[13] While working at a rock music station in Anchorage, he learned about Amerasian children stranded in Saigon in the final days before the U.S. pullout from Vietnam in 1975.

[5] Bell abandoned conventional political talk in favor of topics such as gun control and conspiracy theories, leading to a significant increase in his overnight ratings.

An article in the February 23, 1997, edition of The Washington Post said that Bell was currently America's highest-rated late-night radio talk show host, broadcast on 328 stations.

Fans regarded Bell as a master showman, noting that he called his show "absolute entertainment"[15] and expressly said he did not necessarily accept every guest or caller's claims, but only offered a forum where they would not be openly ridiculed.

Ed Dames, Richard C. Hoagland, Terence McKenna, Dannion Brinkley, David John Oates, and Robert Bigelow were all regular guests.

He interviewed singers Crystal Gayle, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Eric Burdon and Gordon Lightfoot, comedian George Carlin, writer Dean Koontz, hard science fiction writer Greg Bear, X-Files writer/creator Chris Carter, TV talk host Regis Philbin, Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy, actor Dan Aykroyd, former Luftwaffe pilot Bruno Stolle, actress Jane Seymour, actress Ellen Muth, actor and TV host Robert Stack, human rights lawyer John Loftus, legendary disc jockey Casey Kasem, UFC commentator Joe Rogan and frequent guests physicist Michio Kaku and SETI astronomers Seth Shostak and H. Paul Shuch.

"[16] Susan Wright reported that later, Bell was also "one of the first to publicize expert opinions refuting the 'alien' companion" said to have been shadowing Hale-Bopp,[17] such as that published in 1998 from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory suggesting that "the satellite's main diameter is ~30 km," (20 miles) and accordingly natural rather than artificial.

He interviewed musicians Willie Nelson,[19] Crystal Gayle,[20] and Merle Haggard;[21] science fiction author Jerry Pournelle;[22] and comedians George Carlin[23] and Joe Rogan.

Koontz's 2002 novel By the Light of the Moon has a supporting character named Parish Lantern, described as the deep-voiced host of an overnight call-in show which discusses extraterrestrials.

Bell had several semi-regular guests, including theoretical physicist Michio Kaku; controversial Catholic priest Malachi Martin; journalists George Knapp[25] and Linda Moulton Howe;[25] conspiracy theorist Richard C. Hoagland,[25] and self-proclaimed remote viewer Ed Dames.

[26] Pierce, writing under the pseudonym "Andrew Macdonald", depicted a race war leading to the extermination of Jews, non-whites and homosexuals.

For unknown reasons, Bell lost connection to his transmitter during the call and, just as the caller's voice became more and more agitated, the entire broadcast dramatically went silent.

[33] The facts of the matter became public knowledge in 2000, when the media revealed that an actual criminal indictment was filed against a person who had assaulted a member of Bell's family.

Ted Gunderson, the former head of the Los Angeles FBI and the hosts at WWCR shortwave radio had accused Bell of the crime.

On October 23, 2002, Bell announced that he would retire due to recurring back pain, which was the result of a fall from a telephone pole during his youth.

[40] On January 5, 2006, Ramona Bell, his wife of 15 years, died unexpectedly[41] at the age of 47 of what appeared to be an acute asthma attack in Laughlin, Nevada, where the couple had been taking a short vacation.

[42] On January 21, 2006, 16 days after the unexpected death of his wife Ramona, Bell announced he would host Coast to Coast AM every Saturday and Sunday evening, and that former weekend host Ian Punnett would work a new live prefeed program for the four hours preceding Bell's slot on Saturday nights (9:00 pm – 1:00 am ET).

[citation needed] Bell opened his December 28, 2006, program by disclosing that he had just relocated back from the Philippines to Pahrump, Nevada, with his wife Airyn.

[citation needed] In late 2008, Bell and his wife filed an I-751 petition with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services as part of her marriage-based green card process.

In early 2009 the USCIS responded that they would need additional evidence to prove that Bell's marriage to a Philippine national and subsequent green card application was in good faith.

"[49] On March 10, 2009, Bell and his wife and daughter left Nevada for Manila to deal with some family business including the disposition of a condo they owned.

However, the weekly Somewhere in Time with Art Bell broadcasts of classic Bell-hosted episodes (which have aired before the live show on Saturday nights since 2006) were not discontinued.

"Art Bell decided he no longer wished to do live C2C shows, and asked that his name be removed from the host listings accordingly," said Coast webmaster Lex Lonehood.

[citation needed] On December 11, 2015, Bell permanently stepped down as host of Midnight in the Desert due to concerns about his family's safety.

The coroner's office determined he had four prescription medications in his system: the opioids oxycodone or Roxicet and hydrocodone or Vicodin, diazepam or Valium, and carisoprodol or Soma, a muscle-relaxant.

[67] Bell wrote, or co-wrote, several books, including The Quickening: Today's Trends, Tomorrow's World; The Art of Talk (an autobiography); The Source: Journey Through the Unexplained; The Edge: Man's Mysterious Past & Incredible Future; and The Coming Global Superstorm (co-authored with Whitley Strieber), which became the basis for the popular movie The Day After Tomorrow.

[citation needed] In 1996, Bell appeared in an episode of the NBC science fiction series Dark Skies as William S. Paley, head of CBS.

[citation needed] On September 30, 1998, NBC's Today Show aired a taped segment of reporter Fred Francis interviewing Bell.

)[not specific enough to verify] Progressive rock band Tool's 2001 album, Lateralus, featured a track entitled "Faaip de Oiad" (Enochian for "The Voice of God"), which includes a clip of the "distraught and terrified" Area 51 employee call from September 11, 1997.

[citation needed] Bell appeared alongside Mark Arnold in the 2016 film titled Abduct, directed by Ilyas Kaduji and produced by Mafalda Sa.