Inspired by real events, Radio focuses on the relationship between a high school football coach (Ed Harris) and a mentally challenged man nicknamed Radio (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), and how their unique friendship ultimately transforms the entrenched attitudes of a small South Carolina town. Radio is the town loner until he is befriended by Harold Jones (Harris), popular coach of the high school football team. Radio is suspicious at first, but slowly Coach Jones earns his trust and opens up a new world to him, inviting him to help out at football practices and games and to sit in on his classes at school. Coach Jones fights off efforts to send Radio away, but he is finally forced to make a difficult decision that will impact both his growing friendship with Radio and his career as a football coach.