If you are an Art Bell fan, you know that he returned to the Airwaves on September 16th of this year (about 7 weeks ago) on SiriusXM Indie 104. If you visited his site ArtBell.com on Monday, you saw that the scheduled guest was replaced with a “Best of…” episode.
Over the past 7 weeks, Art’s listeners (that includes me) were having trouble with the Internet streaming feed, which is where a lot of listeners tuned in to hear the program. Art pressed SiriusXM to do something to address issue, including providing some temporary solutions to tide the listeners over, until SiriusXM could fully address the technological issues they were having with their streaming system.
As of Monday, after a Thursday evening ultimatum, this message appears on the site:
We are sorry that Dark Matter on SiriusXM has come to an abrupt end. We’ll examine our options and may be able to return in a different format and medium.
We have already identified many ways to bring a LIVE stream to you, it’s now just a contractual issue. Stay tuned…
In the mean time, ArtBell.com will still operate as long as financially possible, hoping for a workable solution to bring Art back to you, soon. Keep checking back here often.
Since that time, Art’s webmaster, Keith Rowland, has been testing alternative streaming solutions on the website. Based on comments on the official Facebook page of the site, by Keith; when asked about a possibility of a live streaming show without with or without SiriusXM, he replied that, “… Nothing heard from SiriusXM. We’re still working for either scenario.”.
So, at this point, there is no resolution to the question of will Dark Matter continue, whether it be on SiriusXM or an alternative solution.
I will be “Staying Tuned”…:-)
UPDATE (11-13-2013): Last night on the GabCast Podcast, Art Bell called in and had a discussion with the panel. You can go listen to the podcast yourself, but the bottom line seems to be that Art and SiriusXM’s relationship is over and he is now looking to break (legally) his Non-Compete agreement (not sure of the duration; someone said 2 years), so that he can get back to broadcasting the show, in a internet only, streamed format.
Also, before this podcast aired, I sent a message to Paul Bowman (Art’s SiriusXM producer), for an update on the situation, but have yet to receive a response. I’m guessing that SiriusXM is currently under a “no comment” policy regarding the issue. That would be standard practice. If I receive any update from Paul, I will post it here.
Again…I will be “Staying Tuned…”:-)
#FreeArtBell
UPDATE 2 (11-22-2013): Art has made a post on BellGab.com about what is going on. It’s a pretty long post, but the bottom line seems to be that SiriusXM is still standing firm on the Non-Compete and Art is moving forward with legal options, however long that may take, hoping for a resolution sooner than the length of the Non-Compete (2 years).
The “Free Art Bell” FaceBook page has posted a copy of Art’s post, which you can read here:
https://www.facebook.com/machfrei/posts/1393292777580673
UPDATE 3 (11-25-2013): Well, it looks like Art Bell and Keith Rowland aren’t resting on their laurels…this was posted yesterday on the ArtBell.com website:
ANNOUNCING THE DARK MATTER RADIO NETWORK
While we wait for Art’s return, we’ll be offering up other Internet radio shows on our LIVE stream, for your listening pleasure.
Thursday OFF AIR (Thanksgiving)
Friday/Saturday 12amPST / 3amEST – After Dark w/Bryan Alvarez
Saturday – TBA
Sunday 8pmEST / 5pmPST – Paranormal Central w/Jeffre Gonzalez
Sunday 10pmEST / 7pmPST – Supernatural Science w/Tobias McGriff
Listen Live
The stream will be active 15 minutes before the scheduled time of the show. We may repeat some shows, if they were pre-recorded. Watch for more shows to appear here. If you have a show and would like to be streamed here, contact webmaster@artbell.com.
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