Professor Michael Keith has a real taste for adventure. When school breaks, you'll either find him braving the rapids down the Colorado River or exploring Russia. His all-time favorite vacation was embarking on a safari during a three-week stay in Tanzania, East Africa.
"Lions were brushing against our vehicle and wilder beasts and elephants. We were out there in what's called the Ngorongoro Crater in the Serengeti," he says.
Though the thought of a safari might terrify some, thankfully Keith was not a lone ranger; his safety was assured by a driver and guide.
"The driver had been in the Tanzanian army and my guide was a Zulu, an enormous guy who was well-known."
Here at Boston College and around the country, Keith is also particularly well known as the "go-to guy" in radio. You might have encountered him in BC courses such as Soundcasting Media and Broadcast Century Issues in the communication department. But aside from his life at BC, his texts are used in colleges throughout America and he travels often to attend international conferences.
"When I'm home, my avocation is my vocation," he says, "and that is researching and writing about the social impact of radio."
Keith has been married for 22 years to Susanne, a designer for Hasbro Toys, the principal designer for My Little Pony. They share their home with two Maine Coon cats, one of which weighs a hefty 26 pounds. The couple found him abandoned on the roadside as a kitten.
"My wife tucked him in her sweater and he kind of stayed under her sleeve, and a year later he weighed 20 some-odd pounds," he says. "He is an enormous guy. Now he's 14 years old, so he's up there."
When it comes to unwinding after a hard day's work, Keith likes to "putz around" and read or catch his favorite documentary, How It Works. But what he and his wife really enjoy doing is enhancing their film-buff status.
"We are both real film-crazy people," he says. "This year, I liked two movies the best. One is No Country for Old Men and the other one is There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day Lewis was incredible."
Keith, a grandfather of four between the ages of 2 and 7, enjoys the freedom of being an "empty nester." But he says responsibilities catch up to us all.
"Looking after the grandchildren is an energizing and depleting experience all at the same time."
Keith and his wife usually take on the responsibilities of hosting Christmas and Thanksgiving each year, but they do allow themselves a break every now and then.
"It's now viewed as tradition to spend holidays at our place, so sometimes we'll say we'll just go on vacation," he says. "And we'll be someplace else and everyone will give us a lot of grief."
In his childhood, Keith was no stranger to road trips, traveling for 12 years throughout the country, attending various different schools. He joined the army but subsequently didn't feel ready for college, so he thought he'd try something different and explore his growing fascination with radio, attending a small training school and then going into radio for 12 years.
Keith recently learned that, curiously, he was not alone in his passion. When he was 14 he had a friend whom he knew for about a year before his family was on the move again. On his way home one day 35 years later, he heard a voice on the radio that sounded exactly the same as that of his old friend.
"My friend's name was Corey Flintoff, which is an unusual name," he says. "And so my reaction was 'No, I mean we were 14 years old. We'd never talked about going into radio.' I thought it would be just too bizarre."
Two or three weeks later, Keith heard him again, this time reading news on National Public Radio.
"So I picked up the phone and called the news department, and lo and behold, that was him. Literally out of the air, through radio, we're reconnected. And he told me that two days earlier he had mentioned my name to his wife, just in conversation. It was almost a cosmic experience."
Keith says he became a professor to merge his two passions: radio and writing. A veteran of 15 years, Keith likes BC for its close proximity to his home and family and the strong sense of community.
"I really like the students here," he says. "They're very much pleased to be at Boston College. There's a great amount of spirit and loyalty to the place. That's something that makes being here much more pleasurable because students actually want to be here. What surprises me is that most students, when they get to their senior year, are actually upset about leaving Boston College."
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