August 18, 1997: Open Lines
Art announces a newly posted photograph of Area 51 on his website, calling it the best image he has ever seen of the classified facility. He also promotes the Rogue Market, an online stock trading game where listeners can invest fake money in media personalities, urging his audience to buy Art Bell stock and overtake Howard Stern and Don Imus. A caller from Altoona asks about his UFO sighting, and Art confirms he once saw one at close range, an encounter that sparked his intense interest in the subject.
The evening takes a strange turn when Art reveals he has been contacted by surviving members of the Heaven's Gate group and may conduct an interview. A caller reports seeing an object speeding past the Mir space station from eastern Washington, leading Art to speculate about electromagnetic pulses and the mysterious computer failure aboard the station.
Key Moments
UPS strike is over - tentative settlement: Art reports CNN had it as breaking news for hours: the UPS Teamsters strike is over with a tentative settlement, after Labor Secretary Alexis Herman and President Clinton put pressure on both sides. Details aren't out yet, but UPS is going back to work - saving the small businesses across America that the strike was threatening to crush.
Mir computer crash - commander docks resupply ship by hand: Art recaps the latest Mir crisis: about ten minutes before a resupply ship was due to dock, the main computer went out and the station began spinning chaotically in orbit. The commander told ground control 'I'll bring it in' and docked the ship manually. The spacewalk to repair the damaged solar array has been pushed back days. Art says it's time to admit Mir has lived its useful life and pull the Americans off.
Montserrat could literally explode: Art reads an AP wire: a British warship has pulled into Montserrat to evacuate residents, and the British minister responsible for the colony said he could not rule out a 'cataclysmic eruption' that could literally engulf the island, 250 miles southeast of Puerto Rico. Art says they don't pull warships in unless they think the island could blow with effects worldwide.