Debuting a new series: 50 years on both sides of the microphone, in-studio and afield throughout my childhood, professional career, and so-called "retirement."
After I got over my eyes welling up thinking about Harry Chapin’s short life (and then all the other people we’ve lived long enough to farewell far too early), I really enjoyed some of the reminiscence. I don’t know if I ever mentioned it to you, but I was briefly on the AM drive/late afternoon team at a small-market station in Colville, Washington, with the handle “Mickey B.” You brought back a lot of fond memories. NPR and _All Things Considered!_ My! You were really at the beginning of a lot of (what we in our youth thought of as) cool programming! I was never big time; but your stories resonate nonetheless.
I also got a sly and happy memory jolt from your reference to playing the radio under your blanket at night. I was always afraid I’d get caught listening to _CBS Mystery Theater_ on Wednesday nights after I was _supposed_ to be sleeping. Ah, the good old days of childish wickedness!
Oh, and shortwave! I got my first shortwave radio as a young soldier in Germany; and it was there that I “met” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, zt”l, long before he became a Life Peer and Baron Sacks of Aldgate. He had a program that was called something like _What the Jews Believe_ that profoundly affected my path. I also “met” David Jablinowitz (aka David Ze’ev) on the Voice of Israel during that time. (I still hope to one day meet him and his dear bride in person, just to tick that box. He was also very instrumental in forming my early Jewish connection and my love for Israel.)
Your writing has gotten even better over the years. More concisely smart and even jarring when you want it to be. Like that moment when this “wide-eyed boy” who truly believed that “all good people want good for all people, right?” suddenly discovered that he was hated, just for being a Jew who wanted to move to Israel… and then bringing it all into the upside-down, backwards-from-our-youth crazy present day.
I didn’t mean to write an article. But what can I tell ya? It was a really fine chapter, with some great lines. Well done, friend. Well done.
Hi Dave - I appreciate hearing your "voice", both literally and the thoughts you highlight. I hope you at some point talk about 'why' you were applying to make Aliyah when you were - what? - late teens, early 20's? I graduated high school ahead of you (1970), was raised in a secular Jewish home, in a distinctly non-Jewish area of America, and since high school had been searching for a meaning to my life, and for several years seriously considered taking the same path you did. Inevitably, life interfered (or happened), and I always wondered "what if"? I'd love to hear more about who you were then, what you thought Aliyah might do for your life, and those first struggling days. I'm enjoying reading and listening to you, and appreciate your thoughts. Thank you.
Wow - thanks for this question! I will definitely refer back to it in a future post in this series - it's, so far, the one question--whether out of politeness, hostility, or unfamiliarity--no one ever seems to ask...
I remember only once visiting my college's radio station back then. The students running the show, and the hangers-on, gave to me, (a young and inexperienced "youth culture" girl) a view into a world a bit too hip - these seemingly mature, weed-smoking , music- and news-obsessed radio-mavens. A world I'd never seen before. Not exactly my scene, I never returned, but knew this island of hipness existed on my rather conservative college campus. Back to the topic of your Aliyah - you left all that failed-in hipness, and what America offered a young, smart, ambitious radioman/newsman, to go to a still-developing country. It makes me wonder why. Who was our generation of young American Jews, what were we looking for, and did we ever find it...
I'll touch on that in a future post - including the ferocious competition in newsgathering, along with the "circle-the-wagons" mentality, and what's happened to NPR since then - and, of course - what motivated me to leave it all behind.
Thanks for sharing a fascinating history. For some time, I've sensed something quite "off" with NPR. Looking forward to you unpacking that.
After I got over my eyes welling up thinking about Harry Chapin’s short life (and then all the other people we’ve lived long enough to farewell far too early), I really enjoyed some of the reminiscence. I don’t know if I ever mentioned it to you, but I was briefly on the AM drive/late afternoon team at a small-market station in Colville, Washington, with the handle “Mickey B.” You brought back a lot of fond memories. NPR and _All Things Considered!_ My! You were really at the beginning of a lot of (what we in our youth thought of as) cool programming! I was never big time; but your stories resonate nonetheless.
I also got a sly and happy memory jolt from your reference to playing the radio under your blanket at night. I was always afraid I’d get caught listening to _CBS Mystery Theater_ on Wednesday nights after I was _supposed_ to be sleeping. Ah, the good old days of childish wickedness!
Oh, and shortwave! I got my first shortwave radio as a young soldier in Germany; and it was there that I “met” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, zt”l, long before he became a Life Peer and Baron Sacks of Aldgate. He had a program that was called something like _What the Jews Believe_ that profoundly affected my path. I also “met” David Jablinowitz (aka David Ze’ev) on the Voice of Israel during that time. (I still hope to one day meet him and his dear bride in person, just to tick that box. He was also very instrumental in forming my early Jewish connection and my love for Israel.)
Your writing has gotten even better over the years. More concisely smart and even jarring when you want it to be. Like that moment when this “wide-eyed boy” who truly believed that “all good people want good for all people, right?” suddenly discovered that he was hated, just for being a Jew who wanted to move to Israel… and then bringing it all into the upside-down, backwards-from-our-youth crazy present day.
I didn’t mean to write an article. But what can I tell ya? It was a really fine chapter, with some great lines. Well done, friend. Well done.
It was a great journey! Looking forward to more.
Hi Dave - I appreciate hearing your "voice", both literally and the thoughts you highlight. I hope you at some point talk about 'why' you were applying to make Aliyah when you were - what? - late teens, early 20's? I graduated high school ahead of you (1970), was raised in a secular Jewish home, in a distinctly non-Jewish area of America, and since high school had been searching for a meaning to my life, and for several years seriously considered taking the same path you did. Inevitably, life interfered (or happened), and I always wondered "what if"? I'd love to hear more about who you were then, what you thought Aliyah might do for your life, and those first struggling days. I'm enjoying reading and listening to you, and appreciate your thoughts. Thank you.
Wow - thanks for this question! I will definitely refer back to it in a future post in this series - it's, so far, the one question--whether out of politeness, hostility, or unfamiliarity--no one ever seems to ask...
See? I told you my northern friend. If you write it, readers will come.
"If you build it, they will come." Lol.
I remember only once visiting my college's radio station back then. The students running the show, and the hangers-on, gave to me, (a young and inexperienced "youth culture" girl) a view into a world a bit too hip - these seemingly mature, weed-smoking , music- and news-obsessed radio-mavens. A world I'd never seen before. Not exactly my scene, I never returned, but knew this island of hipness existed on my rather conservative college campus. Back to the topic of your Aliyah - you left all that failed-in hipness, and what America offered a young, smart, ambitious radioman/newsman, to go to a still-developing country. It makes me wonder why. Who was our generation of young American Jews, what were we looking for, and did we ever find it...
I'll touch on that in a future post - including the ferocious competition in newsgathering, along with the "circle-the-wagons" mentality, and what's happened to NPR since then - and, of course - what motivated me to leave it all behind.
Not 'failed-in' ... 'dialed-in'. Auticorrect! Hmph!