Advances in technology during our lifetime have been incredible. As a young kid, I remember being amazed by my father’s electronic calculator on his office desk. It was a Hewlett Packard costing over $400. It added, subtracted, multiplied and divided. That’s it.
Years later came the invention of the fax machine. I have no idea how it copied my documents and transported them through a telephone line, but I still have one on the top shelf of my closet, just in case.
Satellites, the internet, the list is endless. Now, we can beam ourselves to multiple places simultaneously. There was a time, however, when this was impossible. A time when you had to go to two places to be in two places.
In 1989, my son’s school had a fundraising event. I was the winning bidder of an auction item, a “day” with radio disc jockey Tom Joyner. Tom had become famous, appearing on the cover of People Magazine, as the “Fly Jock.” He hosted top-rated FM radio shows in both Dallas and Chicago in person every weekday
Tom flew from his home in Dallas to Chicago and back five days a week for eight years! Think about that.
I certainly was as I parked in front of his house at 4 a.m. one crisp fall day to begin my adventure. He was standing next to his fax machine gathering material for his Dallas radio show. We jumped in his Cadillac convertible and headed for the studios of KKDA FM. In the darkness, he called his dad in Alabama from his cellphone attached to a very long cord.
I was the token white guy in the studio that morning. I had a blast.
At 10 a.m., moments after the broadcast concluded, we jumped in his car and sped off to DFW airport. We were fifteen minutes late for the flight to Chicago. At over 100 miles an hour, we hurtled up the entrance road to the American Airlines gate.
No worries, no TSA security, and American held the 727 jet for him! I was impressed. We sat in first-class seats he had purchased five days a week for over $30,000 (a lot of money in those days). I munched on first-class food while he ate from a paper bag he brought from home.
We arrived in Chicago on time and were hustled into a waiting limo planeside. Soon we arrived at the downtown studios of WGCI FM for his afternoon three-hour show. And late that day, we retraced our steps back to Dallas.
As I drug myself home after 10 p.m., I was completely exhausted. For Tom, it was only Monday. Over those eight years, Tom reportedly racked up more than 7 million frequent-flyer miles, back and forth, back and forth.
Later, the satellite studio was invented, and he could beam himself to Chicago from his living room. And his American 727 became a Gulfstream. Time flies.
Fly safe.
