Radio.

“I'd sit alone and watch your light

My only friend through teenage nights

And everything I had to know

I heard it on my radio.”

The glow of a green light on my stereo was one of the constants when I was growing up. Back then, we didn’t have CD’s, cassettes, or iPods, we had record players and 8-track players. We thought we were so techy and looking back at it, we actually were. We had music on cue, when we wanted to hear our favorite songs again we could lift the arm of the record player needle and play it one more time. What’s the difference between this and an iPod anyway?

But it wasn’t the records or bulky tapes that kept me glued to the green light, it was the voice coming through the speakers. I would listen to my favorite stations---KSLQ, KSHE, and KIRL radio. (KIRL was an AM station that actually went off the air when the sun went down.) Seriously. It’s signal was only available at sun up through sun down.

One of my favorite things to do at night was to sit by the phone and wait for the announcer to let us know that if we called and were the “whatever caller” we could win a prize. Up until the time we finally had push-button phones, one slip on the rotary dial meant you had to start over again. I won free albums, shirts and other things---my favorite…you got to talk on the radio.

My first stereo came into my world when I was 13; I received it from my parents the day of my Bar Mitzvah. My brother already had a stereo, with a really good turntable, tuner and detached speakers. I was just happy to have an advancement from a transistor radio that got really lousy reception. I was really happy.

The words above the blog are from the song, “Radio Ga Ga” by the group Queen. Normally I don’t write about the lyrics, but Queen was one of my favorite bands when I was young, and Freddy Mercury one of my favorite front men. He had such control of the crowd---it was something you rarely see these days. I do believe he had a similar relationship with his radio as he dreamed of making the big time. He made it...and made it big.

The photo above was taken in New York this past winter. Standing on the outside looking in, we dream of what could be. For most of us it’s cold outside, but for some lucky others, they are the right number and come up a winner.

Thanks for stopping by.