No sleep for the curious

The talk is good tonight. Angels, mystery fireballs in space, rustlings in the attic, memories of grandma, a cure-all from the ancients, some scrappy politics. Someone gets choked up. A truck driver shouts over the roar of his diesel. A woman offers the details of a particularly close encounter of the alien sort with complete conviction.

There were weird lights, she says. And wires.

Ah, yes. Settle back, folks. Plump up the pillows. This is “Coast to Coast AM,” the all-night talk radio phenomenon heard from 1 to 5 a.m. on 500 stations, seven nights a week, by three million very devoted, very earnest listeners around the globe.

Five of those nights belong to host George Noory, whose mellifluous voice and empathetic bearing provide the ultimate foil to those who want to talk of Bigfoot, political assassinations, Armageddon and the time they awoke to find a dim figure, gazing at them from the end of the bed with luminous eyes.

Mr. Noory is the very model of civility through it all, that honey-smooth voice - familiar and authoritative both - steering the conversation to its conclusion in a very satisfying minute or two. Sometimes he takes 50 calls a night.

”George? Is this me?” listeners often ask.

“Yes, St. Louis. This is you,” he replies.

It could be Toronto. Or New Orleans or Anchorage. Or nowhere. The “you” - hailing from some distant dell in Vermont, an urban condo or perhaps a cell phone on a stretch of highway - get their moment.

“Americans are in a huge pressure cooker right now. They’ve got to be allowed to vent their feelings. Through talk radio specifically, they have a feeling there’s someone to listen to them. It has had an effect, and that is to keep them calm,” Mr. Noory said recently.

At 57, he’s got more than three decades in the broadcast business as newsman and a host of the old-school sort. He doesn’t argue, he doesn’t run roughshod over his listeners or the three special guests who make up the programming every night. Among his fans: C-SPAN’s venerable founder Brian Lamb.

”I want to tell people the truth, no matter what it is. Think my success is based on the fact that every listener realizes I’m just like them. I don’t put myself above them or below them. They get a straight shot with me, and I am going to bat for them,” Mr. Noory continued in that signature, dulcet voice - all lyrical cadence and full of promise.

”I was born for this,” he added.

Growing up in the fabulous, post-atomic, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” 1950s didn’t hurt either.

As a lad he read “We are Not Alone” by Walter Sullivan, a New York Times science reporter who offered a reasoned look into the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The book provided young George with an epiphany of sorts, one that left its persistent flavor as curious youth grew into professional broadcaster - though not without serving nine years as an officer with the U.S. Navy.

The world’s circumstances in a post-Sept. 11 world have also lent a persistent flavor to Mr. Noory’s calling.

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