POSTSCRIPT: It has been two years since I wrote the original version of this story, coming at a time when common convention was that radio’s days were over. Done like dinner. There is little doubt that strategic leaders in the industry had underestimated the impact of digital streaming media and the relentless, withering technological changes and how everyday people consumed information, music and other content. There was good reason to believe that radio’s best days were behind it.

But the obituary was written too soon. Radio has lost market share. Gone are the days when most people listened to their favourite morning show or tuned in for a particular program. But as that is true of radio so is it true of all media. Modern media consumers have too many entertaining options to commit to any one of them. These are the glory days of consumer media. Back in Kelowna BC in 1998 our morning show ‘David, Kelly and Tony’ once enjoyed a fifty share, fifty percent of all listeners in that market listening to our show. Fifty percent! Now the top rated morning show in Kelowna would be thrilled to capture a twelve percent share. In a larger market like Vancouver the top morning show gets around four percent. Things indeed have changed but it is a mistake to think that radio is on its way out.

In August 2022 a new radio station was launched in Vancouver, ‘102.7 NOW! Vancouver’s Conversation Station’. The marketing positioned 102.7 as ‘the evolution of radio’. I gave it a listen. If returning to what radio was like in its heyday is ‘the evolution of radio’ then yes, it is all of that. Young hip jocks integrating current social platforms into the show, encouraging listeners to call in.

“102.7 Vancouver’s Conversation Station. Text, email, call in, whatever. Let us know what you think.”

Ratings aren’t in yet but I’m laying down money on this one. It’s a home run. Nothing knew, just a modern version of what radio has always been great at; real, spontaneous, authentic, vivid, relevant, funny, quick witted, topical, approachable it is all that and more. Somebody took a look back at radio and asked a simple question:

‘What did radio have back then that was so compelling to listeners?’

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

“Mac, I think I’d like to become a teacher”, I announced one day. It was 1990. At the time with my law degree I only needed one year in the Education program at SFU in Burnaby and I could qualify as a teacher. I have always been a communicator. Where I have succeeded it was when I stayed close to that fact. Being a teacher would be a perfect fit. To this day I admire teachers and have always been proud as the father of two children who teach, Jono in university, ‘Niffer in elementary school. I would still like to teach but let’s get real here, I’m running out of runway.  It wasn’t an easy decision, we had two young children, Mac was working shifts and we had no money. But we set our minds to doing it. I shutdown my law practice and looked forward to classes beginning in September at SFU.

And then Fate popped up once again, mischievous spontaneous Fate.

My good friend Jon Michaels, a morning show host on a local radio station, took me out for a beer,

“Why don’t you come and do radio on my show.”

I laughed, “Oh I don’t know Jon, maybe because I wouldn’t have a clue how to do it.”

“Don’t worry about it. You just flip on the mic and start talking. I’ll take care of you.”

I had a few months before I was due to start my year at SFU so I eventually agreed.

Mac is probably the best one to describe just how bad I was. The poor girl remembers to this day the first time I was on the radio with Jon. I was so bad that she actually rolled over and put a pillow over her ears. And I’m not telling you this to seek sympathy or to be self deprecating.  No, I’m telling you this because I really was terrible. It can’t be overstated.

But I had one problem. I loved it. I absolutely fell for radio from the first minute. A popular TV show at the time was ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’, an hilarious sitcom set inside a radio station. I had no training and no orientation. I was just thrown into the deep end, surrounded by a bunch of young people, graduates of the BCIT radio program, all of them at the front end of their working lives. ‘Sink or swim’ floated above me in the water as I sank to the bottom.

But radio had me at ‘hello’. At its best it is full of bright, creative people, with a kind of vivacious positive energy rippling through the building. To be any good ‘on air’ you had to have a quick mind, a quick wit and a sense of humour.

It was a complete change from everything I knew. I had spent the previous sixteen years using my brain to defend people, some of whom were flat out evil. I loved it but it was a dark place to spend much time in and it took a toll on me. If I was to succeed in radio I would have to use all of that, the same skill with words, my quick mind, my sense of humour but in a positive, happy and creative place. And it was hard. It would take me years before I finally broke through and became good enough at least so that Mac wouldn’t have to roll over and put a pillow over her head.

I didn’t head down to SFU that fall. Mac was anxious and worried about me but as she has always done she supported me when I said, “I think I’d like to see what I can make of radio.” She was teaching me what being a friend was.

It would not be easy and if I was to have any chance whatsoever I would have to dance as fast as I can.

I remember that first year I was paid $600 a month, a pittance at the time. I was competing for opportunity against young, ambitious people fully trained at BCIT or other broadcasting programs. But I had a secret weapon. Had I been a farm animal (oh boy, here we go) I would have been a Belgian plow horse. I have always worked harder than most people around me and I came to understand over time that it separated me from most of the competition. I simply worked harder and longer than they did. Six hundred dollars a month aside, I would typically work ten, twelve, fourteen hour days and I did that for years. I have watched with pride as all four of our children have shown the same willingness to work hard, and harder than others. As it served me well in radio, so too will it help them.

Jon understood radio and what can be so compelling about it and he was hilarious. He was one of those friends who could make me laugh so easily and we got up to some funny stuff. It was like working in a sitcom, the radio station just being the set.

One day Eric Thorsen arrived at the station. Eric was a legendary news voice from CFRB in Toronto, one of those news anchors whose voice was a generational signature for decades of listeners back east. When he arrived in Kelowna he was older and it turned out quite sick but he was hired as our News Director. Gruff, bad tempered, a smoke hanging from the corner of his mouth, Eric had the Voice of God on-air and he made up the third member of our morning show crew.

A few weeks later Jon asked Eric what he wanted from McDonald’s for breakfast.

“Hey Eric, McDonald’s delivers now. We want to get you some breakfast for your birthday.”

“God damn McDonald’s doesn’t deliver!” came his sharp reply.

“Sure it does Eric, what do you want?” Jon would not be deterred.

With Eric’s order in hand we set our plan in motion. The next morning a young woman arrived at the front door of the station with McDonald’s breakfast in hand. It was raining out and I remember she was wearing a knee length rain coat.  It was 5:58am and Eric was about to go on-air with the 6am news package. I showed the young woman into the newsroom and pulled out Eric’s breakfast order. As he began, she took off her coat.

“Good Morning it is 6 o’clock, my name is Eric Thorsen.”

She was naked. Completely naked. We had hired her as Eric’s ‘birthday present’ and were collapsing in laughter as we watched this beautiful, naked young woman do everything she could to distract the legendary broadcaster. We were in our studio looking through soundproof glass to the newsroom as she rubbed her body all over him. Eric was impeccable, not wavering once, not stumbling on any words, not once. It was the best and she was a great sport, almost competitively trying to get Eric off his game. Eric signed off on the newscast.

“It’s 6:10, ten minutes after six, five degrees in downtown Kelowna and you’re up to date. I’m Eric Thorsen.”

And he burst into laughter. This radio thing was proving to be a good time. It seemed as though something new was happening every day.

Ratings came out every six months at that time and I anxiously awaited our results. They are determinative and often lead to abrupt layoffs so I had more than a passing interest. And listeners could add in what were called ‘diary comments’ when they sent their survey results back in.

‘PEYTON IS THE WORST BROADCASTER EVER IN KELOWNA RADIO. HE MUST GO!’

Ouch! That hurt and the worst part was, whoever he was, the listener was right. I was terrible. To this day I don’t know why I wasn’t fired. It didn’t help my cause that I had replaced Bob Harrison, a giant presence of a man, a former BC Lions lineman and a man with a great deep radio voice and sports credibility. I can remember one day as I stumbled my way through yet another newscast being acutely aware of a person staring at me from maybe five feet away. It was the station Sales Manager, fixed stare, hands on his hips. I would learn later that after my newscast he marched down to the General Manager’s office and said, “Peyton is the worst. Either he goes, or I do.”

He was gone that afternoon. Something was watching out for me. Quite quickly I moved up in the ranks, my salary increased somewhat and I became the News Director. It seemed like a good gig and right in my Communicator wheelhouse.

One day Nick Frost, my boss and the station owner, called me into his office. He knew of course that I had been a defence lawyer and told me he needed my help. Then he introduced me to ‘Fred Stanton’. His real name fails me but the rest of the story is detail accurate.  I turned to greet the man; he was tall and severe in appearance but he seemed friendly enough.

“Fred’s joining us and I want him to work in your newsroom.”

This was unusual to say the least. I had no idea of this man’s qualifications or resume nor what role he could fill in the newsroom but this wasn’t a request, it was an instruction so away we went. My staff were as confused as I was and privately asked me who the guy was and about his background in radio. I had nothing. A day later I asked Nick for more information.

“Well look I’ll tell you but I think you need to keep his story to yourself. I know you can handle Fred but I’m not sure we want the rest of the staff knowing about him.”. I was all ears.

“Fred is a federal parolee. I have hired him on a parole work program which helps reintroduce these men to society.” I knew that Fred must have done something serious. Prisoners are sent to federal penitentiary for sentences of at least two years and you don’t serve two years or more for stealing candy.

“Well what did he do?”.

“He murdered his wife.” he replied with a deadpan expression, as though he was telling me it was a nice day outside, “Shot her dead with a shotgun. Apparently he found her in bed with another man. Shot him dead as well.”

You can’t make this stuff up.

“Has a bit of a temper, does he?” I asked gamely.

“Well I think you’ll be fine if you don’t sleep with his next wife.”

My boss Nick Frost was not given to being funny but that cracked me up. And that was that. I was charged with babysitting a violent man who had a bad temper. This oughta be good. In fact before he blew a tire, Fred had built a fine career in radio in Saskatoon, SK.  He was ‘The news voice of the Prairies’. He had a magnificent news read and I gave him the plum newscasts. On the face of it he was a quiet man, not given to displays of temper but he did have a kind of solemn presence in the newsroom and kept to himself which was confusing to my young staff. I never did tell them about Fred. They would eventually find out about their newsroom colleague a few months down the road when he once again became a headline story on the CBC National news.

Things were mostly uneventful for a few months. Until they weren’t. I was on the ‘Jon Michael’s Morning Show’ so I arrived at the station very early each morning. One winter morning I arrived as usual and began my news prep. When Jon arrived, about a half hour before our show opened at 6am, he came into my room.

“What have you done with the mics Tony?” he laughed, assuming I was playing a practical joke on him.

“What mics?” I asked, bemused by the question.

“Cut it out. I’m on-air in a few minutes!” his reply sharper now.

I really didn’t know but a quick search of the studios revealed that all of the Sennheiser mics were gone and were nowhere to be found. Jon had gone out for a smoke and when he came back in he said, “Hey who took the station news vehicle?”. I didn’t know the answer to that question either. Jon went to the bathroom and a few moments later shouted out, “Found it. Wait a minute. I’ve found all of them.”.

He had tried to flush the toilet and when the lever wouldn’t depress Jon had opened the cistern to see what the problem was. The lever wouldn’t depress because someone had submerged every single station mic in the cistern, all six of them.  They were ruined and what’s more it was nearly 6am.  I hurtled down the road to another radio station, knocked on their door, told them our sorry story and they gave us a mic to do our show. Of course the question remained. What the heck had happened?

The answer came on the midday CBC National news. There was Fred Stanton in handcuffs being escorted from the Falkland RCMP station for a court appearance back in Kelowna. Turns out Fred was the bad guy. He’d had enough of life in Kelowna and decided to find his way back to jail. Ruining $12,000 worth of mics and stealing a company car will do that for a federal parolee. Why Falkland you ask? It’s really in the middle of nowhere between Vernon and Kamloops. Fact is Fred had simply run out of gas and actually drove right up to the RCMP detachment in Falkland. I always smile when I drive past the detachment building in that little town, imagining the reaction of the young constable on the desk the day Fred the Murderer, walked in and announced himself.

The next time I saw Fred he was once again on the national news but this time as the subject of a CBC documentary, ‘Federal Inmates Return to Work.” Fred was heading up a broadcasting program at the federal penitentiary in Prince Albert, SK.

I marked the whole thing up to experience. Human beings are fantastic creatures. It’s little wonder people write stories about them. For me, it was just another reason to fall in love with radio. Everyday was new, everyday had some sort of spontaneous moment. For a guy like me it was a good fit.

By the time I was done as a News Director at SILK FM, I had built it into an award winning newsroom, each month sending hundreds of local and regional stories to provincial and national news platforms. I had a daily editorial piece on the morning show and I quickly became notorious for my sharply worded critiques. In a small town the media are most often compromised by familiarity. Everybody knows everybody and the influencers make sure that they protect one another. I had no such inhibition. Kelowna was a small town, controlled for the most part by a few hundred business people, none of whom were used to sharp public criticism. That is, until I came along. I had a sharp pen and a sharper tongue and took no prisoners in my comments. It was not unusual after one of my editorials to see the influential subject of that morning’s comment march into the station, demanding to see my boss. My legal background was very helpful, and I could avoid being slanderous although that didn’t prevent claims of slander.

As a lawyer and counsel for the BC Teachers Federation I had defended many teachers on complaints of misconduct and in the course of that had an ongoing battle with Dr. Eric Buckley, the head of the Central Okanagan SD23 School Board at the time. We rubbed each other the wrong way from the moment we met, infuriating the imperious Buckley when I pointedly refused to allow Buckley or any trustee to question my client. They were apparently surprised that a defendant is not required to explain him or herself to anybody and certainly not a kangaroo court like that particular school board. But that was back then when I was practicing law. I had moved on to broadcasting. Turns out Eric’s antipathy for me bridged my change in careers.

At one point I levelled sharp criticism of Buckley in one of my editorials and into the station he steamed that morning, demanding a retraction. Unsatisfied with the response he then sued me and the station in slander. I found myself back in court but this time as a defendant in a civil trial. I wouldn’t recommend it as entertainment. I knew I had not been slanderous but my employer was not amused with the notoriety of the case nor the expense of defending a civil claim. He asked me to tone things down. I refused, insisting that editorials had to be sharp and focused and that meant inevitably the subjects of those editorials would be angry.

Nick Frost’s problem was that he ran in those circles; these people I was knocking off the shelf were his friends and business associates, fellow Rotarians. I had told him if he was going to have an editorial comment on the show he had to get libel and slander insurance. To his credit my editorials continued and I ended up receiving a BC Association of Broadcaster award for Excellence in Journalism, one of two BCAB news awards I received. This radio thing was The Best!

And then into my life strode David Larsen. He had been hired as the new Program Director for the station to guide it through a needed transition. How was I to know that the first thing he wanted to do was to fire Tony Peyton! It’s just as well I didn’t know until years later, that would have about finished me off. Although I have had occasion to think I might have done well to temper some of my more explosive exchanges with David, particularly in those early years. I would have, had I known he had one hand on the trigger.

I’ve always been an acquired taste. As it was with women, including Mac, so too has it been in all of my relationships throughout my life. I’m good with that, I think I’ve known from the beginning that I’m not everyone’s cup of tea. But I have always thought, ‘just give me enough time and I’ll bring you around’. And so it was with David Larsen.

The station owner Nick Frost had apparently told David that he could fire me but he asked him to give me three months and if David still wanted to get rid of me at that time, he could fire away.  So I had three months. I can do a lot with three months.

I was still just five years in broadcasting and in fairness to David, not very good on-air. Anxiety roosts on your vocal chords. You may recognize that in yourself, hearing your own voice find some ridiculously high octave when you’re arguing or under other stress. That was me. Never blessed with a classic radio voice, nor even a good radio voice it would take me years to truly relax behind a microphone. David would be the key to that.

By the time he arrived in Kelowna David had been in radio for over twenty years, beginning as “Shotgun McLoud” on a country station in Squamish, near Whistler. It’s what they did back then. Apparently your given name wouldn’t work in radio. Weird thinking but that’s what they did. Actually David had three shows in Squamish. His daytime gig was “Shotgun McLoud”, afternoons he became “Danny Magic” and by nightfall he morphed into “Jack Blaze” on the rock station in town, names fit for a porn star if the radio thing didn’t work out for him.  He had earned his oats and by the time he arrived in Kelowna to take over SILK FM, an adult contemporary FM music station. He was highly respected and very good at what he did.

Within a couple of weeks big changes had happened. David had deconstructed the newsroom and I had let go of five news reporters. My blistering editorials were brought to an abrupt end and my job, as I understood it, was gone. I knew nothing of formatting at the time but every move David made was the right one. An adult contemporary format was all music, targeting a female centric audience. An award winning newsroom and scathing editorials had no place in that format.

The whole thing had caught me by surprise and I found myself dancing as fast as I could. Again. It all happened at warp speed that fall. All of a sudden David put together a new morning show, hiring Kelly Abbott a vivacious young broadcaster fresh out of BCIT and creating ‘David, Kelly and Tony’, Waking Kelowna Up!’. I wasn’t to know at the time but David had just saved my career.

So there I was, knowing without knowing that my footing was loosening, that any certainty of a career in radio was being undermined. So I had to bring out the big guns. I’ve always been good with challenges, able to outwork most competition; I had an inquisitive mind and a positive nature and I could dance! I would need all of it in the years to come.

David and Kelly were both talented broadcast pros, both of them with their best days ahead and excited for the possibilities this morning show gig presented for their careers.

I on the other hand was none of that. I was not yet five years in broadcasting and while I had improved, even managed to win BCAB news awards, the best that could be said of me was ‘his best days are ahead of him.’, and that would have been charitable. That was not a compliment about untapped potential as much as it was a head shaker about how bad I had been, a kind of ‘surely he’s going to get better, he’s bound to improve’.  Well yes, perhaps.  But our show took off and we quickly found a genuine chemistry between the three of us.

‘David, Kelly and Tony’ took off and became a huge success and we went on the ride of a lifetime with it. There wasn’t anything David wouldn’t have us do. We gave away $100,000 to a local woman. I still remember driving over to her house with a cheque for a hundred grand. Who would have thought that would happen? We did our morning show in -15C on top of Gem Lake up at Big White and on the 12th floor of an unfinished tower at Landmark Centre in Kelowna.

I still get shivers about that show from time to time. Not the shivers of being cold, shivers from realizing I came close to a fatal accident. We set up our show on the open 12th floor of the tower. I was evolving, with David’s guidance, into more of an entertainer than a newsperson and my morning show role was to pop up in unexpected places to do live cut-ins during the show.

“Hey Tony, where are you?” David was in my ear piece and we were live to air.

“Over here.”, I replied.

“Where are you?” I could hear Kelly giggling in the background, knowing I was about to surprise them with something.

“At the end of the crane”

I could hear them both gasp. I had shimmied out to the end of the extension at the 120’ height of the crane, without gloves, without a safety harness on an extension which was just an inverted triangle. It was never meant for any workers to walk out on and certainly not to shimmy out on. To make matters worse it was very, very cold and I couldn’t feel my hands. We did the cut in, which as I recall was pretty funny and then I had to get back. I don’t recall being scared going out, pulling myself along with my arms and knees but it hit me like a ton when I needed to come back in. I couldn’t turn, so I had to pull myself back six inches at a time. I was scared and tired and my grip was weakening with my cold hands. I forced myself not to look down but I knew there was nothing between me and the ground. Without a doubt it is the most dangerous, stupidest thing I have ever done. But it was great radio. Nobody could turn the dial on that bit and bonus, I have lived to tell the tale.

In the mid 90’s we really hit our stride taking a plane full of listeners down to Mexico to do our morning show, “David, Kelly and Tony Waking Up in Puerta Vallarta”, …”in Huatulco”, “… in Manzanillo”. By God that was fun. I have so many memories on flash cards:

David as you know was my boss but we had grown closer over the years. We were always going to be The Odd Couple, a study in sharp contrast which was as it turns out, the secret to our success. David was an introvert and very buttoned down by nature, conservative socially and in politics and a devout Christian. I was an extrovert, bold and outspoken, thriving in the limelight, liberal socially and politically, increasingly progressive in my thinking and an atheist. We were a perfect match. Made for each other. On the show I had completed the transition from News Director to an entertainer who also read the news. I was the ‘Crazy Uncle Bob’ character, the one who was invited for Christmas dinner and always did something off base and said outrageous things. Hey, I was born to that role and when I fully embraced the personality of the ‘Tony’ character on our show I broke through as a radio talent.

By the end of the decade the three of us, ‘David, Kelly and Tony’, had become pretty good on-air and we won the 1999 BCAB Performer of the Year award, presented at a fancy ceremony in Vancouver. And then it blew apart. I left radio to start a marketing company, Think. Marketing Inc. I suppose leaving when you are on top is as good a time as any but that wasn’t really the driving force. I had a fractious relationship with Nick and thought that radio couldn’t be trusted to employ me for the rest of my working days. We had two growing children and I told Mac I needed to get control of earning a living. Besides communication and marketing, what could possibly go wrong. I had lots of dance left in me. Strike up the band!

To this day I don’t know if I made the right decision to leave radio when I did. We were onto something and had gained enough profile nationally that we were being offered big money contracts to move the show, lock stock and barrel to major markets. David told me other offers would follow. He knew that morning shows with real chemistry are as rare as hen’s teeth and that it is cheaper to find one and hire it as a proven show, rather than to go through trial and error and years of development to build one of your own. ‘David, Kelly and Tony’ had reached that point. It was a moment of brief incandescent pride for me, given the path I had come but it was going to affect everyone I knew and loved and I couldn’t come to terms with that; it would have involved uprooting Mac, who was very well established in her own career, and Toby and Sophie and leaving Jono and ‘Niffer behind in Kelowna. On top of all that it still lacked the employment certainty I was searching for in my remaining working years. It has always been fun to reflect from time to time, the ‘what if’ notions that come with thinking back.

I can remember saying to Mac, “I should have never left radio.” She would say, “You’ll get back in one day, you will.” I knew she was not right. Until she was.

And then David Larsen came back to town.

After our show broke up David had left town seeking radio opportunities but by 2010 had returned to Kelowna to work at K96.3 the classic rock station, once again setting about to build a morning show. In fact I was hired by David to help with a talent search for a co-host. At some point with time running short David turned to me,

“Don’t suppose you’d want to be my co-host would you?”

The question stunned me. Mac had always said that she had a feeling I’d get back into radio, something I knew would never happen. And yet there it was. Not wanting to appear too eager, I hesitated, all of two seconds and replied,

“That would be fantastic, Squire.”

And there it was. I was back in radio. ‘David and Tony’ K Mornings went on a great ride and I embraced this unexpected return to radio with renewed energy and enthusiasm.

And we were good. David always had been good but now I was as well and we developed an on-air chemistry that was the backbone of an exciting, engaging morning show. He was the straight upright backbone of the show and I was a very vivid unpredictable ‘say what he thinks straight shootin’, he said whaaaattt!’ on air personality. I was a natural, born to it.

In 2019 I retired from radio. David and I had a great run and this time we really did leave on top. I’ll be forever grateful to him for that alone. I know that this may be read by my grandchildren years from now or perhaps their children, and radio will seem to them about as old fashioned as the phonograph was to me in my childhood. Technology, the machines, the software and apps which have allowed each generation to communicate with one another and with ever increasing efficiency will always change, not the least reason for that being the intentional obsolescence built into the ‘next great breakthrough’, so essential to market capitalism. And terrestrial radio has indeed seen its best days. But one part of radio, the heart of radio will never get old, never lose relevance.

There is a reason radio will continue to thrive. Radio understands that the most compelling medium for us all is the sound of the human voice. Since recorded history, back to the cave hieroglyphics of ancient times depicting people around a fire, human beings have gathered to share, eat and tell stories. Over millennia guttural primal sounds became meaningful, communicating happiness and anger, laughter and arousal, the spoken word evolving into what we know today. And through it all we never stopped gathering and sharing our stories. In the middle centuries story tellers would travel from town to town telling tales to the illiterate. Technology notwithstanding, the spoken word has always been at the heart of communication between humans. The technology of radio got old, as does all technology but the compelling sound of the human voice has not aged a day.

I have no idea what extraordinary dimensions of communication the future holds but I know with certainty the sound of the human voice will never get old.  We are born to it, perhaps even before birth we are made aware of comforting tones and the sound of song from our mothers. We don’t know what it is, all we know is how much we like it, how soothing it is to our spirits. Babies have been settled before bed for centuries with bed time stories, read in gentle and loving tones. As we get older we learn skill with words through grammar and vocabulary and tone of voice.

We learn the efficiency of tone, often as not in our homes as we first hear gentle voices, laughing voices, and then inevitably as we get older and perhaps not quite as obedient as our parents would have us be, we hear voices raised in anger or instruction. The short point is that the human voice is the most powerful, impactful ‘communication technology’ you have and you don’t need to buy it in a store, you came equipped with it.

Radio succeeded because the sound of the human voice is at its heart. When I finally figured that out was when I finally became good on the radio. I could ‘feel’ listeners respond to something I said, I could ‘feel’ them laugh, or cry or shout back at me.  I could get people to respond with emotion to a child’s story, or donate to the Food Bank, or the Kelowna General Hospital Foundation. It is what radio does better than any other medium I know because it understands a basic truth about us all: the best way to describe the human story and human emotions is with the human voice. The human voice is emotive; it can bring words to life in a way that the typed word can never do.  What you have just read would be far more persuasive if you had been able to listen to me. Perhaps a future technology may come up with a better way but I’m afraid I won’t be here to see it. But if I was, I’d embrace the new technology and use my voice to say so.

In the meantime, I’m going to listen to 102.7 NOW1 Vancouver’s Conversation Station, ‘the evolution of modern radio.’