Jeff Bell

I’m planning to claim my first minute and a half of radio fame this Sunday.

I’ll be the solo guest of Jeff Bell’s regular spot, which focuses on people who’ve moved “from adversity to advocacy” — in other words, according to the A2A Alliance website, “individuals who have successfully turned a personal challenge into service to others with similar challenges.”

The 90-second segment, boiled down from a 15-minute interview,
will be aired three times on both KCBS-AM (at 740 on the dial) and FM (106.9) in San Francisco.

The broadcasts are scheduled to start at 12:52 p.m., 6:52 p.m. and 11:52 p.m. on Sunday, March 8.

As the author of a new VitalityPress book, “Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer,” I, Woody Weingarten, talk about the support group I’ve led for 20 years, Marin Man to Man, and what I’ve learned being a male caregiver. 

Jeff, co-founder of A2A as well as an author and a 20-year veteran of radio and TV news, noted that he’ll “also be posting an mp3 version of the feature on our website — www.A2alliance.org.”

Once it’s posted, it will reside at http://a2aalliance.org/a2a-spotlight/and, ultimately, have a linkable page that will include the key to my book.

Regarding the radio segment, I’m flattered that I’m in such good company.

Among others who’ve been spotlighted are Patrick Kennedy, a Congressman from 1995 to 2010 who has long been a mental health champion, and Temple Brandin, an autistic activist and subject of an award-winning HBO bioptic — and a large group of folks whose names I didn’t recognize.

Jeff jump-started A2A in 2011 with Patti Lowery, a Canadian mother of two children with mental health challenges, although the organization’s roots date from 1997 and struggles with his own adversity, a disabling Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Today, he also serves as a spokesperson for the International OCD Foundation.

And Patti is still an advisor to A2A.

The Adversity to Advocacy Alliance, both have asserted more than once, pushes “the age-old adage that we help ourselves by helping others.”

I definitely find their continuing work with the organization inspirational. So it was especially gratifying when Jeff  paid me this compliment in an email:

“You are an inspiration!”