Without them, there is little of the raw spontenaity that made C2C truly great. There'd be no JC were it not for open lines, for instance. People respect bravery if they realize it or not, and Art is the bravest man in radio. He knew that on some level or another, the raw emotion made for good and compelling radio -- the sort that kept me tuned in every night since that first night I heard him talking about UFOs and taking unscreened calls while I tested out my new shortwave in a tent perched pecariously close to the Mendenhal Glacier (picking up a doubled freq from KOMO - 2M was the lowest freq on that box and Art asking someone about having sex w/ aliens the very first sound I ever heard out of it - I was in love w/ DX and C2C from the first).
And why'd he do it? Becuse he loves radio. Anyone who's ever done is knows how poorly it pays. He had 500 affiliates and still drove a Geo Metro. He wanted those calls unscreaned because, like Hunter S. describes in "Fear in Loathing in Las Vegas," he wanted to be right on the vein of the American Dream (or the very weird sub-conscious cousin of it). He knew that the truth lies between prepared speech and gibberish. What he got from his callers was raw and real. Quite simply, he wanted to know and wanted to take us with him. Together, we'd bust these mysteries open. We'd call down the UFOs, force disclosure and determine if there's life after death.
AS for his calls being screened now, well, it sure didn't feel like it at the time, but the 90s sure seem like the halcyon days of another era now, don't they? America isn't the same anymore, and maybe Art just feels a bit broken down by it all. It was fun to take the ride up with him and Ramona. Sometimes it just feels like I'm watching a reunion tour that exists only to make the yacht payment. Maybe he feels the same way, too.
Regardless, that there ever were real open lines was giddy and exciting -- I'm glad I heard it.
