Radio personality heads for war zone
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA – Women called crying, e-mails flooded in and strangers showed up at the station just wanting to shake his hand.
The reaction was overwhelming and caught Chris Charles completely off guard.
Charles, the afternoon drive on-air personality at WARM-FM 103.3, quit his dream job late last month to work with United States soldiers in Iraq.
“This is the biggest challenge of my life,” Charles said, “but I look forward to it like nothing else.”
Charles, a 1996 Penn Manor High School graduate, signed a one-year agreement with a prominent government contractor to serve as morale, welfare and recreation coordinator for the armed forces in southern Iraq, about 20 miles from the Kuwaiti border.
His job will be similar to that of an activities director on a cruise ship, except there’s no ship, just desert. Charles will organize volleyball and basketball tournaments and other physical-fitness activities to bring fun to the off-duty hours of military personnel.
He’ll be the director of fun.
“I just want to put a smile on their faces,” said Charles, 29, who is single and an amateur bodybuilder.
Feeling an urge to help, he applied for the job six months ago. He received a call three weeks ago asking if he could deploy to Houston for training. He flew to Texas Dec. 2 for two weeks of training and believes he will be in Iraq before Christmas.
It is a bold move for someone with a great job in radio in a preferred market and time slot — to say nothing of the safety concerns — but it felt right to give it up, if only for a short while.
“Ever since the war [in Iraq] started, I’ve read how morale with our troops was eroding,” he said. “I’m working for our men and women. I’m serving them. They’re our heroes.”
Charles said family, friends and the radio station have been supportive, knowing how much it means to him. Since he was 6 years old, working in radio was his dream. On his family’s chicken farm near Millersville, he used to walk around with a microphone. He built a studio, with mixer boards, in his bedroom when he was 10.
After starting on the lonely overnight shifts, Charles was offered afternoon drive at WARM two years ago.
Radio is still his first love, and when he returns to the United States after his contract expires, he plans to get back into the business, but he believes it is important to put his career on hold.
“I achieved my dream: afternoon drive,” Charles said. “Radio will always be here; this opportunity won’t. Sometimes you’ve got to go for it.”
