It wasn't Marconi's doing

Ok...confession time.

The real reason I got into radio?

Don't get me wrong. I always enjoyed it when I was a kid. I used to sit in my bedroom and pretend I was the DJ on my hometown radio station (WGEZ AM1490). I used to turn up the radio during the music and then turn it down during the talking parts so I could record my own stuff. Classic radio geek kind of story.

But the real reason came to me when I was 14. I saw this picture of a DJ who was on WGEZ. Her on-air name was Cindy Leighton (have no idea what her real name was) and she was...to put it in one word...hot.

She was looking for a teenager to do a show with her. It was going to be a show about...teens (appropriately named Teens N' Talk). I interviewed for the job and got it. In addition to the hour show every week, she let me come into the studio while she was working and learn more about radio. Of course at the time, I wasn't necessarily thinking about radio..I was thinking about something a little different. More along the lines of a Benjamin Braddock/Mrs. Robinson thing or a Hermie/Dorothy kind of thing (Summer of '42...great flick..I highly recommend). You know...the type of thing that leads to the younger inexperienced guy getting the hot older woman.

Yeah...needless to say, that didn't happen.

So next time you are listening to the radio and you hear a woman by the name of Cindy Leighton, let me know. I do owe her a thank you. This radio thing...it's been pretty good to me. No complaints.

PS; She was only 6 years older than me at the time...but it felt like a lifetime.