This Friday we’ll acknowledge that day when 25 years ago more than 3,000 people died in what was the first ever attack on American mainland. Pearl Harbor was the greatest loss of lives on American soil before 9-11. There will be tributes in New York, Washington, DC, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. There will be remembrances across the nation. Stories will be told. Sadness revisited.

The audience who loved Dolly, which is larger than any one format, yearned for information about the icon. They wanted to be closer to her, feel a part of her family, and to grieve. My ire, raised to the point of authoring that article, was because of what the majority of the industry seems to have lost; the understanding that one of radio’s greatest benefits is that of immediacy. Immediacy means NOW. Immediate.

You would be hard pressed to find someone who has a bad word about Miss Parton, or someone whose met her that wasn’t impressed. Dolly Parton was special. She not only attracted an audience to the Country music format, she introduced it well beyond radio with her many skills as a performer, writer, lyricist, and ability to make news with her mere presence. She’s the one artist who is in both The Country Music Hall of Fame and The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Repeating; Dolly Parton was special.