On the passing of Art Bell Radio personality and truly unique individual Art Bell died yesterday -- I've received a pile of related queries so I'll say a few words here.
Art originated the "Coast to Coast AM" radio show which went national in 1992. He had one of the most interesting biographies I've ever seen and very much focused on UFO, paranormal issues, and later on matters involving privacy concerns and such -- though conspiracy theories were always a popular topic. He never claimed to agree with all the strange stuff some of his guests would discuss. As I recall, it was privacy issues that pulled me into his orbit -- I was a guest on the show a number of times when he hosted, and while I don't remember the details I was probably trying to get some truth out regarding the reality of Internet privacy issues at the time. Art left the regular hosting of the show at the end of 2002, and current host George Noory took over as regular host at the start of 2003. George broadened the show's focus and invites on many more mainstream technologists and scientists, which is why my appearances on the show have grown so dramatically over the years since then. Frankly, I've never concerned myself with what other guests on the show are talking about. They can talk about UFOs and ghosts and other stuff that goes bump in the night -- and that's their choice. As far as I'm concerned, the show gives me the frequent opportunity to speak what I consider to be truth regarding a range of Internet and other technology-related policy topics, to audiences that routinely exceed a million listeners. And given the right-leaning nature of talk radio audiences, I consider the show a great opportunity to break through the misinformation "filter bubbles" that so often pervade radio today. And it helps that George is a great host and the show's producers have explicitly given me carte blanche to say whatever I wish. But *none* of this would be possible without Art Bell's pioneering efforts to draw large audiences to late night national radio, and creating a show that has dominated that time period ever since. He will be missed. Peace. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lau...@vortex.com): https://www.vortex.com/lauren Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com Google Issues Mailing List: https://vortex.com/google-issues Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: https://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Google+: https://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 _______________________________________________ nnsquad mailing list https://lists.nnsquad.org/mailman/listinfo/nnsquad
