October 3

Radio AM to FM: October 3, 2003

Bell Back Again

How can I miss you when you won't go away?: Art Bell has returned to the airwaves. Again. Unfortunately.

No one knows exactly why.

The master of retiring under really strange conditions only to return to bother us again and again, Bell is back on the show he made famous for a new weekend edition of Coast to Coast AM, which airs locally on KFI (640 AM) nightly from 10 PM to 5 AM. This time he's only on the weekend edition; George Noory still takes the microphone during the week.

This means that the Twilight Zone Theater, which formerly aired in the Coast to Coast AM Sunday night/Monday morning slot, is history. Too bad; There was great potential in that show.

Bell has retired from his show more times than some people change their underwear. Last time it supposedly had something to do with back problems, and most certainly had nothing to do with the fact that future and current full-time host George Noory consistently earned higher ratings. Sure.

Short Takes

• Fans of WLS/Chicago now have a place to call their own: www.wlshistory.com. Covering the 1920s through today, it is a nicely detailed chronology of one of Chicago's legends.

• Did you know: when KIIS-FM (102.7) was good, back in the 1980s, the jingles were based off of the classic WLS jingles of the 1970s?

• One of the most popular hours in Los Angeles radio is the KNX (1070 AM) Drama Hour, which airs nightly at 9 PM. But does it fit with the new version of KNX that is still in development in the mind of new programming VP David G. Hall?

• Speaking of David G. Hall, he's been one of the characters on KFI's Phil Hendrie program, which airs from 7 - 10 PM weeknights. Now that Hall works for the competition, will Hendrie still feature his character as "the boss" on the program? Comments on laradio.com say that he will.

• Speaking of Phil Hendrie, can his show keep going on when people discover that every voice on the show is actually his? Or are there just too many stupid people in the world for that to happen? Regardless, the show is at times a riot. One of the best radio shows anywhere.

• Yes that really was Harry Shearer on KABC's (790 AM) Ask Mr. KABC show the other day. An example of another of radio's best programs, by the way ... 9 PM to 12 AM.

• A casual, witty evening among friends is transformed by a seance that conjures the ghost of the host's first wife ... who delights in wreaking havoc ... on Blithe Spirit, airing on KPCC's (89.3 FM) The Plays the Thing, Saturday from 8 - 10 PM.

Kind of sounds like a story for Art Bell ...

Book Signing

KRLA's (870 AM) Laura Ingraham will be at the Del Amo Fashion Square in Torrance on October 6th to sign and promote her new book, "Shut Up and Sing: How the Elites in Hollywood, Politics and the UN are Subverting America."

She'll be at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore from 7 to 9 PM; Del Amo's address is 21400 Hawthorne Blvd.

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