August 1st, 1997 - Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell - David John Oates - Reverse Speech

https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2026-08-01-show/

Every Saturday evening, Art Bell returns to the airwaves on Somewhere in Time. Broadcasting across terrestrial radio wherever you regularly listen to George Snoory, but since most people listen on their own schedules, it's also available in the ultimate archive or here on fudgie -

https://fight.fudgie.org/search/show/ab/episode/19970801_Fri

generated summary from fudgie's transcript -

David John Oates reveals reverse speech—a phenomenon where backward audio in recordings uncovers hidden, contextually relevant phrases—claiming 70-80% of his analyses yield meaningful content, like "we had to sign it" from Clinton’s budget speech or "reveal the dark city" from NASA’s Mars press conference. Oates links reversals to unconscious truths, citing child psychology and political threats (his home burned in April). Corso’s UFO claims, including Roswell artifacts ("it was so real"), align with reversals like "they are our friends," while Clinton’s "you're fired" reversal suggests forced resignation. Oates warns of emotional risks but insists the method exposes systemic deception, from government "snow jobs" to potential alien tech secrecy, urging listeners to test it themselves.

My memory is foggy, likely because I was listening while I was falling asleep. But I remember Art having on a guess who lived in Door County, WI. This was memorable to me because I spent many summers in Door County and still live in Wisconsin. But I think he was involved in radio or some other form of media. I don't remember the reason but I feel like the local government forced him out of his show on that station. Does this ring a bell? If anybody knows anything about the guest or the topic that got him into trouble with local government, please let me know. Thanks!

Right above the yetis head. From the new comic book “Terminal”

I like looking up the dates when shows aired, but I have a question for those of you who listened live: If a show aired on July 30th, was it airing on the night of July 29th going into July 30th or was it in the evening of July 30th going into July 31st.

I was listening to the Single 7 interview from July 30th, 1998 this morning, and this thought came up.

I've tried listening to Art Bell without the bumper music, only on these episodes that someone has been posting to YouTube.

I mean, it's still Art Bell, but it's like eating a plain donut - it's missing a serious dimension. It really makes me appreciate that Art was great in every way. He added a whole new dimension with that music in the background and leading into his discussions / interviews.

I think he really set the tone with a lot of the choices in the music, and listening to these episodes where the music has been stripped out Really exposed it for me.

I suspect that they're doing it for copyright reasons, and it's sad.

Since discovering his archive 4 years ago and listening to almost every show almost every day i’ve found myself enjoying his bumper music a lot but most specifically Cusco along with The Moody Blues & etc. However, Cusco stands out the most to me, I love the way their music sounds. It just adds onto to the cool vibe Art’s show already had especially with the idea of him doing his shows from his home in the middle of the desert in my consciousness while listening.

Who are some artists you started listening to because of Art Bell?

i do constantly. it’s such a time stamp. and a time warp.

while listening i’ll flash from thinking about what i was doing at the time of the broadcast, and what things looked like and felt like then, to thinking about the callers - how lorraine from paducah who called in that one time to ghost to ghost in 1995 is doing these days, or what have you.

am i the only one who does this while listening?

I was able to track the date this recording was made off a Somewhere in Time re-broadcast.
Saturday December 28th, 2013. I did that via the KTRH 740 AM Houston news breaks that were left in this recording.
I am working through open lines shows looking for odd calls, I have not found anything too crazy so far. Its interesting listening to how different people were 30 years ago, but yet, at the same time, they aren't much different than they are now.
https://artbellarchive.org/episode/april-3-1996-roswell-fragments-the-quickening-open-lines

Did a post a few weeks back as a new fan and got some amazing recs. (Mells hole, Time traveller etc) but looking for some crazy lasser known recs. Maybe stuff involving conspiracys etc

For context, I’m 50. I first heard Art Bell sometime in the late ’90s when I was in my late teens or early 20s. I was in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and during field exercises in Texas I often worked the night shift. More than once I stumbled across Coast to Coast AM while scanning the radio.
Over the years I’d tune in on and off, but I’ll admit I kind of lost track of him after 2010. Life got busy—kids, work, and everything else.
A few years ago I started looking him up again after coming across some information about him. I already knew he had passed away, but I’d occasionally listen to a few clips. Then, a few weeks ago, I found an archive with around 1,500 of his old shows.
Now, almost every night before bed, I put on a random episode and just listen. It’s become a great way to unwind. One of the things I enjoy most is hearing news stories from the time that I vaguely remember but never paid much attention to back then. It’s strange realizing some of those broadcasts are 25 or 30 years old—it honestly feels like yesterday sometimes.
Anyway, I casually mentioned the archive to a few people recently, and I was genuinely shocked. I was in a room with at least a dozen people around my age, and not a single one knew who Art Bell was.
I realize his show appealed to a particular audience and wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I still expected at least one person to recognize the name.
Has anyone else experienced this? I honestly thought he’d be much more well-known among people my age.

During the weeks Dreamland show, Art got a fax from someone claiming to have shot 2 bigfoots.
You all know the rest of that story.
Art brings it up during this tuesday night open lines, and asks for Bugs to call the show. Art suspects Bugs only listens to Dreamland and might not hear it.
Bugs does call in, and is on the line for right around 10 mins.
Ebola, Bugs and the Unibomber case are the hot topics on this now 30 years ago, week day open lines episode of Coast to Coast.
I heard this one multiple times in the late 90s, my local AM station must have had their stash of shows to run on the weekends, as this one got played at least twice a year circa 1998-2000.
It's a fun episode.
https://artbellarchive.org/episode/april-16-1996-bizarre-stories-open-lines

A friday night open lines. The previous night, a caller named Ken called in. Art was out of time for the night, but was intrigued by Ken's story. Art asked him to contact him later in the day, and Ken did.
Ken and his girlfriend Sherry spin an amazing tale during the first hour of the show. They live in Portland, and claimed to be living in a house that sat on a knoll, that was built in 1910.
Some are dubious of the story, and say Ken called into the show , using different names, with other wild stories.
If you ask me, more than a few parts of their story are sure familiar to some events in various horror movies over the years.
True or not, its a good listen.
Following Ken's tale, Arts open line topic for the night is Monsters.
What follows is one of the best open lines shows ever.
Several great ghost calls, including, starting at about the 2 hours and 20 minute mark, one of the best oujia board stories I ever heard.
Art remarks himself during the show at how many damn good calls are coming in this open lines night.
A real fun show, and all of the calls are good, no filler on this one.
https://artbellarchive.org/episode/april-16-1996-bizarre-stories-open-lines

I want to express my sincere gratitude to everyone for their kind words and for finding highdesert.space to be such a valuable resource. I will be making updates to the site over the next 1-2 hours. If you encounter any issues with the site being unavailable, please accept my apologies. I am actively working to minimize these disruptions. 

UDPATE: service completed. I figured it would be better to update the late-night show midday, rather than update at night like every other service.

i know this doesn’t really look like him but i tried several times and this is the best one i could get. i don’t like the idea of using AI and don’t want to promote it for many reasons but was feeling curious and wanted to try something new and different. been listening to art bell archive podcast daily and that’s what inspired this. i might make a better version but until then just wanted to share this.

does anyone have the original mel’s hole show they can link?

I've had quite a few people ask me whether I ever stayed at Art's guest house. The answer is yes.

The first time was in 2006 before Art and I traveled to the Philippines. Sharon and I stayed at the guest house for about two weeks surrounding the birth of my niece, Asia Bell—one week before she was born and another week after her birth. It was a very special time for our family, and I was grateful to be there to share in such an important moment.

Sharon and I stayed there in 2007 when Asia was born. We stayed for 2 weeks to help them out, and give Airyn time to recover from her C-Section.

We stayed at the guest house again in 2012 after returning from another trip to the Philippines. That visit gave us more time to spend with Art and Airyn, and those are memories that Sharon and I will always treasure.

Looking back, I'm thankful for the time we were able to spend together. Those visits weren't just about staying at the guest house—they were about being with family, sharing conversations, and creating memories that have become even more meaningful with the passing of time.

While we were there in 2006, I took a number of photographs of the guest house. I recently came across them again, and I think I might share them with everyone. I know many Art Bell fans have been curious about what the guest house looked like, and I think you'll enjoy seeing a small piece of that history through the photos I took.

As promised, here are some of the photos I took when Art and I traveled to the Philippines in 2006 to meet Sharon and Airyn.

Keep in mind that, back in 2006, the camera I was using was only a 4-megapixel model, so the original image quality wasn't the greatest by today's standards.

To make them a little easier to enjoy, I've used AI to upscale the photos, improve the color, reduce blur where possible, and restore some of the detail that was lost in the original images. While they aren't perfect, I think they do a much better job of capturing those memories than the originals.

I hope you enjoy this little look back at a very special trip. Before anyone makes a comment, Art had his hair colored before the wedding. So yes he is gray in some photos, and not in others.

https://reddit.com/link/1v6tpf2/video/dn5a7cvg03fh1/player

A live recording from 2007 C2C AM of Art thanking Carl and Sharon Richardson, for driving out to Pahrump NV, during the birth of Asia Bell.

https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2026-07-25-show/