Home is Where the Radio is
Yesterday, I had the chance to be interviewed on WJR-AM regarding Jim Bolone and my series of books, “The Dockporter,” “Somewhere in Crime,” and “Misguided.”
If you grew up in Detroit, you know this was the station all our dads had on all the time. JP McCarthy in the morning, Frank Beckman, George Kell, Ernie Harwell, and later Mitch Albom and many many others. For Detroit Metro area kids, WJR was the sound of morning. To this day, when I smell Old Spice, I instantly think of JP McCarthy and the song “Muskrat Love,” which was about as risky as JP’s morning show got back then.
But it was good.
It sounded like home.
The Hollywood Connection
Flash forward to my Hollywood Era with brother Scott. We had a film production company in Los Angeles, and in 2001, were hired to shoot a behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of "61*," the Billy Crystal-directed movie for HBO.
… IN DETROIT!
Billy was filming at Tiger Stadium (which doubled as Yankee Stadium) after the Tigers had moved and before the stadium was torn down. Our documentary was all about the Mantle-Maris story, so we invited the legendary Tigers announcer Ernie Harwell to come down and talk with us on camera about that magical summer of 1961.
An Amazing Day with Ernie Harwell
That same day, our dad, the equally legendary Hugh McVeigh, drove in from Novi to the 61* set to watch Scott and me work. Ernie showed up a little early for his interview and pegged our dad, who was lingering, for what he was—a massive Tigers fan. The two of them hit it off immediately. They wandered off to chat in the seats close to the field while we tweaked the lighting.
I was able to snap a photo of the moment, and looking back, it might have been the highlight of my career. Coming back home to Detroit from LA (okay, fine, I’m a Milford boy but close enough), filming a documentary for HBO, and seeing my dad meet Ernie Harwell was surreal. We even had Dad hop in the interviewer chair and fire off a few questions for Ernie. Later, my brother Greg got Ernie's autograph on the same photo.
After we wrapped the interview, Ernie gave us a shoutout as he called the game broadcast that night. He told a quick story about how he’d just gotten back from the old Tiger Stadium to do an interview for HBO, how the McVeigh Boys were home-towners, back for a film gig, and he finished it up with, "And I happen to know their dad is mighty proud of his boys," in that classic Ernie Harwell drawl.
You couldn’t make this up.
The Michigan Travel Show
Twenty-something years later, when the chance came up to talk with Dave Lorenz and Nick Norbonne on the Michigan Travel Show, on WJR, we jumped at it. Okay. The truth is, I tracked Dave down like a stalker, but let’s not get distracted by a little thing called the truth. Unfortunately, my writing partner Jim couldn’t be on the call, but he was there in spirit, listening with his family in Detroit. This time, the subject was the Mackinac Island Novels series instead of baseball, and book publishing instead of HBO, but the excitement was the same.
I was on WRJ radio!
Full Circle
From my early days listening to the radio during the hazy, sleepy Milford early mornings of my childhood to filming a documentary at Tiger Stadium with my brother to now talking novels, that AM radio station remains constant.
I live in another part of the world: Cebu, Philippines. I love it here. It’s beautiful. Exotic. Hot.
But WJR-AM?
It’s still home.