But otherwise, music is about a beat and a message.

I had also done a little disc jockeying.

If the beat gets to the audience, and the message touches them, you've got a hit.

Despite all the technical improvements, it still boils down to a man or a woman and a microphone, playing music, sharing stories, talking about issues - communicating with an audience.

We tell stories. We talk about statistics. And in 1978, we added an element of the show that gave it its heartbeat: the long distance dedication.

As you know, in the past several years, month after month, radio has increased its revenues - some of it even coming from Dot-Com advertisers. So, radio is a survivor.

Basically, radio hasn't changed over the years.

I like the storytelling and reading the letters, the long-distance dedications.

Interestingly, songs used to be short, then they became longer, and now they're getting shorter.

Because of my background in theater and radio acting, I knew that I could make a living as an actor.

Anytime in radio that you can reach somebody on an emotional level, you're really connecting.

My first commercial was for Miller High Life beer.

But otherwise, music is about a beat and a message.

I probably would be continuing to do voice-overs, continuing to do cartoon shows, and at the same time I'd probably be on a sitcom or a dramatic television show.

I must have done about 25,000 promos.

My agent said that I was one of the top three busiest people in the country.

Before that, they thought talking movies might eliminate radio as well. But radio just keeps getting stronger.

The stories are success stories. The letters from listeners often touch the heart and can be inspiring.

That something extra, I believe, is a certain humanity that comes from upbeat and positive human interest letters and success stories. Advertisers like to be associated with those qualities.

Garbage. It's a natural quality of huskiness in the midrange of my voice that I call 'garbage.' It's not a clear-toned announcer's voice. It's more like the voice of the guy next door.

Growing up, I actually wanted to be a professional baseball player instead of a radio DJ. Believe it or not.

Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.

When you use music to worship you are not attempting to entertain.

Pop music, disco music, and heavy metal music is about shutting out the tensions of life, putting it away.

When I did the record, I was coming off a time when my contract had been sold and the music industry had changed a lot. I didn't understand how to make records for big labels. I was waiting for a new kind of record label to emerge.

You've got to realize. In the western world, regardless of what color you are, what title the music is, it's all played by the same notes.

Don't make music for some vast, unseen audience or market or ratings share or even for something as tangible as money. Though it's crucial to make a living, that shouldn't be your inspiration. Do it for yourself.

Whether I'm doing music or I'm walking down the street or I'm in a record store buying a record or I walk into a comic store and I'm buying comics or having a drink with my friends, it's the same me.

When rock came along the lyrics and melodies became less important and it bothered me to think that perhaps they might not regain the value they have to music - they are music.

I want to promote poetry to the point where you got all the baldhead kids running around doing poetry, getting the music out of the way and having only words, the spoken word, and then see what happens.

There is no music that can't be used politically, but the motives behind the creation of that music can be non-political.

The kind of music or the kind of arrangements that I do, the kind of musicians I choose, is just what I like to hear.

If not for music, I would probably be a very frustrated scientist. It's one way to answer the question, 'What is the meaning of life?' I feel music answers it better.

Since I'm allergic to various things, the army wouldn't accept me during the war, and I got into the Office of War Information, which sent music to Europe.

My singing is my hobby. It's me and my brother. We just enjoy writing music.

I was determined to carve out a music of my own. I didn't want to copy anybody.

I have tried to make the music a bit easier for them to understand.

What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.

That music and the lyrical aspects of Razorblade Romance is so personal to me that, now with me being grown up a bit and meeting new people and doing new things, it makes me look at the same things I was writing about back in the day through a different colored lens.

The only time I would like to see was the 20s and 30s in America because I love the music and the style and the optimism, I wanted to see New York being built. I wanted to see all that, you know.

My big love was the Beatles. I was more into music.

When we started making electronic music I imagined that the reaction we got from the rock musicians must have been similar to the one the beat groups got from people like my dad.

Uhm, I'm the one wanting the lessons! I don't want to say too much about it because I'd rather have you see the movie, but he's trying to find his music.

The value of music is to be able to play one note at the right time in the right way.

Younger players in this music often turn out to be middle aged; it is not a young music.

There's an inherent thing in me where, if things are going too smooth, I'll sabotage the hell out of them, just to make the music more of a sanctuary.

To say that an artist sells out means that an artist is making a conscious choice to compromise his music, to to weaken his music for the sake of commercial gain.

We used to listen to all the marvelous operas on records. Music was a very important part of our lives.

Drums just always sounded like the most fun part of that good music for me.