Thursday, April 6, 2000

Radio's watchdog of extraterrestrials calls it quits, again

Sound the gong again for Art Bell. Radio's reigning overnight attraction announced April 1 that he's retiring later this month. Bell's "Coast to Coast AM" show is heard at the midnight hour on more than 400 stations across North America, including San Antonio's WOAI-AM/1200, which can be picked up throughout the Coastal Bend.
   Bell has quit radio before and come back. In October 1998 he suddenly left the airwaves citing personal reasons having to do with a bizarre kidnapping and sexual assault of his son by a substitute teacher. He returned to his show a few weeks later. The teacher, Brian Lepley, was convicted of sexually assaulting Arthur Bell IV and another boy and is now serving a life sentence. The Bells are suing Lepley in federal court.
   Around the same time as his son's ordeal, Bell himself was the subject of child molestation accusations levied on short-wave radio talk show by a retired FBI agent. Bell has since sued the accuser, Ted Gunderson.
   Bell said on the air last Friday that the two events had sent him into a "psychological tailspin."
   "It would be untrue for me to say this has not affected my air work. It has," he told listeners. "It would be unfair to all of you not to give you my full-time best. I can no longer do that."
   Bell's show specializes in eerie tales of extraterrestrials, demonic possession and ghosts. His Web site, www.artbell.com, is a fascinating collection of "eyewitness" accounts of encounters with otherworldly beings.
   Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates Bell, has not announced who will replace him, but did say that "Coast to Coast" will continue to pursue the same subject matter. A frequent guest-host for Bell has been alien-obsessed author Whitley Strieber.
   Channel chatter
   Former KIII reporters DeAnna McQueen and Eric Rosales, who now report for two different stations in Fresno, Calif., returned to Corpus Christi Saturday to be married at St. Pius X Church. Lots of local media types turned out for the nuptials, including former KIII reporters Nancy Laflin and Esther Powell, current KIII morning anchor Michele Silva, and sports anchor Dan McReynolds and wife Nan. KRIS anchor Lorette Winters and her hubby watched the "I do's" alongside meteorologist Bill Elias.
   Elias, by the way, put special effort into his wedding gift. I spotted him at the new Kil-N-Time paint-your-own-pottery place on Third Avenue, carefully decorating a ceramic picture frame with palm trees.
   And speaking of parties, KRIS noon anchor Allison Smith was City Manager David Garcia's date at the posh Cattle Baron's bash Saturday night.
  
  
  

 
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