I got a nice e-mail a few weeks ago from someone who was moving away from the Quad-Cities, thanking me, especially, for what I had written about radio in the past few years.

The writer seemed to infer that I have a hatred for local radio, which could not be further from the truth.

I love it - maybe too much.

First, a little history. Since the age 7 or 8, there's always been a radio putting me to bed at night and waking me up in the morning. I loved listening to the AM radio blowtorches for music, including WOW in Omaha, WHB in Kansas City and WLS in Chicago.

During my sophomore year in high school, I saw that a student at a rival school was working for a nearby radio station.

I asked how I could work there as well, which began a six-year career at five different radio stations, playing a gamut of music: top 40, country, easy listening, Christian rock and even polka. I filled in for one-person news departments. I staffed enough Kansas City Royals broadcasts to earn a Major League Baseball pension.

All part-time - I had an offer from a station to go full-time on middays when I was in college, but my class schedule and college newspaper work wouldn't allow it - and all enjoyable. (When it came to deciding on a career, I realized I needed the safety net of an editor rather than my mistakes immediately going out to the world.)

My love affair with radio has continued. When I'm out of town, I give a good workout to the scan button on the car radio - not necessarily to listen to the music, but rather the imaging (jingles, station identification, stuff like that) and the local voices.

At home, I spend my morning commute flipping around between eight and 10 radio stations.

I love it and I am worried about it, the same way one loves and worries about a relative with a terminal illness.

The medium has changed drastically, and it's definitely not what it was a quarter of a century ago - or even last year.

Good, talented people are no longer in radio, neither locally nor nationally - a few by their own choice, but many others not by their own decision.

That voice you hear on your local station may not be from here in town and may not be live.

And don't try to sell me on satellite radio: Two competing companies have merged, and they have nowhere near the number of subscribers they were projected to reach.

Me hate radio? No way. Even though it's on shaky ground and sometimes a shadow of its former self, I still hold a fond spot deep in my heart for AM and FM.

But I also know it's not what it used to be.

David Burke can be contacted at dburke@qctimes.com. He blogs at Quadsville.com and can be followed at Twitter.com/entguy1.