As one might guess, music plays a large role in my life. After all, I work for a music radio station! However, it goes much deeper than that. I’ve been around music, and radio, for my entire life. Dad is a broadcaster in Dallas, and has been since day one. (For me at least!) I grew up listening to “Oldies” like the Dave Clark 5, Hermann’s Hermits, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, etc. I got to, at least in part, mature with rock and roll from infancy to modern music in a brief time period, but I did experience the changes that happened in roughly the chronology of them happening.

I can remember a story my Dad tells of being in the college bookstore in Kentucky and hearing some music over the store’s stereo system and being compelled to find out what it was, only to discover Santana for the first time. I recall my friends deciding my musical taste needed updating, and exposing me to Motley Crue and Poison. Yeah, the bald guy liked hair metal. Appropriate, don’cha think? About that time I got very interested in the guitar, and talked my folks into buying me a second hand electric. Oh, what they didn’t know did end up hurting them. Or their ears….

I’ve found that music can take you places, make a grey nasty day something beautiful, transport you to childhood and back, or simply relieve the worries that we find day to day. So many movies and TV shows stress the importance of music in our schools. From the light hearted Here Comes The Boom, to the thought provoking and reminiscence of Mr. Holland’s Opus, to the bubble gum like Glee, High School Musical and Lemonade Mouth.

Look at a child when they hear music. Even the youngest toddler will start to move to the beat of a song. It’s in our blood, our very DNA if you will. True, some more than others, and in varying degrees of aptitude. Vocally, I can’t carry a note with a co-signer, but hand me a guitar, and I’m good to go. But music is the sound track to your life, and the good thing is, you get to pick the songs.

Ben Cox is the morning show host of “Ben Cox in the Morning” on KQBZ, 96.9 FM in Brownwood Texas. He reports from the sidelines at every Early Longhorn game, and is the new in-stadium voice of the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets football team. Ben is also an event DJ for weddings, parties and the like.

The thoughts and comments reflected in this column are those of the writer alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of Wendlee Broadcasting, or its affiliates.