Out of the Inkwell

Hey I was the radio again.

I love radio. Always have since I was a mere boy and beardless youth. While I love writing and publishing, there is something so seductive about talk radio. You can be angry or funny or creative or smart or all of the above or none of the above from segment to segment. It's a blast.

I was on a talk station, WREB, from 1982 to 1987 as the afternoon drive shift host. Ah, to be a liberal voice during the height of the Reagan years. I got the best hate mail.

Once I understood that station management paid no attention to the content of my show I had a ball. I worried about the listeners and the advertisers.

A partial guest list from those shows would include: Governor Michael Dukakis, Senator George McGovern, Attorney General Elliot Richard, Sidney Shelton, Vincent Price, Lillian Gish, George Romero, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Lucie Arnez, Cassandra Peterson, Larry Cohen, Barry Morse, Clarence Nash and many more.

Hey at the end of my interview with the Lone Ranger himself, Clayton Moore, he remarked that I really knew his career and gave me an "Adios amigo." The memory of that moment still brings tears to my eyes.

People used to asky my wife why she worked if I was on radio. She made more than I did! Five bucks an hour with $1 extras for every live endorsement I did. That's right: every man has his price and mine was a dollar.The spot I had to do for "Cold Stick," a plastic tube filled with anti-freeze that you would put in the freezer and then shove up your backside to relieve the pain of hemorroids was my favorite.

Well anyway, I was a guest on Bill Dwight's show over WHMP radio in Northampton, MA, discussing local politics yesterday. Bill's a good host and a good guy. I've known him for years and I worked for his father as a reporter on the Holyoke Transcript Telegram.

I don't hold that against him, though.

If you want to listen, click below. I'm on the second half hour.

Bill Dwight's May 29th show on WHMP radio

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs