People want to hear stories

A lot of things I miss about the New York of my youth (during my visits there). Musicradio WABC, Chock Full O’ Nuts, street corner harmony, Bob & Ray, Ray's Original Pizza or Original Ray's Pizza, or Original Ray's Original Pizza (whatever the hell it is), Joe Franklin, Palisades Park, Bob Murphy, Crazy Eddy's, and Jean Shepherd on WOR.

For like an hour a night Jean Shepherd would get on the radio and just talk. Nothing scripted, no political rants. He just told stories. And they were mesmerizing. For those not familiar with Jean Shepherd, have you ever seen the movie CHRISTMAS STORY? He wrote and narrated that film. (He was “Ralphie.”) I remember one time glued to my radio as Shepherd described moving a piano into an apartment. GAME OF THRONES wasn’t that exciting.

There’s a real art to storytelling and very few people are masters of it.

I remember way back in the ‘60s the Dodgers were playing the Giants up in Candlestick Park and the game was on television. Vin Scully was at the mic. Fog rolled in so thick that the game was halted. For the next hour or so Vin Scully filled with stories of old Dodger-Giant meetings and tales of their glory days back in Brooklyn and New York. It was enthralling TV and all you had to look at was a grey screen.

Before my time there was Robert Trout. He was a newsman for CBS radio. One day he was on the air live describing President Franklin Roosevelt’s return from Europe via cruise ship. When the ship got 100 yards from the dock it suddenly stopped. Trout then filled for forty-five minutes – describing the scene, the purpose of the president’s trip, the weather, the birds, etc. Finally, the ship continued to the shore. As the president came down the gangplank, Mr. Trout caught up to him and asked on the air what caused the hold up? Roosevelt said, “I was listening and thought, let’s see how long he can go just filling time.”

Today we have our own version of these storytellers – podcast hots. They don’t have the audience that Shepherd or Scully or Trout had, but they do have the same opportunity to capture listeners and hone the craft of storytelling. Radio as we know it is pretty dead, but there are exciting new avenues. And you don’t have to be hired by someone to have your say. You just need a modicum of technical know-how (translation: anything more than me), a voice and desire to entertain. People want to hear stories. There’s never been a better time or medium to tell them.