In the late 40s I lived in the country near Grandfield, Oklahoma, only a mile or so from the Red River. Since my older brother and sister had already moved away from home, it was just me, Mom and Dad. For most days the only entertainment was our Sears Silvertone radio. I remember my mother telling me to "Turn it to 70" (for KGNC, Amarillo, actually at 710 on the dial) for most programs. I never quite got into "Stella Dallas", but I did love to hear "Lorenzo Jones" and a few others :-)
Radio was really "magic" to me then, and I feel the same way about it today. I certainly never thought the entertainers were "inside the box" or anything like that, but I always imagined what the people looked like-- another "entertainment plus" eventually removed by television.
Later, In elementary school and in junior high, my family would go out to our local 250-watter, KVOW, in Littlefield, Texas where we had moved after I started first grade. We enjoyed a live gospel quartet called "The Littlefield Four" who sang in their main studio. I was TOTALLY interested in everything about that place, especially the "board" and transmitter which I could see through a big double glass!
Since I realized I had marginal grammar and a deep country accent, I had no hope then of doing anything at a station beyond transmitter maintenance; however I was sure even that would be fun.
But when I turned 15, my high school counselor introduced me to the station manager who always kept two or three high school boys working part-time. (One was country singer Waylon Jennings who had worked there a few years before!) I had to "unlearn" a lot of pronunciation (There is no R in Washington, for instance), but I soon was doing some voice modulation of the old Gates transmitter. It was the start of about 15 years in broadcasting.
I first worked for free (managers could get away with that back then), recording commercials and doing some interviews around town on a reel-to-reel. The first time I actually went on the air LIVE was unusual-- I was hanging around the station one night when the announcer on duty had a heart attack! He remained at the controls playing records while we waited for an ambulance, but he had me read the news headlines on the half-hour. I could not have been more nervous had it been on NBC's entire network of stations!
Sadly, Billy Webb (a classmate of mine who also worked at the station) soon arrived to take over from the stricken employee, and my broadcasting was over for the evening.