Broadcast legend Larry King experienced a health scare this past Thursday and underwent a heart procedure. But the broadcaster is expected to make a full recovery and will be released from the hospital soon. That information was put out, after more alarming and false headlines were reported, about the man who kept America talking and thinking late at night on radio. I am most pleased with the good medical report.
I was a caller into King’s Mutual Radio talk show one evening in the mid-80’s–while I was also on the air doing a separate broadcast from the WDOR radio studio in Sturgeon Bay. While spinning the discs and give time and temp I was also monitoring King’s program. Finally, his producer said in the phone I would be the next caller. I was feeding the King program through one of the studio’s reel-to-reel tape machines so my national moment with King could be recorded. (BTW, when was the last time you read the words reel-to-reel?)
I thought of that multi-tasking juggling act as I heard about King’s health. During this time I am also working to master some new technology which will be used in a podcasting adventure I will be undertaking this year. It is a long ways from my listening to Larry King with cheap headphones as a teenager late at night in Hancock, Wisconsin. The need for lively and stimulating conversation remains the same since the air waves were harnessed. It is just the methods used to get the broadcasts from a sender to a receiver that has changed so remarkably.
With King’s health matter, and my podcast idea, it struck me that a truly delightful interview would be for King to wing his way over the decades with stories about how broadcasting techniques evolved in his lifetime. Now that would be an interview to record!
And conduct!
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 