Aspire, aspire, aspire

Goldie Hawn is on "Larry King" tonight.

A few minutes ago, a caller asked her, "What advice do you have for aspiring performers?"

She said, "Aspiring is good. Keep aspiring ... Keep loving what you do. Do community theater." Do whatever you can and keep loving it, which got me thinking and reminiscing ...

I also got an e-mail from my old boss tonight. He and his wife are coming to Brazil to see "Guys & Dolls" at the Lark Theatre with Linda and me this Thursday.

Since 1994 I have been fortunate to work in news full time as a reporter and as an editor. Most of the time as both.

In 1994, Dick allowed his program director to hire me as news director at WCVL-WIMC, Crawfordsville, Ind.

I had about 25 years of "experience" as a a free-lance writer and part-time radio performer before then.

I remember one night, waking up from a dream, while I was involved full-time in another profession. The dream was about me working in radio in a studio with wood-grain paneled walls. And when I awoke, I was almost in tears because the dream was so beautiful.

Little did I know that within a matter of months I would be working in radio full-time.

Not as a DJ. I didn't like disk jockey work. I didn't like playing the same songs over and over.

In 1978, I worked full-time for WCVL. I was hired as a DJ and began producing short-form pieces to be dropped into my evening radio show. I did interviews with people like the guy who ordered giant jaws to move illegally parked cars and the man who built an igloo and then camped out in it with his son. Quirky stuff.

Then, I was the host of "Girl Talk" in the mornings for a short time. I remember interviewing two ladies promoting a golf outing one day. I told them (off the air) I was nervous because my wife was to learn if she was pregnant that day.

She was and I went back into the ministry, partly because I had a wife and child to support and thought the ministry was more secure than radio. What a laugh!

In 1994 I started getting up at 3 a.m. to pick up the police blotter information at the city police station and be ready to go on the air by 6:30. I learned to write fast, for the ear, with my audience in mind.

But four years later, on a Saturday, after working 50-60 hours that week, I took a nap on the couch and woke up with my legs and arms jerking uncontrollably. I felt I needed to make a change.

Fortunately (I guess) I was able to get on the local newspaper as a reporter. I learned to write (not so fast) for the eyeand how to package stories for the front page with art (photos, etc.). I was soon editing the weekend entertainment "tab".

Now, I am the editor of The Brazil Times, in Brazil, Ind. I've been doing this for about five years and find it's like riding my motor scooter. If I think I've got the job mastered, something comes along and bites me in the ass. Always something I didn't see coming.

But when I think about doing something else for a living, nothing, virtually nothing comes to mind.

As a child I would get bored while my parents played pinochle and walk around the table, shouting out the cards in each person's hand.

I am not only a teller of tales, but I am a voyeur. I love to tell the world what other people are doing. Especially politicians. I love to tell people the things they want to talk to their friends about. Nothing thrills me more than to overhear someone say, "Did you read in The Times ...?"

I welcome the current move of combining audio and visual content with print journalism in Web pages, blogs and other online content. For I still love talk radio. WBBM and WCBS do a great job on the commercial radio side. But I find myself listening to public radio more and more.

So, in my very much less than successful way, I would agree wholeheartedly with Goldie Hawn. Aspire. Aspire, and keep on aspiring and loving what you do. Not for money but because you love doing it.