Art Bell and The Story of Mel's Hole

The Opperman Report'

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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