Evps That Have Appeared on the Dark Matter Art Bell Show
What's unfolding in a New Jersey court might confound fifty-fifty the belatedly-dark radio legend and king of conspiracies Art Bell.
In one corner is David Rubini, a fast-talking on-air talent with a Texas twang, who styles himself a former protégé of Bong'due south and his disciple on the radio mic.
Rubini'south nemesis, Michael Marshalek of Hoboken, is a conspiracy-radio fan turned anti-face-mask crusader. Of late, he faces charges for allegedly holding his 5-yr-quondam son captive during a police standoff over COVID restrictions.
At stake is a piece of Bong's legacy: a drove of the Radio Hall of Famer's terminal shows before he died in 2018. Rubini claims that Marshalek invested in his online radio venture and so stole Bell'southward archives. He aims to get them dorsum.
Is it a shadowy conspiracy? An alien plot? Longtime listeners of Bell might suspect so. From the JFK assassination and Area 51 to the Loch Ness monster, ghosts and chupacabras, any mystery — no matter how far-fetched — could sound plausible over the midnight airwaves that Bell dominated for years.
Simply this dispute is no conspiracy. It's a lawsuit.
Less than a year ago, Rubini says, he effectively ran Nighttime Matter Digital Network, Bong'southward last radio venture before his retirement in 2015. In courtroom documents, Rubini declares himself the visitor'due south rightful owner, maxim he agreed to buy the network with Marshalek's assist. But the deal went south, with Marshalek seizing the visitor and archives of Bell's concluding 100 shows, co-ordinate to the suit.
Bell famously circulate from his desert home in Pahrump, Nevada. Rubini is based in Dallas. Merely the battle for Bell's former company will play out inside a courtroom in Hudson County, where Marshalek lives and Rubini is suing him.
Rubini's demands: the company and its master recordings, plus $5 1000000 in damages. Information technology'south a steep number, but if yous enquire Rubini, the legal fuss is all about ensuring that Bell's legacy — in all its mad glory — remains in the right easily.
"I'chiliad non even in information technology for the money," Rubini said. "I just want to keep the tradition, the heritage."
Marshalek did not respond to requests for comment. The case seems poised for a prolonged battle: In court documents, the Hoboken man denies that the company was stolen and that Rubini is its rightful owner.
Long before conspiracy theories seeped from the fringes of American civilization into mainstream politics, there was Bong. The Radio Hall of Fame in Chicago honors him equally a pioneer in late-nighttime broadcasting and one of the few hosts who amassed a nationwide following. His formula? A nightly nutrition of offbeat discussions about the occult, UFOs and all things paranormal.
"In that location is a departure in what people are willing to consider, daytime versus dark," Bell told The Washington Post in 1998. "It's dark and you lot don't know what's out there. And the way things are now, at that place may be something."
Bell cutting his teeth as a pirate radio host for the troops while serving as a medic in Vietnam. After the war, he bounced around radio stations across the earth as a rock DJ and technician, eventually landing at KDWN in Las Vegas. In 1989, he debuted an overnight program dedicated to the paranormal.
Past the late 1990s, his "Coast-to-Declension AM" show reached 15 1000000 listeners beyond 500 stations. Howard Stern ruled forenoon radio, just Bell was prince of the dark.
"He showed every nighttime he was on the air a curiosity for the things in life that could not be explained," said Radio Hall of Fame Chairman Kraig Kitchin, who worked with Bell for a decade.
'After Midnight'
Rubini plies his trade in a white-brick edifice outside of downtown Dallas as host of his self-titled radio show: "David Rubini After Midnight." The studio is no bang-up shakes — a lone microphone with iii computer screens, cramped in a soundproof space the size of a small bedroom. The paranormal and politics are his topics du jour, broadcast in a voice whose cadence and tone resemble those of Alex Jones, the notorious far-right radio provocateur.
Rubini spent most of his early career as a producer, designing bear witness formats and booking guests for other hosts in the conspiracy-radio mural. Shuffle through his Rolodex and yous'll find contacts for UFO chasers, flat-earthers and Roger Stone.
"I have to diplomatically be friends with the craziest and the nigh interesting and fascinating people in the earth," he said.
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Rubini'due south path eventually crossed with Bong's after the Texas homo started working for John B. Wells, another far-right talk radio host, who at one time was a fill-in host on "Coast-to-Coast AM." That led to a producing gig for Rubini on Dark Affair, a streaming service launched in 2015 to broadcast Bell's new show, "Midnight in the Desert," and other conspiracy-minded content.
"There's a gazillion paranormal/conspiracy podcasts out there," Rubini said. "They're all similar Elvis impersonators. It was a gradual evolution, but he was the guy that inspired the earth to think in a unlike style. It was merely fun radio."
Nighttime Matter and "Midnight in the Desert" got off to a fast start, landing high-profile guests like Joe Rogan and Neil deGrasse Tyson. But the success was brusk-lived. Bell retired abruptly in 2015 after simply a few months of airtime, fearing that fans were targeting his Nevada abode, according to media reports. Three years later, he died at age 72 of an adventitious drug overdose of painkillers and prescription medications.
Of all days, his death came on Friday the 13th.
"Midnight in the Desert: shuffled hosts for years later on Bell's departure. With the product visitor in need of a revamp, a friend put Rubini in touch with Marshalek, a fan of Bell'southward and Dark Matter. He had no radio experience, co-ordinate to Rubini, only offered financial help and wanted to go on the programme running.
Marshalek's LinkedIn page says he'due south managing director of an information technology company chosen ETT. The venture is run from his Hoboken apartment, Rubini claims.
Co-ordinate to Rubini, the two struck a handshake agreement in March 2020 for Marshalek to buy the service at $fourscore,000 and and so sign information technology over Rubini, who would pay back the loan with no interest. Marshalek would be a silent lender who just wanted Dark Matter to flourish, Rubini says he idea. Simply his opinions accept changed.
"He'southward a nutball," Rubini said.
Marshalek became a fixture at virtual City Quango meetings in Hoboken in the last yr, lobbing complaints against the local government and its social distancing restrictions.
"Fascism will not be tolerated here," he declared at an Aug. 19 council meeting, according to the news site Tapinto.Cyberspace. "You are suppressing the people, putting people in fear, subverting the mainstream media with a mediated simulated reality of science with these imitation hoaxes to control the minds of the people. No one died, no one cried."
In October, Marshalek was arrested at his Garden Street home after allegedly barricading himself inside the apartment with his son. Hudson County'south SWAT team put the neighborhood on lockdown. After iv hours, they breached the brownstone and removed the child, co-ordinate to a police affidavit.
Marshalek was charged with child endangerment, carrying a sentence of up to 10 years. He was released from custody later on his arrest, and the case is pending.
The incident stemmed from a dispute over whether his disabled son would have to wear a mask at school, Marshalek told the Hudson Canton View in Jan. He'south filed a find of his intent to sue the city for wrongful arrest and property damage, the paper said.
Rubini'southward suit says he spent months as Nighttime Matter's operations director and executive producer. During that time he picked a replacement for "Midnight in the Desert" and introduced "Best of Art Bell," a daily broadcast of Bell's old shows.
Merely by July, the lawsuit alleges, Marshalek effectively close Rubini out as Dark Matter's chief. He changed all calculator passwords and "hijacked" instructions on show format, music hosts, the board operator and social media posts, the conform states.
Philip Guarino, Marshalek's attorney, declined to annotate on the lawsuit.
The streaming service is currently run by Marshalek, who has installed new hosts and updated the Dark Matter website, according to Rubini.
Equally an added slight, Rubini claims the network no longer broadcasts Bong'southward old shows.
"They've lost the whole value of the legacy. But I'm going to build it back up," he said.
The irony — all peachy conspiracy theories are tinged with it — is that Bell probably wouldn't care much who ends up with his onetime company, said Kitchin, the Hall of Fame chairman.
"He was more than occupied with delivering one good radio program subsequently another than he was his legacy," Kitchin said. "He was non a broadcaster who said, 'I have to exercise this now so I'll exist remembered for information technology later,' every bit much as he was interested in saying 'I've got a great radio program for yous tonight.' "
Tom Nobile covers Superior Court in Bergen County for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from criminal trials to local lawsuits and insightful analysis, please subscribe or activate your digital business relationship today.
E-mail: nobile@northjersey.com
Twitter: @tomnobile
Source: https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/2021/05/06/art-bell-midnight-in-the-desert-dark-matter-archives-conspiracy-radio-nj-lawsuit/7217471002/