My wish came true - part one

Dreams do come true, at least sometimes. I'd like to tell you the true story (in two parts) about how I got to make a program about Elvis on nationwide radio, some twenty years after I first dreamed about it. Here it is:

In my teens, in the mid 80's, the Swedish Radio (SR) broadcast a couple of programs about Elvis. I remember taping them; one dealt with Elvis' career in Hollywood, another was a memorial program that went on the air the day Elvis was supposed to celebrate his 50th birthday.

Listening to these programs, I dreamt of making one of my own. So, with Christmas a few months away, I came up with the idea of a program that would be about Elvis' Christmas music.

Writing about the king
I sat in my room and penned down the songs I thought should be in the program, and then wrote a script. Thinking back, I can't remember exactly what the script was all about.

I guess it centred around which years the songs were recorded, the titles of the albums they were on and which songs were Elvis' favourites. Maybe I also mentioned the musicians who played with Elvis. Yeah, I’m pretty sure I did.

"The recording session"
Then the "session" began. In the living room, where the stereo player was, I recorded the first song that should be on the program, from vinyl to cassette. I then ran to my room where I had a cassette recorder with a built in microphone.

There I put my own voice to tape, then returned to the living room to record the next song, ran to my room again and…well, you get the picture. It was quite an operation!

When it was over, I had a program running about one hour. Listening to it in my headphones (I didn't want anyone in the family to hear it!) I was quite pleased, although looking back the mixing must have left a lot to be desired!

Hard luck
I then made a bold move. In the telephone book I looked up the address to the Swedish Radio, told them about my radio idea and included both the script and the program and hoped for the best.

I waited weeks, maybe months, but never heard a word from the Swedish Radio. Needless to say, I was greatly disappointed.

To be continued…