If you’re the tenth person to e-mail me about my column today, you win a prize. Hey, why not? They do it all the time on the radio.
I’ve been thinking about radio a lot since I met Robin Kall. I’ve also been thinking about books. Radio and books. An unlikely marriage that comes together quite nicely every Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. on Reading With Robin on 920 WHJJ.

Robin’s love of books was inspired by her mother. During her childhood on Long Island, Robin’s trips to her cozy nook in the library and her let’s-see-who-can-read-the-most-books contests with her friends remind me of Anna Quindlen’s take on growing up with books:
“Reading has always been my home, my sustenance, my great invincible companion. Yet of all the many things in which we recognize some universal comfort -- God, sex, food, family, friends -- reading seems to be the one in which the comfort is most undersung, at least publicly, although it was really all I thought of, or felt, when I was eating up book after book, running away from home while sitting in a chair, traveling around the world and yet never leaving the room.”

On the other hand, Robin’s infatuation with radio began after she was all grown up, married with two kids and living in Rhode Island. Working at home for her sister’s internet business, Robin would spend her 8-to-2 “mom” shift all alone. Talk radio became her only companion. She began listening. Then, she started talking back to the radio. Finally, she picked up the phone and called.
Don Imus answered. Robin told him she owned the lamb Beanie Baby his wife was looking for. When he chided her for the exorbitant price she jokingly asked for, Robin was quick with an answer. “Hey, I’m from Providence. What do you expect?” It became a sound clip on the show.

“Robin was funny and witty,” says Bernard McGuirk, Imus show executive producer. “When the Buddy Cianci thing happened, her updates were all good.”

Encouraged by the response, Robin continued to call in to Imus and then John DePetro whose show follows Imus on WHJJ’s morning line-up. “When John responded to the phone calls, I really started writing and preparing,” Robin says. “I loved trying to come up with clever things.”
“She was a great caller,” John tells me. “So smart, good wit, great voice and an intelligent sense of humor. In the course of doing my show, I’ve spoken to thousands of people. Robin absolutely stands out.”

“Robin from Providence”, as she became known on the air, was quickly hooked. The day she was asked to fill in for an hour on John’s show, she remembers sitting in the studio thinking: How am I here? How did this happen?

I guess you could say, uh, it was her calling. And she pursued it with all of her considerable energy and enthusiasm, first by taking on a job as a producer at WHJJ to learn the ropes and then by putting together a proposal for her own show.

In the 16 months that Reading With Robin has been on the air, her love of books and radio are clearly audible. From well-known authors such as David Baldacci, Anita Diamant and Mike Stanton to self-published novelists from the area, Robin has provided writers a forum to discuss their work. At the same time, she’s given readers a chance to enjoy an on-air book club, calling in with their comments and questions.

“I never listened to talk radio before,” says Joan Pelletier from Greenville. “But I e-mailed Robin and started calling up.” Next thing you know, Joan was invited to the studio to participate in a recent round-robin discussion on Anne Tyler’s Amateur Marriage.

“Robin is a people person. She’s perfect for this,” says Nancy Rowett of Warwick who sets her alarm every Saturday to insure she gets up for the show.

Which is a good idea since it’s at 7:00 a.m. Robin tells me she’s got Meg Cabot, the author of The Princess Diaries, coming up this Saturday. Along with lively chat and maybe even a chance to win some prizes.

Speaking of prizes, I need one for the tenth person who e-mails me about my column today. A copy of How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen seems perfect. I have a feeling Robin would agree.