Many call Elvis the king of rock and roll, but those that study music history carefully will tell you  Chuck Berry was the real king of rock and roll.  One of my favorite Chuck Berry songs is “You Never Can Tell.”

One lyric often repeated in that song is – “C’est la vie”, say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell.”

What I have discovered in the off-and-on times I have worked in media is how often something I have done years ago will be remembered.  That happened in the past few weeks.

From late 1975 through about 1977, I hosted a late-night radio talk show called “Night Action.”  I did not come up with that name, it was coined by the first host of that show, a man named Gary Lee.  Mr. Lee fell out of favor with the general manager of the radio station at that time, so he was shown the door and the station hired a man from Massachusetts, Art Murphy.  Art had a successful run with the show and went on to another job.  The next host once again fell out of favor with another general manager and the station was pondering  whether to even continue the program.

I was going to college and working part-time at the radio station when the general manager came to me and basically said he wanted me to take over the show, and I was the only one he trusted.  If I turned the gig down, the Night Action late night talk show would end.

i agreed to try it and the next two years were quite a roller coaster.  It was an experience.  I learned a lot.

Why do I bring this up?  It’s been about 47 years since I hosted Night Action but a couple of times a year, someone reaches out to me remembering my time hosting that program.

The latest was a comment on this blog when I linked to the very nice cover story Leila Kheiry wrote about me for the weekly publication Current In Fishers.  The comment was written by a person named Kathy who wrote that her mom was a big fan of Night Action, including the time I had the show.

My point is this.  For most of us on the public stage, once we are gone 10-15 years, people forget about us, for the most part.  But my time as Night Action host will be remembered, and I am not really sure why.

I had another instance in recent days that surprised me.  The new Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Superintendent attended his first board meeting Friday morning.  Once the session was over, I walked over to Patrick Mapes and introduced myself.  To my surprise, he has been reading my blog for the past 10 years on the recommendation of someone once working for him living in Fishers.

While you are hosting and producing a radio talk show or writing a local news blog, you don’t have time to think about what long-term impact, if any, your work will have. One is focused on what is happening at the moment.

Surprises keep coming on that front.  But as Chuck Berry once sang & wrote, “C’est la vie”, say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell.”