On April 9, 2006, the world lost a complicated man.
My dad was difficult, cranky and opinionated.
He was also kind, compassionate and fun.
He was 58 years old when he died. I was 34.
Anyone who knew him, or even just met him, knows that he was a man of many words. Boy, could he talk. He loved telling stories. Tall ones, short ones, meaningful ones, funny ones.
My dad loved meeting people and hearing their stories. It was a true “connection” for him. Having the show gave him a place not only to air his opinions, but to feel like he was reaching out to a large number of people.
His show, “Connections,” was something that he always looked forward to doing each week. He enjoyed the process of creating a show, the people he got to work with and be around at the station, and his interactions with the callers. It was something in his life that really gave him purpose.
These radio show transcripts — dating back to 1998 — represent just one of the many forums he had for expressing himself. He wrote them with the intention of speaking the words aloud to his listeners, but each week he would email me the script.
I loved reading what he had written each week, and regretted that I was so far outside of WTBQ’s signal range and could not hear him share his words over the air.
Yet even when they were just words on my computer screen, the rhythm came through — the humor, the concepts, the thoughts, were all carried through, and I could hear his voice saying the words in my head as I read them.
I started editing them, with the intention to surprise him with a book, years ago. After he died, I knew that I had to finish this project. I am terribly sad that he won’t see the book in its completed form, but I hope that everyone who reads this collection will appreciate some of what my father had to offer.
And always remember, “Nothing gets in and nothing gets out of a closed mind or a closed heart.”
