I am not talking television here; I’m talking radio.  Yes, that big box-looking thing with the glowing tubes inside that was a source of entertainment back in the “good old days”... the days of my youth... the days before television.  The quotes above are all intros to some pretty famous radio shows I would listen to when I was young.

I think I was about 9 years old before we got our first television, which was a second hand purchase my Daddy made from a neighbor who had gotten a new set.  This was about 1954 or ’55, and I remember the thing was the size of a jukebox but had a screen the size of a small laptop computer.  Daddy put an antenna up on the roof, something I haven’t seen in years now.  We got one station and I remember that station had more snow than Canada used to get in the winter before this global warming started.  I don’t really remember much of what we watched on that first television but I do remember Bob Hope, Milton Berle, and some kid’s entertainer called “Pinky” Lee.   But boy do I ever  remember my radio!

I do remember, when I was about 7 years old I would look into the back of the radio to see if I could actually see Superman or the Lone Ranger.  All I saw was the glow of the tubes inside the box.  That radio was actually bigger than the television was and had one dial which only received AM stations.  I don’t even think there was FM back in those days.  My Mama told me once they would listen to President Roosevelt give his “Fireside Chats” on that radio, although at the time I didn't know exactly what those were.

I am convinced that radio was the catapult to my imagination.  Between listening to the shows on the radio, which I much preferred to the snowy television, and reading anything I could get my hands on, I could envision things as if they were right there before me.

I remember the early days of listening to the Southern 500 from Darlington on the front porch of my Grandparents house with my Uncle Bobby.  Although I never got to that track until 1957 when I was 11 years old, I could sit in that rocking chair and almost smell the cars as they roared around that track.  When I first entered the infield at Darlington in 1957 it was somewhat different than I had imagined, but not that much really. I had already “seen” the track on my radio.

Lionel Cartwright wrote a song, which he recorded and which was later recorded by Dwight Yoakam.  That song was “I Watched It All on My Radio." (Editor's note: If Dwight Yoakam ever recorded this song, it doesn't appear anywhere on the Internet. Please enjoy it by the author, Lionel Cartwright) You can find that song online if you've never heard it, but the theme of the song is that the kid with the Six Transistor radio he kept hidden under his pillow could actually be a part of the things he listened to on the radio.  Those things were as real to him as anything he may actually have seen with his own eyes or touched with his own hands.  I know that feeling very well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DTGN-b3tEo

These days we have radios everywhere. You listen while you work; you listen while you drive, and you can, as you are now, listen online to radio broadcasts from around the world and any genre you may wish to consider.  I do know, however, that most people can have the radio on for background noise but never really hear what is said or even the music playing. That’s why they blast that ear-splitting sound whenever there is a weather bulletin or an Amber Alert issued.  They want to be sure you hear those interruptions to your solitude.  As for this show, I am assuming you are listening to what is going on.  To not listen would subject you to a possible fine for actions detrimental to the future of The Legendtorials.

So, why am I rambling on about radio?  Simple really.  Like most, I listen to a lot of radio for music when I’m in the Lair, and sometimes for news and weather as well as traffic.  But, I have a motive here.

We race fans know, better than anyone else, how inundated we now are with racing programming on television.  Remember when we could hardly get any news of qualifying, even in our daily paper?  Now we are allowed to watch it live.  Remember when some of the smaller races wouldn't even make the local newspaper and we would have to wait until The Southern Motorsports Journal arrived to get results?  These days you can go on line and find out the results of almost any race on any track anywhere in the country.  That is, I suppose, a good thing and when it first came into prominence a few years ago, I was very happy about it.  Now we have the talking heads that go on and on and on about things so non-event related that you wonder if they are really talking about racing.

For those of you who are wondering why I’m on this radio tangent tonight, I’m about to tell you.  I did something Sunday I really haven’t done in a number of years, in fact, far longer than I like to recall.  By lap 150 of the Bristol race, I was so sick of the Waltrips times two that I just simply could not take it anymore.  For D.W. to preface his “Boogity” crap with “truer words were never spoken” is an insult to truth, justice and the American Way. (did you get the Superman inference there?).  Between Waltrip Squared and the continuous streaming of commercials made by idiots, I had enough. I turned off the television completely and tuned into PRN, which carries the races from Bruton Smith owned tracks.  I was pleasantly surprised to find my old friend Brett McMillan still working the pits for the network.

Listening to the race on the radio, I was thrilled to be able to see it through MY eyes instead of what the television cameras chose to show me.  I was thrilled when the crew would go through the field and talk about each and every position.  I was thrilled that there was no preferential treatment for certain drivers, so prevalent from the television broadcast booth.  And, most of all, the guys on the radio are professionals.  They know how to talk and how to describe the action, where anyone who has ever seen a stock car could envision what was happening on the track.  It was a total overall treat.  I found that by turning off the television and giving my entire concentration to the descriptions given to me on radio, I was enjoying the race so much more.  It’s really difficult to describe the feeling of being back to only the radio broadcast, but for me at least, it was awesome.

Sunday night I went online and saw all the highlights, which was accomplished in maybe a total of 15 minutes, which included the Victory Lane interview, all the accidents and the confrontation between “Yellow Tail” and “Super Shipper”.  Unfortunately, however, most of that included the commercial for that energy drink where we are led to believe that a certain driver has the “mental acuity” to sign autographs without actually holding the Sharpie.

Now that I have rediscovered the awesomeness of “watching” a race through my mind’s eye rather than the television, I am guessing things will be different around here on race day.  I’m not saying I won’t have the television on for upcoming races, especially Darlington, but I now know I will not hear another Waltrip this year.  When FOX goes away, I may go back to the volume control on television, but I have a feeling that from now on I will have at least an earplug in, listening the to the radio broadcast.  As I sit here Monday afternoon writing this Legendtorial, I still haven’t gotten over the feeling I had yesterday... actually going back in time to the old fashioned radio broadcasts.  Oh, what memories!

-Tim

Email:  legendtim83@yahoo.com

Twitter: @legendtim83

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(Editor’s note: Tim Leeming is a member of the regular cast of the Tuesday evening racing show ” Racing Through History”, presented on Zeus Radio Network by RacersReunion®. Archives can be found by following the link. Live broadcasts can be heard from 7:00-9:00 PM every Tuesday. Please feel free to join us in the RacersReunion® Chat Room for the show.)