Bill Whittaker was enjoying his morning coffee over a riveting early-2000s edition of The Times. He came across a story submitted by a Fountain Hills resident named Bruce Florence, promoting a radio-listening session, open to the public called Old Time Radio.

Whittaker, along with his now long-time friend Allan Goldberg attended the event. From that day on, the two were hooked and have since taken over to become the face of what is now Golden Age of Radio.

Whittaker, Goldberg and a few other folks were tasked with running the show in 2008 after Florence began focusing his efforts to establish a Parkinson’s Support Group after being diagnosed with the disease.

When Florence passed, his library of stories, radio shows and recorded historical segments were donated by his wife to Golden Age of Radio.

Beginning Thursday, Oct. 6, at 1 p.m., the group will resume meeting on the first Thursday of every month through June in the Community Center. Before each meeting, a brief prologue is given at the top of the hour. Radio lovers can then sit back and enjoy the Golden Age of Radio.

Commemoratively named the Bruce Florence Library, it houses tales of drama, comedy, science fiction, non-fiction and recordings of historical events in American history.

“He had a lifelong interest in radio,” Whittaker said of his predecessor who would play bits and pieces of old radio shows for anyone who would come and listen.

Whittaker studied history at Wayne State University in Detroit. In his first year, he signed up for a speech course held in the acclaimed Maccabees Building, which, unbeknownst to Whittaker, produced timeless shows like “The Lone Ranger” and “The Green Hornet” out of its WXYZ Radio studio, and later, WXYZ-TV.

“I just wanted to be an announcer, you know? Everybody else wanted to be a rock ‘n’ roll disc jockey,” Whittaker said, who, for a brief time, was a news radio host for WXYZ Radio.

Sincere, well-spoken and a loveable self-deprecating sense of humor, Whittaker has absorbed an ocean of knowledge from his time in front of the radio.

Every year, Golden Age of Radio commemorates the Pearl Harbor anniversary with a special presentation of the news broadcasts during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

For memorial day, Whittaker is planning to broadcast a D-Day program to honor servicemen and women who served in WWII.

“I was born in the forties right in the middle of WWII,” Whittaker said. “As boys growing up, that was all we had was radio.”

Before moving to Fountain Hills in 1989, Whittaker grew up in Detroit, Mich. where he would tune in to the Detroit Tigers baseball team play at Briggs Stadium just down the road in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit.

“I would listen to the Tigers just about wherever I was if there was a radio available,” said Whittaker. “They were still bad back then too.”

Whittaker remembers his parents tuning into “The Jack Benny Program” and on Saturday evenings Whittaker would catch the half-hour-long prime-time detective radio drama, “Dick Tracy.”

One vivid memory for Whittaker was on April 12, 1945, witnessing his grandmother crying when the news broke of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death.

“[Radio] is part of the history of our country,” Whittaker said. “It was the first time that people could just stay at home and know what’s going on across the world.”

Living in Fountain Hills in what he aptly calls his ramshackle Goodwill store, Whitaker gladly accepts donations of all mediums, many of which make their way into the Bruce Florence Library.

Readers may be surprised to know that the entire Bruce Florence Library is available for check-out. Such items include cassette tapes, CDs, records and even a few books.

Tomorrow is opening day for Golden Age of Radio, which begins with a special Halloween treat. “Donovan’s Brain,” will play at 1 p.m. in the Community Center.

In an eerie premise, Orson Welles plays Dr. Patrick Cory, a semi-mad scientist experimenting with monkey brains. When a plane crashes and kills its only passenger, Dr. Cory takes this opportunity to use a human brain in his experiments.

Community Center membership is required to attend. To check out items from the Bruce Florence Library, call Bill Whittaker at 480-837-7961.