It Was An Interesting And Encouraging Morning

This morning (July 8th, 2010) I was a guest on the morning "Big Show" on Tampa's 820AM WWBA. It was a lot fun and very interesting. I forgot how much I enjoyed working in radio at the beginning of my career nearly three decades ago.

The reason I was there is one of the show's host, Roger Schulman (who has been on Tampa radio for nearly 40 years), asked me to join them since lead host, Mike Reeves, was on vacation. Also there were co-hosts Shayna Lance and Jo Jo Walker. All three are really nice people and solid professionals.

The morning started out with a chat about the state of local TV news, but things really started getting interesting when Shayna asked me what current events had piqued my interest. I mentioned something I had just blogged about: Republican U-S Senators voting down an extension of unemployment benefits. I said I thought it was the wrong decision.

Roger and Jo Jo agreed with me, but Shayna disagreed strongly. Her point was the U-S government would have to borrow money to extend those benefits. She says enough is enough when it comes to this country reaching out to other countries (i.e China) for a helping hand, financially. What followed was interesting and encouraging.

Phone calls from listeners started pouring in. Some agreed with me, Roger and Jo Jo. Some agreed with Shayna. But the point is the callers were all engaged in the subject and I find that very encouraging. For too long many of us have kept our thoughts and opinions to ourselves for the fear of offending others. There is a problem with that. When we don't discuss our differences we can't move forward. We can't learn from one another.

The exchange of ideas is not only good. It's healthy.

Bill Ratliff