Today I was interviewed on Spokane radio KXLY
about my Toys article in the Good News magazine

December 22, 2008 

Today I received a call from radio station KXLY 920 in Spokane, Washington. They wanted to interview me later in the day on a popular local talk show called Newscope hosted by Mike Fitzsimmons.  It was during 3-6 PM drive time and I would be on right after Sean Hannity.   

Mike Fitzsimmons had Googled “Today’s Toys.”  I wrote an article eleven years ago for the Good News entitled “Today’s Toys: Child’s Play or Something Else?”  It came to the top of the Google heap and he wanted to interview the author.  His secretary called the Home Office who gave them my phone number.  They said that they wanted to do two 15 minute segments at 3:00 PM Pacific time.  I told them I would be glad to do it.  I did ask about the direction of questioning as I didn’t want to be put into an uncomfortable position of recommending toys for Christmas.  There was no problem with that. They were interested in the points of the article that can be found at http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn13/todaystoys.htm  

Mike Fitzsimmons was most complimentary about the content of the article and the Good News magazine.  He advised readers to get their own copy by Googling “Today’s Toys” which will get them the article and the magazine.  

We had a discussion about the benefits of playtime and teaching values through playing with toys. Since we are both grandfathers we related to our precious little kids.  We talked about the imagination robbing and social retarding done by video games.  We were very much in agreement except for play guns.  He said he had every toy gun you could ask for and that he turned out all right. I quoted Isaiah 2:4—swords into plowshares at that point.  

Then people started calling in.  The questions were not hard to answer and I went through the points in the article.  I had to reprint it and read it a few times; it’s been so long since I saw it.   

Then a surprise.  My brother Eugene who did not know I was going to be on was listening to the program in his car and called in!  He somewhat flabbergasted me and I had to ask him to repeat part of his question. 

Mike Fitzsimmons commented how the article is even more applicable today than when I wrote it.   

After half an hour he asked if I’d be willing to go another segment.  This made my interview time 45 minutes.  This was an enjoyable experience and hopefully this will bring positive exposure to the Good News and the United Church of God. 

An interesting day…..