Wizard of the Wind

by Don Keith

  The nature of the business also required that big, publicly traded operators had to charge into every market and buy up any radio signal that reached any portion of the town just to fill out their portfolios. This often happened even though the owners had no idea of how they would make money with some of those marginal suburban signals. There was a wild time of gerrymandering, buying small market stations, moving them somewhere else or taking them off the air entirely, just to be able to cover a bigger market with a listenable signal.

  I understand the economics of broadcasting. I know that new media, satellite radio, and other more recent developments put pressure on traditional tower-on-the-hill radio stations. There are lots more places where advertisers can put their commercials or use natural search that are more efficient than traditional radio. Listeners have an almost limitless number of places where they can hear music streamed to them.

  Still, I’m also convinced that those with the keys to most of the stations are woefully misguided about how to maximize the investment they have made in them. They are, in effect, surrendering over-the-air radio at a time when it can least afford to become weak and irrelevant.

  I’m convinced that the over-the-air product has suffered as operators and programmers run jock-less, using centralized talent to voice-track dozens of stations around the country, or import syndicated air talent for key dayparts. This results in pleasant, competent on-air talent, but ones who have no idea how people are feeling today in Tupelo, what the buzz is in Modesto, or how folks in Oklahoma City are feeling today after the home team lost the big game the previous evening.

  Also, since there is rarely a live human being on the air at most radio stations—especially in the overnight hours, the prime part of the day for newcomers to hone their skills and work on their chops, the virtual “farm system” for radio—then the medium is no longer developing new talent. Never mind news. I can’t tell the number of times major stories have broken and there simply was no one at the stations to let anyone know.

  Wizard of the Wind was written as an allegory, my take on what was happening to a medium I still consider to be the most powerful there is. And potentially the most open to creativity and innovation.

  Radio is literally inside your head. As Jimmy Gill said, a gifted deejay can make his listeners laugh, cry, feel real emotions, and believe that the guy or gal on the radio is talking with him or her, not at or to. That can be done without assembling a production crew, negotiating with bankers or unions, working up a budget, and spending weeks in the studio or on location. It can be done immediately, with a microphone and some creatively-mixed music. With a telephone and some talent, social media and imagination.

  When it became all about the money and power, Jimmy Gill lost sight of what drew him to the business in the first place. To be able to emotionally affect someone from a distance with a few words, a joke or story, and some songs properly blended. That was what the great ones were able to do, the ones to whom this book was dedicated and others. He was as corrupted by power and greed as he had been by the Georges’ money.

  A few years ago, I was riding down an elevator with a co-worker when he paid me maybe the greatest complement I have ever received.

  “Don, I’ve been meaning to tell you something,” he said.

  “What’s that?”

  “Back in 1972, I was a senior in high school, driving a school bus. We always had the radio on WVOK in the morning, listening to you. Well, one day I was having a miserable time, it was raining, and the kids on the bus were getting on my nerves. But you did something on the air that made me laugh and turned my whole day around.”

  He proceeded to relate the tiny bit of dry humor—which I actually remembered doing completely off the cuff in the first few seconds over the music intro of a song—and how it had made his day.

  That one little adlibbed bit on the radio had gone out over the air twenty-four years prior to his telling me about it, yet he had not forgotten it.

  See the power of the medium? Understand why I am disappointed that those who have ownership of this potent asset are allowing the best of it to die? That they are willing to sacrifice the soul and heart of radio in the name of power and share price?

  Now, with more than two-dozen books under my belt (Wizard of the Wind was my second novel), I often get the question: Radio, an aural medium, and writing, a totally different way of communicating…how do you rectify taking such divergent paths?

  Easy. They are far more similar than you might think.

  A deejay (I still prefer “broadcast personality,” by the way, because the best ones did more than just spin records) and a writer work mostly alone in their small rooms, unable to see or hear their potential audience. While staring at a blank wall, they are required to open a microphone or pound the keyboard, creating something on the fly they hope will powerfully and emotionally impact a faceless bunch of people out there. Each communicator has to rely on his own creativity, wit, awareness, and words to accomplish that.

  And once it is done, once it is cast out to whoever consumes it, there is no way to take it back.

  You only have one chance to get it right.

  The good ones do it more often than not. I hope I am at least a “good one,” whether it was behind the microphone or at this keyboard.

  And now, we come to the end of another day’s broadcast activities…

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Award-winning and best-selling author Don Keith has lived in the South all his life. He attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa where he received his degree in broadcast and film communication with a minor in English and literature. While working as a broadcast journalist, he won awards from the Associated Press and United Press International for news writing and reporting. He was also the first winner of Troy State University's Hector Award for innovation in broadcast journalism. As an on-the-air broadcaster, Don won the Billboard Magazine "Radio Personality of the Year" in two formats, country and contemporary. Keith was a broadcast personality for over twenty years in Birmingham and Nashville, and also owned his own consultancy, co-owned a Mobile, Alabama, radio station (WZEW-FM), and hosted and produced several nationally syndicated radio shows.

  His first novel, THE FOREVER SEASON, was published by St. Martin's Press in the fall of 1995 to commercial and critical success. Reviewers praised its unique approach and powerful story and the novel won the Alabama Library Association's "Fiction of the Year" award in 1997. The work was re-issued by the University of Alabama Press as part of its prestigious Deep South Books series. WIZARD OF THE WIND, his second novel, was based on Keith's years in broadcasting. As was the first book, the second work was first published under the imprint of widely praised New York editor Robert Wyatt as A Wyatt Book for St. Martin's Press. Keith next released a series of young adult/mens' adventure novels co-written with Kent Wright. They are set in NASCAR stock car racing and titled THE ROLLING THUNDER STOCKCAR RACING SERIES.

  He later co-wrote a thriller with former nuclear submarine commander George Wallace, FINAL BEARING, and its follow-up, FIRING POINT, which has been optioned as a major motion picture.

  Keith's first non-fiction work, GALLANT LADY, the true story of a remarkable World War II submarine, the USS Archerfish, was written with the significant help of former Archerfish crewmember Ken Henry. That work was followed by IN THE COURSE OF DUTY, another highly-acclaimed military history book. Other historical non-fiction works include FINAL PATROL, THE ICE DIARIES, WAR BENEATH THE WAVES, UNDERSEA WARRIOR, and THE SHIP THAT WOULDN’T DIE, most of which have been featured selections of the Military Book Club and the History Book Club.

  Keith also authored a book of unique vignettes about legendary college football coach "Bear" Bryant titled THE BEAR: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF COACH PAUL "BEAR" BRYANT. His book RIDING THE SHORTWAVES: EXPLORING THE MAGIC OF AMATEUR RADIO is aimed at those who have interest in following Don’s favorite hobby, ham radio.

  Writing under the pseudonym of Jeffery Addison, Don has p
ublished three heartwarming novellas, co-written with Edie Hand, THE LAST CHRISTMAS RIDE, THE SOLDIER'S RIDE, and THE CHRISTMAS RIDE: MIRACLE OF THE LIGHTS.

  Don lives in Indian Springs Village, Alabama, with his wife, Charlene. He is also a sought-after public speaker, an active "ham" radio operator (call sign N4KC), a member of the Alabama Writers' Forum, and actively supports local and statewide literacy efforts.

  His web site is http://www.donkeith.com.

  “…the good writers touch life often…”

  --Ray Bradbury

  Also by Don Keith

  The Forever Season

  Wizard of the Wind

  The Rolling Thunder Stockcar Racing Series (with Kent Wright)

  Final Bearing (with George Wallace)

  Gallant Lady (with Ken Henry)

  In the Course of Duty

  The Bear: The Legendary Life of Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant

  Final Patrol

  The Ice Diaries (with Captain William R. Anderson)

  War Beneath the Waves

  We Be Big (with Rick Burgess and Bill “Bubba” Bussey)

  Undersea Warrior

  Firing Point (with George Wallace)

  The Spin

  On the Road to Kingdom Come

  Riding the Shortwaves: Exploring the Magic of Amateur Radio

  Dangerous Grounds (with George Wallace)

  Get on the Air…Now

  Writing to be Read

  The Amateur Radio Dictionary

  The Ship that Wouldn’t Die

  Get on the Air…NOW!

  The Amateur Radio Dictionary

  Mattie C.’s Boy: The Shelley Stewart Story

  Dream On: A Journey to Deliverance (with Steve R. Skipper)

  Writing with Edie Hand:

  The Last Christmas Ride

  The Soldier’s Ride

  A Christmas Ride: The Miracle of the Lights