I Hear Dead People

Driving back from Oneonta this morning after speaking at the Heritage Golf Club to a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, I was listening to a variety of North Alabama radio stations, including one that featured a daily reading of obituaries. Funeral Directors would call in to a recording device and read a list of the folks who had passed, with details of their wakes and funerals. Each call was followed by another, for a relatively long roll call of those who had died. It reminded me of working at WJLK Radio in Asbury Park about 1972-73. The station was owned by a newspaper, and almost all of the paper content ended up on air at one point or another. The "Radio Voice of the Asbury Park Press" was how they promoted it. And yes, the obituaries were a daily presence. I had frankly forgotten that feature, something you'll find on small town local radio, unlike the corporate product offered by most stations in the larger cities. It was great to meet so many folks at the Chamber Breakfast, the kind of folks who you would meet at just about any chamber anywhere in the U.S....a Probate Judge, A Police Chief, lots of small business owners, and Chamber president Charles Carr and his administrative assistant, Aimee Dobbs, who invited me to speak and to whom I am grate full for the opportunity! They're pushing economic development in a big way in Blount County, so watch out neighboring counties!