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| Genre | Talk show |
|---|---|
| Running time | 4 hours normally |
| Country of origin |  United States  Canada |
| Home station | Syndicated: 500+ affiliates |
| Hosted by | George Noory Ian Punnett (Saturdays) Art Bell (stand-in) George Knapp (Sundays) |
| Created by | Art Bell |
| Original release | 1980s – present |
| Opening theme | "The Chase (Theme from Midnight Express)" by Giorgio Moroder |
| Ending theme | "Ghost Dance" by Cusco "Hands of Time" by Groove Armada (Shows hosted by Punnett) "Midnight in the Desert" by Crystal Gayle (Bell-hosted shows) |
| Website | www.coasttocoastam.com |
| Podcast | Streamlink |
Coast to Coast AM is a North American (US and Canada) late-night syndicated radio talk show which deals with a variety of topics, but most frequently ones that relate either to the paranormal, or to alleged conspiracies. It was created by Art Bell, airs seven nights a week 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Pacific Time, and is distributed by Premiere Radio Networks.
Format and subject matter
Coast to Coast AM covers unusual topics, and is full of personal stories related by callers. While program content varies, most nights are focused toward the paranormal, and subjects such as the occult, remote viewing, hauntings, shadow people, psychic predictions, metaphysics, conspiracy theories, UFOs, crop circles, cryptozoology and science fiction literature, among other paranormal and unusual topics. Since the terrorist attacks carried out in the United States on September 11, 2001, the events of that day (as well as conspiracy theories surrounding them) and current U.S. counter-terrorism strategy have also become frequent themes. George Noory also takes interest in the 2012 Doomsday prediction, and believes something will happen.
After the theme song is played (Giorgio Moroder's "The 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 usually followed by a guest interview for the rest of the first hour (with open phone lines if there is enough time), then a lengthier two-hour interview with a second guest. The last hour is dedicated to open lines (see below), where callers may 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. In the last hour in this "flipped" format, the last hour will sometimes feature 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 open lines. Guests that have interviews cut short due to bad phone connections for example, or at the last minute becoming unavailable will generally be rescheduled for a later date.
Some guests have been challenged. However, the overall tone of the show is generally friendly toward paranormal and fringe views, and apart from panel discussions and advertised debates, guests are generally free to air their views unopposed.
In 2008, George 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 accepted that this opinion has no support whatsoever in the planetary science community, but said that C2C exists in part to provide a forum for such eccentric ideas. He added that, since guests are never paid appearance fees, it is inevitable that promotion of books, videos, and web sites is often a motivation for guests to sacrifice a night's sleep.
During hours of "open lines", calls are taken and put on air. Under George Noory, open lines have added topics for callers to share their experiences or stories about a particular issue or situation. The show has multiple call-in numbers for:
- "East of the Rockies"
- "West of the Rockies"
- "First-time callers"
- "International callers"
- A "wild card" line
As of 2007, George Noory has added a "Special Line", which is a dedicated line, with varying subjects, such as the "People who are Aliens," "Time Travelers," "Area 51 personnel," etc.
They are all announced at the beginning of each broadcast by Ross Mitchell. On special occasions, Coast to Coast AM rolls out more numbers, 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 (commonly Art Bell) 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.
Hosts
George Noory hosts the show weekdays, and the first Sunday of every month. Ian Punnett hosts Saturday nights, and the second Sunday of every month. George Knapp hosts the 3rd and 4th Sunday of each month, and when there is a 5th Sunday, Art Bell or a fill-in hosts the show.
Broadcast area
Main article: List of Coast to Coast AM affiliatesCoast to Coast AM is broadcast on over 500 United States affiliates, as well as numerous Canadian affiliates, several of which stream the show on their station's Web site. The show's Streamlink service offers live Internet feeds of the show by subscription. The program is also broadcast on XM Satellite Radio in the United States, on Talk Radio 165. Currently, the XM channel is not available to XM Radio Canada subscribers due to CanCon regulations limiting content produced outside of Canada.
In addition, XM Satellite Radio's operational assistance agreement with Clear Channel provides the satellite broadcaster with exclusive rights to all Clear Channel content, and doesn't permit the broadcast of Coast to Coast AM on partner Sirius Satellite Radio.
Coast to Coast AM is also available via C-Band on the W3 (GE3) Transponder 18, Sub-Carrier 6.8 MHz wide band. There are several feeds and re-feeds of the show.
- A re-feed of the previous weekday show's last three hours is played Monday through Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Pacific. Weekend shows are exempt from this feed.
- The live show is fed every night at 1 a.m. Eastern/10 p.m. Pacific.
- Following the live show, another re-feed is broadcast every morning at 5 a.m. Eastern/2 a.m. Pacific.
- Art Bell, Somewhere in Time is fed Saturday nights at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific.
- A four hour George Noory "best-of" show is fed Sunday nights at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific.
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.
Guests
- Loren Coleman - A cryptozoologist and author on issues relating to new animal discoveries and the sightings of Bigfoot, Yeti, Nessie, and other cryptids.
- Rosemary Ellen Guiley - An author who discusses paranormal, visionary, and spiritual topics.
- Richard C. Hoagland - A controversial author on issues relating to NASA's activities, space anomalies and alleged extraterrestrial architecture (the Face on Mars; structures on the Moon.) He is described as the program's "science adviser."
- Alex Jones - An American radio host, New World Order conspiracy theorist, political activist and filmmaker.
- Michio Kaku - A mainstream theoretical physicist. Dr. Kaku typically discusses topics involving string theory, quantum physics, astrophysics, and other hard sciences.
- Dr. Louis Turi - A self-promoted hypnotherapist and "astro-psychologist," author of 4 books, and motivational speaker.
- Dr. Evelyn Paglini - A parapsychologist who is a self-promoted psychic and witch.
- Lionel Fanthorpe - Author and Director of Media Studies at Cardiff Academy, Lionel is President of ASSAP (the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena) and is also the President of BUFORA (the British UFO Research Association).
- Linda Moulton Howe - A reporter and UFOlogist, appears monthly on Coast to Coast AM. George Noory has referred to Howe as an investigative reporter for the show and refers to phone call segments with Howe as "Conversations with Linda."
- "Dr. Sky" (Steve Kates) - An astronomy journalist who discusses planetary events and weather patterns.
- Peter Davenport (Ufologist) - Head of the National UFO Reporting Center.
- Joseph P. Farrell - Theologian specializing in secret history and pseudoarcheology.
- Steven Quayle - Frequent contributor, researches giants, global security (especially with regard to giants), weather weapons and terrorism.
- Dr. Bruce Goldberg - Hypnotherapist whose research expertise ranges from interdimensional travels to past lives and the power sources of ancient Atlantis
- Stanton Friedman - Former nuclear physicist and current author & UFO researcher, specializing in the alleged UFO crash at Roswell.
- David Wilcock - A professional lecturer, filmmaker, and researcher of ancient civilizations, consciousness science, and new paradigms of matter and energy. Wilcock was Noory's personal choice as his first guest of 2009, and has become a regular contributor.
- Sylvia Brown - Former guest; currently banned.
Other 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 PM Pacific time.
Dreamland
Dreamland was another Art Bell creation, nearly identical to Coast-to-Coast AM but less caller driven. Bell hosted Dreamland on early Sunday evenings, until he relinquished control of the show to Whitley Strieber. It continued to precede Coast-to-Coast AM on most affiliate stations on Sunday nights but moved to Saturday night (after Premiere Radio began to syndicate Matt Drudge) and then dropped the program entirely. It is now heard over the Internet exclusively.
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 pm to 1 am 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, C2CLive was discontinued, with Punnett returning to host the regular Saturday edition.
Art Bell, Somewhere in Time
Replacing C2CLive in the late Saturday time slot is a series of reruns of classic Art Bell episodes of C2CAM, under the name of "Somewhere in Time."
Newsletter
The radio show publishes a monthly newsletter for subscribers called After Dark. It discusses matters covered on the show. It has fourteen inner pages. Approximately 46% of the fourteen pages are illustrations and photos instead of text. The front cover is artwork. The back cover is a schedule listing of recent shows.
References in popular culture
An excerpt of one show is used in the song "Faaip de Oiad" by the band Tool, in Lateralus (2001). The song samples a supposed employee from Area 51, who called Art Bell on September 11th, 1997 at about 11 p.m. PST. The same sample has also been used by The Faceless in their song 'Planetary Duality I (Hideous Revelation)'.
The song "All the Children Are Dead" by Venetian Snares uses excerpts from a caller retelling a story from his grandfather, who was once on the police force, who tells about his deputy finding a pit of dead bodies in a closed down factory. It appears on his 2001 album Doll Doll Doll.
Coast to Coast AM is spoofed in the popular video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, as a radio segment on WCTR aptly-named "Area 53." Area 53's host and callers would make ludicrous claims, such as video games giving people malaria, or cheese being the "new weapon in the fight against communism". The slogan of the show is "Prepare to be appalled!"
In 2006, Bell was featured in the video game "Prey" and played himself. He hosts, as in real life, Coast to Coast AM, and the player is able to listen to the broadcast at several terminals throughout the game. The broadcasts detail what is happening on Earth during the time of the game.
Sean Hogan released a song in 2006, on his album "Catalina Sunrise," called "Conspiracy Radio" about Coast to Coast AM and Art Bell.
A track on Islands' Return to the Sea begins with an excerpt of frequent caller Oscar predicting a large super volcano to explode "in 2007."
Crystal Gayle's song "Midnight in the Desert" is a tribute to Coast to Coast AM and Art Bell; Bell has since used the song as the end theme of all shows hosted by him.
The location of the Martian landing in the film Mars Attacks! is Pahrump, Nevada, hometown of Art Bell.
Art Bell and his radio show were featured on the January 22, 1999 episode of the television series "Millennium" entitled "Collateral Damage."
The eccentric itinerant AM radio host seen in the alien-themed Stephen Spielberg mini-series, "Taken", is modeled on Art Bell.
Referred to on Seven Days (TV series), a time traveling show. One of the leading stars said that not all people listen to Art Bell, when the main star asked about something that was on the radio.
The satirical Phil Hendrie Show used to begin some hours with a mockup of the open Coast to Coast airs every hour. A deep, gravely voice would give out the numbers for callers East of the Rockies, West of the Rockies, the first-time caller line and the wild card line, but every single one would be the same phone number.
Black metal band Nahvalr uses a sample of Art Bell speaking on the subject of the Siberian sounds from hell, for their song "Chorus of the Blasphemies"
At least one psychedelic trance track (by "Etnica - Sharp (2004)") features samples of Art Bell's C2C program, this particular one regarding triangular UFO craft.
See also
References
- "TV Psychic Misses Mark on Miners". Fox News.
- Dotinga, Randy (2006-02-02). "Coast to Coast AM Is No Wack Job". Wired News. Retrieved 2007-04-19.
- Corliss, Richard (1999-08-09). "The X Phones". Time (magazine). Retrieved 2007-04-19.
- Jaroff, Leon (1997-04-14). "THE MAN WHO SPREAD THE MYTH". Time (magazine). Retrieved 2007-04-19.
- Davis, Pamela (2001-01-11). "10 years to grow, 1 snip to go". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2007-04-19.
- "Pentagon Photos Whodunnit". CBS News. 2002-11-08. Retrieved 2007-04-19.