Did Radio's Art Bell Make a Horrific Marital Mistake?

Submitted by Radreview on April 25, 2006 - 3:31pm

Coast-to-Coast AM is likely the most popular and most interesting media program ever conceived. It is speculative radio talk at its best, first sustained by the legendary Art Bell, presently preserved superbly by George Noory.

The show recently made news of its own when Bell, who has lived for years in relative isolation in the Nevada desert, secretly flew off to the Philippines and remarried after his lovely wife Ramona passed away in January.

Ramona, herself of Philippine extraction, was a true soulmate and Bell missed her tremendously, publicly laying out his grief in a series of radio broadcasts that moved the entire world.

Then the latest news that Bell had whisked off to the Philippines and, with the aide of a ham-radio pal, met and married a 26-year-old Filipino lady. Bell is 60, and he and his ham-radio associate were married at the same time.

Bell plans on moving to the Philippines and, by the end of April, plans on beaming his programs in from Manila on Saturday and Sunday evenings, his normal broadcasting days.

The program airs starting at 1 a.m. EDT, so it will be about 1 p.m. Manila time when Bell cranks it up from his penthouse digs in the downtown area of a city 20 million strong.

Obviously, the big question nobody wants to talk about is: Did Art Bell make the mistake of his life? Did he rush into something he will soon regret? What about Filipino laws? Will be still have freedom to broadcast on highly speculative topics in a foreign land?

Bell has already admitted that his direction cannot be altered. His new wife has no intention of moving to America. Marriage is permanent by law in the Philippines and divorce forbidden.

Is it a trap? Can Art Bell end up losing everything?

His position is that it's his life, and to hell with anyone who thinks this is just a desperate rebound because of the recent death of his wife. Bell has never been known to make careless kneejerk moves, either on or off the air.

What of the in-laws? Will they truly understand Art Bell's programming penchant for UFOs, alien abductees, Roswell, remote viewing, CIA intrigue, recordings of ghost screams, Area 51, global warming, the new Ice Age (as related to in the film "The Day After Tomorrow" after a story and radio report by Bell), and supernatural scariness?

Early indicators do not bode well. Bell was suffering from a serious case of the "flu" and did not do a show this past weekend (April 22-23). He's supposed to be moved and ready to broadcast by April 29.

Will it really happen? Will it work? We do live in interesting times.