peculiar story. This is frequently followed by a guest interview for the rest of the first hour (with open phone lines if there is enough time), then a lengthier three-hour interview with a second guest. For the last hour of the show, people may call in to ask questions of the second guest. Every so often, host George Noory will flip the show's format and have the longer-interview guest on first to fill the first three hours of the show. In this format, the primary interview begins after the reading of the news and then the first break. The last hour in this "flipped" format will sometimes feature a guest with a shorter subject or, more often than not, be simply an hour of open lines. Occasionally, round table discussions are held on one of the show's common topics. Conventional topics are sometimes discussed, with interviews with notable authors and political talk sometimes featured.

On rare occasions, hosts have cut interviews short when it became clear that guests were being dishonest, unethical, unintelligible, abusive, or patronizing. When this happens, the rest of the show will be filled with a stand-in guest of Noory's choosing. Guests that have interviews cut short due to bad phone connections for example, or, at the last minute, becoming unavailable, are generally rescheduled for a later date.

In 2008, Noory volunteered an elaboration of the show's policy respecting the controversial opinions of regular guests. He explained that, provided there was no element of hostility toward third parties, it was program policy to allow expression of opinion unchallenged. He gave as an example Richard C. Hoagland's contention that features on Mars are artificial, constructed by a civilization that once inhabited the planet. Noory does not challenge these statements and agrees with whomever is making the statements. During hours of "open lines", calls are taken and put on air. Art Bell created multiple call-in numbers for:

  1. "East of the Rockies,"
  2. "West of the Rockies,"
  3. "First-time callers,"
  4. "International callers,"
  5. A "wild card" line.

Once VoIP services became widespread, Noory added a sixth line for Skype callers, which is only active when he hosts.

These lines were all announced at the beginning of each broadcast by Ross Mitchell for nearly all the show's history until the spring of 2012, when Mitchell's home station, KKOH in Reno, Nevada, chose not to be a Coast to Coast affiliate any longer. Two new announcers, Charles Tomas and Dick Ervasti, are the current voiceover announcers of the program.[4] Since 2007, Coast to Coast AM rolls out more numbers on special occasions, including lines that are reserved for special "themed" callers, for example those who claim to be from other dimensions, time periods, and those possessed by spirits.

The Halloween edition of Coast to Coast AM becomes Ghost to Ghost AM, as listeners call in with their ghost stories. The New Year's Eve show usually entails listeners calling in their predictions for the coming year, and the host rating the predictions made a year earlier. In recent years, the host of the New Year's Eve prediction show has been cautioning the open line callers that they may not predict the assassination of any person or the death of the US president.

The 2006 first-person shooter Prey featured Art Bell as a guest star and featured him as himself in mock episodes of the show with guests calling in to discuss the various extraterrestrial or mythical phenomena making up the game's story line, sometimes to advance the plot and other times simply for humour. Additionally, an internet video featuring Bell was shown in the 2007 Lindsay Lohan film I Know Who Killed Me, whose plot centered on the phenomenon of stigmatic twins.

Broadcast area

Coast to Coast AM is broadcast on over 600 United States affiliates [1] (along with a limited number of FM stations), as well as many Canadian affiliates, several of which stream the show on their station's website. The affiliate group is fronted by 12 clear-channel stations, among them WBT in Charlotte, WHO in Des Moines, WWL in New Orleans, WOR in New York City, KFBK in Sacramento, and KFI in Los Angeles; some stations are subject to pre-emptions for sports play-by-play or local breaking news and severe weather situations. Among them, they bring the show to almost all of North America.

The show's Coast Insider service offers live Internet feeds of the show by subscription. The program is also broadcast on Sirius XM Radio in the United States, on Channel 146 - Road Dog Trucking, since November 12, 2013.

The show's complete schedule can be found on its website. Because the show is so frequently repeated, audible cue signals are inserted at the beginning and end of commercial breaks, to facilitate substitution of commercials by local stations.

Hosts

George Noory hosts the show on weeknights and on the first Sunday of every month. Las Vegas-based investigative journalist George Knapp hosts the third and fourth Sunday of each month, and when there is a fifth Sunday, George Noory or another fill-in will host. Since the controversial firing of host John B. Wells, most Saturday episodes, as well as Sunday episodes not hosted by Knapp, have been hosted by Dave Schrader or Canadian political conspiracy talk show host Richard Syrett. Syrett and Schrader also work Fridays when Noory travels to Denver to record his video show Beyond Belief.

Former hosts

Mike Siegel hosted the show from April 2000 until February 2001. He became a frequent substitute for the show's original host, Art Bell in late 1999, and when Bell announced his retirement in early 2000, he recommended Siegel to succeed him.[5] Siegel maintained the format of the show that Bell had created, but his personal style was very different, and the show became less popular. Siegel hosted the show from Seattle, Washington, where he lived. Early in 2001, Bell decided to return, and Siegel left the show.

Other past hosts include weekend host Ian Punnett (who retired from the show due to tinnitus), Hilly Rose, Barbara Simpson and Rollye James.

In January 2012, John B. Wells replaced Punnett as host of the Saturday evening and the second Sunday evening programs. He was fired in January 2014 because the show's producers wanted to go in a "different direction on Saturday nights", and is now the host of his own subscriber based program, Caravan to Midnight.[6] On the February 4, 2014 episode of that program, Wells stated that he thought he had been fired from Coast to Coast because he hated Barack Obama to the point where he can't bear the sight or sound of him, going even further to state that he avoids "even speaking his (Obama's) name," and that he thought Obama is a communist.

Guests

Recurring guests

A complete list of guests is available on the Coast to Coast website, where they can be searched by show date, year, alphabet, etc.[20]

Banned guests

Sylvia Browne was banned by George Noory after the Sago mine incident in January 2006.

Nancy Lieder is no longer booked, since several of her prophecies of doom have spectacularly failed.

The Amazing Kreskin was banned after misrepresenting a so-called mass "happening" as a UFO sighting.

The Ghost Buster Gals are no longer booked, since they appeared on Art Bell's Dark Matter. Foster and Laure Lee have stated that Coast to Coast AM producer Tommy Danheiser informed them that since they were on Dark Matter their services were no longer needed.

Associated shows

Several shows associated with Coast to Coast AM have aired in the slot immediately preceding the late Saturday night edition of the program, from 6–10 p.m. Pacific time.

Dreamland

Dreamland was another Art Bell creation, nearly identical to Coast to Coast AM but less caller driven. Bell recorded Dreamland on Friday afternoons where the show streamed live over the Internet and listeners could call in towards the end of the show. The show then aired at various times on different stations during the weekend, but doing eight shows a week got to be too much and he handed over control of the show to Whitley Strieber. Many affiliates aired the show before Coast to Coast AM on Sunday nights, but Premiere Radio pre-empted that time spot after it began to syndicate Matt Drudge, and then dropped the program entirely. It is now heard over the Internet, exclusively at UnknownCountry.com.

Dreamland continues to focus on many of the same topics as its sister program, although often with a more spiritual point of view, as well as an increased emphasis on extra-terrestrials.

Coast to Coast Live

Upon Art Bell's January 2006 return, Ian Punnett hosted Coast To Coast Live on Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Eastern Time. A spin-off of the original Coast to Coast AM, the show covered similar topics as its flagship program. With Bell's July 2007 retirement, Coast to Coast Live was discontinued, with Punnett returning to host the regular Saturday edition.

Art Bell, Somewhere in Time

Replacing Coast to Coast Live in the late Saturday time slot is a series of reruns of classic Art Bell episodes of Coast to Coast AM, airing under the title Somewhere in Time.

Newsletters

The radio show published a monthly newsletter for subscribers called After Dark. Discussing matters covered on the show, it contained fourteen inner pages, approximately 46% of which were illustrations and photos, rather than text. The front cover contained artwork, and the back cover showed a list of recent shows. The newsletter ceased publication in January 2011, but the show now offers a free daily e-newsletter called CoastZone.

Criticism

Art Bell stated that the decision to come out of retirement was entirely his, a response to the direction that George Noory has taken the show—closer to political talk radio rather than the open-minded exploration of the supernatural that defined Bell's tenure as host. Noory, Bell says, has "ruined" the franchise of Coast to Coast AM.[21]

The program's ratings under Noory have fallen to only 3.25 million listeners per week. Coast to Coast AM previously boasted a weekly listening audience in excess of 10 million listeners under Art Bell.[22][23] Since 2013 the listener numbers have shrunk an additional half million to a mere 2.75 million.[24] Listener numbers in 2014 have continued to decline to 2.5 million.[24]

Scholars have criticized Coast to Coast AM for promoting pseudohistoric and pseudoscientific ideas.[25]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Randy Dotinga (February 15, 2006). "Coast to Coast AM Is No Wack Job". Wired.
  2. ↑ "The Top Talk Radio Audiences (Updated 2/15)". Talkers Magazine.
  3. ↑ About Us Coast to Coast AM Official Site
  4. ↑ "Welcome to Facebook". Facebook.com. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  5. ↑ Judith Michaelson (April 11, 2000). "Veteran Talk-Show Host Mike Siegel to Succeed Bell". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on September 5, 2009.
  6. ↑ "Make Ready For What's To Come". Caravantomidnight.com. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  7. ↑ "Katherine Albrecht - Guests". Coasttocoastam.com. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  8. ↑ "Howard Bloom - Guests". Coasttocoastam.com. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  9. ↑ Gordon Duff (October 20, 2012). "UFO Disclosure: Gordon Duff on Coast to Coast with George Noory". Veterans Today.
  10. ↑ Decade of Deceit: Anti-Semitic 9/11 Conspiracy Theories 10 Years Later at the Wayback Machine (archived October 25, 2011) "Gordon Duff is an anti-Semitic conspiracist whose innocuous-sounding Web site, Veterans Today, features anti-Israel and Holocaust denial materials"
  11. ↑ "Fukushima/ ET Interactions - Shows". Coasttocoastam.com. 2014-02-06. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  12. ↑ "9-11 Theories & Evidence – Shows". Coast to Coast AM. 2006-02-23. Retrieved 2013-12-11.
  13. ↑ "Catherine Austin Fitts - Guests". Coasttocoastam.com. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  14. ↑ "Matt Fraser - Guests". Coasttocoastam.com. 2012-09-20. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  15. ↑ "Richard C. Hoagland: out at Coast, in at Dark Matter Network". www.darkcity.fm. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
  16. ↑ "Tobias McGriff - Guests". Coasttocoastam.com. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  17. ↑ "Zecharia Sitchin - Guests". Coasttocoastam.com. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  18. ↑ "Dr. Louis Turi - Guests". Coasttocoastam.com. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  19. ↑ "Robert Zimmerman - Guests". Coasttocoastam.com. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  20. ↑ "Guests". Coasttocoastam.com. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  21. ↑ Dickey, Jack (2013-09-23). "Insomniac Radio King Art Bell Reclaims His Crown". Time. Retrieved 2013-12-11.
  22. ↑ Fisher, Marc (1998-03-29). "The outer limits: A lone voice in the desert lures 10 million listeners". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
  23. ↑ "The Top Talk Radio Audiences". Talkers Magazine. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
  24. 1 2 "The Top Talk Radio Audiences". Talkers Magazine. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  25. ↑ Fritze, Ronald H., (2009). Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-Religions. Reaktion Books. pp. 8-9. ISBN 978-1-86189-430-4
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