A name not all that many people know is Art Bell. He was a radio DJ who became synonymous with late night talk radio. At the height of his career, Art was on more than 500 radio stations and had a 15 million listenership each night. In the 80's and 90's before social media and whatnot, overnight truck drivers, second shift workers, or anyone who just kept weird hours would tune in to hear his program Coast to Coast A.M. As one of our guests for episode two describes it
"It's just an open forum where you can talk about aliens. You can talk about conspiracy theories. You could call in and talk about Watergate.You could call in and talk about the Black Panther movement. Like there was really just like no limit to what you could cover."
As you might expect for a radio show at 4 am, weird stuff happened on his show. He was based in Nevada and was absolutely obsessed with all things Area 51 and Extraterrestrial. One Time a guy called in and claimed he was flying a plane over Area 51 as Art pleaded with him to turn his plane around (whether or not this was hoax is unclear.)
But to me, one of the more peculiar incidents happened on February 21, 1997. A guy named Mel called in claiming he found a bottomless pit on his property. Mel and his subsequent listeners were fascinated by this claim and even a call from a Geologist stating that it was impossible for a bottomless pit to did nothing to dissuade them of the notion that Mel's hole existed. Ever since then, the story of Mel's Hole has become an enduring urban legend (and the pit has yet to be discovered.).
In Part Two- Always On, we'll explore the saga of Mel's Hole and the history of late night talk radio.
Meanwhile, at WFYZ in the "future", Gene, Gia and the rest of the staff host their annual pledge drive in hopes of saving the world's last radio station and dare I say....our beloved medium.
-Stuart
