No, or course not. That’s optional at most. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to imagine Monte “The Music Man” Sieberns as good as he is had he been gifted with sight. Totally blind from shortly after birth, Sieberns holds down the noon to 5 p.m. slot at Oldies 106 in Wabash. He started as a fill-in in August 2006, then went full-time in April. Before that, he worked at a radio station in Huntington, where he was born, raised and still lives. And before that …

well, to a degree he’s been a disc jockey all his life. Born prematurely 37 years ago at 2 pounds, 13 ounces, Sieberns (the name of his adoptive parents, Pat and Tom) had his retinas destroyed in the incubator. “As a young child, I had a fascination with audio; not every blind person does, but I did,” he said. “Records, record players, turntables and the like.

They fascinated me.” From that he moved into the real love of his life music: “Music is my lifetime sweetheart because it’s pulled me through a lot of things in my life.” Among the things it lifted him from were the sometime tedious years at the Indiana School for the Blind in Indianapolis. He spent some longs Sunday and Friday afternoons on the bus Sunday en route to the school, Fridays en route back to Huntington.

Through the years Sieberns had so may quasi-disc jockey gigs it’s hard to pinpoint precisely his first job. At age 8 he was thrilled to get “some mike time” at a skating rink in Huntington. A little later he was earning a little money doing the music at hog roasts for his dad. “I took the money I earned and put it into records, new hits.