Thirty seconds in the summer of 1977 set me on a career path that lasted almost thirty years.
I was attending a two-week summer camp at Shorter College1Now Shorter University. in Rome, Georgia. One afternoon, a group of us toured the campus radio station. At one point, the radio station guy handed me a very old 30 second public service announcement and asked if I wanted to try reading it on the air.
The announcement promoted the Ground Observer Corps, a volunteer program during World War II and the Korean War that recruited civilians to watch the skies for signs of enemy aircraft.
I was twelve years old and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was only at the camp because my parents thought it would be good for me. (They probably also wanted me out of the house for two weeks.)
To this day, I have no idea who Radio Station Guy was. He could have been a student, a DJ, or a station employee. I just remember him being old enough to be in charge.
The text of that announcement stuck with me all these years. Recently I even managed to track down the full script on a website called, of all things, thelifeofkenneth.com2No relation!.
It began like this:
“You are in a position to save your own life and the lives of countless others when you serve as a civilian volunteer… a Skywatcher… in the Ground Observer Corps3You can see the entire PSA script in the image at the top of the page..”
When I’d finished, Radio Station Guy looked at me and said something that stuck even longer.
“You know, you have a great radio voice.”
I was twelve. I definitely did not have the voice I would later develop. The comment landed anyway.
That fall, I discovered sports. Not long after, I realized something even more important: You could get paid to talk about sports on radio and television..
That realization shaped nearly every decision that followed. The activities I chose. The college I attended. My major. The direction of my career.
And somehow, it worked. I ended up making a living talking professionally for twenty nine years. (You can see some remnants of that career on this YouTube channel.)
But it all started with that one small moment in a campus radio station in the summer of 1977.
I have never forgotten those thirty seconds.
And I still have no idea who the man was who told a twelve year old kid he had “a great radio voice.”
But I am grateful he said it.
Thank you, Radio Station Guy.
