Paranormal radio host Art Bell dead at 72

Art Bell, a radio host best known for a paranormal-themed nightly show, syndicated on hundreds of stations in the 1990s, has died at his home in southern Nevada.
 
Bell hosted the popular radio talk show “Coast to Coast AM” before he left the airwaves in 2002. He broadcast the show from his radio station, KNYE, in Pahrump.
 
The program focused on Bell’s conspiracy theories and his fascination with the paranormal and unexplained phenomenon such as UFOs and crop circles. He served as his own producer, engineer and host.
 
Former business partner Alan Corbeth said during Bell’s 2008 induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame that nobody was better than Bell at understanding “how to create theater of the mind…”
 
At his peak, Bell was heard on some 500 radio stations nationwide. He retired more than once and had a brief run on SiriusXM satellite radio in 2013.
 
He grew up in a military family and became an FCC-licensed radio technician by the age of 13. He later enlisted in the U.S. Air Force while also starting his own pirate radio station.