Of all the many devices we have found to distract ourselves during the epidemic, radio is surely one of the most accessible, flexible and reliable. It is everywhere, and it is absolutely virus-free. No mask or distancing is required to listen to Morning Edition, and you don’t even have to wash your hands afterwards. You don’t even have to look at your radio while you listen to it. In the old days, before television came into our lives, my parents did watch the radio because it was a handsome and expensive piece of furniture, and I think they felt it was only polite to face towards it when somebody was speaking. But really, it’s not necessary. It’s true that everyone on the radio is exceptionally good looking, but we are invisible, so you can’t be distracted by our beauty. As we have all discovered with Zoom and Skype, visibility is not always an asset.
