Weird Channel Radio

If you suspect that we’re not being told The Whole Story, radio host George Noory is your man. Every weeknight, more than 4 million listeners in various states of consciousness tune into Noory’s festival of alternative theorizing on “Coast to Coast AM,” America’s highest-rated overnight radio program (in Los Angeles it’s on KFI-AM (640) from 1 to 5 a.m.). “Coast,” as true believers call it, plumbs the depths of alien abductions, UFOs, Bigfoot sightings, ancient pyramids on Mars, black ops updates and the machinations of the Trilateral Commission, the Masonic Order and other secret societies. Noory, 54, is a Detroit native whose career has included stints as a local TV reporter and news director, producer of police training videos and host (as “The Nighthawk”) of a successful overnight radio show in St. Louis. He presides during the week from a dark, claustrophobic studio above Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks while the program’s mercurial founder, Art Bell, handles weekends from his home base of Pahrump, Nev. We asked Noory what’s out there.

Do you believe in any of this stuff?

I believe in some of it, not all of it. Let me give you an example. Somebody calls me and says that he saw an image of his grandmother at the foot of his bed. Five minutes later his mother calls him and says, “I’ve got bad news for you, your grandmother just died.” I believe that. On the other hand, a guy calls me and says, “George, my friends and I went hunting and we captured an alien and he’s in a cage now, and we feed him hamburger.” I say, “Send me a picture” and the picture doesn’t show up. It’s great radio, but I’m not sure he’s got an alien in a cage.

You know why you’re awake at 2 a.m. What’s your listeners’ excuse?

Thirty-three percent of the population is awake at some time during the wee hours, the hours that I’m on the air. They have late jobs, they’re insomniacs, they just like to stay awake that late. For some people it’s become almost like a fix. They have to have the show.

We understand you traveled through time during a recent program. How did that go?

It wasn’t a physical travel through time, it was more mental memory travel. It was through a doctor who has remained confidential. He is kind of strange and I would not go back to him. He contacted us and said he wanted to try out a gizmo on me. It was an apparatus that you put on your head. It had some kind of electrical things in the back that acted like a stimulus. It put me in a trancelike state. I tried to go to two events. One was the Dark Ages. There have been rumors that an asteroid hit the planet in the 13th century, and that’s what created the Dark Ages. I still believe that, but nothing happened and I didn’t see anything. The other one was Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. That worked. What I saw in my mind was a group of nuns looking at a UFO. Later I did a little research and found out that indeed during that time period there was a convent where some nuns had witnessed a UFO. Now that one was neat!

Have you personally had any occult, paranormal, shadow-governmental or extraterrestrial experiences?

When I was 11 years old I woke up one morning and didn’t go to school. I was sick, had a fever. I was looking down at my 11-year-old body. I was bouncing on the ceiling. I jarred back into my body, and I went, “Whoa? What was that?” I went to the library and went through every paranormal book I could find until I realized I’d had had an astral projection, an out-of-body experience.

On the subject of conspiracies, some think there’s one by Clear Channel Communications--the company you work for, which owns close to 1,200 radio stations--to rule the American airwaves, if not the world. Your thoughts?

I have never been told what to do on this program. I have never been told not to attack this person, or attack this person. We have said some very unflattering things about the current administration on this program. And not once have I had a Clear Channel person object--not once have they even questioned me.

Well then, how do you feel about the Dixie Chicks?

I’ve never listened to their music and, quite frankly, they have no bearing on me at all.

Who killed JFK?

Not one person. I believe there was indeed a conspiracy to murder him. Personally, I think it might have been a combination of the Mafia and some other people. They wanted him out for their own agenda.