When I first discovered this World, it was a far cry from what it is now. I can remember asking my mother why I couldn't stay up as late as the kids on the commercials did - if they were up doing those commercials on TV, I should be allowed to be up too! Try explaining that one to a 6-year-old in the videotape-less time of 1975.
Music was with me everywhere I went when I was a kid. My mother had it on in the kitchen, whenever she was doing chores around the house, and she also played the piano, which I started at a very young age, as well. It was the '70's, and AM radio ruled the airwaves. I had a small transistor radio - a robin's egg blue plastic casing that will never escape my memory - and it was
almost like a security blanket. Every night I would sneak it under my pillow so I could listen to music without my parents knowing. From that I graduated to a cassette player, which I used to record songs from the radio by holding it up to the speakers.
While having lots of LP's and 45's, along with a few 8-track tapes in my stash, technology was moving forward and so would I. One of the most memorable and exciting Christmas gifts I've ever received was the adapter unit that allowed you to play the new cassette tape format in the soon to be extinct 8-track player. High-tech indeed! 
By the early 1980's a new sensation hit the mass market and made itself a staple in the standard living room ensemble. VCR's would forever change how people watched TV, and bring the movie theatre home for film lovers. By then, I was hooked on a popular weekly music show Solid Gold, which spawned a daily half-hour offspring, Solid Gold Hits. That's when my intimate relationship with the VCR began. Tapes upon tapes of musical performances to watch at my beckon desire!While my relationship with the VCR was developing, so was my discovery of television production. Just how did these shows appear on that screen in my living room anyhow? However it happened, I knew I had to be involved. But, not before a tryst with my first love.....radio.
To be continued.....
