James Robert 'Radio' Kennedy was born in Anderson, South Carolina, on October 14, 1946. He died in Anderson on December 14, 2019.
Because the relationship between Radio and the town is ongoing (even up until the present day), the screenwriter chose to compress the highlights of the relationship to a one-year period.
Most of the fans in the stands during the games were students and fans from Goose Creek High School, a school in the Charleston suburb of Goose Creek (about 45 minutes from Walterboro, where the movie was filmed). They were chosen because the school uses the same colors as TL Hanna. Goose Creek and Hanna met in the 2008 state playoffs, allowing many of the extras in the movie to meet the real Radio.
During the filming of Radio in Walterboro, South Carolina, Cuba Gooding Jr. formed a friendship with a local store owner named Leon. According to crew members, Cuba would often take breaks from filming to visit Leon's small convenience store and chat with him about life and the community. Leon even had a small role as an extra in the film, playing a customer in a scene filmed at his store.