KAMINSKI QUITS SPEAKFREERADIO.COM
Recent Essays by John Kaminski
Load lifted
RADIO CAREER OVER
KAMINSKI QUITS
SPEAKFREERADIO.COM
I’m free. Free again. Free at last.
The charade is over. I am not a radio guy. Just as I thank God every day that I was not born a Jew, I also thank him/her/it that I was not born a radio guy.
Not that radio guys are bad. I just don’t happen to be one. Basically radio guys are stand up comics. That’s what attracts audiences. This is a very valuable profession. What would life be without laughs?
I am way too serious. Terrified of the future because I’ve seen too much of the past. Way too much.
And I simply stutter too much. And think too much. This is what comes from being an editor for so long. When you think of something to say, a few seconds later you invariably think of a better way to say it. This is not something that ever happens in the audio media. Once it’s said, it’s done.
Load lifted
RADIO CAREER OVER
KAMINSKI QUITS
By John Kaminski
I’m free. Free again. Free at last.
The charade is over. I am not a radio guy. Just as I thank God every day that I was not born a Jew, I also thank him/her/it that I was not born a radio guy.
Not that radio guys are bad. I just don’t happen to be one. Basically radio guys are stand up comics. That’s what attracts audiences. This is a very valuable profession. What would life be without laughs?
I am way too serious. Terrified of the future because I’ve seen too much of the past. Way too much.
And I simply stutter too much. And think too much. This is what comes from being an editor for so long. When you think of something to say, a few seconds later you invariably think of a better way to say it. This is not something that ever happens in the audio media. Once it’s said, it’s done.
So here’s what happened. Nothing bad. And even a little bit funny.
After 51 episodes of Kaminski Goes Ballistic/Behind Enemy Lines on speakfreeradio.com, I realized I was hurting myself, that is to say, seriously injuring myself on several levels.
Because I spent virtually all my waking hours trying to get guests to come on my show, I basically stopped writing stories. Writing stories has been the engine of my income for the past 20 years. When the demands of constructing a radio program eclipsed the production of interesting stories — as it has — my income plummeted precipitously close to complete nonexistence.
I also lost that considerable magical time when I could monitor Internet news in the most obscure places around the planet and delve deeply into the many fantastic websites that did a much better job of explaining the mysteries of the universe and world politics than any university could ever hope to do.
Of course there was an upside to radio, which were all those memorable guests I managed to interview. I hurt myself by picking tough subjects, many of which required hours of study just to talk intelligently to them. This took a lot of time.
And then there was the surprising aspect I discovered about being a radio guy. You must be two distinct personalities, a game show host narrating the format and necessities of the network and show you are operating, and an investigative reporter with credible insight to elicit meaningful info from your guest. I had a helluva time putting those two things together, and probably never really mastered it.
I don’t want to say anything bad about the network because it was new and in many respects ad hoc out of necessity with systems not thoroughly operational like some of the older stations are. And the support staff was a lot of fun but shackled by so many duties that they weren’t always around for stressful periods when I was stuck with no solution, largely due to my inability to follow simple instructions.
I can’t really comment on the performance of other hosts on the network because I spent so much time mastering my own details, and listened to the other shows only sporadically. But I do know this complex assembly of tasks, codes and instructions were the principal reason as to why today I am racing eagerly toward retirement with no wish to ever host another radio show of my own.
While I had interesting callers who added immensely to the substance of the shows, I never got a single letter about the content of any show, which is something that rarely happens after my written stories are posted, so maybe I’m simply spoiled by that practice.
The bottom-most reason why I freed myself from my radio responsibilities, however, was stress. It was eating me alive trying to find guests, and once finding them, furnishing relevant questions by which to illuminate the sterling characteristics that showed why I chose them to be there in the first place.
So thanks to all those great and funny and important characters who revealed important aspects of the human condition, I hope, and shined some light on important topics we are going to have to master if we are going to remain alive and functional to see some kind of future better than the mess we face today.
Please look forward to more relevant stories about our predicaments and feel free to support my work by mail if you see a reason to do so. But don’t expect any more clumsy radio interviews.
Sincere thanks to the callers and guests who made my shows on Kaminski Goes Ballistic a lot easier and rest assured that I will continue to cover the world and its dangers and disasters a lot more professionally with a keyboard than I ever could with a microphone.
John Kaminski is a writer who lives on the Gulf Coast of Florida, constantly trying to figure out why we are destroying ourselves, and pinpointing a corrupt belief system as the engine of our demise. Solely dependent on contributions from readers, please support his work by mail: 6871 Willow Creek Circle #103, North Port FL 34287 USA.
https://speakfreeradio.com/category/podcasts/kgb/
http://www.rudemacedon.ca/kaminski/kam-index.html
http://user1252122.sites.myregisteredsite.com/id40.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20070217113216/http://www.johnkaminski.com:80/
https://www.serendipity.li/john_kaminski_articles.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/20040323232319/http://johnkaminski.com/
https://www.johnkaminski.org/index.php/john-kaminski-archived-stories-and-essays-2/2018/10
