Charlie Cook On Air: Doing Good With Good Fortune

We can all agree, as I wrote last week, this was a summer to beat all summers (thanks Brad!) for country music. The radio stations have enjoyed a surge and the concert season was bigger than ever. Country music is bigger and better than it has been in years.
What some of you might not know though is Country music is also the most generous of all of the genres. If you listen to country radio, or are involved with the format, you know about all of the time and money given to St. Jude. God said of St. Jude, “He will show himself most willing to give help.” Country music, its advocates, artists and radio stations have stepped up to do that. Over 200 country radio stations have participated in fund raising for St. Jude hospital and have raised over $400M through Country Cares.
Many of you reading this attend the Academy of Country Music Awards show in Las Vegas each year, and the Country Music Association Awards show in Nashville. These are great events celebrating the accomplishments of the format. These events generate some serious money for the ACM and the CMA. I use the term serious on purpose because this money is then handed over to do some serious work.
The Tim McGraw TV special, that was taped the Monday after the ACM show, and aired twice on CBS-TV this year generated $700,000 for the organization, who promptly gave the money to Lifting Lives, the ACM’s charitable arm. I cannot do the organization justice trying to explain all the good it does but I encourage you to go to acmliftinglives.org and see for yourself. Go to the site with a need because the giving cycle is starting now.
I don’t even want to start on the Lifting Lives Music camp. I cannot hold it together when I see the joy it brings to the kids and their families. Kudos go to the Grand Ole Opry, too, on this project. Pete Fisher, Sally Wilson and Steve Buchanan step up big time for this event.
The devastation done on Moore, Okla. this year was eased a bit when superstar Toby Keith stepped up and organized a fund-raising event that collected money for the residents there. The total raised will impress you and will be announced in the coming weeks. Toby’s efforts will repairs homes…but more importantly people’s lives. Almost immediately following the storms Blake Shelton, another Oklahoma native, leveraged his relationship with TV and raised millions for the people affected by the tornados. Toby and Blake could have written checks and left it at that but instead they worked to bring attention to a need and gave back because that’s what country folks do.
Earlier this year an economic study found the music industry has an almost $10 billion impact on the Nashville region. To make sure the mid-south stays strong in its Music City roots, the CMA through The CMA Foundation (cmaworld.com), raises money at the CMA Music Fest—which by the way, all of the artists do for free knowing the monies raised go to charity—has chosen music education as the recipient of half of the proceeds each year. The “Keep the Music Playing” cause lights up the lives of youngsters hungry for musical expression not available today through the school system. Do you think the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum could have been built and operate without CMA money? No way.
I can’t leave my brothers and sisters at the Country Radio Broadcasters off this list of givers. Their mission is to educate and bring country broadcasters together where they learn to give back to the communities they live and work in. I can tell you firsthand how committed to this mission the board and officers are to education and outreach.
This is not about how good everyone in the industry is, but sometimes we get caught up in the parties and music, and fail to understand that underneath there are many people trying to do good with their good fortune.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MusicRow.)