I Can Listen to Whatever I Want!

One of the greatest of all developments within the internet world has been the proliferation of internet radio stations. They are out there by the thousands and you can listen to just about anything your heart desires. Whatever your mood or whatever you need to make your day better, you can find it out on the internet.

I was surprised that many of the great preachers of the past fifty plus years have recordings you can listen to out on the internet. People like A. W. Tozer, J. Vernon Magee, and literally thousands more can be listened to as you work or on your lunch hour. You can even hear many of the great classic sermons from people like D. L. Moody, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and even back into early history, where people read their preserved sermons that had been written down.

You can listen to the news broadcast in every nation on the face of the earth. You can hear talk radio from Brisbane, Australia or debates from the BBC in London. Today I am listening to a station that plays all the Christmas classics. Perry Como just finished “Do You Hear What I Hear?” and a modern version of “Away In The Manager” is now being sung by Martina McBryde. There’s something about Christmas music that reminds me of so many wonderful memories, the smells coming from the kitchen, and the joys we shared with family and friends.

Another day I will find a station that plays Irish music and features the Irish Tenors. Listen to that music for a while and you will be sure why people say it can be some of the saddest tunes around but oh how beautiful. Maybe I want to hear Jewish Messianic music or just sacred hymns, and at another time it will be Southern Gospel, choral, soundtracks, cajun, or one of my favorites, western swing.

I could really begin gushing when talking about the thousands of old time radio programs preserved and available on the internet. Often you just need to hear Sergeant Joe Friday on a 1950 episode of Dragnet saying, “Just the facts, ma’m, just the facts”. Listening to Groucho Marx ab lib on episodes of “You Bet Your Life” makes you aware of just how really brilliant he was. The precision timing of a George Burns and Gracie Allen or the clever lines spoke by Fibber Magee and Molly are wonderful flashbacks to a bygone era. There’s something about listening to a drama where you have to come up with all the images and pictures that stimulates your thinking and allows you to use your head for something other than a hat rack. (That’s one of Paw Paw Mac’s sayings.)

There are historical websites where you can listen to famous speeches like the one made by President Roosevelt in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. There are also places you can go and hear the unfolding of live events like the broadcasts that surrounded the assassination of President Kennedy. I happen to love the “You Were There” series of radio programs that take you to a particular event in history and you become a part of something as grand as the stand made at the Alamo or the signing of the Declaration of Independence. These are thrilling tools for the committed time traveler which I’ve been doing as long as I can remember.

Maybe today feels like an Acapella day or a broadway musical or some good old foot stomping blue grass. It’s your choice. Perry’s back on now singing “Let It Snow, Let It Snow”, therefore I’ll close this out and say one more time, “Is this a great country and do I have a great life, or what?” More later……………..