June 30, 1997: Open Lines
Callers weigh in on topics ranging from a hollow moon theory and Mel's Hole to reverse speech techniques and a retired aerospace engineer who claims the Phoenix lights were a classified V-shaped military craft. Art challenges the logic of testing secret vehicles over a city of two million people. He also reports that Hubble has detected a massive dust storm inside Valles Marineris on Mars, heading toward the Pathfinder landing site just days before the July 4th touchdown.
The evening builds anticipation for a historic week ahead. Art previews upcoming interviews on Roswell, teases a press conference promising scientific proof of extraterrestrial crash debris, and fields calls from listeners worldwide on the mysteries of the moment.
Key Moments
Holyfield-Tyson ear bite: nobody asked for refunds: Bell opens with the Tyson disqualification - Tyson having bitten off part of Evander Holyfield's ear the previous night - and zeroes in on a single statistic he finds revealing: in past short fights, fans demanded refunds, but for this one, almost no one did.
Bell rejects the Air Force Roswell 'crash test dummies' explanation: Reading a faxed listener question on-air, Bell amplifies the obvious hole in the Air Force's then-new Roswell report: if the bodies were crash-test dummies and the stench came from 'dead airmen,' how did the airmen die when only dummies were dropped?
Hubble dust storm heading for the Pathfinder landing site: Bell reads a faxed bulletin from Cornell's Jim Bell relayed through the International Mars Watch newsletter - Hubble has detected an enormous dust storm filling Valles Marineris and spilling east toward the Pathfinder landing site days before the July 4 touchdown.