September 26, 2020:
"Kay–YOU–oh–arrr: left-handed radio."
I loved my radio shows, 'cos electronics, self-expression, and my encyclopedic knowledge of rock 'n' roll.
I took a Friday all-night shift, to keep the station on-air and to blast serious energy into the Inland Empire ether. I mixed '50s R&B, punk, some English classics, and lots and lots of garage band one-hit-wonders I truly loved. I don't think anybody else ever put Dwight Twilley on California airwaves in 1977. This of course is why god invented college radio.
I'd come home bleary into the dawn, elated.
Eventually I had to give it up. I read so slowly that I couldn't afford to throw away eight hours of prime all-night study time rocking out into the ether. It hurt me to do that. Along with my guitar it was what I loved most, so that it felt like chopping off a limb. But I had to confront its necessity. Like later giving up social time with the girlfriend I loved, it's what I did.