Boom Box

It was a laughable moment – a woman I know exclaimed, “Let Tom pay for it, he’s in radio and famous. He make’s lotsa money.”

Laughable because anyone who has ever been in radio broadcasting, whether it’s behind the microphone, sales, engineering, support or management, knows making LOTSA money is something that happens few and far between in the business. As for famous – not so much either — though people do ask my wife from time to time if she related to “Tom Darby on the radio.”

I can only imagine what some of her responses have been.

Radio was something I wanted to do when I was not yet a teenager. In fact I pioneered the carrying of a “boom box,” on my shoulder nearly a decade before it became popular with urban kids. I had Dad’s Emerson, AM/FM radio, dual cassette recorder/player with a two-meter band with me almost every summer from the time I was ten.

I had it with me the day I first met Kelly Spruce — whom I immediately ‘crushed on.’ Not even then would I let that stupid radio go.

In fact, I used to get teased about packing it around with me by the neighborhood kids and I managed to get into a couple of fist-fights after someone took the thing and started playing keep away with it. If I recall I lost both fights but because they were afraid of what my old man might do – they returned it after having their fun time.

Honestly – I sometimes question my desire for working in radio. After all, the truth be told here, I don’t even like the sound of my own voice.