Art Bell

Death of Ramona Bell
Ramona Bell, his wife of fifteen years, died unexpectedly, at the age of 47, of what appeared to be an acute asthma attack on January 5, 2006 in Laughlin, Nevada, where the couple was taking a short vacation. Despite having asthma, Ramona smoked cigarettes. The events surrounding her death were described, in great detail, by Art Bell during the January 22 broadcast of Coast to Coast AM. For weeks thereafter, callers would express their sadness and sympathy for Art Bell to George Noory who had taken Art Bell's place weekdays in 2002 [3].

Change in schedule
On January 21, 2006, just days after the unexpected death of his wife Ramona, Bell announced he would host Coast to Coast AM every Saturday and Sunday evening, announcing at the same time that former weekend host Ian Punnett would work a new live prefeed program for the four hours preceding Bell's slot on Saturday nights (21:00 - 01:00 ET). Punnett's new show is titled Coast to Coast Live with Ian Punnett. The next day when Bell returned to the show, he spent the first hour reliving the death of his wife.
Remarriage

Art & Airyn Ruiz Bell wedding
By the end of January, Bell began hinting that he was making a significant life decision, but that he would keep it a secret for at least one year, asking listeners to remind him in 2007 to let them in on it. By March, he was saying that he would soon be taking a "huge risk" and "do something rash." On April 15, 2006, he ended the mystery and, to the mild surprise of listeners, revealed that, after several weeks of mourning, he had recently gone to the Philippines and married Airyn Ruiz, whose name is pronounced like the name "Irene", but Art likes to pronounce her name as "Arin". This is because during their Internet dating Art imprinted her name with that pronunciation. Airyn Ruiz Bell is a recent college graduate. Ruiz -- given Bell's private e-mail address by a ham radio friend -- had contacted Bell to offer condolences shortly after Ramona's death. After "dating" via Internet video conferencing for "hundreds of hours", the two married one week after Bell arrived in the Philippines to actually meet her in person -- exactly 13 weeks after his wife's death. Bell also paid for his friend -- who was courting Airyn's sister -- to accompany him to the Philippines and marry her. The two couples wed in a double marriage ceremony on April 8, 2006.
On October 7, 2006, Bell announced on Coast to Coast that Ruiz is pregnant with the couple's first child. If their child is born a girl, her name will be Asia; they have yet to choose a name if the child should turn out to be a boy.

Relocation to the Philippines

Art & Airyn Ruiz Bell
At the same time, Bell announced he would be leaving his longtime homestead in Nevada and relocating to the Philippines, near Makati, Metro Manila, intending to continue hosting Coast to Coast AM weekend editions via an ISDN connection. He departed the United States on April 29, 2006, stating an intention to remain abroad for at least a year, while maintaining ownership of his property in Nevada and of the radio station KNYE. Bell resumed hosting on June 18, 2006 but then encountered technical problems that kept him off air until July 23, 2006, when the ISDN line was finally installed.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer printed a letter found on a web page purportedly from Bell that made derogatory statements about Filipinos. This letter was subsequently demonstrated to be a hateful hoax perpetrated upon Bell, who in fact had a publicly loving relationship with his Filipina wife, and who often spoke openly about his admiration for the Filipino people on his radio show. Subsequently, the Philippine Daily Inquirer printed a retraction and apologized for printing the statement upon their verification of the hoax. This fraudulent act upon Bell still periodically results in serious threats to Bell when this scurrilous material surfaces from time to time. [4]

Return to "the High Desert and the Great American Southwest"
Truly bringing his personal events of 2006 full circle, Bell opened his December 28 program by disclosing to his stunned listeners that he had just relocated back to Pahrump, Nevada along with Airyn, who had obtained the necessary paperwork for immigrating to the United States. Bell had not disclosed on any previous show his plans to return to the high desert. Despite feeling jet-lagged after a 15-hour flight from the Philippines via Vancouver, Canada, he did the full show. Amazingly, Bell was aloft returning to the USA when an earthquake cut off undersea cables that would have prevented his broadcasts from the Philippines. Art indicated on his December 30, 2006 show that among the reasons for his return were a recent recirculation of the infamous anti-Filipino email, and his missing of his extensive stateside Amateur Radio station.