On The Final Show

A while back, I met a young man. He was affable, friendly and quite rambunctious. You would never know by casually meeting him that he was fighting a potentially fatal brain tumor.

We got friendly and spoke daily. One day, he told me that he was going for an operation, the doctors were going to try to remove the tumor from his brain. He explained that his chance of survival was minimal. He was naturally scared, he cried, he prayed, but the one thing he didn't do was self pity. He explained that self pity was for the weak and he was strong. He explained that in order to survive the operation, he had to remain strong, he had to fight.

The night before he entered the hospital, we spoke. At the end of a very emotional conversation, the young man said to me 'never say goodbye, always say cya later. Goodbye is so final and life is so fluid and we never know what G-d's plan is.'

He survived the operation and is doing fine now, but those words resonated in my head. Never say goodbye.

Last night I hosted what I expect will be my last radio show for quite a while on 1650 AM Radio Shalom Montreal. There was some sadness, but the truth of the matter is it came down to economics.

Radio Shalom Montreal is a noble project that is struggling. It is struggling not due to the global economic situation, nor was it victim to scammers like Bernard Madoff. It is struggling due to the apathy of the Montreal Jewish Community, a community wealthy enough to donate multiple millions to the local Federation, but apparently not wealthy enough to support a local Jewish radio station. It's a sad commentary.

There's an old song who'se refrain states 'Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone' ..Montreal has lost The Howie Silbiger Show and is at risk of losing Radio Shalom...

So to my radio fans, thank you for your support, thank you for being there, calling in and taking part in Jewish talk radio in Montreal. To quote my young friend, Cya later..