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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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I remember eleven years ago writing a note for the McVay Monthly Memo saying that after about two million air miles and thousands of days on the road I was hanging up my traveling show to take a real job. Here it is, almost eleven years to the day and Mike and Doris have allowed me back into the consulting fray.
Oh how radio has changed in those eleven years. And how I have changed.
First the industry. I left behind a lot of friends at the end of 1996 when I joined our friend Ed Salamon at Westwood One. Sadly, many of those friends have been “downsized” from the business.
What does “downsized” mean in today’s business world? It generally means that the economy has taken a turn for the worse and someone has to bear the brunt of this downturn. It can also mean that the company has made a series of decisions that have failed to grown the business at the 15-20% growth needed to sustain the cash flow requirements they have set for themselves or Wall Street has set.
As I write this, the world’s biggest financial institutions are “downsizing” because they bet the wrong side of the housing bubble. The state of Michigan is literally downsizing, one of only two states to have lost population this decade, because the auto industry made bad union deals and bet on muscle cars and SUVs for the last 20 years. I won’t comment on the increased taxes imposed to punish those who have remained. The retail industry is downsizing and has already consolidated past expectations because they expanded too quickly. Even Starbucks is downsizing, and will close some stores leaving only three Starbucks on a four corner intersection. Heaven forbid the 25% of the coffee drinking population that will need to cross the street.
Quoting a line from Ken Burn’s THE WAR, “generals make plans. Plans go wrong. Soldiers die.”
My point is that downsizing is a funny word when put in the context of what is really happening in business and government today. My politics is such that I would like to see government downsized. Again, because of bad decisions made in Washington. Government is the one industry where “less is better.”
But radio? Is less entertainment, less choice, less diversity, less local programming, less research, less interaction good? The answer is no..no..no..no..no..no.
I applaud the broadcasters, like Jeff Warshaw, Saul Levine, and Pat Courington who say, “let’s not downsize the industry until it is a non factor in the listener’s mindset.” I applaud the guys and gals who still do the work to become entertainers for the listener in the face of voice tracking, no research, no marketing and no fun.
When companies run their businesses without supporting the product they send the message that they don’t respect their staffs or their listeners.
I read how radio can withstand this onslaught and we will come out of it whole. No doubt we will, but in the next 3-5 years are we going to make openings for new blood in the business? Are young, smart, talented people going to have room and be willing to invest their formative career years in radio? Can you look any of these 23 year olds in the eye and say, “you have a rewarding future in radio. Come join us”?
Now, how about how I have changed? Well, I am reinvigorated to find and work with the people that I left eleven years ago to make radio rewarding again.
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