I used to listen to the soap operas with my grandmother.

In college, I got interested in news because the world was coming apart. The civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, the women's right movement. That focused my radio ambitions toward news.

I wake about 1 a.m. I'm in the office by 2 a.m. We're on the air at 5.

But when you see personal artifacts relating to - by genealogy at least - a living human being, it was just more impressive to me than just about anything I've ever read about slavery before.

At a tiny station in New Albany, Indiana, which is right across from the river from Louisville, Kentucky, where I grew up. The Louisville stations were loath to hire beginners, so I had to go across the river.

Between 2 and 5 I'm reading in to find out what's been going on while I've been asleep.

People are always ready to admit a man's ability after he gets there.