Exclusive - Art Bell and The Story of Mel's Hole

Opperman Exclusive - Art Bell and The Story of Mel's Hole
Oct 25, 2023

Art Bell was a radio legend. His call in shows were, are still are,
the stuff of fantasy and nightmare. Bell himself was a expert
showman, who could create something out of nothing; a simple call
detailing an otherwise mundane situation, event or experience could
be turned into a must listen, appointment radio.

Such was the tale of Mel's Hole. A listener called in talking about
a hole he had found on his land; this hole, claimed the caller, was
bottomless. Despite attempting to discover the depth of the
aperture, it was never established. From minor things like domestic
garbage and rubble, cars and vans, even industrial waste seemed to
be swallowed up by this seemingly endless void. The caller didn't
want to give his precise location, as he didn't want tourists
trampling all over what was effectively his land and
livelihood.

However, as the story grew so did the bizarre circumstance. The
Military eventually turned up, took possession of the area and left
the owner with no access; bizarre things started happening in and
around the area. Call built on call, and with each embellishment
the listenership grew, agog for the next detail which may just
solve the mystery.

Except... none of this had definitive proof. No pictures, video or
other supportive evidence was ever produced, at least nothing
substantive. Eventually, the caller 'sold' the land and
disappeared, and the mystery was left to grow in the bright
combination of imagination and silence.

The truth is, no one knows what Mel's Hole actually was; was it a
endless pit or was it just a clever gimmick with a suitably
ambiguous name designed to boost ratings whilst not actually
existing?

Whichever it was, Art Bell took the simple narrative and turned it,
over a suitably events driven period of time, into an urban legend
which made him and his show internationally famous. It is possibly
the second most searched for clip on the Bell Archive and other
search engines, triggering theories, imagination and wild, wild
solutions.

It was a radio marketers dream.

This is the story of Mel's Hole.

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