Radioland! (Coming of Age/Psychological/Comedy/Drama/Memoir

Synopsis

Based on actual events, Radioland begins as a comic series of sweet/funny memories by TOMMY BIANCO, a 12-year-old boy who falls hopelessly in love with radio -- specifically with the antics of “SWINGIN'” DICKY PEPPERS, a 1960s on-air deejay -- during the emergent years of Top 40.

Tommy’s thrall leads him to meet and interact with many odd-ball broadcast types, along with the vagaries, tricks, and out-and-out lies of the radio biz, against the will of his working-class father.

Still, nothing stops Tommy’s enthusiasm -- until he learns the fatal secret of his hero: Dicky Peppers is a deeply troubled, mentally tortured young man, who seeks release from his haunting existential pain in all the wrong places.

The imprint of this confusing, formative time never completely leaves Tommy. It prompts him to sort out adult truth from childish imagination, to find reality in the glittering hype of show-biz.

Tommy’s enduring reflection literally changes his life’s trajectory, finally awakening to a solution to his ultimate questions, now as an old man, "What did it all matter? What does any of it mean?"

Ultimately, Radioland is a small, poignant story about two central issues of the "human condition" -- making sense of, and giving meaning to, life -- set against the unlikely backdrop of Top 40 radio, circa 1960s.