Charlie Monk, a music trade determine recognized in Nashville as “the Mayor of Music Row” for his six-decade-plus profession in broadcasting, songwriting and publishing, died Monday at age 84. No reason behind loss of life was given; an announcement from his household mentioned he died peacefully at house in Nashville.
Monk was ushered into the Nation Radio Corridor of Fame in 2019. He had most just lately been heard because the host of applications on two of SiriusXM’s nation channels, Prime Nation and Willie’s Roadhouse, beginning in 2004 and persevering with via this yr.
Previous to becoming a member of SiriusXM, Monk has been out of the radio enterprise for about 35 years, after first coming into the medium as a highschool pupil within the Nineteen Fifties. Throughout the intervening many years, he centered totally on music publishing, though he took on many different roles as nicely.
“I’ve had quite a lot of careers — voice work, performing, songwriting, publishing and I’ve managed expertise. I’ve advised so many lies about my profession, I by no means know which of them I ought to deal with,” he joked to Nation Aircheck in 2019, in an interview about his pending Nation Radio Corridor of Fame induction.
Amongst Monk’s claims to fame within the publishing enterprise was having signed Randy Travis and Kenny Chesney to their first publishing offers after they have been unknowns. He additionally had his personal songs lower by Travis, Barbara Mandrell, Jerry Reed, Charley Delight and others.
In 1969, Monk was one of many founders of the annual Nation Radio Seminar. He hosted that convention’s New Faces present, a ceremony of passage for many incoming nation stars, into the 2010s. The lots of of radio programmers and artists attending New Faces annually bore witness to his humorousness as he started this system most years with a comedic monologue roasting the foremost figures within the enterprise.
Monk didn’t have any false modesty when it got here to his expertise on the air. As a radio character, he advised Nation Aircheck, “I all the time thought I used to be as vital because the music, as a result of everyone has the music, however not everyone had Charlie Monk on their radio station. Radio is communication between two folks. I occur to play information, however I used to be hopeful that individuals would tune in to my radio present to listen to my silliness, my tales or me simply being ridiculous. I’ve been a radio fan since I used to be a toddler, however I’ve loved the characters as a lot because the music. Radio was a world I wished to be a part of as a result of I wished to be an actor. I noticed God gave me wit, attraction, beauty — every thing besides expertise. Had he given me a expertise, I’d have been a celebrity.”
He was born Charles Franklin Monk in Geneva, Alabama on Oct. 29, 1938. In his hometown, he swept flooring at an area station earlier than being provided a weekend shift as a DJ, and after a stint within the Military, he moved as much as high-profile radio and tv gigs in Cellular and Tuscaloosa earlier than transferring to Nashville in 1968 and touchdown a every day present out of close by Murfreesboro.
Monk left radio to joined the workers of ASCAP in 1970. Seven years later, he grew to become the Nashville head of CBS Songs. He based his personal publishing firm, Monk Household Music Group, in 1983, then joined Acuff-Rose Music in 1988.
Monk’s roles over time included serving as VP of the Nationwide Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (now the Recording Academy), VP of the Nashville Songwriters Affiliation Worldwide, VP of the Gospel Music Affiliation and native president of the American Federation of Tv and Radio Artists.
Among the many many honors bestowed upon him, final yr the Nation Music Affiliation made him the ninth winner of the Joe Talbot Award “for excellent management and contributions to the preservation and development of nation music’s values and traditions.”
Monk carried a powerful philosophy concerning the worth of on-air expertise into a contemporary age he believed had forgotten about among the virtues a profitable DJ brings. “I’m nonetheless fascinated by radio,” he advised Nation Aircheck two years in the past. “We’ve taken the character out of it and made the music a very powerful factor. That’s been a mistake for lots of causes. Nashville’s had among the best radio personalities – not simply any individual who launched music. Arthur Godfrey mentioned, ‘Be sure that when you’re on the air, converse as if you’re talking to 1 particular person multiplied by the hundreds who is likely to be listening.’
“By no means attempt to speak to a bunch,” Monk continued. “Once I go to a live performance they yell, ‘How are you all doing?’ I believe, hey, keep on with me. I got here. I paid. Or when any individual in radio goes, ‘Properly, I’m glad you all are listening.’ Properly, there’s no one within the automotive however me. So, I deal with it a little bit in another way, and possibly that’s as a result of I got here from a unique period.”
Monk is survived by his spouse of 63 years, Royce Walton Monk; sons Charles, Jr. (Sukgi) and Collin (Grace); daughters Capucine Monk and Camila Monk Perry (Scott); and eight grandchildren, amongst relations. Funeral preparations are pending.
