We Interrupt This Column…
One of my strongest Mom memories is hearing the voice of Bernard Meltzer on WCAU evening radio, offering his homespun advice, playing through her bedroom door. A single parent, raising “Irish quintuplets” (five babies in under five years) in the ’60s ain’t no walk in the waterpark. Most of her days were frantic, bordering on chaotic. Hearing that radio meant that Mom was finally able to rest, and so was I. Been a talk-radio junkie ever since.
The talking voices today are not the same. Too much yelling, too few salient points, and way too many commercials. And most of it isn’t all that interesting.
And then (the skies part and harps play), I discovered podcasts!
I’ve known about them for years but I resisted, thinking it would be some difficult process involving subscriptions and downloads and special apps, and frankly, I didn’t have the patience. A couple years ago I finally crawled out of my cave and jumped into talk heaven. There’s sooooo much content!
Almost all podcasts are free. Your phone likely already has a podcast app built in. Downloading podcasts takes seconds. There are some commercials, but that’s what fast-forwarding is for. And the content!
I like military history. There are more hours of military-history podcasts than I could possibly listen to if I lived to be 100. There’s true crime, every type of self-help you can think of, comedy, basically anything you can imagine (don’t go there). Whatever sport or team you follow, from football to futbol to Australian rules football, there’s a podcast or 30.
Start and stop anytime, listen anywhere, and only to what you like. Tastes like freedom!
I tried to find a podcast of old Bernie Meltzer episodes, but it doesn’t seem to exist, at least not yet. I think that would be nice.
