The journey of Art Bell’s Dark Matter has been a wild one, but things are looking up. On March 6, Art Bell announced that a new show is still definitely probably happening in July, and it has a new name: Midnight in the Desert.
Anyone who’s listened to old Coast to Coast AM likely knows the significance here: the name comes from a song written specifically for Art Bell by Crystal Gayle, which was played often as the closing theme.
“This will be the name of my new show!,” Art Bell said in his latest post at ArtBell.com on Friday, “I just spoke to Crystal Gayle and was lucky to be the first to tell her that Midnight in the Desert is the name of the new show, she was thrilled and asked if she could say a word on the first show. This really is going to be FUN.”
If you ask me, it’s a much better name than Dark Matter, and taps into the legacy of what Coast used to be. Hopefully things stay positive.
I say hopefully, because there were some issues back in February regarding bumper music, which caused Bell to second-guess whether or not he’d go forward with the new program.
While Coast to Coast AM and SiriusXM’s Dark Matter were covered — he could play any music he wanted during those shows — his switch to self-hosted Internet streaming meant he wouldn’t have that same luxury.
Because he felt music “was part of the very soul” of his programs, this realization stopped him cold. But now there appears to be a deal going on behind the scenes with a “big player.” I’m assuming this deal will allow Bell to play all the music he wants.
Like I said, it’s been a wild ride. What new twists and turns can we expect from Art Bell’s Midnight in the Desert? Time will tell.
