The guy who made me listen to talk radio…Nick Digilio
December 28, 2008 by Pam
To me, talk radio has meant politics (snore) or winning a free meal to fill-in-the-blank restaurant radio sponsor (ooh, do I get a free shrimp cocktail with that too?! zzzz) Not interesting. Boring. Dull. Time to switch to music if I ever accidentally get on one of those stations – thank God for presets.
Well, for five years now, I have actually listened to a talk radio show. I don’t remember how I stumbled upon Nick Digilio on WGN. I probably woke up in the middle of the night (12 for me…boring) and hit the WGN radio preset (WGN is good for news on local disasters, and let’s face it, Chicago has plenty of local disasters…this week alone, below-zero temps, two-day snowstorm, ice storm, flooding…but I digress.) I don’t remember what he was talking about, but it was interesting to me. I was shocked. A talk show that I could relate to??!!! Am I now in the talk-show phase of my life?! (time to go square dancing) Will I be calling in for that free shrimp cocktail soon? (shrudder)
I listened again and learned that Nick was not a radio-trained guy. He started doing movie reviews at around 20 years old because he incessantly called one of the hosts about movies and the guy thought he’d be good at reviewing movies. Nick kinda fell into his job and he’s been great ever since. He’s only two years younger than me, and I found I related a lot to what he was saying about old commercials, stuff that was going on in Chicago in the 70s when I was growing up. He didn’t live too far away from my high school, and when he related a story about him and his buddies at the Jack in the Box across the street, I knew exactly what/where he was talking about. I’ve been listening ever since. Since he has the late night weekend shift, I sometimes can’t stay up, but I usually can hear most of his earlier hours (plus he’s got podcasts.) He has interesting guests, like Richard Laermer, a public relations executive who talks about the pr spin on the latest entertainment news. He also has Steve Johnson, a Chicago Tribune writer who follows technology, the Internet, and entertainment. Nick also stumbles upon cool sites and videos (example: http://www.jonesbigasstruckrentalandstorage.com/ ) And where else am I going to find “Drunks in the News,” a weekly cautionary compendium of drunken stupidity (as they say on That 70s Show – hello, Wisconsin!)?!!
He’s just an interesting guy who loves entertainment and pop culture – he’s very down-to-earth and I find that his show is really relevant to my life. I’m glad there’s a guy on the radio out there who I look forward to hearing. I hope he’s on WGN for a long time.
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