Rest Easy, Old Friend

I held quite a few different titles during my radio career. One of those was “Music Director.” Part of my job was to listen to the new songs that we received every week and then discuss with the Program Director and consultant which ones we would add to the play list.

One day a week, before the meeting with the PD and consultant, I would take record calls. There was a two to four hour window where representatives from the various record labels would call to “sell” me on their records. They would pitch me recent research or airplay success stories in hopes that we would add their songs.

There were a few independent record promoters that would call working songs that might not be on a major label or to help promote major label artists. One of my favorite music calls each week was from and independent promoter named Jack Pride.

He and I began chatting when I first became a music director at B95. Our program director had known him for longer than me and we would often add songs that we felt were good enough to play (even though consultants disagreed). It felt good to be able to help him out. As time went on, it started to get harder and harder to get some of those songs on the air, as many corporate consultants stepped in and had the final say on adds.

I always enjoyed chatting with Jack. For both of us, it was never about the label or the artist – what mattered was if the song was good or not. He and I loved a good lyric and story behind the song. He was passionate about the music he promoted and there were many songs that should have been hits that never made it to radio because of consultants and corporate people.

Our chats each week lasted a bit longer than a normal call, but that is because we became good friends. We’d talk about mutual friends, our family, faith and life in general. He was such a great guy.

After years of telephone chats, I finally had the pleasure of meeting Jack in Nashville at the Country Radio Seminar. He had been talking about a steakhouse down there called Morton’s and he took me and my program director there for dinner one night. It was such a great time.

Every year, Jack would make hundreds of chocolate chip cookies for his radio contacts. The first year, I got this big box with a metal tin in it. When I opened it, there was a dozen of his famous cookies. There were the BEST cookies! I know I wasn’t the only one who waited for those cookies every year. The first couple years I was out of radio, Jack still sent me cookies at Christmas. He knew my kids loved them, too.

When I left radio all together and went into sleep medicine, our chats were less frequent. I’m not sure he ever retired, but I know he had stopped making calls to stations within the last couple years. I guess he had some health issues recently, and I was saddened to hear that he passed away this week at age 80.

I really need to be better about calling someone when I think about them. I had just thought about him a week or so ago and made a mental note to call him before the holidays. Lesson learned.

Rest easy, Jack. See you on the other side, buddy.