Here’s an admission: I listen to George Noory. It’s not every night. As a bit of an insomniac, I’m just an occasional listener, not some wacky true believer in UFOs, Bigfoot and ancient aliens.
Noory, for the uninitiated, is an overnight radio host whose “Coast To Coast AM” program dishes up way-out-there fare. Tune in to Noory — locally, he’s heard 10 p.m.-4 a.m. every night on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM — and you’ll surely get an earful. There’s talk about paranormal experiences, extraterrestrial beings, the end times, that sort of thing.
Beyond my confession as a sometime Noory listener — mostly I catch him on my car radio — there’s a reason this king of all things kooky is a suitable column subject. Noory is headed our way.
“George Noory Live” is scheduled for 5-8 p.m. July 29 at the Historic Everett Theatre. The stage show will feature the radio host in interviews with guests whose topics have included secrets of historical sites, reversal of the earth’s magnetic poles, ancient aliens, and the prophecies of Nostradamus, a supposed seer in the 1500s.
The New York Times, no less, featured Noory in recent article with the catchy headline “Does Bigfoot Have a Soul? A Radio Host’s Audience Ponders.” Noory’s program, according to the Feb. 20 article, is heard on more than 600 stations. It is by far the nation’s most popular overnight radio show.
Whether you’ll admit to a yen for the otherworldly or not, Noory’s visit is timely. This summer is the 70th anniversary of the UFO phenomenon’s start — in June and July of 1947.
World UFO Day 2017 is Sunday. The commemoration by UFO fanatics is marked by some on June 24, and by others July 2.
It was June 24, 1947, when pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine gleaming high-speed objects in the sky near Mount Rainier. He was flying his private plane from Chehalis to Boise, Idaho. According to the HistoryLink website, when Arnold stopped to refuel in Pendleton, Oregon, he talked to an editor of The East Oregonian.
Arnold said the objects flew in an undulating formation “like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water.” The Pendleton report made national headlines on June 26, 1947.
Was flying-saucer fever contagious? In early July 1947 came what is now a conspiracy theorist’s dream — the Roswell incident.
On July 2, 1947, ranch foreman William “Mac” Brazel reported hearing a crash near Roswell, New Mexico. Brazel told The Roswell Daily Record he saw a “large area of bright wreckage made up of rubber strips, tinfoil, a rather tough paper and sticks.” He gave what he found to a Chaves County sheriff.
According to The New York Times, the sheriff passed the debris along to military authorities. On July 8, 1947, the Roswell Army Air Field sent out a news release citing the crash of a flying disk. The next day, the Roswell newspaper’s front-page headline was “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region.”
Within a day, the military had changed its account: The debris was from a weather balloon.
Seventy years later, despite a 1997 Air Force report debunking the existence of flying saucers or alien bodies in New Mexico, Roswell is a tourist attraction boasting the International UFO Museum and Research Center. There’s no end to the fascination in what may or may not have happened there.
It’s all high-octane fuel for Noory and his millions of listeners.
I reached out to Facebook friends, asking if anyone would admit to being hooked on Noory’s banter. Only one did. “I sometimes listen to him out of a sense of ‘campy curiosity,’” one former Herald writer posted on my Facebook page.
Yep, campy curiosity, that’s my story, too. We’re not alone, to quote space-alien enthusiasts. A month before “George Noory Live” comes to town, it’s nearly sold out.
“Ironically, I had never heard of him before,” said Curt Shriner, manager and owner of the Historic Everett Theatre. He said Noory’s people reached out to the local venue. “They love that the place is supposedly haunted,” Shriner said Thursday. The 1901 vintage theater hosts “Ghost Hunt” events.
Shriner said that before he ever knew of the radio host, he was walking down an Everett street and spotted a white van. On it was spray painted “George Noory says.”
Was it a sign? An apparition? A prophecy? I don’t know. Does Bigfoot have a soul?
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
‘George Noory Live’
George Noory, overnight radio host of “Coast to Coast AM,” is scheduled to bring a “George Noory Live” stage show to the Historic Everett Theatre 5-8 p.m. July 29. Event will include music, video and guests Sonja Grace, Robert Felix, Mike Bara and John Hogue. General admission and reserved seating sold out; limited number of tickets available in theater’s Coastal Club. The theater is at 2911 Colby Ave., Everett. Tickets or information: 425-258-6766 or historiceveretttheatre.com
“Coast to Coast AM with George Noory” airs 10 p.m.-4 a.m. every night on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM.
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