It all started with a painful divorce, a gift from my father and National Public Radio.
Art by Pete Whitehead
Listen Free: | Apple Podcasts | Pandora | Stitcher | Spotify |
Story performed by: Aaron Calafato
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Art: Pete Whitehead
Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
Hey everybody, thanks for all the text messages and the voicemails on the old seven minute stories hotline. 216-352-4010. I love reading them and listening to them. I know Cori does too. This week, though, I'm going to highlight a text message that came in from one of my best friends Dan. What's hilarious about this is Dan has my regular cell phone number, like he could text me this information, but he's a legend and he decided to use the old 7MS phone number.
And he did this to further an argument he and I have been having for the last 20 plus years on whether Barry Sanders or Emmitt Smith is the better NFL running back. Now, look, I'm in the minority here, and I'm going to tell you that Emmitt Smith is the best all around back. And if you want to talk about this, we can talk offline and I'll prove it to you. But Dan texts in and he says, "Hey, Aaron enjoyed the Captain Kirk story from last week, but I have a tip for you. Next year at Halloween, dress up as Barry Sanders and you will run faster and have improved agility."
Again. Dan, great point. I know he's probably the most gifted athletic running back in the history of the NFL. I'm still taking Emmitt Smith on my team. OK, so you're wrong in your argument, but I appreciate your contention. But you are right, Dan... And Dan is right to use the old 7 Minute Story hotline - 216-352-4010. Thanks for that. And thanks to all of you. Will keep featuring your messages on upcoming episodes.
All right. So for this week, I recorded this about a year ago and it was my attempt at an origin story for how, and why, this podcast got started and why I got started as a storyteller. And I thought it was going to be this very layered story. But really, it's extremely, I think, pretty simple and tasteful. And it really boiled down to three things that happened in my life, a divorce that happened in my family, a gift that I got from my father and National Public Radio.
So I think many of you, especially those of you who listen to a lot of public radio out there, are really going to like this one. So without further ado, please enjoy The Secret Antenna.
I'm sitting in the backseat of my dad's car, we're driving and I'm looking out the window and everything looks unfamiliar. Everything looks strange, the trees look weird, the road signs look weird, the houses look weird, and I felt scared. And it hit me why, because we were driving to my dad's new apartment, and I didn't know where the heck I was. I was five years old and my parents just got divorced.
So we get to the apartment and my dad gives me the little tour and then he shows me where my bedroom is at, and I'm looking in on this tiny room and in the middle of the room on this outdated carpet, there was this toy karaoke set. With a microphone, a cassette player and a radio all in one, and then a stack of cassettes next to it.
And my dad, was standing behind me, puts his hand on my shoulder and he says, "This is for you." And I run in there, and right away I grab the microphone. And my dad says to me, you know, you can record your voice on this, right? And I look at him and I'm like, "what!?" He's like, "yeah, just put a cassette tape in press play and record at the same time and say something."
So I do. And then I rewind the tape and I press play. And when I heard my voice play back to me, this late 80s piece of technology blew my mind. It was game over, game over. I'm recording stories on this 24 hours a day. I could not stop. And this is something that's a little bit embarrassing... When I would record some of my stories late at night, especially when I shouldn't be, I would imagine that the stories wouldn't just go onto the cassette tape, but I thought maybe there's an imaginary antenna on the back of this device. And when I'm telling these stories, they're going out into the atmosphere somewhere. And then there's someone, somewhere listening on a radio with an antenna. And they're going to pick up one of my stories and they're going to hear it. And they're just going to feel good and they won't feel alone. You know? But the other important piece of this device was the radio itself, because I really didn't have any inspiration or a template for what you should do or what other great people on the radio were doing. So my dad told me, he said, "you can listen to the radio 24 hours a day if you want. But I would recommend that you listen to this station". And he turns it to our local NPR affiliate, National Public Radio. And as soon as that happened, everything changed for me. It really became the soundtrack to my adolescence. On the car rides back and forth to my dad's apartment, when he'd be cooking... look, I can smell the food right now as I'm talking to you. He's cooking, and in the background is All Things Considered. And then we roll into the weekend. Just unbelievable programs like Car Talk, and What Do You Know with Michael Feldman, and This American Life and Prairie Home Companion. And the radio would just keep going and going. I couldn't sleep without it. So, I would bring the radio into my bedroom and fall asleep at night. And I remember one night in particular, I'm dozing off, and then something clicked in my brain. I thought to myself, what if one day one of my stories could be on the radio like these people?
Now, flash forward 30 years, I'm in a car, only this time I'm driving and my daughter is in the backseat. And I turn on the radio to NPR and something weird happens. I hear my own voice, on the radio, and it was kind of strange, so I just turned up the volume just a tune back in to make sure I wasn't having an illusion and it was my voice. It was me. Now, I had just started doing this podcast, 7 Minute Stories, and I came to the realization that one of my stories was being featured on Snap Judgment and was being broadcasted to NPR stations across America.
And my daughter says to me, "hey, daddy, is that you on the radio? And I looked up into the rearview mirror and I was stunned, and I just nodded my head. And you should have seen the smile on her face. And I thought to myself, man. "My stories aren't just on cassette tapes anymore." And then I thought, you know, maybe there was a secret antenna on the back of that old karaoke machine? Maybe that's what made this possible? But most likely not. Most likely it was my dad and it was that little toy karaoke set. And it was everybody that worked at NPR and all of those programs across the country that I listened to throughout the years.
And most likely it was you, the listener. And more specifically, if you listen and support public radio across the country. It was you, because by doing that, you're unknowingly creating possibilities for people. Look, in this case, you gave a five year old kid who you didn't know from Northeast Ohio, who at the time his family was in turmoil...You gave him the audacity to think that maybe one day he could be a storyteller. And that maybe one of his stories would make it on the radio.
