Columnist talks about the glory of radio

Columnist Bill Rettew Jr. talks about the glory of listening to the radio. It’s in his weekly Small Talk piece.

WEST CHESTER » Life is full of pleasant surprises.

I recently met with and struck up a conversation with Bill Mason of WCHE 1520AM while we waited together for a long overdue press conference.

Mason invited me to visit the station on Gay Street. I watched as he nailed an on-air breaking news update from memory and without using any notes.

Since then, I’ve regularly enjoyed tuning into hyper-local radio station WCHE to hear Mason and Doug Stirling broadcast the Morning Magazine.

Mason and Stirling work hard to bring in special on-air guests and the station broadcasts all kinds of neat local stuff for most of the day. As a delightful throwback to the past, when the station signs off for the day, the National Anthem is played.

I’ve always enjoyed radio more than television. Radio doesn’t demand your full attention. You can listen while doing something else. How would we ever take a long road trip without radio?

For decades, I fell to sleep to Art Bell, and his talk of aliens, and Larry King, a masterful interviewer. Their soothing voices gently put me to sleep.

Talk radio can be spectacular. You never know what somebody is going to say. The public often asks better questions than a show host and are more entertaining.

Only occasionally, on all sports radio, does talk radio ever get monotonous. Why do some callers bitterly complain when the Eagles win?

With all that repetition, KYW News Radio 1060 is geared toward listeners with wandering minds. You can learn to ignore the traffic report, except when it is needed, and you’re on the road.

Listen to KYW for half an hour when thoughts wander and you still might miss the weather report. Good radio is terrific back-

ground.

The Internet is a nice way to listen in to allnews stations in Los Angeles, South Africa and Australia.

The Australian all-news station gives brief traffic reports for several major cities. Talk about useless information if you’re listening from the bush.

It’s shocking to hear that the low temperature will reach -30 degrees F until you remember you’re listening to Minnesota public radio. It’s also nice on those cold winter nights to hear that the low temperature in L.A. will

be 67 degrees F.

The BBC, heard on public radio station WHYY 90.9 FM, is the largest news gathering source in the world. When somebody tells me the press and media is all one-sided and has a specific agenda, I ask them if they’ve ever heard the BBC.

There is very little bias at the BBC, but I must admit, I can’t always understand what some newsmakers with heavy accents are saying, even when they are speaking English.

Public radio isn’t just news and talk. I enjoy shows like “Prairie Home Companion,” “Car Talk,” with Click and Clack and “Whad’ya Know?”

These shows give us a chance to learn something,

with a grin on our faces and chuckle in our gullets.

I’d argue with you that listening to a baseball game on the radio is better than seeing it on TV.

Baseball announcers have enough time to tell stories and joke between pitches. Broadcasters spout off an abundance of information and they aren’t afraid to note the most peculiar statistics.

I enjoy the pause between the “stretch” and when you can hear the ball smacking the catcher’s mitt or the crack of the bat.

The intensity of the crowd’s roar when a homerun is launched into the stands by the home team is a wonderful way to be startled out of my ennui.

Who of a certain age can forget the camaraderie with his fellow broadcasters and the knowledge of

Hall of Famer and broadcaster Richie Ashburn? Ashcan probably coined the phrase, “the baserunner looks runnerish.”

I loved when somebody brought a transistor radio to a game at the Vet and we had sensory overload with the game right there in front of us, and on the radio, at the same time.

Local stations are full of interesting shows. A station in Taos, New Mexico, hosts a weekly show of Native American chanting and dancing. It is enlightening.

Also featured on that tiny station in New Mexico is a program similar to WCHE’s. It’ called “Ron’s Swap Shop,” with Ron McNiel. Listeners sell lawn mowers and pickup trucks, and even advertise garage sales, on-air and at no charge.

For several years, I religiously listened to Howard

Stern during my job as a courier. Stern knows how to hold a grudge and I grew bored with his act and haven’t listened for more than a decade.

Probably the best news I ever heard broadcast was school closing announcements on snowy days.

It was broadcaster Art Douglas of WCOJ 1420-AM who announced whether school would be closed for the day. When Douglas read your school district’s name, you could almost hear the rest of the neighborhood’s kids collectively sigh with relief, while anticipating a day of play and hot chocolate.

Both my parents were teachers. They were nearly as happy as us when school was cancelled.

We lost something since you can now get that information online. Douglas always seemed to tease us. He held that magic information,

but seemed to take his time getting around to telling us.

FM radio, including classic rock station WMGK 102.9, is still a hoot. There’s something cool about requesting a song during Noontime Nuggets, and host Debbi Calton playing it. Everybody ought to at least once get a chance to be the ninth caller and win concert tickets.

Radio is full of pleasant surprises. With this column completed – it’s now time for me to tune in, close my eyes and embrace some broadcast signals as they fly through the air.

Happy listening!

BILL RETTEW JR. – DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA One of the great joys of radio is being able to listen while doing something else.