Wizard of the Wind

by Don Keith

As a boy Jimmy Gill is mesmerized by his late mother's old console radio. Through the airwaves he discovers a fabulous new world that, in the 1950s, is just entering a "golden age" of rock, with such phenomena as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Fats Domino. With his young black friend Detroit Simmons, Jimmy traces the sound to a tatty building just beyond his own back door: radio station WROG. Totally by accident Jimmy and Detroit become involved with the station, beginning careers in broadcasting at very young ages. Along the way they encounter the mad, creative, colorful characters who are changing the musical landscape. With technical help from the ever-ethical Detroit as well as financial backing by rather more unsavory fellows, Jimmy progresses from owning a budding FM station to building a media empire of radio and cable television networks. He also falls in love with a beautiful country music star, Cleo Michaels. As his success sours to greed, Jimmy Gill begins to lose touch with the magic of the medium that first grabbed him by the soul. Only when shady dealings that helped to build his career threaten to topple it does he reach back to the forces that have truly shaped his life: the support of loyal friends and the inimitable warm embrace of regional radio.

356 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Award-winning and best-selling author of more than 40 published works, Don Keith was born in 1947 and has lived in the South all his life. He attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa where he received his degree in broadcast and film communication with a minor in English and literature. While working as a broadcast journalist, he won awards from the Associated Press and United Press International for news writing and reporting. He was also the first winner of Troy State University's Hector Award for innovation in broadcast journalism. As an on-the-air broadcaster, Don won the Billboard Magazine "Radio Personality of the Year" in two formats, country and contemporary. Keith was a broadcast personality for over twenty years in Birmingham and Nashville, and also owned his own consultancy, co-owned a Mobile, Alabama, radio station (WZEW-FM), and hosted and produced several nationally syndicated radio shows.

His first novel, THE FOREVER SEASON, was published by St. Martin's Press in the fall of 1995 to commercial and critical success. It called heavily on Keith's own athletic and academic experiences. Reviewers praised its unique approach and powerful story. The novel won the Alabama Library Association's "Fiction of the Year" award in 1997, joining works likewise honored from Harper Lee and others, and was re-issued in the fall of 2002 by the University of Alabama Press as part of its prestigious Deep South Books series.

He has written both fiction and non-fiction, including several books on WWII history, biographies, and military thrillers. His co-written thriller, HUNTER KILLER, was the basis for the hit movie starring Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman.