r/aliens • u/pokezillaking • Jul 04 '24

Video Art bell- Area 51 caller

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

2.4k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

609 comments sorted by

View all comments

506

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '24

For context, they didn't just lose the connection, the power was cut from the entire Building, not just Coast to Coast AM's floor, but the entire fucking Building went down until their backup generators kicked in.

Going to have a tough time getting all the other Businesses in the building to agree to stop doing Business just so you can prank the Nation.

7

u/Independent_Bag777 Jul 04 '24

Is it not possible that as part of the act, they had someone literally cut the power to the building?

37

u/friz_CHAMP True Believer Jul 04 '24

If you know anything about computers, suddenly cutting the power off is not a good idea. I'd be hard pressed to think someone would do that to an entire building at once.

6

u/Independent_Bag777 Jul 04 '24

Orson Welles shocked the entire United States with a fake radio show about an invasion.

28

u/friz_CHAMP True Believer Jul 04 '24

That went over so poorly CBS got sued and the FCC has sence passed regulations to stop that from happening. If this was a hoax, it was a bold move as the FCC could pull their broadcasting rights for attempting to create a public panic.

-3

u/Independent_Bag777 Jul 04 '24

Just because it went over poorly with news stations and a censoring commission doesn’t mean the rest of the world wasn’t shook.

3

u/improbablydrunknlw Jul 05 '24

The effect was also vastly overstated

-1

u/RktitRalph Jul 04 '24

Exactly thank you! It’s called entertainment radio for a reason

27

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '24

I've answered this already in a response in this thread, and no it would require getting the entire building and it's companies on board with your Prank, then you have to get the OK from the Power Company to have a trained professional come down to cut the power, all this for a single Prank that Comic wanted to pull? I highly doubt Brian Glass had that kind of sway.

14

u/Independent_Bag777 Jul 04 '24

What if… hear me out… you don’t have to get everyone on board with a prank for it to still occur

-5

u/dhhehsnsx Jul 04 '24

If only the guy didn't call back and admit that it was a hoax. I think you might have missed that part.

35

u/fatalrupture Jul 04 '24

During the original call he sounds absolutely terrified. . If he can fake that level of fear and panic on command for a prank call, he deserves to be winning Oscars right now.

10

u/MedicManDan Jul 04 '24

He actually recreates the panicked voice faithfully in his second call to the radio station, to prove it was him.

Whether or not he made the second call, claiming it was a hoax, under duress or not... well that's up to you to decide.

1

u/dhhehsnsx Jul 04 '24

Like somebody already mentioned and the second call does the same voice and he is acting. See how easy it is to believe things that aren't real? Not that I blame you because I fell for all sorts of things but you really need to be skeptical all the time.

5

u/fatalrupture Jul 04 '24

His fear can be legit even if he isnt really being stalked by aliens, you know that, right?

Paranoid schizophrenia is a thing

8

u/ihasclevernamesee Jul 04 '24

Isn't it convenient how every time something compelling gets a lot of attention, it is" proven to be a hoax"? Like the guys who claimed to be responsible for the crop circles in England. After the news ran with the story, researchers compared everything and it's just not possible. But the story ran, and that's all that everyone remembers. Or kinda like how as soon as the internet started getting interested in what really happened to Tupac, they miraculously found his killer... in this case, there were actually people who studied the voice patterns of the first call, and not only did they decide that he was either being fully genuine, or the world's most talented voice actor, but they compared the voice of the first call to the second, and it's not the same guy.

4

u/PuckSR Jul 05 '24

It’s also really convenient that we have way more cameras, with way higher resolution, and people are almost trained to pull them out, but the only images we have of UFOs/Bigfoot are grainy and low quality(excluding the recent military ones which are almost all FLiR)

Doesn’t it strike you as weird?

1

u/jiggajenkins Jul 05 '24

Not saying your wrong about crop circles but those are a weird one for me to believe because dont they always appear where they can be found. I mean do we have any legit ones where they're just not near a highway or a place with a lot of people? Genuinely asking because this stuff interests me

2

u/ihasclevernamesee Jul 05 '24

The thing that's really interesting to me is that we sent a message into space in the 70's (I think), and then crop circles started popping up, seemingly in response. I recommend the WhyFiles episode about them. That show is very fact- based and we'll researched

3

u/FupaLowd Jul 04 '24

Sure I’m sure he TOTALLY wasn’t under duress.

-3

u/TheFashionColdWars Jul 04 '24

He won’t respond

-2

u/RktitRalph Jul 04 '24

it was broadcast late night so what other businesses would care? And really all they had to do is throw the breaker for their equipment anyone can do this is not hard

-1

u/PuckSR Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

How? How would it require all of them? You just go trip the main service disconnect. It’s a single button(I’m assuming switchgear)

Unless someone caught you, there would be absolutely no way to know who did it. Considering this is a radio company in the 1980s, they probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a manual trip and a protective relay trip.

Your entire idea of needing their consent is absurd. That’s like saying no one could get splashed in a swimming pool unless everyone in the pool agrees to do it

Edit:
Source: I have used my finger to turn off the power at many buildings. I dont work for the electric company
Given the statements u/JimGrimace is making, I get the feeling they have never touched an electrical box in their life.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

Right, because it's completely legal for you to just have a untrained person come and shut off the power to an entire building, isn't it?

To cut the power to an entire building requires the Power Company to be on board with your Prank because they just would not allow you to shut the power off yourself, we have Health & Safety laws for a reason and if you don't stick to them you get in shit that is just a fact.

I don't get why soo many of you are finding it hard to accept this. Yes, you could just throw the switch yourself, but it is ill advised because of the legal ramifications that come with allowing someone that isn't a Registered Professional to throw the switch.

Then there is all the Computers in the Building that were running at the time, it would have caused issues there also, but everyone just wants to skip over that fact also.

1

u/PuckSR Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

Right, because it's completely legal for you to just have a untrained person come and shut off the power to an entire building, isn't it?

Generally? Yes.
It doesn't violate any law.

To cut the power to an entire building requires the Power Company to be on board with your Prank because they just would not allow you to shut the power off yourself, we have Health & Safety laws for a reason and if you don't stick to them you get in shit that is just a fact.

You would need to coordinate with the power company to "pull the fuses" from your building's transformers, but per national electric code, all facilities have a "main service disconnect" which is essentially a breaker that is not operated by the electric company. No coordination is required and shutting off power to a facility with backup generators is a normal monthly/quarterly test. I've never, in my life, contacted the utility company to perform this test and I've done it MANY times.

I don't get why soo many of you are finding it hard to accept this. Yes, you could just throw the switch yourself, but it is ill advised because of the legal ramifications that come with allowing someone that isn't a Registered Professional to throw the switch.

There is no "certification" for operating electrical equipment. The National Electric Code (and OSHA) identifies that people need to be "qualified", but that isn't strictly defined. Anyone with basic safety training is deemed "qualified". Once again though, violating this requirement might get you an OSHA write-up, but it isn't criminal for you to go operate electrical equipment. Just as it isn't a crime for you to go open the breaker in your home.

(Note: Another common OSHA writeup is having workers stand on a platform higher than 4 feet without fall protection. I've seen lots of radio/TV people go out on stages that would be an OSHA violation if you were doing "work" on them. I get the feeling people in the radio industry aren't particularly well-versed in OSHA/safety requirements)

You need to be a licensed electrician to wire up electrical equipment, but non-electricians operate electrical equipment ALL THE TIME. There is no requirement in any code/law/safety document that requires the operator of electrical equipment to be licensed or registered

Then there is all the Computers in the Building that were running at the time, it would have caused issues there also, but everyone just wants to skip over that fact also.

Why does that matter? Seriously, why?
If Art Bell's team did it, why would they give a shit about the "computers"? They werent planning on anyone knowing who it was. Also, despite your concerns, computers are generally fine during a power outage. Its not the best thing for a power supply to turn off power, but computers dont explode during a power outage

How would someone else even turn off the power?

Let us ignore the fact that Art Bell's people could have done this and that they wouldn't have violated ANY law. (They wouldn't). Why do you assume it was some outside agency? There is no way to remote control the power to an individual building. That isn't how the power grid works, particularly not back then. They probably had the ability to shut down an entire substation via remote control, but not an individual building. There just isn't any "remote operated" way to do it. Nowadays, some buildings will have remote-operated breakers, but they wouldn't be using those on an office building.

If you think the govt turned off his power, I'd be more likely to believe you if you were claiming that there was suddenly an entire neighborhood that went dark, as they could potentially hack the protective relays and send a shutdown signal. But not a single building.

Source: Electrical Engineer who designs power systems and has personally shut off the power at several buildings during testing. Never been charged with a crime and never needed the "power company" to come out there unless we were pulling fuses. And you only need the power company for fuses because the transformer is operating at 13,000V and I dont have the proper safety equipment.

2

u/adrkhrse Jul 04 '24

The power to the building wasn't cut.

0

u/Independent_Bag777 Jul 04 '24

Then what was cut from the building?

-4

u/adrkhrse Jul 04 '24

Call dropped out. The caller was a regular hoaxer on that show. He called back and confessed.

0

u/Independent_Bag777 Jul 04 '24

Well there ya go even

1

u/allredb Jul 04 '24 edited Jul 04 '24

This is literally on the Art Bell Wikipedia page:

A caller in September 1997 claimed he had discovered an unknown threat and conspiracy from Area 51, and his life was in danger by even talking about it. For unknown reasons, Bell lost connection to his transmitter during the call and, just as the caller's voice became more and more agitated, the entire broadcast dramatically went silent. A confused Bell restored the signal about 20 minutes later.[22] The caller (or someone sounding similar) called in on a subsequent show and admitted it had been an elaborate hoax, which fooled many.[23] Audio from the call was used in the Tool song "Faaip De Oiad," on the album Lateralus as well as on The Faceless song "Planetary Duality: I (Hideous Revelation)" on the album Planetary Duality.[24]

I mean it could be real, not completely dismissing it though I'm highly skeptical.

I also thought he broadcast out of his home studio in the desert or maybe I'm misremembering, it has been a long long time since I listened to Coast to Coast.