Authors: Chelsea Dorsette
Country Love
COUNTRY LOVE
By
Chelsea Dorsette
Country Love
Copyright © 2013 by
Chelsea Dorsette. All rights reserved.
First Print Edition:
April 2014
Limitless Publishing, LLC
Kailua, HI 96734
Formatting: Limitless Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-
1497538320
ISBN-10:
1497538327
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Paden hated it when the radio station was in a ratings period. It seemed like everyone in management at her station went nuts for the few weeks when Arbitron, the ratings research company
, collected data about how many people were listening to her country radio station versus the other stations in the market. Normally Paden could sit back uninterrupted in the studio during her 10am-3pm on-air shift. But now that the ratings sweep was underway, she was bombarded with having to conduct contests, interview musical guests, and try to come up with catchy things to talk about to keep listeners listening longer. As disgruntled as Paden and the other announcers were when a ratings period came around, they understood that if their station remained one of the top rated stations in the market, more advertising revenue came to the station, and that in turn gave the announcers bonuses and kept them employed. It seemed like every time Paden looked around, more and more listeners were switching to satellite radio and other non-commercial music stations. Many of her friends who were announcers in other markets had lost their jobs due to this change. Because of the loss of listeners and advertising revenue, the commercial stations had to cut costs and go automated or go off the air. Paden was grateful that the Nashville, Tennessee radio market had not fallen victim to these cost cutting measures and for now, her employment was safe. As she pulled up the next song from her computer to play, she reminisced about how she had gotten into this career.
College
brought Paden out of her shell. Growing up, she had been painfully shy and introverted. She was petrified when her parents told her she would be going to college and that there would be no discussion to the contrary. The summer before leaving for college was misery for her as she worried about everything that could possibly go wrong. Paden worried if she would fit in. She worried if the work would be too hard. She wasn’t even sure what her major was going to be. The only bright spot she could see about having to go was that a girl Paden was familiar with from high school was also going to the same college and they had been assigned as roommates. Although Paden didn’t know Maura very well because they’d hung out in different high school crowds, it was better than being assigned a roommate that was a total stranger. Now ten years later at 28 years old, Paden could still remember arriving for her freshman year at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and how her whole outlook and subsequently her personality changed. Once there, she knew instinctively that for the first time in her life, it was sink or swim time. It was that very fight or flight realization that propelled her into action. For the next four years at school, Paden got involved in many groups and took an active role on various committees. One of her favorite activities was being involved with the college radio station. At first, she became an announcer and had two shifts per week.
Paden couldn’t help but chuckle now, thinking back to how songs at that time were played from a record on a turntable. As her four years progressed through school, she held various positions on the radio station’s board of directors and during a month long January school break, she and two other radio station members taught a broadcasting course to other students at the university who were interested in getting involved with the station. Although Paden chose to pursue a psychology major, she knew the minute she graduated from school that she would seek a radio announcing gig.
Her first job out of college was doing weekend shifts at a local oldies radio station in her small college town of Knoxville. Although Paden was familiar with some of the more popular oldies songs and artists, there were hundreds more she didn’t know and learned them on the job. The station was family owned and the equipment was a bit outdated, but it gave Paden commercial radio experience and something to put on her résumé. After a year of working part-time at the oldies station, she ended up pursuing and getting hired full-time doing the 7 p.m. – midnight shift at a country music station in the same small market town of Knoxville. The more Paden listened to the popular country artists, the more she loved the music. After only a year of working full-time doing the night shift, she was promoted to the afternoon drive shift of 3 p.m. –7 p. m. That was when the station program director offered her the position of assistant music director. Every day for a couple of hours before her shift, she would sit with the music director and screen new songs and artists to add to their playlist. Paden loved having some control over what the station played and hoped one day she might be a full-time music director.
Never in her wildest dreams could Paden have ever imagined what happened to her after being at the country station only two years.
She was just finishing up her Friday shift when a phone call came into the studio. As the night time announcer took over, Paden stepped aside and answered the phone.
She
heard an unfamiliar voice say, “Is this Paden Thomas?”
Wary about who was on the other end of the line, Paden cautiously answered, “Yes.” Curious as to whether it was a radio station listener, she stayed quiet to see why the man was asking.
“Paden, my name is Russ Farrell. I’m the program director for country station WSIX, the big 98 in Nashville.”
Paden couldn’t believe her ears. WSIX was one of the top stations in Nashville
. She dreamed of one day being good enough to get into a large market like that. Holding her breath, she said cautiously, “Hello, Mr. Farrell. I’m very familiar with your station. I love it, and listen to it every time I’m in the Nashville area.” Not knowing what else to say, Paden waited for him to continue.
Giving her an appreciative chuckle, Russ said, “Well, thank you for being a listener of ours. How would you like be an announcer of ours
, too?”
Paden’s jaw dropped immediately and she almost
dropped the phone. Too flustered to gather her wits about her, all she could reply was, “You’re kidding, right?”
It was then when Russ explained, “My mother recently fell and broke her hip. She lives out your way
, and as I’ve been coming out to visit her over the past few weeks, I’ve been listening to you and your station. I think you have a great talent, Paden, and I’d like to talk with you about joining our team if you’re interested. I’m not going back to Nashville until Sunday. Would you like to meet for coffee tomorrow morning and talk about it
?
”
Would she like to talk about it? Was he kidding?
Paden couldn’t believe the opportunity that was falling into her lap. Trying to sound as calm as possible, she agreed on a time to meet and fortunately Russ was familiar with the coffee shop she suggested. After politely hanging up, Paden couldn’t contain herself and started jumping up and down. She knew she would get very little sleep that night anticipating her breakfast meeting the next morning.
CJ Tanner had wanted to be a musician ever since he could pick up a guitar. Growing up, his parents had been very supportive of his musical aspirations but hoped he would at some point grow out of wanting to be in a band because they knew it was a hard profession to make it in. As CJ got older, his talent grew as well as his good looks. At 29 years old, he had grown into a strapping 6’5” frame with jet black hair and steely deep blue eyes. Known for his confident swagger, skin tight jeans, and T-shirt, CJ caught every woman’s eye. He had a commanding presence and almost always wore his signature black cowboy hat, which made him look sexy and mysterious. Over his school years, CJ perfected his guitar playing and also got very good on the piano. He played in many bands during high school and got a fair amount of exposure playing at block parties and birthday parties. It wasn’t until his most recent band came of drinking age that they started to play at bars along the half mile long strip of Broadway in downtown Nashville. For the first few years, his band, The Café Cowboys, didn’t make enough money to support themselves, so they all had full time jobs. CJ had a delivery driver job delivering propane, oxygen, and medical gasses to hospitals, clinics, and emergency care facilities. He liked the monotony of the work because it gave him time while driving to brainstorm new song lyrics, but it was also a physical job moving the tanks and containers around all day, so he stayed in shape. Every chance he could, CJ wrote lyrics and then he and his band mates would write the music together. Finally, after years of playing in small bars while holding down full-time jobs, he and his band had saved enough money to go into the studio and get ten of their best songs recorded. After researching all of the recording studios in Nashville, they chose Roundup Recording Studio because they liked the producer and the engineer the best from all the studios they had spoken with. The studio also specialized in working with independent artists, so their prices were fair and reasonable. It took a week to lay down all the tracks and another week for the producer and engineer to make the demo, but CJ couldn’t have been more thrilled with how it turned out. After all those years of playing in crappy bars with crappy sound systems, to hear the smooth clean sound of his voice and his band professionally mixed was intoxicating.
As excited as The Café Cowboys were
about their first tangible CD, they knew the hard work was only just beginning. Now they had to market their band to radio stations, try to get better paying gigs, and find a record company to back them. CJ knew that aspiring bands were a dime a dozen and it seemed like every up and coming band flocked to Nashville. He also knew that getting a record deal was going to be tough, but CJ and his band were committed to doing everything in their power to make it happen, even if it meant slumming to every local country radio station to get their CD heard.
***
The move from Knoxville to Nashville to work for WSIX had been the dream of a lifetime. Paden had made it to a big market, and after the first week of being incredibly nervous on the air, she settled right into her 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. midday shift, and with the exception of the sales people being a pain in the ass at times, wanting her to do spec commercials for clients they were trying to sell advertising to, she really loved her job…except during months like now when the blasted ratings were going on. So instead of playing great songs and taking requests from listeners, today she had to interview the lead singer of a new band she had never heard of and play some of their songs. Paden looked at her watch. She knew the guy would be arriving shortly, and after talking for a few minutes with Bob Stanton, the station’s music director, he would come into her studio for the interview. Paden had done a little bit of research prior to today’s interview to find out a bit more about who The Café Cowboys were, but there wasn’t too much she could uncover. All she could really find out was that the band had secured a record deal with Alias Records, a small record company here in Nashville, and that
Ramblin’ Road
was their first CD. Having already downloaded the CD onto her computer, she would ask the singer which songs he would like her to play. Paden had learned from past interviews with artists that many of them were quite egotistical and often arrogant and annoying to deal with. She found that by asking them what they’d like her to play, it quelled the tension and the artists, when relaxed and feeling in control, usually toned down the ego. Paden wasn’t looking forward to this interview at all, but she had no choice.
Just as she pulled up the new Keith Urban song to play, the studio door opened and Bob Stanton, her music director
, and a drop dead amazing looking guy in a black cowboy hat walked in. Paden was speechless as she stared at both of them.
Walking over to the console, Bob said, “Paden, this is CJ Tanner, the lead singer for The Café Cowboys. CJ…this is Paden Thomas. She
’ll be interviewing you today.”
As CJ reached out his hand, his eyes never left hers and she was thrown off balance by how intense and deep blue they were. God, he was the most handsome man she had ever seen and wondered if he had ever been a model. The black stubble on his face was the same jet black color of his hat and she could see a very definite outline of six pack abs pushing against his tight T-shirt. Reaching out her hand, she shook
his and said as evenly as she could muster, “It’s nice to meet you, CJ. Please sit down behind that microphone across from me and we’ll chat a little bit before we start the interview.”
As she watched, or more like stared at him as he walked around the console to sit where she had directed him, she couldn’t take her eyes of
f his tight, muscular, and way too sexy ass. His jeans were as tight as his T-shirt and there was no leaving to the imagination what a kick ass body he had. For a few moments after CJ sat down, Paden tried to look busy so she could collect her thoughts and suffuse her heightened libido. When she looked back up, she was thrown off once again by how intensely he was looking at her. Her heart raced faster than it should and she felt a little jumpy.
Pulling herself together as best she could, she gave him a professional smile and said, “When this Keith Urban song is over, I
’ll turn on our mics, welcome you to the station, and ask a few questions. Then we’ll play the first song. When that song ends, we’ll do the same thing two more times. Which three songs would you like me to play today?” To Paden, her voice sounded a little higher than usual because this Adonis of a man was making her a bit nervous, but she hoped she didn’t sound that way to him.
Giving her a wide
, sexy grin, CJ told her the songs she should play and she got them cued up on the computer. Bob, her music director, had long since dismissed himself from the studio once they were introduced, so it was just the two of them. Paden was thankful for that because the sexual tension in the studio was palpable. She thanked God that she had written the interview questions down this time. Often when interviewing guests, Paden would just wing it. Because she wasn’t familiar with this band, she wrote them down this time. As they talked over the air about the band, their country music roots, and some history of how the band formed, Paden fell in love with the deep, masculine smoothness of his voice. She was drowning in the silky cadence of his words and listening to him was like music to her ears. A few times she got so lost in the rich timbre of his voice that she didn’t hear what he was actually saying.
When they were off the air and playing his songs, Paden asked him a few personal questions to see what kind of man he was. She was surprised when he in return, seemed very curious about her. As much as she had grumbled earlier about not wanting to do this interview, Paden was now completely disappointed that they were playing his last song and he would be leaving in a few minutes. Not only was she completely taken by the rugged handsomeness of this man, but she liked his personality from the little time they had shared together. She actually felt a bit distraught that she probably wouldn’t see him again. She figured he and his band would go on tour to promote their new CD and that this would be the first and last time she’d see him. When the song and the interview
ended, she put on a Luke Bryan song and as professionally as she could, she stood up, came around to his side of the console to shake his hand again and thank him for coming.
As he gently cradled her hand in his, he took a step closer to her
, and in a soft yet sensuous tone said, “My band is playing tomorrow night down on Broadway at The Cat’s Cradle. I’d love to see you if you can make it.” Paden felt like a nervous school girl and tingles spiked through her body. Feeling the warmth of his hand around hers and smelling his clean scent from standing so close to her left Paden weak in the knees.
Before she could respond, CJ gave her a sly wink and walked out the studio door. Paden couldn’t move for what felt like minutes. CJ Tanner had actually just asked her out on somewhat of a date! She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would go. All she had to do now was not go nuts waiting until tomorrow night. And that
, she knew, wasn’t going to be easy.
