The Walk On Song That Started It All

I caught a recent post from Fred Jacobs about a 40th anniversary music video for “Spirit of Radio” from Rush. Fred's post, and the video were both beautifully done so I wanted to share them, and also my connection to this radio love letter which was a coincidental intro or "walk on song" to my career.

An obsession with radio came early for me. By the time I was 12, staying up late tuning across the dial...comparing signals from British Columbia to Baja California was more interesting to me than anything else.

A few minutes from the "Say It Forward" podcast where, as a guest, I talk about my early dial tuning:

I figured out a way to get on the air at my local FM rock station at 16 by entering a contest. Now the time had come. How poignant, slightly cheesy, but really more poignant than cheesy, and purely by chance of rotations that “Spirit of Radio” was randomly the last song that played from the previous show leading up to my radio debut. It played in the studio like the soundtrack of my destiny, and now a functional countdown of five minutes and ten seconds; the most anxious and exciting of my young life leading to my big moment. 

I had spent much of my childhood dreaming of making the transition from obsessed radio fan to actual radio personality, and now the song was nearing the finish. "Spirit of Radio" famously has a few false endings and then ends cold. That was an intense combination for my anticipation and nervousness. The evidence is revealed in the pitch of my voice when the moment comes to open the microphone and say something.

“Spirit of Radio” ended and my career began. The recording of that broadcast is featured later in the same podcast I referenced above, and here's an excerpt below that sets up the moment. A link to the whole podcast is at the bottom of this article.

The 40th anniversary 2020 "Spirit of Radio" music video from Rush:

Thanks to Fred Jacobs for sparking my memory, and to Rush for the walk on.