Tune In to This Radio

© 2004 Boaz Rauchwerger

Tuning in to a particular radio station is much like focusing in on your goals. When you tune in properly, you can hear the signal clearly. When it comes to what you want out of life, identifying your goals clearly can lead to amazing accomplishments.

For this column, I’d like for us to focus in on a different type of radio – a person. I recently saw a movie by that name – ‘Radio.’ It was one of the most incredible and moving stories I’ve ever seen depicted on film.

This is a true story that took place in Anderson, South Carolina, some twenty five years ago. It involves James Robert Kennedy, a loner who was given the nickname Radio because of his love for music and his collection of old radios.

In the opening scenes, Radio is shown wondering around town with his grocery cart. Obviously afflicted with some form of mental handicap, Radio speaks to no one and people rarely pay any attention to him. His normal daily route takes him by the local high school and the football practice field.

One day, Coach Harold Jones, a prominent citizen of the town and the coach of the popular high school football team, pays attention to Radio. Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. plays Radio and Ed Harris is cast as Coach Jones.

As the coach tries to befriend Radio, he is reticent and suspicious. We learn later that the reason the coach takes a special interest in Radio is rooted in his own childhood. When he was in elementary school, Jones used to take a shortcut through a neighborhood yard to get to a playground. One day he noticed a frightened little boy behind a barbed wire fence.

Neither youngster said anything and, every time Jones would cut through that yard, that little boy was there. He never forgot the lonely and forlorn look on the boy’s face. Jones also never forgot the fact that he never did anything about a little boy who apparently needed help.

Thus, a football coach who had previously focused all his energy on his football team, suddenly started spending time with Radio. As he gains Radio’s trust, he invites him to help out with football practice. A whole new world is opened up to Radio and his personality begins to blossom.

It isn’t long before Coach invites Radio to be on the sideline during football games and to sit in on some of his classes at the high school. All of this doesn’t sit well with some of the coach’s friends and his family. They don’t seem to understand how much Radio is enriching the life of the coach.

While Coach Jones brings out a natural warmth and friendliness in Radio, he gains just as much from the relationship. The Coach eventually learns from Radio to value friendship and family ties as much as he does coaching football.

Even though there are some difficult moments for Radio, he eventually becomes quite popular with the football team and with the students at the school. He cautions students not to run in the halls and even learns to announce the cafeteria lunch menu on the school intercom system.

However, there are some people in the town who feel that Radio has become a distraction for the coach. They want him out of the school and, when his mother dies, want to have him put into an institution.

The coach, in a moving moment before a number of the football player parents, is forced to make a decision. He surprises everyone by resigning from his coaching position so he can spend more time with his family and with Radio.

At the end of the movie there are a number of scenes that show the real life Coach Jones and, twenty five years later, the real James Robert “Radio” Kennedy. The real Radio is shown on the football field, leading a present day team at his high school as it rushes onto the field for a Friday night game.

He has obviously become a valued assistant coach and a permanent eleventh grader at his high school. The smile on his face and the intensity of his feelings for the student athletes is an amazing testament to what can happen when one human being believes strongly in another person.

If you haven’t seen this movie, I greatly encourage you to see it. It’s a touching, moving, tear-jerker of a story. It exemplifies caring and goodness and the power of the human spirit. This is a special Radio you’ll enjoy tuning in.

A Caring Affirmation

I care about my fellow humans. I look for opportunities to touch the lives of others in a positive way.