The ingredients

I was eight or nine when I decided I want to spend my life inside the radio.

The local disc jockeys swept up my heart and what little firmament had taken form in my childish, primitive brain. Yet now, fifty years later, the emotional buzz I get from hearing great radio personalities is as strong as ever though I still don't completely understand why.

The songs played by the deejays of the sixties were wonderful. They remain the soundtrack of my life but like movie soundtracks I never focused on the music. Every song was exactly the same each time it was played. No, I lived for the song's presentation, its showcasing. I wanted to hear that clever deejay patter.

The deejays strung words together in fashion and order you never heard anywhere else in life. They colored fanciful pictures in my head. They made me feel special. They made me happy. They elevated even lousy songs to an equal footing with the classics.

They were magic. They were royalty.

And yet, they were touchable. I could call these gods on the phone. I could meet them at the grand opening of a record store. I spent the evening with them as they spun the records for our high school dances. I could see them standing right in front of me!

I heard the familiar voice, the famous tone and rhythm. The magic was even stronger in person because it emanated from a very ordinary-looking man.

These moments took my breath in awe and wonder. And early on something incredibly brash and naive inside me decided I needed to be one of these magicians.

The deejays of my youth were bigger than life. But then, life was much smaller in those days.

This is where I leave the metaphors and generalities of my first two posts behind. This is where I get specific about what I have learned from fifty years of loving and living radio.

The necessary ingredients for creating great radio stations and great radio personalities are as unique as we are. No two of us are alike and that, in itself, is a remarkable quality. We'll come back to that. But even as every word, every nuance of inflection and tone; every intent and reception of every utterance from great radio personalities is unique, there is one constant.

They always evoke an emotional response.

Always.

That's it! That's all you need to know.

Prove me wrong. Name one great radio station or personality of any format, of any era, who didn't excite you, delight you or piss you off every time you listen.

Is that ability a God-given gift or the result of passion, commitment and hard work?

Yes, it is.