Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 22, 1994 TAG: 9404220157
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Recently, his older son took a look at the discs and said, ``There's a new car right there.''
Cook, better known as Jim C., just laughed. He also has 10,000 long-playing record albums and about 100 78 rpm records - all big-band jazz.
He knows what he wants, and fortunately, he is happy to share.
For nearly 20 years of Saturday nights, Cook has introduced melodies from his personal collection on his show on WVTF (89.1-FM) in Roanoke. Saturday night, he'll present his 1,000th program. His show is called ``Swing Shift.'' It runs from 8 to 10 p.m. on the public-radio station.
It started as ``Jazz Club '89'' and was 30 minutes long.
Cook, 73, is into it. When he answered the phone at his home last week, big-band music blared behind him. He was taping a song for one of his listeners from Winston-Salem, he said: Harry James' ``Trumpet Rhapsody.'' She'd been to several big cities in search of it before writing at last to him.
Not long ago, he taped several Dinah Shore songs for a Harrisonburg man who said the late singer was his favorite during his Army days.
Cook gets lots of calls and occasionally a letter, and his close-knit listeners let him know when they lose a member, too. That happens often.
``There was a dear lady in Bedford,'' he said. ``She called every Saturday night. She loved `Sentimental Journey.'''
Cook's entertainment career started in the early '70s, when he provided music for George Dyer, who had a jazz program on the old WBLU. When the station changed its format, Charlie Perkinson, then at WPVR, invited him onto his jazz show. When WPVR, then in the Hotel Roanoke, switched to an automated, easy listening format, Perkinson landed on WVTF, where he has presented ``All That Jazz,'' a more progressive show, for more than 20 years.
Before long, he was recommending that Cook be given a program, too. Perkinson follows Cook on Saturday nights, as he has for years.
Cook's growly voice and off-the-cuff manner are his hallmarks. He's retired. In the past he worked as a Norfolk and Western Railway machinist and as a deputy with the Roanoke City Sheriff's Department, and he owned and operated a cleaning business.
He came to the job as a fan, and a fan he remains. So big a fan that choosing favorite performers is difficult.
Reluctantly - because he doesn't want to leave anyone out - he gives up some names: male singers like Gene Austin from the '20s, Perry Como, Jack Leonard, who was with the Tommy Dorsey band, Bob Eberly and Terry Allen.
The women? ``Take your pick - Peggy Lee, Martha Tilton, Ella Fitzgerald. You can't pick just one.''
As for the bands themselves, ``I open up with Benny Goodman and go out with Count Basie, and in between I play all the rest.''
He tapes the music for his show at home each week, and presents it on Saturdays with station announcer Jon Ratner, who works as his engineer.
Cook's devotion to the genre could not be stronger. He has been into it for decades, and his interest continues. He sold his collection of 2,500 78 rpm discs for 10 cents apiece several years ago, but said, ``I'm still looking for one - Jo Stafford's `Alone Together.'''
His explanation is simple: ``It's music I enjoy. I didn't care for anything else, and I haven't heard anything else I'd go nuts over, you might say.''
by CNB