Radio, Radio

“Some stories are so aural that the sound is more important than the narration,” journalist John Kalish explains about his long career in radio. Now in his 50s, balding but with a full gray beard and wearing suspenders over a long-sleeve T-shirt, Kalish has worked as a freelance radio reporter for nearly three decades. In that time, he has covered such diverse subjects as the homeless, Brookyln’s Orthodox Jewish culture, the deaf community, and the arts, among others – and each of his stories has been uniquely suited to the radio format.

Take his piece about “Industrial Musicals,” for example. The story of a long-forgotten (if ever even publicly known) series of musicals commissioned by corporations in the middle of the twentieth century could have been described colorfully in the pages of a newspaper. But hearing these unique American artifacts for yourself elicits first mockery, then appreciation and admiration, for songs about life insurance and car parts and home appliances, in a way that could never be understood without the full aural experience.

Kalish has been able to maintain a career as a full-time freelance reporter, simply by paying attention to the world around him and the often-overlooked details of everyday life. He takes very few assignments and prefers to work on the stories that he finds himself. “I’ve developed a way to walk around in the world with my eyes and ears open and my antennae up,” Kalish says.