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I’ve always loved radio. My parents never had it on in the house. Every once in a while my Mom would play show tunes on the record player while she cleaned but for the most part it was quiet or the TV was on. The car was a different story. In the car, when my Dad was driving, we would listen to the radio. My Dad loved to drive. He had a compass mounted to the dashboard and we would head out on side streets and back roads until we found our destination. Never going the same way twice. He would do this even when we were late, which was most of the time, and that would just infuriate my mother. On Saturdays it was always the Texaco Metropolitan Opera. I think my Dad would take those back roads just so he could listen longer. Late on Sunday afternoons though we could faintly pick up this Public Radio Station out of Albany and they would play all the great radio shows of the 30’s and 40’s. Gang Busters and The Jack Benny Show were always my favorite. We couldn’t get the station in the house. So often on Sunday evenings my Dad and I would sit in the driveway with the car pointed in just the right direction and listen to our favorite episodes. For years for Christmas my Dad would get me a radio drama on record and that’s where I found the Shadow, Green Hornet and a great two LP set of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.
As I got older of course it became all about the music. Once in the fourth grade I was home, sick, and I must have really been sick because I remember my Dad brought me home a turtle in its own little plastic lagoon at the end of the day. A pet you could never have today. As I lay in bed too sick to read Treasure Island or play with my Best of the West collection, my Mom brought in the portable radio and I found WCGY – The Rock Garden. I loved it. This was a whole new world but what really fascinated me was the "Jocks." Where these guys who came on after the songs and told you about them and made you laugh? Even at that age I wondered, "how do I get a job like that?" What really cemented radio as the greatest medium for me was finding "The Big Mattress" in Junior High. I’d get up early during vacation just so I could hear the whole show instead of the half hour I got to hear during the school year. Here was someone who was playing great music but was also doing "Theater of the Mind" just like the great radio dramas and comedies from the "Golden Age" of radio that I still loved. Everyone on the show was a character. All the voices, all the "bits" I couldn’t wait every morning to hear what "Chuck" was going to do next. It was all so real. To this day Charles Laquidara is my favorite personality. Just thinking about "Hello Rangoon" cracks me up. After spending a number of years as a jock at places like WRNX and WEQX, I went into talk radio. I love the immediacy of talk. How every day is different and having grown up in Central Mass I wanted to raise my kids in the same area so I started to look for a radio job that would bring me back "home." Think of your favorite radio hosts. Upton Bell on WCRN is a great example. I’ve heard Upton on many different stations over the years. He sits in the same chair as the other hosts, has the same group of people helping him as other hosts, but when you listen to Upton its always different. He creates Theater of the Mind. It is the same thing with Peter Blute. Some guys just have the magic. I’m very lucky at WCRN to work with one of the great guys in radio Peter Blute and again as with all my favorite radio hosts his love of the medium comes over the airwaves. I’m beginning Wake Up Worcester from 5 to 6am right before Peter’s show and I hope that you enjoy it. Entertaining on radio, talking about the local issues, is all I’ve ever really wanted to do. When a really great discussion gets going on the air is when I feel the most alive. I look forward to being with you for a long time to come. Hank
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Hank's Blog 
