He’s the hardest working man in the industry, with an audience that’s more like family. Most importantly Coast to Coast AM host George Noory is a man who keeps his promises.
“I made a pledge to our audience when I came in. There are a lot of lonely people out there. I get emotional about that. But I told them I will never, ever leave them. That’s why I do it,” Noory told Barrett News Media over a Zoom call.
George Noory didn’t intend on being in the media, but at 19 he decided to give it a try. “I was going to be a dentist. That’s what my dad wanted me to become,” he added, “I did that for about two years. And I said, you know what? I love broadcasting. I’ve always loved broadcasting, and I miss broadcasting.”
Through a friend he got his first gig. “[My friend] was in the broadcast curriculum at the University of Detroit, and he was going home for Christmas. He lived in Cleveland, and he said, ‘George, they won’t let me leave.’ He was a copy-boy at a television station in Detroit. He said, ‘They won’t let me leave unless I get somebody to fill in for me for a week. Would you do it?’ I went ‘Absolutely.’”
George Noory went on to say, “I stayed there for a week and I was ready to leave, and the news director came up to me. His name was Frank and he said, ‘George, we want you to stay.’ I said, ‘Well, what about [my friend] David?’ He said, ‘We’re going to keep him, too. Don’t worry about that.’ So they kept me on and I stayed there for a couple of years, got my degree in broadcasting from the University of Detroit.”
From the University of Detroit, George Noory went on to become a radio reporter at WCAR. “I did that for a couple of years, then I went to a TV station in Detroit, WWJ television. From there, I went to WJBK-TV, which was channel two.”
After his reporting career, Noory had an extensive career as a TV Executive Producer before being offered a News Director position in St. Louis. “He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. So we picked up my family, I had two little girls and a boy, and we moved to Saint Louis in 1979. I ran the NBC television station there, KSDK.”
It wasn’t until 1996 when George Noory figured out what he wanted to do. “I heard Art Bell on the radio doing Coast to Coast in Saint Louis. He was affiliated all over the country. And I said, ‘That’s what I want to do.’” When Bell retired in 2003, Noory took over for him.
22 years later, Noory has built more than an audience, he’s built a family.
“Of all the programs I’ve done in my life, it is one of the strongest, tight-knit groups of listeners I’ve ever come across. I’ve listened to other talk shows and you hear callers call them but hear they’re family. They care about people.” Noory added, “I get callers who call in wondering if so-and-so is okay from Tallahassee, or if somebody from Wichita is okay. I mean, they really care about people, and that just keeps me going. It’s just amazing. Sometimes it gets emotional.”
The Coast to Coast AM family includes his producers. Noory hasn’t had a single staff change since he took over the show. Most notably, Coast to Coast AM is known for speaking on the paranormal and what some consider conspiracy theories. Noory said of the content, “I believe a lot, I always did. I believe in life after death, I believe that there’s Bigfoot wandering out there, and I believe we’ve been visited by extraterrestrials. We continue to be.”
Noory later added, “I think the government knows [we’ve been visited by aliens]. Just by the nature of the hearings that are happening right now, without publicly coming out and telling us everything. Because I think they’re trying to figure out how they can tell us that they lied to us for so many years. But this is an amazing universe and I’m glad we’re in it.”
When asked if he’s ever met an alien Noory in jest said, “Maybe I am one.” In a more serious tone, he told BNM if he did meet one, “I think my first question to an alien is if they believe in God. I’d love to know what that answer is. Where do they think they came from? How did they get here? I think it would be one of the greatest questions you could give mankind or humankind.”
Part of why George Noory believes is because of some of the inexplicable calls he receives. “One of the good calls I got one day was from a police officer. I get a lot of calls from police officers. They work all shifts. And he said that they had a call that a guy had a heart attack.”
Quoting the officer, Noory said, “And we got there, George, before the first responders got there. We get to the door and the little old man lets us in and we see a person on his stomach on the floor. We rush to him and flip him over. It’s the little old man who opened the door, and we turn around and that guy’s gone.” Noory later added, “So those kind of calls just keep on coming.”
Emmy award-winning Noory does cover more than aliens and conspiracy theories on his show. Working overnight hours, Noory is often the first live show to break news from around the world. Most notably, Noory was the first to announce the death of Osama Bin Laden.
While he does have to hyphen from fact and fiction more, Noory always goes with his gut.
“I’ve been lucky enough to be extremely intuitive about certain things. My gut instinct has been pretty profound, and I use that a lot on the radio show. And that seems to be helping and working.” Noory later added, “It’s it’s a given gift. It came from somewhere. But, there’s just an uncanny perception of certain things, and. Gives me a different insight into certain things.”
For those looking to follow in his footsteps, Noory said, “Give 120% every day and just work, work, work. And make it happen. It’s a tiring job sometimes, but you have to do it.”
George Noory said of himself, “I see myself as a stability factor in this country, not just a paranormal host who has fun and stuff like that, but to kind of calm people down during uptight times that we’ve had. Uptight times are going to have even more. And, I want to be there for them so they can at least tune in whenever they can and feel some kind of comfort that there’s a voice out there in the wilderness, in the darkness that can be heard for, though, and that’s what I’m going to keep doing.”
Noory added, “I told my producer, Tom, I’m not going to retire. I’m just going to work until one day, he goes back on the air, and says ‘George died during the commercial break.’ That’s it.”
