In the past, I have written at length about satellite radio. However, since today is National Radio Day, I want to pay homage to the way radio was meant to be listened to—on the AM/FM dial. I hope you entertain me as I reflect on 10 memories I have from listening to terrestrial radio as a kid.

Listening to the radio growing up provided me with a lot of memories.

– I cherished my boombox I got for Christmas. Although I used it to record myself on cassette tapes as I conducted fake talk shows with my siblings and friends, its main purpose was to play the radio. I can see myself right now lying on my belly as I scrolled through the stations.

– Couldn’t feel any cooler during the summer driving with my mom as she took me to summer camps and sports games with the radio blasting top 40 hits.

– Speaking of my mom, she would play a promotional radio game offered by Oldies 101.1 FM. Once per day, at a random time, listeners would be prompted to call the station. The ninth caller would be brought on air and asked to predict the next song that would be played (needle in a hay stack, right?). If the caller correctly predicted the tune, they would receive $1,000. My mom and dad each reached the air once but unfortunately they couldn’t predict the future. But dang, if you could only imagine the excitement and nerves when they made it through the line and the DJ told them they were the ninth caller…

– People my age and older remember the frustration of going on a road trip and losing the radio frequency of your favorite stations. When we would go to Walla Walla to visit my grandparents, I knew exactly at what point in the drive that we would have to transition to AM stations because our FM stations were no longer coming in.

– On the other side of the coin, there was always the novelty of approaching a different city and your vehicle picking up the local stations. Not only did it signify that you were almost to your destination, but it immediately conveyed the vibe and culture of your new surroundings.

– I grew up listening to Seattle Mariners radio broadcasts. Both in the car and via my dad’s alarm clock radio on long summer nights, I had the pleasure of listening to Dave Niehaus call hundreds of games. I learned so much about storytelling.

– There was a certain station growing up called Radio Oz. This particular format would play music geared toward pre-teens/young teenagers. Radio Oz would also take requests. I would join my siblings and friends as we would flood the station’s line via our landline phone with song requests. The songs we asked for were so embarrassing I am not even going to mention them here.

– My first exposure to sports talk radio came from listening to Spokane legend Dennis Patchin. Believe it or not, my dad even let me call the program one evening when I was probably 10…and I actually got on the air!

– Another really memorable radio memory from my childhood came during the Christmas season. Whenever we drove by houses with elaborate light displays, the ante was always upped when the presentation was choregraphed to the music emitting from a radio station. Tuning the radio inside our vehicle to sync with what was transpiring outside of our vehicle was always special.

– Not unlike the TV, a disagreement would occur every now and then about what station to listen to among the Reser kids. If the argument went on for too long, my dad had a simple solution: classic rock, baby.

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Do you have any terrestrial radio memories? OR, better yet, do you still consume old school AM/FM content? Regardless of your habits, perhaps it would be fun to listen to an FM country station or listen to the local news on a solid AM signal at least once this week. Don’t Blink.