In my case, Ive spent the last 35 years of my life in the radio business. In 1962 my dad gave me a red plastic transistor radio that had one of those white plastic earphones. I turned that Motorola on and I remember hearing My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean by the Beatles. I was all of six-years-old, but I was hooked. I never wanted to do anything else but be part of what was spilling out of the little red radio.
When I was 15 I saved up my lawn mowing money and bought an early FM radio hobby kit. When I turned that radio on, my life changed forever. We were lucky to have one of the first free-form progressive radio stations in our backyard in Worcester, Massachusetts. The first thing I heard on that station was Creams I Feel Free. I just had to find a way to be part of what I was hearing on WAAF FM. At 15-years-old I knocked on the door of the station and said I wanted to work there after school. I walked into the studio and there were two guys on-air playing a side of Iron Butterfly and smoking what we used to call 'a little mother nature.' The wheels started turning and I figured this would be a pretty good gig if I could somehow parlay it into a paying job.
They ended up hiring me to help put together the alternative news called FM News and Commentary. So there I was at 15 working my dream job in rock radio. I stayed there until I graduated high school and left for Emerson College in Boston. I worked part-time radio while going to school. That led to jobs in larger markets and more responsibility and money along the way.
Here's where the boomerang comes in. When you are pretty good at what you do, in many cases you get kicked upstairs to the corporate side of whatever business you made your life's work. In my case I became the CEO of a radio company in Illinois. After five years of running the company and serving on the boards of two other companies, I realized I wasn't doing any radio anymore. As opposed to making what came out of those speakers, I was spending the vast majority of my day on spreadsheets, board reports, HR problems and sales meetings. That's when the boomerang hit me on the back of the head.
At 50 I decided to chuck the corner office for the studio and again make what comes out of the speakers. For the first time in nearly a dozen years I'm back on the air and having the time of my life doing talk radio in Madison, Wisconsin. Every morning I talk to a lot fellow boomers and others about the things that impact their lives. What I like the most is we do a lot of laughing. There was a lot less laughing in the corner office. Letting the boomerang hit me is one of the best things I've ever done.
A lot of my friends who have climbed the corporate ladder say they envy me. Some have done the same thing and let the boomerang take them back to what they truly love. I think that's one of the things that makes this generation so special. No matter how far the world has pushed us to become in some cases what we never wanted, we really haven't changed that much. Our music, our ideals and our passion still persist.
I can remember when my dad hit 50. He seemed a lot older than me at 50. Perhaps that's just the fog of the generational shift, but perhaps it's more. Perhaps this generation really is different and much younger at heart. When someone calls me Mr. Gardner I usually say "hey, my dad was Mr. Gardner, I'm Glen." When it comes to baby-boomers, I think that's the way its always going to be no matter how old we get.
Every so often I'll be contributing an article in this space on issues impacting this generation that has had such a dramatic effect through sheer numbers and cultural impact. I plan on writing about things we still care passionately about as this strange ride our generation started continues.
If you hear a swooshing sound behind you don't fight it. It might just be your boomerang trying to tell you something.
See you on the radio.
Glen
Stream and podcasts at www.wtdy.com 6-9am central
www.myspace.com/glengardner
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