I work in Broadcast Media, thus the focal point of my work is concerned with language.  One could argue that “communication” is more on point, but I might be tempted to be too semantical about the idea of communication. Suffice it to say, I enjoy language. When it comes to communication, I enjoy it only so far as it can be effective, since the convivial aspect of the word is all but lost these days…

…to commune.

I was about 3 years old when I heard sound for the first time (and in that sense there is indeed a romantic idea to communication…whether it be the sounds that make up the words that have been assigned meaning, or the sounds that comprise what we call music, which is even more meaningful).  I went from being without sound (or any concept of sound or silence) to a surround-sound experience in full color.  I remember the din of the hospital corridors, the sound of the sliding glass doors at the entrance, the hiss of cars on a wet highway, the babble of rain in culverts, and then a big DC-10 cargo plane with after-burners flew over the hospital from McChord AFB.

A larger-than-life moment.

If I could paint, I would paint that day in detail. I went from being dissociated from something I did not know, to being introduced to something profoundly communicative. The sparkle of the sunlight on the running water was not the source of the sound, but rather the moving of the water, which of course redirects light and sparkles light in every direction…and if light also had sound that could commonly be perceived, what might that sound like? I had of course seen these things, felt them, and knew them as much as I thought I knew myself, but I never knew they had a voice, a language. Nor did I know I had a voice…which unfolded to me new dimension of meaning.

Now that’s communication.

Now I’m not so socially adjusted that being around people who feel the need to ejaculate words non-stop is what I call a wonderful experience (really, who would?), it just means that sound adds a dimensional scope that ranges from exhilarating to exhausting…depending on what is being communicated. 

And that’s that.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest exploring the back woods, wading the ding weeds and kicking the dirt clods along with my trusty Australian Shepherd. I lived in my head a lot (and still do) and moved to whatever was playing. I have always had music in my life…in the evenings my folks would put on classical music and read books and I would play in the living room and listen. I began to wrangle with piano lessons at 6 and by the time I was 12 it all sort of “clicked”. From then on I had my heart set on being a concert pianist and composer. However, a great teacher didn’t come along until I was 14. Eugenia McMullen was an amazing teacher. She taught at Pan American University in the late 60s, and had studied with Olga Conus at Cincinnati. She revolutionized my ability. When she presented the idea of furthering my studies at Cincinnati, I felt I just didn’t have the momentum to “make it” the way I wanted to.  I also saw how the music industry was changing (and that the red-blooded composers of yore would be rolling over in their graves if they could see the music industry today), so I let the dream pass and went into broadcasting instead. I make music my own way now…it’s not a bad deal, but I’ll always wonder “what if”.

My hobby in music history opened up an offer to work at an NPR affiliate university radio station. So after living in the South Pacific for a year, I landed my “plan B” dream job…substitute hosting a 5-hour classical music radio show among other duties. Over the years I have fallen into being a talk show producer in commercial radio, a workflow coordinator in consumer finance, ops coordinator, client POC, webinar host, and narrator for the world’s leading medical ethics review board, and now a dept. manager at a local radio station in a country county. But at the end of the day, after my wonderful family is asleep, I fall out into the joy of creating.

Just because.

Having wandered the sleepless streets of Sydney’s China Town, sat atop a mountain amid the jungles of Papua New Guinea watching an equatorial sun sink into the mysteries of Irian Jaya, and having meandered amid the misty Olympic Mountains of my old stomping grounds, I have always made a point to find the atmosphere and bring it home.

Jeff Johnson Creatives
Pacific Northwest
jeffjvo@gmail.com