But today, they may have just cracked the code.
Several days ago, Art Bell made a dramatic announcement on both Bellgab and Facebook that, due to problems being able to play bumper music on his scheduled upcoming July podcast, he may just scrap the whole thing. Intense debate was immediate.. a rush of ideas filled the pages of the site with pleas from some for Bell to just come back, even if music would be absent his podcast. Others mentioned free places, and some wanted to donate their own original songs. But Bell wasn't playing with any new ideas: He clearly wants the music he had always played on Coast to Coast AM, he said to set the atmosphere as the program continued through the night.
Emotions suddenly turned positive as Bell began posting more hopeful words. A deal, he said, was being worked out with a 'major player.' After much speculation, Bell last night wrote about the inability for Bellgabbers to guess who that 'big' player was.
Until today when a user named 'Somewhere in Time' guessed CUMULUS.. Speculation took off from there..
As for me, I did my own part, contacted a source with Cumulus Media that I have used previously.. A brief friendly phone conversation changed to an even more brief and less kind talk when I asked if Art Bell could potentially be a major player coming to the Cumulus brand.. A deal, I was told, would be announced 'if a deal was even being worked on' when both parties decided it should be.. If 'both parties' were even talking about it. The classic no confirmation.. no denial.. military style.
Bell himself added to the vast array of speculation with a few coy comments and lively jokes, even humoring users who were openly talking about placing money bets on him signing with Cumulus vs not.. Finally tonight, Bell entertained the idea of announcing early but said he didn't want to say a word until the documents were signed:
What clues? I can not say a word till the date to announce. It is hard for me not to just blurt it out now because we have been told it's a go but I want to wait for the signed final deal first but boy it is exciting. I will be depending on the PROVEN ability of this murky and semi civilized group to hit Social Media with a brick for me when we are ready.
Art
The clues were dropped.. the hints were made.
There is not clear confirmation of CUMULUS being the new brand of Bell, but it is certainly raising eyebrows when the comments are taking into consideration.
But at the same time, Bell is having fun with it all, as well.
He posted on Facebook tonight:
For those of you who can read between the lines and do not mind adult language and are not easily offended plus have a good sense of humor you may wish to check out http://www.bellgab.com remember, I warned you, it's not the underbelly of the Internet..but you can see it from there.
The underbelly.
And as a card carrying member of BELLGAB, I think I can see the underbelly from my house.