Talk radio has always been a big part of my life. Even before I started listening to it on my own, it was playing in my house. I don’t remember if my mother was the one listening to him, or if it was when my grandmother would visit, but I remember hearing Bernard Meltzer’s call-in advice quite a bit. He was most famous for asking his callers “What’s your problem?”

I was aware of Meltzer and some other names that were big in the New York area such as the obvious ones like Don Imus and Howard Stern. But, I wasn’t listening. Maybe because I was too young, but I just wasn’t listening on my own. But, that changed for me in August of 1989. My dad was aware that SportsRadio 66, WFAN in New York had a one hour show late on Saturday mornings that discussed professional wrestling. And he let me stay up one weekend shortly before WWE’s SummerSlam ’89. His hope was that I would hear spoilers and not want to order the show on pay-per-view. Well, I listened to the show, I heard some speculation as to what was going to happen, and we still ordered the show.

But, something happened that night while listening to WFAN. Or more specifically, something didn’t happen. I never changed the frequency.

The host that I listened to that night was Jody McDonald. His shows were overnights on weekends. But, it was the weeknight overnight show ,that really became my favorite. The host of that was Steve Somers. While having a very good amount of sports knowledge, he had a unique delivery and show. He blended humor, inside jokes, and production to the broadcast, which was from midnight until 6am. Being that the overnight show was longer than most of the other shows on the air, callers were able to get a bit more time to talk on the air, and many of them became regulars and developed cult-like followings.

I used to listen to WFAN any chance that I could. I knew the station’s entire schedule. I knew all of the hosts. I even called in a few times and made it to the air three times. Once with Jody McDonald where I discussed the Yankees not using a pitched that I liked (Chuck Cary), once with Steve Somers where I talked about the Mets’ fans needing to get over losing Daryl Strawberry to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and once with WFAN’s flagship show Mike & and the Mad Dog where I talked about the Yankees not needing to sign Jason Giambi since they didn’t need a big name to boost ratings.

If I wasn’t listening to WFAN late at night, I was watching movies. And two movies that also had an impact on my fascination with radio were Pump Up the Volume and Talk Radio. Pump Up the Volume spoke to Gen-X and the angst we felt. It also made “pirate radio” look really cool. Talk Radio showed how powerful the medium can be. It also showed the danger of it, which I’ll get into a little later.

In the mid-90s, while riding in a bus or driving to college, I would listen to Howard Stern in the morning. It was some of the funniest stuff that I ever heard. In fact, I remember one time when I was late for a class because I was listening to Gilbert Gottfried on Stern’s show appearing as Rabbi Farrakhan and I would not leave my car until it was done. I’m not going to explain that bit, but it’s on YouTube. The irony is that the class that I was late to was a radio production class. Yes, I went to school for radio.

After I got my associates degree in communication, I went to the Connecticut School of Broadcasting in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. While I was there, I got more of education in TV and radio production. I also heard horror stories from many of the schools guest instructors, who were all working in TV and radio somewhere. Some of them would talk about how great the business was and some would talk about how difficult it was to make a career in it. It was also a weird time in the radio industry just as Satellite Radio was about to start. There were also a lot of corporate mergers and radio jobs were becoming more difficult to find. I never had dreams of being a personality, I preferred the behind-the-scenes production.

Just about one week after I graduated from the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, I accepted a job with a retail company that offered me a lot more stability than I thought would have in the world of radio, and I never really looked back.

Talk radio, and now podcasts, are community building. The listeners can feel bonds with the hosts. It’s like we know them personally. Sometimes, they feel like family. Talk radio can also be very dangerous. The power of political talk radio is very obvious. Check out the great documentary called the Brainwashing of My Dad and you’ll see the impact of someone who spends all day listening to hate speech of a particular ideology and you’ll see what it can do to people.

While WFAN is still the pre-set on the radio in my room, and I use it as one of the (many) alarms that I use in the morning to (attempt to) wake up, I don’t listen to it as much. My radio listening is mostly podcasts, but I’m getting the same experience. I get the entertainment and the community.

This entry was partially inspired by the Steve Somers’ memoir that I just read called Me Here, You There: My Three Decades Overnight, Under the Covers, Schmoozing S-P-O-R-T-S as Captain Midnight for WFAN.” If you are familiar with him, you understand all of that. The book reminded me of how much I enjoyed listening to him and the rest of WFAN’s lineup. It also reminded me of how much I enjoy radio and podcasts now. At times, they’re a lifeline. A distraction from reality. They’re a in-depth entertaining history lesson of a whatever subject I’ve chosen to learn about it. Talk radio will never go away. It may evolve, but it will survive in one form or another. It’s a valuable thing and I’m grateful for what I’ve gotten out of it.