A Ministry Unawares: KSFO's Morning Show with Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan.

Special thanks to Greg M. Raab, for this lovely photo of Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan.
When in the San Francisco Bay Area, listen weekdays from 5:00 AM to 9:00 AM on KSFO AM Radio 560 or on the web.

In 1996, I was waiting for eye surgery. Returning to consciousness I remembered my problem. My left eye was pulsating and I felt like it would explode right out of my face. I had another three days to wait before the infected eye would be removed. Struggling out of bed, to make coffee, I now was aware of the background noise of my radio, a device rarely turned off.

Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan were involved in the typical morning banter of their drive-time radio program:

Melanie:

"No, no, listen, this is good. Three angels are discussing what type of engineer God had to be to create man. The first angel guessed God had to be a Mechanical Engineer, I mean just look at the bone structure, muscles and joints. No, The Angel Gabriel corrected. God must have been an Electrical Engineer because, the brain and all the nerves operate with electric current. No current, no body operation. No, Michael the Arc Angel corrected, He had to be a Civil Engineer --"

Lee: (very softly):

"There goes the license."

Melanie:

"... Because, only a Civil Engineer would put a Waste Disposal Site right next to a Recreational Area!"

I couldn't believe what I'd just heard and doubled over in laughter. Earlier in my life, I'd majored in Engineering, until my lack of mathematical skill, in Calculus, flunked me out. I totally enjoyed this stroll down memory lane, to a time, when I wasn't out of my mind with physical pain. For about five minutes, Lee and Melanie gave me the gift of forgetting about my pain.

Sure, AM radio is basically a place for commercials to be interrupted with some programming. While Lee and Melanie toil in a studio to create daily content that is fresh, interesting and captivating, their banter colors the lives of millions. Drive time commute nightmares are eased with a joke, or aside comment. Drivers recognize fellow listeners by noting who laughs and when. Householders everywhere are stumbling out of warm beds towards coffee pots, breakfast and another day. Children are rousing and getting ready, (willingly, or otherwise) for their school day. Some listeners are already at work, relaxed by the banter.

But then there are the folks who are ill. How many times have I been burning up with fever and the flu, to find relief from talk radio? Sometimes relief is caused by the unavoidable on-air mishap. I'll never forget a news cast, on another station, where I could clearly hear the newscaster was fighting the urge to laugh. When they were to break for a commercial, the male anchor completely lost all composure. While his fellow anchor was trying to read the news, the boom mike she was using was slowly collapsing. The woman bravely followed the mike, finishing the news cast lying on the studio floor, reading the news copy she was holding in her hand Thankfully, sponsors are forgiving of these things, as radio people try to faithfully read the commercial copy which is the life blood of their stations.

Then there are the shut-ins and people in long-term recovery from any number of difficulties and conditions. Through it all the voice of your favorite radio personality keeps you company and sometimes they give you the strength to continue a hard fight.

So to KSFO, Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan, The Morning Show, and to radio people everywhere. You are more then entertainers: you are a ministry unawares.