AM Radio and the Saints

Tonight the New Orleans Saints played their first game in the Superdome since Hurricane Katrina damaged the facility last year. I would have been watching the game on TV but I was out having dinner with an old friend I hadn’t seen in 10 years. I met her boyfriend for the first time tonight and they gave me the good news that they are now engaged. I was in a reminiscing mood and wanted to at least hear some of the game on my long ride home.

Something that boomers might know and Gen-Xers might not realize is that AM radio station signals often reach out for long distances at night. I discovered this as a kid and remembered it tonight as I got out of range of my local sports station which does NOT have one of those signals. And I remembered the dial position of the New Orleans station that carries the Saints games … click, click, click … buzz, hiss, click … “there’s a time out on the field. You’re listening to the New Orleans Saints Radio Network. This is AM870, WWL, New Orleans.”

Wow! I’m listening to a radio station live from my hometown, the Saints game I hear is the first one played in New Orleans since last August and the Saints are actually winning at halftime!

All of this nostalgia took me back to my teen years when I used to stay up late at night with my little transistor radio listening to AM stations from all across the country. Yes, I was a radio geek even then and this late-night dial-tuning adventure led to my career and to my desire to work in many cities: Cincinnati, Des Moines, Denver, New York, Atlanta. WLAC in Nashville had a DJ with a cool name: Spyder Harrison. KAAY, Little Rock transformed itself every night at 10 from a teeny bopper station playing the Top 40 to a rock “underground” station calling itself Beeker Street. WFAA in Dallas and WBAP in Ft. Worth used to switch frequencies with each other twice a day (I never learned why). WOAI, San Antonio had a live Saturday night broadcast from a stage on the river that runs through the middle of town.

I eventually lived in three of the cities from which I heard stations, Dallas, Baltimore and Chicago. I remember hearing a weather forecast one night on WLS, Chicago … the low tonight will be -3 and tomorrow it’ll get up to 7 … and wondered why anyone would want to live in that climate. Fifteen years later I was walking through snow to a bus stop on my way to work in the Hancock Center.


One message being sent by citizens and business owners in New Orleans is that they want to rebuild. They have the spirit and energy and try to show it off whenever they can. This is a big deal to them to have this game in the Superdome and national TV (even if it’s only ESPN and not one of the “big three”). They want to show the world that they can rise from the floods and devastation. And I’m feeling the spirit while listening to the game on my AM radio.

Laissez les bons temps rouler! Let the good times roll!