Lots of other people are. I know what most of us think when we read an article like this. If it was Y2K related, I wish he would have given it the publicity. But, then, lots of people think he's a little crazy. I wonder what the real reason is?

http://www.msnbc.com/news/204743.asp

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), October 13, 1998

Answers

I assume that it's some Christian wacko (is there any other type?) threat or our "I'm from the government and here to help you" crowd.

Whatever happened to "going public" is the best defense?

Is this the same guy who said he would be (paraphrased) "broadcasting live until the last minute as (hypothetically) the asteroids come in and wipe out the planet?"

-- Dave Bean (beand@earthlink.net), October 13, 1998.

Several months ago, just before the syndicate that owns Art Bells's show was bought, there was a prophecy on one of Art's discussion boards referring to Art. So far everything that I can remember in that prophecy has happened - Art's show being bought, and now Art quitting due to a threat on his life. The explanation in that prophecy was that as long as Art was useful, he would be allowed to stay on the radio, but should he get too close to the truth, he would be "taken" off the radio. I wish I could find this prophecy again.

I don't know how much I believe the conspiracy theories, but something is not kosher here.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), October 13, 1998.

I'm really concerned.

Art was doing well promoting y2k preparedness. I don't think he would end his program for any y2k reason. My brother and his family live in Pahrump Nevada. It's a fairly rural area so I can't see y2k forcing him to move. The powers that be might have had a hand if this is true, but for the most part I think the powers that be are not at all worried about Art Bell and his program. It's a program that has a fringe audience, heard late at night and early into the am.

Last night Art was talking about the joy he had with his wife in Africa. He posted a lot of pictures of their trip there. He talked as if he would absolutely be on tonight. In fact, he was discussing having Ed Dames on to speak about a prophecy, related to the Bible. Ed was on October 1, and he was very troubled.

Also, there was talk of an event that was to draw a hundred thousand people to a woman, somewhere, here in the U.S. who draws a crowd every year. This year the crowd was to be huge... like I said... a hundred thousand. She had been thought to receive messages from the Virgin Mary about the end of the world. It was speculated by those that knew her that she would announce that today, October 13, would be the day.

Art basically shruged it off to some extent in a joking manner.

But, there are strange things happening in the world folks. Homeing pidgeons getting lossed in a race on the east coast, and in another race elsewhere. Lobsters in Maine dying from a strange illness. Lobsters are generally exceptionally healthy and can live to be a hundred or more years old. Fishermen are catching DEAD LOBSTERS by the dozens. This is unheard of. A lot of mother earth is out of balance.

I don't know if this is true, that is has quit. But I can't imagine that Mr. Bell would simply stop his show if he wasn't scared about something tremendous. Maybe this is a rumor. I don't know. He was on vacation for a week.

I can't say I'm deeply religious. I'm highly spiritual but I don't conform to a single, organized religion. Regardless, I can say I've felt a shift in the world balance for some time. This makes me feel really uncomfortable. ___________________________________________

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), October 13, 1998.

This morning, top of the 5am hour on the local affiliate that carries Art Bell, KABC,..they began with it....used the last hour of their show for it....much speculation, nothing substantial out there. Now I hear there is word from syndication people, that ehy have been in contact with him.

Easy to read Y2K into almost everything these days,..and with good reason. Still Art did the best he did skirting all of what is called "the fringe"...could be any numbers of reasons for his sudden departure. More will be revealed, methinks.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), October 13, 1998.

Oh, by the way, big station, second AM station in LA area KABC is saying that the reports are that Art Bell's audience was #4 in US...and I was doing the quick tally:

Laura Schlessinger #1, Limbaugh #2, Howard Stern #3, Bell #4?

The radio folks are baffled,..still being talked about on KABC this afternoon at various hours.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), October 13, 1998.

Donna,

I listened to him on KABC as well, that is, when I could stay up or had to stay up.

This isn't good PR. I can't see how it can be a hoax. If he is back on the air tonight perhaps it was a hoax. If he is off for an extended period then it doesn't make sense. No talk show host would leave and expect to get higher ratings playing "best of" shows and losing audience share. No promotions or syndicating person would put up with this logic. It's bad business. Also, there are advertising dollars to think about.

It just doesn't make sense. Something very strange to this story.

_____________________________________________________________

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), October 13, 1998.

Verrrry interesting, but can't add information to the mix, only questions. I have listened irregularly to Bell, if there were conspiracies, he'd be a target alright.

Separately, today, the 13th of October, was the announced "last" vision" of the Virgin Mary at a farm site opposite Atlanta (in Conyers GA). No specific word today on what did/did not ocur there. I'll know moire later since the local news and traffic does cover the events.

Other than the times, I very seriously doubt there would be a link between Art Bell's probable threats and the BVM sitings.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 13, 1998.

Pulled transcript from Art Bell website, last minutes of last show;

You may recall about a year ago... I told you that there was an event, a threatening terrible event occured to my family, which I could not tell you about. Because of that event, and a succession of other events, what you're listening to right now, is my final broadcast on the air. This is it folks, I'm going off the air and will not return. And what I will tell you now is what I told you then. When the time comes when I can tell you what occurred, I will tell you, through the press, through the media, of one sort or the other. I will explain to you the entire thing, it's not that I want to hold anything back from my audience, however, for the protection of my family, until it is otherwise revealed, I can't discuss it, I won't discuss it. And if you were in my position, you would do exactly the same thing. And when you finally hear whatever it is, what it is, whenever you hear it, I think you will then understand.

At any rate, I wanted to tell you, I didn't want to go without saying a word, so I'm telling you now. What you are listening to, is MY FINAL BROADCAST. It's been a good run, and you've been a great audience, and it's been an absolutely incredible forum. And my presumption is, that the forum will continue. At any rate, it certainly is my hope, that the forum will continue.

And again when the time comes, when this information can be released, you can be sure that I will release it, and I would assume because of the magnitude of the forum that I have held, at that time, you'll get the whole story. But the time will come when I will tell it.

So for now and the foreseeable future, that's it! That is the end of this man's broadcast career. So, thank you, and goodbye...

>>> I listened to the final clip of this transcript on artbell.com. His tone of voice was not at all like the beginning of the show I heard... very, very strange indeed.

I do find it interesting that Mr. Bell continually played commercials regarding y2k preparedness products and he did have both Ed Yardeni and Gary North on his show. Very, very, very strange. ___________________________________________________

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), October 13, 1998.

The Youngstown OH afternoon talk show host said he had spoken with the president of Jacor, the company that owns Bell's show. He was flying out to see Art personally, to try to talk him out of quitting. Said it's definitely no media stunt. Jacor previously purchased security fencing for Art's property, this host said. He believed Art's sudden, unexpected departure was a big and significant event, although he could not speculate about the nature of the threat to the Bell family that Art cited as the cause for his leaving.

I, for one, am both shocked and saddened by Art's departure. I have a deep appreciation for his breadth of knowledge, his courage in addressing subjects the mainstream avoids, and the great courtesy and respect he gave to all his callers and guests. He did a lot to increase awareness of the y2k crisis, not once backing away from the view that it poses a potentially devastating threat. I first learned about y2k, in fact, when I heard his May 25 interview with Gary North--so I owe him a personal debt of gratitude. I wish him and his family safety and peace.

-- Faith Weaver (faith-weaver@usa.net), October 13, 1998.

5:30pm Pacific Time, Los Angeles Radio host KABC, just reported in after flying out by helicopter to Art Bell's home. Report was that Bell was in his home,...asking for privacy, and radio host said they were going to respect that wish. Hot news here in LA as in other places...he had also ben in contact with station in Las Vegas, there too people eager for news of Bell's sudden departure. BTW, KABC will air "best of Art Bell" tapes tonight.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), October 13, 1998.

hmm...he had an audience of 8 to 10 million on his radio show coast to coast, a website with millions of hits since the start of the year, and he was very vocal about Y2K. The Department of Defense wants to keep quiet about the state of unpreparedness of the government and especially DOD, and everyone wants to avoid premature panic in general, banks especially. What he said in his last broadcast could very well be a silencing threat from the CIA or whoever, but somewhat hyped up by Art (since he dealt with themes of conspiracy.)

I'm not a conspiracy theory fan, but hey, the government has silenced people before and big businesses too ;>

Chris

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), October 13, 1998.

Threats aren't the govt's style. Faking up evidence of conspiracy or some such is much more the style of action the out of control agencies would take against someone they thought was becoming a threat. Shucks, they don't even have to fake anything - it is possible to be held for years as a 'security risk'. But I don't think Bell would be considered a threat - his audience is generally thought of as 'fringe people', and thus unimportant. Sometimes a true story is actually leaked to such a forum in order to discredit it in advance of 'real' news leaks. Some of these guys know what is being done to them, but keep on going anyway because they like being the front line edge of the news. (Sometime, just for fun, check out the number of really hard edge stories that broke first in something like the National Enquirer - its pretty startling. No, I don't read the Enquirer - but I give credit where its due.) Bell might have caught on to this - but its not really news. I would bet on a death threat from some group he had been talking about - either terrorist or extremist religous (ever notice how those two go together?). Some of the 'saucer contact' people have been getting mean lately, too.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), October 14, 1998.

was Art talking about Y2K a year ago?

-- areseejay (areseejay@aol.com), October 14, 1998.

So assume a conspiracy theory,

Is that why deJager also went "soft" on Y2K?

How could you prove/disprove it? Would you belive Yardeni if he began saying "the problem is being solved, it won't be so bad?"

Or is the fact that you can "consider" the question illuminating in itself?

EColi. Comments from your viewpoint? You see things differently than I do, what/who do you trust, if they change their story but can't justify it? If they change therir story,but include facts or references?

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 14, 1998.

Maybe Art has a life threatening disease. He's has been going here and there on trips lately, like China, Russia, cruises, Africa. Maybe he is very ill and doesn't want to burden his audience with his sickness. I know he is a heavy smoker....Just a guess.

-- Bardou (bardou@baloney.com), October 14, 1998.

what is really strange about conspiracy, silence and y2k is this...

has anyone seen a shift, including from de Jager, in how y2k is being pushed to the public, meaning the aware?

A month ago the NERC came out with a report that, on it's face was disturbing but it had happy face pages added to the beginning. Of course, the media look at the first two pages, and the last paragraph and 'report' the news.

In this same month period, all of a sudden the FAA (one of the furthest behind in y2k repairs) has gone from being up the creek to being "99%" compliant by September 31, and then they went silent.

Gartner Group went from saying even the U.S. was looking at power outages and most corporations were far behind to puting out a report that said the World was behind but the U.S. was doing just fine. No problem.

There is a lot of this going on. Does anyone else sense this? ___________________________________________________________

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), October 14, 1998.

Michael, my answer to your question is a resounding Yes! And I find it very unnerving. Suddenly everything is peaches and cream. The y2k fairies came and sprinkled their fix it dust, and now everybody can just breathe a sigh of relief, kick back, and accept that it was all a lot of hoopla over nothing. Makes it very hard for those of us who are trying to convince people there's reason for alarm. Spooky stuff, in my book. Don't know if it's just a phase, or if it will continue to play out this way. I find very little interest or concern out there. This new slant on things doesn't help.

-- Faith Weaver (faith-weaver@usa.net), October 14, 1998.

Re: The y2k fairy dust fix. Suddenly I'm seeing the same thing in the popular press, including WSJ, on the economic news. Suddenly Japan is fixing its banks, Crysler is posting record earnings, the bears are in retreat, and all is well with the world. I expect the Wall Street Journal to start sporting happy faces on the front page any day now. And the turnaround came in the space of Columbus Day weekend, by my reckoning. Anyone else seeing this or has myt native cynicism been joined by paranoia? Gawd, I don't dare make a comment about Art Bell -- never listened to his show and found his Web site annoying. The story in my newspaper said the local sheriff had checked and found him fine, but concerned about an "event" that he shared with the sheriff but the sheriff declined to share with the reporters. A cynical talk show competitor noted that some sort of national talk-show syndication convention is happening this week and Art Bell just guaranteed he would be Topic A in the conversation.

-- J.D. Clark (yankeejdc@aol.com), October 14, 1998.

WELL,Let's see Option 1 is "The good news it's a hoax, the bad news is it's a hoax" for all of the obvious credibility reasons.

Option 2 is "He got close enough to a group for whom public exposure would not be a deterrent" I can think of several groups that fit but none of them are US Gov't associated.

And, of course, there are any number of other options.

Like, I suspect, a large number of us, he led me to a true Y2Konciousness, and to GN's site and here.

I just wish he had made it clear enough that the various listeners with curious talents could have possibly been of assistance.

CR

-- Chuck a Night Driver (rienzoo@en.com), October 15, 1998.

Sheesh. Art Bell is obviously a real FLAKE. All you had to do was listen to his program and some of the kooks he had on. Some of those psychics have predicted the same garbage for the past 5 years. Just go to their websites and look at past predictions. Almost none of them came true. The ones that did just got lucky. Bell must have finally snapped from listening to all that garbage. Now if we could just get rid of the biggest FLAKE OF THEM ALL. Rush Lamebrain Limbaugh! Have a nice day. :)

-- Soothsayer (Oracle@insight.com), October 15, 1998.

1.Bardou is most likely correct. It could be Art Bell has had some bad news. 2.I am skeptical about Ed Dames. He says he knows of a group of aliens similar to humans that dwell on mars(underground naturally) that are gonna mix with us; that is after we get zapped, and I DO mean zapped by a big, mean, nasty, solar flare, probably in April, so we're not even gonna be around (that is most of us)(I already got my cave picked out,tee hee) to see Y2K.In the mean time, these Martians have been ripping off our fertilizer(thats right) and beaming it back to mars to use for their gardening. They are able to accomplish this by dazzling us with bright lights whilst lifting the said fertilizer, hence the UFOS. Also, If anyone has any missing time,aside from drugs or alchohol use, you may have been shanghied for use as slave labor(somebody has to shovel...)I've heard they are more advanced than us so I'm wondering why they stay on Mars wit 350 Mph winds,and the rest.Ed?

-- Arthur Rambo (buriedtreasure@webtv.net), October 15, 1998.

I like to listen to Rush Limbaugh and any other kook on the radio. It's called entertainment. Are you one of those left wing wacko's who want to sensor freedom of speech?

-- Bardou (bardou@baloney.com), October 15, 1998.

It depends, Bardou. Do you mean "sensor" or "censor?"

-- Soothsayer (Oracle@insight.com), October 15, 1998.

1.Bardou is most likely correct. It could be Art Bell has had some bad news. 2.I am skeptical about Ed Dames. He says he knows of a group of aliens similar to humans that dwell on mars(underground naturally) that are gonna mix with us; that is after we get zapped, and I DO mean zapped by a big, mean, nasty, solar flare, probably in April, so we're not even gonna be around (that is most of us)(I already got my cave picked out,tee hee) to see Y2K.In the mean time, these Martians have been ripping off our fertilizer(thats right) and beaming it back to mars to use for their gardening. They are able to accomplish this by dazzling us with bright lights whilst lifting the said fertilizer, hence the UFOS. Also, If anyone has any missing time,aside from drugs or alchohol use, you may have been shanghied for use as slave labor(somebody has to shovel...)I've heard they are more advanced than us so I'm wondering why they stay on Mars wit 350 Mph winds,and the rest.Ed? 3. I would guess that the government is stalling for time while trying to break it to us. I have seen statements by our CZAR and it does'nt look good. To paraphrase..20% reduction of cities due to hypothermia,food shortages, disease. And this Jan. 1st (1999) will get the publics attention

-- Arthur Rambo (buriedtreasure@webtv.net), October 15, 1998.

Dang computers!

-- Arthur Rambo (buriedtreasure@webtv.net), October 15, 1998.

Dang thing has the hiccups.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), October 16, 1998.

In my haste I meant censor, thanks for correcting me.

-- Bardou (bardou@baloney.com), October 16, 1998.

Rambo, I worry MUCH more about disease than Y2K. When you get the time look up purperic fever (think I spelled that right) it's a South American disease that is spreading through the jungle and getting closer to Sao Paulo all the time. Sao Paulo has 14 million people, most in slums. It has an enormous international airport, of of the largest in the world. If the disease manages to find a vector into the city - hoo boy.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), October 17, 1998.

For those of you that are interested, Art Bell is scheduled to make a statement on his "Coast-to-Coast" radio show at 12:00 am CST tonight. As far as I am concerned, Art Bell has done us all a great service by providing an open forum for the discussion of unusual issues. Many people today would know nothing of Y2K if not for his interviews of Y2K-savvy speakers including our own Ed Yourdon. While he certainly dealt with a great number of flakes, he himself routinely appealed to logic and empirical evidence. Those who dismiss him outright are, IMHO, merely displaying their own ignorance and bias. I'm not an "Art Bell groupie" but I for one will miss him for whatever period of time he is off the air.

-- Thunderknight (truthseeker@quest.com), October 20, 1998.

Paul: Like you, I think disease has a lot more potential these days then it has had in the last century. Could you provide more details about purperic fever? I've heard that something really nasty is making its way through the Amazon Basin, but the Web search I did on purperic fever just turned up a lot of medical sites devoted to other diseases, especially Ebola. (Not very reassuring, that.) Is your spelling correct? Any help appreciated. Thanks.

-- J.D. Clark (yankeejdc@aol.com), October 20, 1998.

check out the drudge report. apparently, art is trying to staighten out a wayward, 16 year old son. I have heard that his kid is running with a bad crowd, probably smoking dope, not going to school, crashing cars, etc. if art can get this situation under control, he will probably return. I sure hope so.

-- ed (edrider007@aol.com), October 20, 1998.

Wow! Someone who actually puts their family above their career! Since Art is a public figure, I sure hope you're right about the reason for his hiatus, Ed. NOT that I hope his son is causing him grief, but that I hope he has the gumption to live by priorities.

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), October 20, 1998.