A breath of FRESH AIR
Lillian S. Cauldwell of Wernersville operates an internet radio station that has an audience of millions around the world.
When Lillian S. Cauldwell was in high school in the late
1960s, her parents urged her to get a part-time job.
Having a job, they told her, would expose her to the wider world out there.
Cauldwell took her parents’ advice and, more than
50 years later, she’s blazing a trail that connects her to the wider world made accessible by social media.
Working at a laptop in her apartment at Phoebe Berks Village in Wernersville, the 69-year-old Cauldwell operates an internet radio station that has an audience of millions around the world.
Passionate World Talk Radio streams live, on-demand programming to 165 countries.
“We have about 15 million listeners,” Cauldwell said. “Our target audience is people between 18 and
55, which account for about
53 percent of our listeners.”
A voice for everyone
About 15 years ago, when she was living in Cleveland, Cauldwell came to a profound conclusion that would shape the rest of her life.
“I realized that unless you’re a big-wig, somebody famous, your voice is not going to be heard on TV or radio,” she said.
The fundamental unfairness of the dynamic bothered her, and she decided to do something about it.
Pretty much on her own, with only a basic understanding of the intricacies of the internet, she founded Passionate World Talk Ra
dio to sort of even the scales.
“Our station gives voice to ordinary people,” Cauldwell said. “We’re a conduit for them to be heard.”
The station’s introduction ref lects Cauldwell’s world view.
“No matter what ethnicity, size or age, your voice is heard,” it says. “Passionate World Talk Radio educates, enlightens and entertains.”
What Cauldwell calls “belly of the beast programming” focuses on things that can make a difference in people’s lives.
“When there’s a crisis, it’s no time for your fingers to be walking through the Yellow Pages,” she said, dating herself with a reference to a 1970s ad slogan. “We provide information to get you through, to give you what you need.”
Cauldwell selects audio and video programs built around problem-solving, self-improvement, critical thinking and self-help themes.
The station’s lineup includes contributions from the United Kingdom, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Navigating the new world
When she graduated from Columbia High School in Maple Wood, N.J. in 1969, as Cauldwell recalls it, the world was a place where young people could take time to travel before getting on with their lives.
Today’s youngsters, in Cauldwell’s view, have no such luxury.
“The world is increasingly verbal and technical, and it’s changing fast,” she said. “Youngsters need to be able to adjust their skills and knowledge level and adapt to change.”
Passionate World Talk Radio, Cauldwell insists, offers innovative programming that can give youngsters the skills they need to navigate an emerging technological world where they will have to communicate with artificial intelligence.
The station has secured licenses to five television channels, one of which will be devoted to educational programming.
“We need to teach the humanities,” she said, “which means teaching youngsters to think on their feet, to think independently.”
The other channels will be devoted to holistic programming, entertainment and use by the radio station.
On her own
Lillian Caldwell (she later changed the spelling to Cauldwell) was raised, as she puts it, to get married and have kids.
After two years at Hartford College for Women and a year at the University of New Hampshire, she got married and started a family in 1973.
The marriage was shortlived, and for 15 years she raised her son, Benjamin, as a single-parent in Houston.
“The way I was raised, I was not prepared to face the world alone,” she recalled. “I had to reinvent myself.”
Raising a child alone and working as a temporary administrative assistant, it turns out, strengthened her resolve.
“It taught me how to handle seemingly insurmountable problems by breaking them down into little chunks,” she said. “I also learned that people are different, and you have to take that into account.”
Cauldwell would draw on those lessons when, years later, she ventured into the uncharted world on internet radio.
While she had basic computer skills, Cauldwell relied on her own initiative to navigate the complex world of starting an internet broadcasting company.
“I had no one to teach me,” she said. “So, I taught myself.”
New horizons
Cauldwell and her husband, Barr y Jacobson, moved into an apartment at Phoebe Berks about three years ago.
They were married in 1989, when Cauldwell’s son was 15 years old.
Ben Caldwell, who spells his last name differently than his mother, now 47, is a well-known artist and illustrator whose credits include work on “The Lord of the Rings,” “Spider Man” and “Harry Potter.”
The move to Berks came after Jacobson, a professor of organic chemistry who’d taught at Barnard College in New York City, had been diagnosed with Alsheimer’s disease.
He died at age 74 on Sept. 24, 2019.
They’d prepared for his death, setting up a trust and living will. Still, after 31 years together, Cauldwell was devastated.
“I felt like my world collapsed,” she said.
The months following Jacobson’s death were trying. Cauldwell moved from a two-bedroom apartment with a den to a onebedroom unit. Then, COVID-19 struck, imposing six months in lockdown.
“I grieved, but I kept on going,” she said. “I just coped.”
Cauldwell noted that her grandfather died young, and her grandmother lived to be 86. Her father, too, died young, and her mother lived to be 85. Counting on longevity genes, she’s shooting for 100.
With renewed vigor, at a time when she might well be thinking of retirement, Cauldwell has embarked on a new venture as CEO, president and creative officer of an internet radio and soon to be television station.
“Life moves forward,” she said. “We have to remain vigilant, we have to keep growing.”