Radio is a funny business

My radio tour ends next week with a taped interview on KCBX, an NPR affiliate station in Santa Barbara. It’s an appropriate homecoming. In the early 1970s, I was one of the first students at the original Santa Barbara campus of Maharishi International University. Like a lot of other people who were there, I have really good memories of those days. In my book I said that it was “like Hogwarts Academy, except for real.”

I recall sitting under the palm trees by the pool listening to a radio station that played the kind of programming I couldn’t get back home in Wisconsin. They had stuff like Duck’s Breath Mystery Theatre and the King Biscuit Flower Hour and Dear Friends with the Firesign Theatre. I can’t say for sure, but there’s a good chance that the station was KCBX. In any case, I’m happy that my radio tour is ending where it all started.

After a couple dozen interviews, I see the truth of the old saw that “radio is a funny business.” It’s all by the seat of your pants and you never know what you’re getting in to until you’re on the air. If you’re an author, you might have to summarize your book in a couple of sound bites between commercial breaks. On another show, you might have to explain it in depth while fending off hostile callers. It’s great practice for honing your message. For me, at least, it’s also a lot of fun.

Back in June I did an interview with Bob Keeton of the Living Successfully show on Sirius satellite radio. Bob sells CD copies of his radio programs on his web site. You can purchase a copy of my interview with him here. I don’t make any money off of this, but I thought that Bob did a good job and I’m happy to support him.