Apollo 11–I Almost Forgot

Forty years and one day ago man set foot on the Moon for the first time. Even today… actually, especially today, that stands out as quite an accomplishment. There is so much we can do now with computers we couldn’t do then. How could we solve such complex mathematical problems with such rudimentary tools?

There are moments in our lives indelibly etched. Where were you? What were you doing?

In fact earlier tonight I got an email from an old friend asking, “do u remember where we were on the Sunday night of July 20, 1969?

I’m guessing he thinks I was with him, because we were friends then. The correct answer, as best I can remember, is the Bridgewater Service Area on Route 24 in Massachusetts! I was on my way to (or possibly from) WSAR where I’d just begun to work as a weekend disk jockey.

It was a sultry summer evening–that much is clear. I pulled my 1960 VW Beetle into the lot, got out and joined a parking lot full of people listening to their car radios.

I didn’t see the live Moon video until the next day!

Thinking back to this made me aware of a misconception I’ve been carrying around all this time. I always thought my anniversary in broadcasting was in the fall. Nope–last week marked my fortieth anniversary on-the-air professionally!