An Upcoming (February, March & April) Weekly Series of Live Radio Broadcasts devoted to Learning to Use Your Sense of Humor to Promote Greater Resilience, Health and Happiness
Every Friday, 11-11:15 a.m. (Eastern time in the USA)
February 10 – April 27, 2012
Weekly Skill-Development Exercises Posted after each Show at www.LaughterRemedy.com.
WNZK (690 AM) & WCXI (1160 AM) in the Detroit, Michigan area & on the Internet at www.birach.com (or directly at http://wnzk.birach.com:9000
This series of broadcasts marks an innovative breakthrough in radio broadcasting. A weekly live radio show will be used as a vehicle for actively engaging listeners around the world in working on improving their sense of humor and learning to use humor to cope with the stress in their lives. This will occur in the first 15 minutes of the popular weekly show, The Bright Side of Aging, hosted by Ike Englebaum in Detroit, Michigan. The featured guest for these programs is Dr. Paul McGhee, President of The Laughter Remedy in Wilmington, DE. Dr. McGhee is internationally known for his own research on humor and has published 15 books on the topic. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his research and active promotion of therapeutic humor from both Oakland University (Rochester, MI) and the American Association for Therapeutic Humor.
The Bright Side of Aging is broadcast live every Friday from 11-11:30 a.m. (Eastern time in the USA) on WNZK (690 AM) and WCXI (1160 AM) in the Detroit area and on the Internet at www.birach.com for everyone else in the USA and abroad. This address puts you into the Birach Broadcasting Corp. website. On the right side of the Home Page, you will see 9 or 10 buttons. Click on either “Listen to WNZK, 690 AM” or “Listen to WCXI, 1160 AM”. As noted at the Home Page, you will need winamp, real player or an MP3 player on your computer to listen online. You can also get directly to the broadcast by going to http://wnzk.birach.com:9000.
* Note: While these humor programs occur in the context of a radio show on aging, all of the humor training ideas presented work for adults (and teens) of all ages.
The Health and Happiness through Humor series of shows began on Jan 13, 2012. The Jan. 13, 20, 27 & Feb. 3 shows discuss(ed) the physical health benefits resulting from humor and how humor helps cope with the stress in one’s life. (For a discussion of these benefits, see www.LaughterRemedy.com.) Starting in February, audio clips of each Humor Show will available to re-listen to within a few days after that show at www.americanseniorgazette.com. Beginning Feb. 10, and continuing through April, each show will offer listeners guidelines for improving a specific component of their sense of humor. Listeners will then spend the next 7 days cultivating specific Habits related to that part of their sense of humor before moving on to the next set of Humor Habits. Tune in the week following the initial discussion of a specific Humor Habit for a discussion of progress in improving that part of your sense of humor. To allow adequate time for live conversation with radio listeners working to build these humor habits between radio shows, a total of two weeks may be spent on each Humor Habit.
This is the first time anything like this has been done on live radio. Participants around the world, listening via the Internet, will spend a three- or four-month period building the basic foundation humor skills needed to boost emotional resilience and use humor to cope with the stress in their daily lives.
Research in university settings in 5 countries has documented the effectiveness of this 7 Humor Habits Program. The Program has also been shown to work with seniors (average age in their 70s).
Using this Program in the Context of Patient Support Groups or Senior Residential Communities
Activity Directors in Senior Residential Communities, leaders of patient (e.g., cancer) support groups or leaders of any other kind of ongoing self-help support group may also choose to use the radio broadcasts to go through the 7 Humor Habits Program in a more systematic fashion. To do so, the discussion leader will need a copy of the complete manual for the Program, which is contained in Dr. McGhee’s book, Humor as Survival Training for a Stressed-Out World: The 7 Humor Habits Program. (See www.LaughterRemedy.com. for ordering information.) Guidelines for leading a weekly discussion of each Humor Habit are provided. This book contains the 7 Humor Habits Program in its entirety, so a much fuller and more detailed set of activities and exercises for building humor skills is provided than will occur in the radio broadcasts.
Again, you may choose to use archives of the radio broadcasts when you are leading such a group discussion yourself. If you have a question regarding how to lead such a group, contact Dr. McGhee at paulmcghee@verizon.net. Also see Dr McGhee’s website after each show for weekly updates on (and a more detailed listing of) activities and exercises for strengthening each Humor Habit.