Stick A Fork In The Turkey, It's Done

Jimmy Carter in his homebase Nashville.

Happy Holidays to you all ... I say we all party like it's 1999! Why not? If you are in the broadcasting side of things, 2011 has been scarier than a Freddy Krueger movie.

Personally, it's been a good year ... and so was the year before, but why is it you feel like you slipped in under the cover of night if your company wasn't consolidated or closed?

I know few who have not had no contact with something consolidated in the last few years. It has worked out for some, but the pure raw numbers of people blown up by consolidation is beyond anything that can be soon fixed.

I know several people blown out and blown up. Some have bounced back in a reinvention and that is fantastic. To be thankful if you still have a job and a company that pays you is a great thing ... not a good thing ... a great thing.

It doesn't feel like 2012 is going to be a smooth sea, either. The unknown is a hard place to be for those entering the workplace and others trying to stay in it. Uncertainty ... a word that seems to fit a lot of situations these days.

The top-down thinking has nerves on edge at more than a few radio stations. Simple fear does not make for a good work place. But faith is important ... faith that you will recreate and reconnect.

The year has a few weeks left ... time over ... vacations ... holidays ... not a lot gets done in December.

January starts for new things for sure. Despite any "change" that any of us have faced or will face, keep your head screwed on and think future, not the past. Break the rearview mirror!

In this Music City there is plenty to be positive about. The never-ending stream of new faces ... their challenge to reinvent the wheel. How do you make money in this complicated marketplace? How do non-Lady GaGas ... non-Taylor Swifts ... make a living selling hard tickets to soft pocketbooks?

Remember, radio and TV stations are going to get well selling political ads in 2012. The consolidation on Music Row will pick up steam with the recent publishing takeovers and label consolidation. Taylor Swift will be off the road and that cash register will take a few months off.

Tim and Kenny should be a big deal. The Rolling Stones still may jump in the water with people like Roger Waters.

The jittery state of the world financial markets and the volatile Middle East can spin everything on a dime. Oil price spikes and odd weather disasters can make or break things like regional stadium concerts.

If you still have your hair and natural color , good for you.

2012 is about as unknown of a blind date as we are going to get. I feel hopeful about it actually ... but I don't know why!