Darn, cross off going to Pahrump from my bucket list now that W6OBB is not there! He will always be a "living" legend in our amateur radio community. Now he's a shining star looking down on us Earthlings. My sincere condolences to his family.
Sad news. Followed him for over twenty years. He got me to my destination many times at night in the 18-wheeler. A real broadcaster and radio operator. Thanks for the memories. 73, royD/NC4Z
You see a pilgrimage? Really?! An Art Bell shrine?? I don't get the 'living legend' part. Parumph--Not exactly the Las Vegas of the area...try Needles. Or 29 Palms.... ;-) Actually Parumph is becoming a decent retirement community. Hopefully it won't morph into Mesquite. Or the Salton Sea area. Watch out for Geronimo's spirit in your campfires! And the tooth fairy at the Mint. Or the boogieman under your bed. Did Art actually advocate any true science? Or did he always try to confuse with the stuff that wasn't real? Art gets an 'A' for entertainment, but really was no help in advocating science, IMO. I distinctly remember when he was gaga over that movie 'The Day After Tomorrow'. Which, of course, was nonsense. You can't get such rapid obsessive cooling without first totally outgassing your atmosphere. And there is enough thermal capacity in the oceans to modulate the system beyond freezing up NYC in a day...and even if you started outgassing the atmosphere, the sublimation of the oceans to water vapor would stop or mitigate the process. We are not Mars, or the Moon. I see Jerry Garcia in your vape!! Your opinion may differ. Too bad that he is SK, but think about the conversations he encouraged.... the science equivalent of 'fake news'. They should have had his program on CNN;-) BTW, there IS no 'Face On Mars', a topic Art loved and kept on revisiting. 73 Chip W1YW
I see the profile of Alfred Hitchcock in that smoke plume!! And here is Art's support(ed) 'second' face on Mars...with Acne and chin cleft. Broken nose. And cool-as-today Eraserhead flattop doo...(from 2002 Coast to Coast). I 'see' Brad Pitt.
Why does he need an autopsy? Unless there were dubious circumstances or the family requested it, that seems intrusive, even disrespectful. I mean, really: Art's paranoia aside, who would want to poison or kill him?
I certainly hope nothing like that happened to him! But it may not be anything nefarious. Not sure about NV law, but in Wisconsin if there was not a physician in attendance in the past 30 days or if the death could be due to an accident (even a fall in the home) it automatically becomes a case for the Coroner or Medical Examiner. Perhaps neither wants to sign off without the postmortem if there was no clear cut reason for his death. For anyone to speculate at this point is disrespectful.
I had many conversation with him on 3840, 1957, and echolink. I even driven to Pahrump couple of times.
Like the majority of on the air personalities Art certainly had a degree of vanity, but I don't believe that was the underlying reason for his repeated asking about his sound. Most everyone on amateur radio has a particular aspect of the hobby which they really enjoy. Art was heavily into experimenting with the audio quality of his signal. He was constantly trying to approach studio grade audio. Pretty much attempting to get 3 kHz of LSB spectrum to sound like 6 kHz of AM. Art spent nearly 60 years on both sides of the microphone. Prior to talk radio Art was a Top 40 DJ. Many people are not aware that Art was also a top-notch Broadcast Engineer with a First Class Radiotelephone ticket. He had a few decades and a couple dozen stations under his engineering belt before Jack Daniels over at KDWN coaxed him into leaving his high paying Chief Tech job at Times-Mirror for a talk radio show. Art cited the sizeable pay and benefits cut for the break-up of his marriage to Vickie Baker.
I started listening to Art back in 2001, when I was hired to work the graveyard shift as a Network Traffic Assistant for WTCM-AM. Basically, my job was to babysit all the AM and FM stations to make sure they stayed on the air. I also had to enter (at that time) ABC affiliated commercials into the right spots of each station's playlist database, so they will air the following morning. This job was on Friday nights, from 11pm-6am Saturday morning, and Saturday nights, from 11pm-6am Sunday morning. There were other times where I had to fill in for 2 weeks straight 11pm-6am whenever my boss went on vacation. I found Coast to Coast AM quite entertaining and kept me from falling asleep every night. Remember the time he interviewed this one guy who attached hundreds of helium filled balloons to a lawn chair, armed with a BB gun and a handheld CB radio, took off in the air? I don't remember how far he traveled, but I guess he floated above an air field and shot out some of the balloons in order to get back to the ground. I think he was promptly arrested for that stunt. Art superglueing his lips shut after trying to fix a tape cart that broke. That was funny. Or the time he talked to the guy who had a recording from the deepest hole into Hades? The EVP recordings he frequently played; that was creepy. Anyone remember The Monster of 3840? 73s de Joe KC8RLU
Art fell in love with radio at age 11 when he discovered a big old console shortwave radio at his grandmothers house. You can read a bit more about Art and ham radio at: www.nevadahamradio.com
Rest in Peace Art. He kept me awake, entertained and informed many a long nights driving and working.
A sad passing. On Friday the 13th no less! Enjoyed his radio show. He turned me on t0 EVP's and the like. Worked him several times on 75m. I have his QSL card on the wall. Rest in Peace Sir!
