Charlie Cook On Air; Christmas Thoughts

This is the best time of the year. Without question, people are nicer to each other. I love that people wear goofy Christmas ornaments on their clothes. I have also discovered that I like Christmas music more than I realized and have been listening a lot this year. Maybe the music is getting better. Maybe I am getting soft. Whatever.

As you read this I will either be heading to the Pittsburgh airport to fly to LA, be on the plane, or if you read this at 4:30 AM/ET Saturday, be getting off the plane to find my way to my home in Southern California. This for my 50 hour visit home.

As long a day as today will be, I will have come into contact with hundreds of people doing the same thing: rushing toward family and friends excited about seeing them for the first time in maybe the entire year, or rekindling a relationship during the holidays.

However you look back on the year, take a second to remember a GOOD thing that happened to YOU in 2011. I know that we all have challenges and they are the issues that need attention, but please take a second and remember a good day. A new friend. A good memory that will make you smile for just a minute.

Many of our friends and family are experiencing a Christmas season without a job for the first time in their careers. Some are on their second Christmas without work. This can be a cruel business. We chose to work in radio or records for a multitude of reasons. Changing jobs every few years was not necessarily one of them.

My first job in radio came a few days after the Christmas holidays in, well, many years ago. I remember saying to my family that this was a great Christmas gift, to get the job of my dreams and to start on January 2. The job of my dreams paid $2.10 an hour. But I worked 10 hours of overtime every week to make $110.00 a week

Each Christmas I think back on how excited I was to get that job and to start on what has been, besides my beautiful daughters Jacki and Izzy, the most rewarding part of my life. This year I look back and say thanks again for all of the friends I have worked with in radio and records.

I may be shallower than you but I can count on one hand the friends I have that are not in our business. I would have a few fingers left over, by the way. I am tied to all of you in radio and records at every level.

So however tough it is this Christmas for many who started the year as programmers, disc jockeys, record reps or the other job titles that make up Country Music/Radio and are now looking for their next opportunity, thank God that you have your friends and family and remember the feeling you had going into that first job.

Merry Christmas and let’s all hope for a Happy 2012.