Ah, radio. The magic medium (IMHO - In My Humble Opinion in internet lingo). I love radio even though by the time I began listening it was a shadow of its former self. One of my first radio memories is from 5th grade. Once a week we would stop what we were doing and over the intercom all the 5th grade classes would listen to Minnesota School of the Air. It was an eclectic program providing standard educational topics but it also had a company of actors providing childrens radio shows. I was transfixed and fell in love with MSOTA.
My father had a big old Zenith from the late 30s and when he passed away in 1993 I inherited it. Although the Short Wave part doesn't work anymore, and it's full of tubes, it's a wonderful piece of work and I turn it on occasionally and listen to Prairie Home Companion (a program I began listening to in the early years when it was broadcast from a college campus in Saint Paul).
I listened to two Top 40s stations as a kid, KDWB and WDGY (Wee-Gee) and then discovered the difference in Public Radio.
I worked at a radio station during my college years and lo and behold, it was the very same station that broadcast Minnesota School of the Air! There I was, 10 years later on the very same program that turned me into a radio head.
I find most U.S. radio nowadays rather silly and pointless (I've mentioned this before). I certainly don't begrudge people their choices but people like Howard Stern and Don Imus are beyond me. I just don't understand it. I do like and listen to Public Radio but my passion has become the BBC and foreign radio stations. It is the most wonderful thing about the Internet. I can listen to so many different stations, either live or at my convienence. I'm listening to the BBC as I type. Every morning at work, it's one of the first things I do, plug into the Beeb.
It's also allowed me to fulfill a dream, of sorts. As I have also mentioned a few times, I am now a contributor to a BBC Radio show (BBC Radio Wales). I see musicals here in New York and review them for Showtime, a program hosted by former Opera Diva Beverly Humphreys. I've done over 20 reviews so far and I'll be there, at least in the near future since I just taped another 12 reviews for broadcast in the late summer/early fall. I just put the first 20 reviews on a CD (for my own archival purposes and to pass on to friends who want to hear what I did). It's a kick to have your own CD! Having "retired" from the business 13 years ago, this has been a wonderful way to keep a foot in the business. It's also helped me hone my writing skills since I write the 90-second review as well as presenting it on the air.
Well, this is turning into a VERY long post so I'll stop now and let someone else babble on.
