A Week Not Soon Forgotten

No words, but I need to come up with some. Not since 9/11 have any of us seen the United States shut down like it has this week.

All big-time sports, Live Nation concerts, Disneyland, Broadway, the Houston Rodeo. March Madness, MLB, NHL, NBA, college students told to stay off campus until April. The tornado telethon folks self-quarantined because of a positive-testing virus person.

Kenny Chesney’s stadium shows canned through May, and the big and small performers stopped in their tracks. I can’t imagine how much money was lost in the entertainment world this week, with stock market and event cancellations.

No one ever wants to be sick. This medical emergency will be studied for the next 100 years. Was it an overreaction? Too little too late? Awash in politics? Too many people seeing a zombie apocalypse?

Regardless, we are where we are. The rock is rolling to the bottom of the hill. It’s not stopping until the bottom.

Radio has a real opportunity to shine right now. Radio has always been great for service at similar times. Hopefully, radio stations that still have employees will step up, open the microphones and give good information and let people express their feelings. Artists need to call in and share their feelings too.

These next few weeks might get a little weird. We have already seen people get nuts with hoarding toilet paper.

This too shall pass. Hopefully, people who work as independent contractors will survive this pause moment, including the small touring artists barely surviving in good times. It’s uncharted territory for so many artists, technicians, support folks and their fans.

Politics sure need to be put aside right now. It’s “get together” time.

Nashville just got a stomach punched by a killer tornado. Getting hit by this virus blizzard came out of nowhere. There are and will be people getting in serious financial messes because of all this. College kids gone home, no sports teams, tourism will surely go down. How will the downtown honkytonks do?

For the Ryman, the Opry and all the other people gathering spots, this needs to be a real short emergency! Stars need to shine during all this. Studios need to be put to use. Feelings recorded and put out. This is what Music City used to do. I bet it still can.

Art needs to reflect life. Artists need to do online shows and call radio. Radio needs to be more than a jukebox with commercials.

I hope all this “standing down” makes this all go by quickly. Nobody wants to get sick or to make others sick, but we all can’t be cave dwellers remotely working and living. Yuck! Working from home takes a lot of getting used to. It sounds great and can be. But a lot of distractions!

Music City needs people, and gatherings and performances. And soon, let’s laugh about these times when panic caused people to buy toilet paper, and smile when we see this year’s supply of toilet paper in the garage.