Jerry had a gift for me, but he and his wife wanted to give it to me in person. Unfortunately, scheduled coffee breaks never quite happened, usually because of bad weather and his fear of driving in the rain. Then, his wife had a stroke, followed by Jerry having one.
When Cumulus canceled the show, I thought about Jerry and wondered what his gift was.
- Then, I received a text from his stepson: “Hi, Rick. I hope that you are doing well. My stepfather, Jerry Glenn, is 91 and now in the Acadia Nursing Home. He is emphatic about giving you a coffee mug signed by Luke McCoy, Don Priest and one other personality who worked at WCOA. I brought the mug, still in the original box, to him in the nursing home. He keeps his cell with him. If you get a chance, please give him a call. He doesn’t do messages, so if he doesn’t answer just try again.”
I called and finally met Jerry, a wonderful, sweet Army veteran, and the mug is in the photo above.
DIG DEEPER: Radio is personal and intimate. Deejays and hosts develop a relationship with their audiences. It’s that connection that makes radio unique. At WCOA, Sena Maddison and I understood the station’s 98-year love affair with Pensacola, and despite unempathetic management and corporate executives, we tried to honor WCOA’s history.
Cumulus killed WCOA. We were delivered the message by a manager from Mobile, Ala., who knows nothing about Pensacola, never listened to the show, and refused to join us at live remotes to meet Mayor D.C. Reeves, Sen. Rick Scott, Quint Studer, Dr. Martha Saunders and the dozens of our leaders. He set up the dismissal meeting, but it was not after our show ended. He scheduled us to return an hour later, and adding to the insult, we had asked for the meeting to expand the show to three hours.
Corporate America sadly no longer surprises me.
Here is the latest YouTube episode that dropped yesterday
The audio is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
