On CBC's "As It Happens" tonight host Jeff Douglas played some unique clips about how radio broadcasters are "subject to the whims of our stupid bodies". (Here's the link: http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplayer.html?clipid=1828186799 Go to 23.30 minutes. His intro was great as he confessed his own career nightmares. Then he aired the tragic yet brave attempt by Australian Kate Wilson to deliver the weather and news while going through a very severe attack of the hic ups. It was painfully funny. Then, while still laughing, Jeff played a second recording of a guy who chokes so terribly on an orange it's not only hilarious, it's kind of disgusting! You want the guy to just take a second and drink some water, but he can't! And the best quote outta the reporter after he finally digests the news is "I guess that's about it." I laughed so hard, and along with Jeff I had guilt about it, because I can only imagine how awful that would have been as my own reality.

But then I got to thinking...I was a listener and I was laughing. I was enjoying myself. That's good radio, isn't it? Sometimes, and only sometimes, I think radio gets stripped of its raw ability to act human for the listener. Everything is so scripted - and for reason, I know - but it also seems that these moments, for better or for worse, catch our attention. I listened, and then I came home and listened to it again on my computer. I laughed even harder. And I bet you if I had heard those two incidents as they were happening, I would have found it just as hilarious. At the very least, I wouldn't have touched that dial.