FB Friend: Jack Cone
Radio can be a funny business. In some ways it’s kind of like professional sports, especially when it comes to on-air talent. You move around a lot. You move up, either in market size or position within a company, much like athletes move from the minor leagues or college to the majors or pros. In the early 2000s I was feeling like the GM of a sports franchise when Star 94, a big pop station in Atlanta, made some major moves and some of their talent found themselves on the free agent market. We scooped up a couple of them. One is today’s “Awesome Facebook Friend Of The Day,” Jack Cone.
Jack is an audio production wiz, a consummate professional. He brought our commercial and promotional production to new heights when he was with us. He had a unique outlook that translated to some stellar material. And Jack fancied himself as something of a curmudgeon. He had a gruff, “Hey you kids! Get offa my lawn!” exterior. But he was really a pussycat underneath.
He consistently amazed me with how he was able to, after discussing with me for only a few minutes the “feel” or “heart” I was looking for in a promotional campaign, to capture exactly what I was looking for while at the same time giving it his own unique spin, which almost always turned it into something even better than I had imagined. Jack and I had quite a few conversations about the “heart” of what we were doing. We talked about faith, life, love and forgiveness. He’s since moved to Oregon. (That still confuses me a little.) And I still hear his voice on the air from to time, even on my station. He does such a great job that even after leaving the time zone there are local clients that still use him for their production. I wish him nothing but the best, and I’m sure he’ll find it.
