This past week, the world lost a lot of really unique public figures. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Billy Mays all passed away within days of one another this past week. The most shocking was arguably, the passing of Michael Jackson. The world stopped in its tracks and reflected on his brilliant career and (sometimes) bizarre personal life. The untimely passing of a public figure, like Michael Jackson will be filed and recalled in your mind something like this… “Do you remember where you were when you heard Michael Jackson had died?’ This question is interchangeable. How about John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, John Lennon, Elvis Presley, the Challenger crew, or now Michael Jackson?For me, there is one theme, and while I am too young to remember the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, I can tell you not only where I was when I learned that the others had died, but also how I heard about it.
Elvis Presley passed away the summer of 1977. I was working for my uncle that summer and he always had the radio on. I heard about Elvis’ passing on the radio. Only much later did I learn that the king passed away on his thrown – so to speak.
In college I worked for a Union 76 gas station in Phoenix and it was a cool winter night. I was behind the desk studying for finals in my down time between customers (we had both Full and Self Serve). KZZP was in the background. Imagine was on the radio… the announcer came on after the song and announced that John Lennon had been shot. I heard it on the radio. I thought at the time how ironic it was that the news story had come down at the same moment that Lennon’s song was being played. Later I realized that it wasn’t irony, but the theater of Radio.
In 1985 I was just waking and listening to KFQD. Marcus in the Morning came on the air and went straight to Dave Dorn who had breaking news. An uneasy tone in Dave’s voice caught my attention. He announced that it appeared that Challenger had apparently exploded shortly after its launch and we were waiting to learn whether the crew had survived. I did something new… I turned on the TV and watched CNN’s live coverage of the tragedy. But again, I heard about the Challenger tragedy on the radio, from my friends.
Last week I had KDGL on in the background of my office. Radio is my constant companion and I listen many hours a day. Brad Mercer came on the air and announced that Michael Jackson had been rushed to UCLA Medical Center and it didn’t look good. I waited through the next song. Brad announced that Michael was dead. I heard about it on the radio, and in the early moments after the announcement, I turned to the internet to find out more, and no news source or Google search had any more information than Brad had. I continued to work and listen as more information became available.
Late last week and over the weekend, I began to ask friends family and colleagues about not where they were when they learned of their loss, but ‘how’ they learned of it. Almost without exception, it was by listening to the radio. And it occurred to me, that our companion, the background music in our lives, the friend in the dark – is unrivaled in delivering information instantaneously - from a friend’s lips to your ears.
I learned about the passing of Billy Mays from my 17 year old son. Who learned of Billy’s passing – by hearing it on the radio.