When Wayne Heath retired from his career as a heavy machinery operator, he was looking forward to some well deserved peace and quiet. However, he found that, absent the noise with which he had spent the greater part of his life, he was unable to feel calm and collected.
“It was as if my life had this big empty place,” he says. “I couldn’t eat, couldn’t rest, I couldn’t even focus on anything.”
After suffering untold agonies for the first two months of his retirement, Heath finally was referred to a specialist in Behavioral and Occupational Medicine (BOM), who suggested that he spend time every day listing to local radio station KLAK, which specializes in the sounds of industrial machinery.
This recommendation, Heath says
“Absolutely saved my life. I’d tried listening to the radio before, but I couldn’t take it. The music was just too rhythmical for me. I tried talk shows, I even heavy metal, but it all sounded too much like music to really sooth me. But KLAK is great. Extraordinary. The programming is absolutely perfect, and they have some really good special shows like ‘The Gunshot Hour’ and ‘High Explosives With Screaming Babies.’
“If I ever end up in a nursing home,” he adds, “I don’t want them to play show tunes or oldies. I want them to bring in a bulldozer and idle it under my window.”
“Teghut Mine—Heavy Machinery,” by Serouj (courtesy of Hrayr Savzyan). Public Domain.
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