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A cultural history of Art Bell and the world he broadcast into being.
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Essential Art Bell Episodes About Y2K and Tech Prophecy
Y2K and tech prophecy deserve their own route because the archive captures a very specific hinge moment: computers, networks, power grids, and early internet culture becoming objects of prophecy, prediction, and dread. These five episodes move from the formal Y2K problem to power-grid fear, live millennium calls, and Wayne Green's ham-radio and technology perspective. The page should work for nostalgia, search intent, and editorial discovery, especially for listeners interested in how 1990s technological optimism curdled into late-night preparedness culture.
5 Episodes
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1
Aug 26, 1998
2h 31m
Software engineering consultant Edward Yourdon, author of Time Bomb 2000, joins Art Bell to break down the Y2K computer crisis from the programming side after live Hurricane Bonnie coverage from North Carolina. Art takes calls from residents enduring 100-mile-per-hour winds and widespread power outages affecting 240...

2
January 12, 1999: Y2k Power Grid Problems - Stuart Rodman
Jan 12, 1999
2h 54m
Art Bell welcomes Stuart Rodman, a researcher who has studied the North American Electric Reliability Council's assessment of Y2K vulnerabilities in the continental power grid. Rodman explains that the real threat lies not in computers, which handle mostly billing functions, but in automated embedded chips found in...

3
December 15, 1999: Open Lines - Y2K
Dec 15, 1999
2h 51m
Art Bell opens the phone lines with Y2K just sixteen days away, fielding calls from across North America as anxiety builds toward the millennium rollover. He reports that a Nebraska bank posted signs limiting cash withdrawals to three thousand dollars, sparking the very panic officials hoped to avoid. Massachusetts...

4
December 31, 1999: Millennium New Years
Dec 31, 1999
8h 9m
Art Bell broadcasts a special early edition on New Year's Eve, beginning at 7 p.m. Pacific time to track the millennium's arrival across every time zone. News reports confirm that Y2K computer fears have so far produced only minor glitches worldwide, though a credit card failure across Britain days earlier serves as...

5
January 5, 2000: Ham Radio - Wayne Green
Jan 5, 2000
2h 45m
Art Bell welcomes Wayne Green, the 77-year-old editor of 73 Magazine, to discuss a landmark FCC ruling that reduces the Morse code requirement for all amateur radio license classes to just five words per minute. Both men celebrate the change as essential to reversing the steep decline in new ham operators, noting th...