THE AWESOME POWER OF RADIO

Nick Michaels
Copyright 2014 American Voice Corp. All Rights Reserved.

What you are about to read is a true story. A couple of years ago I got an e-mail from a female listener who had recently been released from prison. The e-mail was so moving, so powerful that I was almost shaking when I finished reading it. 

She wrote about how she and some of her fellow inmates would listen to the Deep End on Sunday evenings. I'm going to try to use her words as best I remember them. She said the following: “Women who never cried, cried when they heard White Bird by It's A Beautiful Day. She went on to say that there was no race or color when Otis Redding sang I've Been Loving You Too Long and how moved they were when I told the stories that took them back in time.  Toward the end of the e-mail she wrote, “even though we were prisoners, for a couple of hours every week, while listening to your show, we were free. Although I am now free, I'm always a little freer when listening to the Deep End.” 

The tears were falling heavily and my hands shook a little as I realized the awesome power of radio and the awesome responsibility that comes with that power. It took me back to my beginning. To a bedroom where a 14 year old boy would listen to the magic coming out of that transistor radio and be transported far away by that magic.

 Every time you pick a song or open that microphone remember this, what your job is all about is human connection. The kind that can make a prisoner feel free.