Radio and Kids

From an early age, kids learn that questions yield answers. Not always the answers they want or the answers they expect, but it’s a tool to start a dialog and get information.

Sometimes a question leads in a direction that no one anticipates. Here’s a rough transcript from a conversation I had this week with one of the three-year-olds in my life who listens to radio (including NCPR):

Three-Year-Old: “You are going to work today?”
Me: “Yes. Very soon.”
TYO: “With Todd Moe?!”
Me: “Yes”
TYO: “I love Todd Moe. He’s a good guy…”
Me: (surprised and delighted) “Yes, he is!”
TYO: (picking up as if I had not interrupted) “…’cause he can talk about it…and he hears me talk about it…”

I never did ask what “it” was because my mind was already moving ahead. Two things struck me. The first has to do with kids. I appreciate their instincts. They generally can feel when someone is trying too hard – or not enough. They can sense the genuine. I’m lucky enough to actually know Todd, and I know that he IS a good guy. Still, it was neat to hear this little listener put it our there.

Second, radio can be a special companion. You listen, and a real person presents information and perhaps entertainment – and who seems to listen as you talk back to the radio. Technically, radio is a one-way transmission…but the people who do it really well make it seem like a two-way relationship.

It’s a craft – a gift? – to be able to do this. And thinking about it reminded me how much I appreciate my own kitchen radio, the special announcers/DJs that I’ve known, and the opportunities I’ve had to be behind the microphone, too.