RADIO RECLINER
At a stage when their big adversaries often are time and loneliness, seniors are confined to quarters, quarantined against a virus that has attacked the elderly harder than anyone. But Elvis is with them. And Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Glenn Miller, Glen Campbell (and Kelly Clarkson, too). The Eagles keep them company, and the Stones, even Pink Floyd.
On Radio Recliner, a new online radio station, the DJS are elderly folks who have spent the past two months stuck in their rooms. The disc jockeys tell stories of better times as they spin their favourite tunes.
“We don’t have time to be sad, not at our age,” DJ M&M — real name: Marion Murray — tells her audience of nursing home residents and the relatives who worry about them. “We got to keep moving.”
Theresa Carter chose DJ Happy Feet as her on-air moniker because, even at 89, she still believes in the power of dance.
On Radio Recliner, the tunes are chipper, the patter is cheery, and the people behind the microphones are chock full of stories that put this whole wretched mess out of mind, at least for a bit.
Anyone can listen at Radiorecliner.com, but the target audience is those who live in old-age facilities and the many more family members who have been unable to visit. Relatives can call in, record their requests and dedicate songs.
DJS perform their patter by phone and professional producers then insert the music and the Radio Recliner jingle and stitch together shows that stream around the clock.
“I don’t know with the virus if we’re going to get out anywhere this summer,” says Virginia Hawsey, broadcasting as DJ Ginger Bee, as she describes imaginary road trips she and her neighbour take from their rooms to the beach. “I dreamed these last two months: We’ve been to the beach …. We’ve talked about what we saw on the way and how tired we were and how we enjoyed seeing the waves come in.”
Her voice drifts off and Elvis beckons, in the 1961 song Blue Hawaii: “Come with me / While the moon is on the sea / The night is young / And so are we, so are we.”