If you've ever listened to SiriusXM satellite's service, you've probably heard the name Lou Simon. He's not only one of the company's most prominent disc jockeys, he's also the guy in charge of several of their music channels. His most prominent is the one that plays hits from the 60s. 

And the story of how he got there is quite incredible. It starts with a tragedy - the death of his dad when he was just a kid, a radio that saved him, and a series of incredibly lucky breaks that led him to where he is today. 

"Rather than the New York Yankees’ Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Whitey Ford, Simon’s childhood heroes were Cousin Bruce Morrow, Murray the K, Joe O’Brien and Dan Ingram doing a job that Lou learned as a 9-year-old actually had a name: disc jockey.

When it came to New York’s top-40 stations, “I knew the names of everybody, what time they were on, how their voice sounded and what their theme song was,” Simon says. “It just became my journey."

This is a truly great story that's worth a read and you don't even have to subscribe to SiriusXM or even know Simon's work to enjoy it. It's a pretty remarkable tale that sounds like something that could only happen on radio. And in many ways, it is. 

How radio transformed Lou Simon from traumatized child to national DJ