Longtime paranormal radio host Art Bell dead at 72

Credit: Taylor Weidman

Credit: Taylor Weidman

Longtime radio host Art Bell, whose paranormal-themed show "Coast to Coast AM" was nationally syndicated, died Friday at his Nevada home, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. He was 72.

The Nye County Sheriff’s Office announced Bell’s death.

Bell’s show was broadcast on approximately 500 North American radio stations during its peak in the 1990s. Bell’s program aired from his hometown of Pahrump before he left the late-night show in 2002. He had a brief stint on SiriusXM satellite radio in 2013, the Review-Journal reported.

Bell was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina, on June 17, 1945. He was a medic during the Vietnam War.

According to the Coast to Coast AM website, Bell was an FCC licensed radio technician at age 13. The website also said that Bell set a Guinness World Record for a solo broadcast marathon, at more than 116 hours, while working as a DJ on KSBK in Okinawa, Japan. That record has since been broken; the current mark of 205 hours, 2 minutes, 54 seconds was set in 2016 by Stefano Venneri on Radio BBSI in Alessandria, Italy, Guinness said on its website

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