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Staff Profile: Mike Fishkin

Mike Fishkin

Afternoon Classics host Mike Fishkin is a self-described audiophile. And if you’ve ever spent time with him or listened to his show, you know that to be true.

He says he grew up listening to his parents’ record collection—particularly treasuring vintage hi-fi stereo recordings of classical music from the ’50s and ’60s. He also played music himself—mainly the trumpet, but also piano and guitar.

After moving with his family from Oakland to Chico in 1985, Fishkin put his passion for classical music to work, as a Chico State music major, a multi-ensemble performer, and a volunteer announcer for North State Public Radio.

While a student, he played trumpet in Chico State’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the Jazz Ensemble, and what was then the Chico Symphony (now the North State Symphony, after merging with the Redding Symphony Orchestra).

In 1988, 23-year-old Fishkin joined KCHO as a host of Valley Concert Request Night on Friday evenings.

“[Chief Engineer] Mike Birdsill and I are the last surviving dinosaurs of that era,” he says.

It was decades later, in summer of 2014, when former General Manager Brian Terhorst asked him if he’d like to host his own classical music show.

“They wanted a program that was live, local, and with somebody who could think outside the box,” Fishkin says, “and that's me.”

For the past year and a half, Fishkin has hosted Afternoon Classics on weekdays from 1 to 3:30 p.m. (3 on Fridays), crafting each show around both recurring and timely themes, such as Throwback Thursday or “great performances by great pianists of the 20th century,” for example.

He also works part time as a financial assistant at Little Red Hen, a local nonprofit that helps people who have developmental disabilities gain independence.

“As a person with high-functioning autism, which I was diagnosed with over a decade ago, I just find myself— now I realize why I was what I was all life long,” Fishkin says. “At first they thought it was a learning disability in my elementary school years, which is why I've been going to special schools and why I was in special classrooms at public schools. But now that sort of gave me closure when in early 2003 I was diagnosed by Far Northern Regional Center as having autism.”

Fishkin says he’s lucky to enjoy both of his jobs—but sharing his appreciation for classical music with NSPR listeners is especially gratifying.

“They say I'm a celebrity and I would certainly agree," he says, "but not a celebrity of the rich and famous type, but you don’t necessarily have to have Rolls-Royces or Cadillacs or a lot of money and a mansion. Just a simple person like me who likes people and likes to reach out to people.”