Today was one of those days where there was a recurring theme and as trite and cliche as it may seem, it brought to mind a recurring dream.
I dream only occasionally. Most of my slumber occurs at the last moment when there’s nothing else to do which usually happens between midnight and 2am. They say banana potassium will spike your dreams and I’m certainly familiar with what pizza and excess will do in that space. Seems I recall another saying about a hard days work leading to a vivid dreamscape, but for the most part, my sleep is a neutral state.
There is one dream though that continues to recur and a conversation earlier today with radio host Dave Carter got me on a role for the rest of the night.
Dave and I used to work at WQUT back in the early eighties and we cross each others paths regularly in the media and musical performances and today we were catching up on an old friend Jim Hession.
I asked Dave if he ever really missed the old radio shows, especially now that we have both taken different paths and he told me, “not really.” He did say sometimes, he feels like he’s got to run and cue up a record. If you’ve ever been a disc jockey – particular in the era of 33s and 45s, then the back-cue and the PSAs, the weather forecast – all those little details can really trip you up.
I suppose every job has some nuance that can wake you in your sleep, but Dave’s comment brought to mind dreams I have regularly. I’m usually at some function or unrelated event and all of a sudden, an anxiety overtakes me as I feel like the record is about to end.
Now, a dream analyst could draw their own conclusions to this idicyncry, but for me, it’s simply a recurring feeling of the fear of “dead air.”
When I told Dave this he immediately shook my hand and realized that he wasn’t the only crazy old disc-jockey.
Later in the evening at a Chamber of Commerce After Hours, I was talking with Bob Lawrence. He still works in radio on the sales side and I related this story to him and we immediately seemed to recognize the theme. Not long after that I ran into Ken Manness who worked for years at WKIN AM and later became a General Manager for what is now Citadel. I shared the story with him and could recant the exact same scenario.
I’m not sure what it means, but now that I have a blog, there’s certainly a new fear and that’s the one where I run out of things to say. Or the other occasion…expiration. Dream on…maybe.