May 14, 2018, Issue 601
Jim Mantel Off His Grind
Profiled for his Country Radio Hall of Fame induction last year, WRNS/Greenville, NC morning host Jim Mantel noted he wasn’t qualified for any other job. What he is qualified for, as of the end of next month, is retirement (CAT 3/12). After stops at KNFM/ Odessa, TX, KRYS/Corpus Christi, KKBQ/Houston and WGAR/ Cleveland, Mantel landed in coastal North Carolina. He recently spoke with Country Aircheck about hanging up the cans. CA: After 35 years in radio, what now? Besides catching up on sleep, of course. JM: I’ve been getting up between 3am and 3:30am since 1984. When you’re 25 or 35, that’s easy. When you’re in your late 50s and hit 60, it’s a chore. Yeah, I’m finally going to catch up on sleep. Why now? There’s no real reason. When I took the job here from Cleveland, they had Mantel with wife Melinda concerns it was just a hold over until my next big market, but I moved here to retire. Didn’t know if it would be five years or 10, and it turned out to be seven. I’m in a position where I can retire, first of all. And to be perfectly honest, [WGAR’s] Chuck Collier died seven years ago and, since then, a lot of people who do this job or something related have passed. Last year’s Hall of Fame event hit me hard. Between the announcement and the ceremony, two of the inductees passed away – Linda Lee and Joe Wade Formicola. All of these people worked so hard and never got to enjoy retirement. Chuck and I were like brothers. He was relentless in working hard and really looking forward to it, and he never got there. So I thought, you’ve worked hard and done well for yourself. Enjoy it while you can. (continued on page 6)
Summer Loving: Capitol’s Dierks Bentley, Arista’s Lanco and the Mountain High Tour crew help launch the Hunger Free Summer campaign at Nashville’s Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee by packaging more than ten thousand pounds of food to supply more than 8,600 meals to families in need when school meals are not available during the summer months. Pictured (l-r) are Lanco’s Tripp Howell, Eric Steedly and Jared Hampton, Bentley, Lanco’s Brandon Lancaster and Chandler Baldwin and Second Harvest’s Jaynee Day (front).
Noon In The Dead Of Night
Broken Bow’s Jason Aldean kicked off his High Noon Neon Tour over the weekend with Lauren Alaina and Luke Combs. The Cumulus/Des Moines crew was on hand to give Country Aircheck a peek at one of the opening shows. “The fans were extremely receptive to the openers, especially Lauren when she performed ‘What Ifs’,” OM Chad Taylor says, adding that “Luke Combs brought down the house when he performed ‘Hurricane.’” KHKI middayer Kim Chase adds, “With two young strong acts like Lauren Alaina and Luke Combs as a part Jason Aldean of the future of country music, we are
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