Radio Days -or- The Tribal Drum in the Global Village

Radio Broadcasting -or- Radio Personalites

While standing in line to see the film "The Sorrow and the Pity", Alvy (Woody Allen) in the film "Annie Hall" arranges for Marshall McLuhan to show up at the movie theatre to lecture and emphasize the effects of media to another pontificating know it all movie goer. In "Radio Days", the Narrator (Woody Allen) tells the audience about the influence of radio broadcasting before TV, the rememberance of urban legends, of anecdotes, of radio stars. For many living in those days gone by, radio provided an escape from everyday reality into the daydreams of glitz and glamour of your choice of, game shows, sports, war, movies, and adventure. Today the influence of radio is much less profound, however it can still be found operating in our dreams. The dream below is about a local radio celebrity.

Vanessa 34, Single North American 

I walked into a bar to go hang out with a local radio celebrity. I had a feeling that she would think I was stalking her. As I walked closer, she greeted me with a huge smile and my name as if she had known me for years.  We talked and hung out for a while and before she had to leave she gave me a hooded black raincoat with the radio station's call letters written in silver. I woke up and the time was 5am.  I never wake up before the alarm clock. I remember feeling happy, grateful, relaxed, calm. I have met this person twice before. 

Need for Acceptance and Self Esteem -or- S-talking to Local Celebrities 

Having talked to local newspaper, radio and TV celebrities about dreams, I can understand a person's need for attention, acceptance, and self-esteem. Marshall McLuhan in "Understanding Media", talks about the famous Orsen Welles 1938 radio broadcast "War of the Worlds", which features the fictive invasion of Martians and its influence on its listening audience. For McLuhan; "It was Hitler who gave radio the Orsen Welles treatment for real."  

McLuhan believes that American politics changed in 1960 when audiences started tuning into TV and tuning out of radio. The historical political turning point happened with the televised Kennedy-Nixon Presidential debates. For McLuhan those listening to the debate on radio believed that Nixon was politically superior to Kennedy. However, the majority watching Nixon on TV, much like Holden Caulfield could spot a "phony" when they saw one. 

Stalking a celebrity in your dreams or daydreams is not a felony, only if you do it for real does it constitute a crime. Unless of course you might believe in the existence of "thoughtcrimes"? The film "The Body Guard" starring Whitney Huston and Kevin Costner features one such a creepy stalker. Another such film is "The Fan", starring Robert de Niro (as Gil Renard) who plays a stalker and fanatic baseball fan. 

For a public that is fascinated and obsessed with celebrity and fame, such films are repleat with dark narcissistic realism. Think of the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in Washington by John Hinkley Jr. Hinkley was a man obsessed with the actress Jody Foster and believed that by killing the President, this act would enamour him with Foster. 

In the dream, you want to get close, just talk, and are given a gift, when you wake up you feel happy, grateful, relaxed and calm. Demonstrating the power of a media celebrity, albeit a local one, and their influence over the dreams of their audience. Some might argue that your dream is an obsessive sign of intimacy seeking. Said differently, evidently you listen and talk to this local radio celebrity in your mind a great deal. The dream may be a narcissistic sign of compensation for low self-esteem and the need of acceptance in the face of the fears of rejection? 

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All material Copyright 2006 International Institute for Dream Research. All rights reserved.