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Charlie Cook
VP/Country
Recently named the third most influential person (and top radio person) in Country Music Airplay by Country Air Check Magazine, Charlie Cook is a 38 year broadcaster, active in country radio for 35-years. Charlie also has experience as an on-air personality, Program Director, Operations Manager, Consultant, VP of Programming for Westwood One Radio Network, and Cumulus.
Charlie is VP/Country for McVay Media, a position he held from 1984-1996 before returning to the company January 2008. With Charlie’ s vast experience in the media industry, he will be consulting terrestrial radio, and aiding McVay in consulting Syndicated Programs, Artist/Singers and their managers within the Country arena.
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What a year! In our little world we have seen two companies that promised to provide separate, competitive programming to the consumer at a fair price get to the precipice of turning from that promise and joining forces against the Internet, the I-Pod and Terrestrial Radio.
We have seen the biggest TR Company in the world go private and the rest of the TR companies out there, sans one or two, fall to penny stock levels. One such company was readying itself to go private at $1.2 B just months ago, today have a market cap of $115M. (7/14/08)
Every day the trade press reports that another analyst has advanced more negative news for ad related enterprises, radio in particular. And the cycle continues.
Every day each of us, in our little world of radio, wakes up and wonders if today is D day. Downsizing Day! Every day we look around our little world and wonder, “How much worse can this get?”
Okay, buckaroo….welcome to the real world. Now what are you doing to make the real world a better place for your listeners?
Banks are failing. Mortgages are defaulting. Retailers are filing for bankruptcy. Americans all over the country are turning off their central air conditioners, in 90 degree weather, to save a few bucks in power bills. This by the way was all on the front page of the Wall Street Journal…TODAY.
I won’t even add the nine Americans killed in Afghanistan, American icon Budweiser being purchased by some foreign company (when will the St. Louis Cardinals begin playing soccer instead of baseball?) and Radio host Tony Snow dying over the weekend. All of those stories were also on the front page today.
Not to send you over the edge, though I can see why so many Americans are measuring their distance from the edge not in miles or yards but in feet and inches, but to implore you to take your job of entertaining America seriously. I am not asking you to bury your head in the sand and avoid the things that the listener needs to know each day in order to make intelligent decisions about finances and safety, but provide the escape that listeners need every day.
We have joked for years that if we play a Country song backwards, our wives and dogs return and our trucks start running smoothly again. Yeah there are some sad stories in Country music but most of the music is life affirming and positive. Take a second and point that out to the listener when a new song comes on the air. Wouldn’t that make a great music promo?
New Music from Alan Jackson (Good Times), Blake Shelton (Home), Sugarland (All I Want to Do).
Again, I am not saying that you need to find “upbeat” stories. That is BS. But your morning shows need to be fun and (if this is what they do: funny), entertaining and provide a reason to smile. Get listeners involved in the shows. The more fun you can have with listeners on the air the more that becomes contagious and spreads positive vibes.
I think that the jocks have to think about what is going on in the listener’s world everyday and make taking their thoughts off the bad stuff and focus on having fun and entertaining them their prime responsibility. This is how you make a friend. People want to be around positive people.
The Olympics are here and Americans are rallying around our team. Let’s ride that wave. In fact let’s start the wave today.
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