Don't Let your Cowboy's grow up to be Babies!

Don Imus (wNbc) & Jack Armstrong (WKBW) were my hero's growing up in the radio business.

I had the unusual (good/bad?) luck to literally GROW UP in a Radio Station in Northeast New York starting on air at 12 years old.

When the weather was right I could listen to my "Leaderrrrrrrr) Jackson Armstrong on KB at night. Motormouth, hugely intelligent and insanely funny, Jack was truly one of a kind. I had the great good fortune to become friends with him before his untimely death from an accident in his home. He had a work ethic that would put away almost anyone I've ever known in radio in my lifetime, and all of what he did, including a ridiculous amount of time in "show prep," showed up as one of the most talented and gifted BOSS RADIO Jocks in the history of the genre.

Imus came a little later in my career. I wound up living in Jersey in the 1973 time frame when Imus was at the top of his game. I'd left WCCC in Hartford CT before Stern was anyone of note and Imus was full tilt Bozo every morning. You NEVER knew what was coming next, just that it would be so hilarious you'd have to pull off the side of the road to avoid spewing your coffee everywhere while you belly laughed. Imus was the direct opposite, in many ways, from Jack. Slow, with an "I don't give a crap" attitude, Imus said whatever came into his head, there was simply no filter. He regaled the listener with funny stories, setups and cutups. From the "I want 1,200 Hamburgers to go" bit to the marvelous bits with the Right Reverend Bill Saul Hargus, Don had it all and he not only OWNED the NYC marketplace, but the show became nationally syndicated and took every market he entered by storm.

Invariably, I learned a LOT from both men. Both fast and slow pacing, how to write bits and prerecord little plugins and use current events to play off. They were amazing human beings and sadly, I never got to meet Don or become friends. He and his wife, for many years and till the end of his life, ran a ranch for kids with cancer. His "nappy" comment may well have been untimely, but that was Don, and if it had been 1973 it would have gotten a billion laughs and that's the way it is.

Times changes and that's really what this little story is all about. There are precious few Radio Stations out there that are what I think of when I think of Radio. They're essentially automated, so tightly programmed that being a personality on air is incredibly difficult, and getting airplay for an "unknown" band is virtually impossible on any kind of scale.

We want to change all that in 2020. For the last few years, we too have been automated with oldies from every genre, but every one of them made the top 100 list. All HITS, all big names.

It's time to be different.

Beginning January 21st, we'll be introducing local, regional and national musical acts. You may have heard of them, you may not. We don't care. Our GOAL is to PROMOTE MUSIC, Local Musicians, great talent long before they get discovered, or even if they never actually ARE.

We set out on this earlier this year in Plattsburgh New York. I would love to tell you it was all my idea, but it wasn't, not at all. A young EX-Marine who is a huge talent all by himself, John Bradley came up with the twist on things and I fell in love with it immediately.

We set up a studio and we began doing some shows featuring both live acts on air (with video) and recorded sets, cuts and albums. It took off in Upstate NY and I made the decision to take it nationwide.

My original dream was, and may still be, to have local studios where these acts could go and play. That's an expensive proposition, and since this is a passion rather than a paying gig (you guys will get that), we can only do what we can do.

So we began collecting musicians and friends on social media and we've asked you to send up your tracks so we can feature them on air.

To do so, please EMAIL them to [email protected]

If you'd like to get involved in some way, if you own a studio or if you see the value in what we're doing, feel free to give me a holler. Another pair of hands or another brain couldn't possibly hurt.In the meantime, I'm rapidly running out of room on my Friends List. You can LIKE and FOLLOW us on my PROFESSIONAL PAGE:

https://www.facebook.com/walterscottj/

We are ALL musicians. I spent my time doing 210 nights a year, I KNOW what it's like.

Let's help one another - how about it?

J. Walter Scott