The voice from the radio

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/08/2023 (786 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT’S impossible to read my favourite 30 news sites every morning without thinking about radio.

For decades it was important for me to be as well read as I could possibly be, so that when conducting interviews with hundreds of guests, not to mention thousands of people calling and emailing in, I could sound as knowledgeable as any human being is expected to be.

My trade was no different than any in the world of arts, entertainment and sports. The only way to make it look easy was to prep and prep and prep again. When that was fatiguing, it was time to take a coffee break and then do more prep.

Some of my favourite interviews were with chefs. I wanted to learn about their passion for the exquisite meals they filled their menus with. None of these chefs left out the most important ingredient in their daily ritual — the prep.

No meal you have ever enjoyed in a great restaurant could have gotten anywhere close to your plate without someone in the kitchen with a passion for the art of cuisine, doing the necessary preparation of every morsel of food that needed to be cut and chopped and seared just right.

Every great memory on your palate came from the hard work done by the best in the business who prepped everything you enjoyed.

In recent days when prepping for the columns I write for this newspaper, the podcast interviews I do, and the news summaries I write and record, preparation is as essential as it ever was. In the summer of 2023, so much of the prep is focused on weather emergencies involving floods, fire and smoke.

No matter how much I read, I never feel I understand enough about the issue of our time — climate change.

I don’t know enough about the subject to declare that it is responsible for so much of the calamity that we’re enduring this summer. But at some point while prepping, I’m forced to ask the question, “What difference does it make whether climate change is part of the problem, much of it, or all of it?”

All that really matters is the people who are dramatically affected, those who depend on emergency services, are told to get out of their homes and places of work — or else they are told to shelter in place and not go out at all.

I think about radio when I view the stories about weather emergencies because it’s impossible to forget all those days and nights where I lived and breathed radio, whether I was in the studio or not. That’s where my mind always was.

Even my dreams were filled with panic moments of being on the air and the microphone not working or the computer not working or my inability to get accurate timely information, where I had to ad lib hours and hours of broadcasting.

The nightmares weren’t figments of my imagination. They were replays of the reality I lived in. It was all the prep that I and my colleagues did that allowed us to always stay in touch with listeners who counted on us for timely information about floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes and snow storms.

Of all the questions I receive every day from readers, listeners and fellow professionals, the question I dread most is “Do you miss live radio?”

The truth is I don’t miss the anxiety of missing something that matters in those moments where listeners count on me. But naturally I miss those fulfilling moments where I am told by listeners that I made a very difficult time in their lives somewhat easier by offering information, inspiration and companionship.

Radio is seen as less necessary these days because of all the information available online. I’m online all the time.

So I have no argument with the substance of what I am told about where people go to for their basic information. But no online service, in my opinion, offers the companionship that radio does.

The platform I was honoured to share for so many years was uniquely suited to speaking to people feeling alone. You never needed to be alone when there was a warm on-air voice to offer calmness before, during and after the storm.

Charles Adler is a longtime political commenter and podcaster. His column appears on Thursday and Friday.