The Oppenheimer Report 5/2/16

My friend, James Carroll, passed away last Wednesday afternoon, and the loss has been much harder than I thought it would be to process. Slowly, over the past year or so, I have grown to know and respect the man, as I came to realize how much he had accomplished in his relatively short time on earth. I became very close to him as a friend in a very short time. I was with him frequently over the past four months, and Shauna talked to him on the phone for an hour or so almost every night. I’m not really sure why, but it’s as if James chose us to be his lifeline at the end of his day. It was our privilege. From about the time he was diagnosed in December until his demise last week, we were in contact with him a lot. Now, it doesn’t take much to bring my grief to the surface, and I find myself crying at the drop of a hat. I’ll hear an old ad with James’ voice on Hunters Bay Radio – James was still recording ads for the station as recently as a month ago – and that will bring me to tears. Over the past several days, the Hunters Bay Radio hosts have been dedicating their shows to James, and those shows have been meaningful and therapeutic for Shauna and me. Hunters Bay Radio is a community radio station, and James Carroll was in so many ways the voice of this community. Everyone at the station who knew him is a mess, because in one way or another, James touched all of our lives. He was intelligent, generous, kind, funny as hell, charitable, and humble.   

Shauna and I called him “Menschy”, a derivation of the Yiddish word “Mensch”, which means a good man, a man of integrity. James called Shauna “Punim”, which is Yiddish for “face” or, as it was used to describe Shauna, “cute face”. His nickname for me was not fit for print. Knowing we were Jewish, James would spout Yiddish-isms at will. He’d roll his eyes and exclaim “Oy Vey!” with his usual dramatic flair, and it always made me laugh. He found something personal to discuss with all of his friends and acquaintances which demonstrated that he was interested in their lives. When Shauna created a Facebook tribute page so that people could reconnect with James, we had no idea how important that would become. There are now just under 700 members, with membership growing by the minute, all extolling the virtues of their friend, fellow actor, radio personality, charitable community member, and the many other things James was in his life. Each post added a new dimension to his complicated personality. On my radio show "Lyrical Workers" last week, the day after he passed, I wasn’t sure I could get through the whole show without breaking down. In between sets, I took Shauna’s advice and read some of the Facebook posts on air. That got me through it.

As the Program Director, Producer, and Host or many shows at Hunters Bay Radio, James was responsible for creating and editing many of the programs that aired. Among others, he created/hosted shows like “Motown Monday”, "Martini Music", "Oh Canada", the Friday night "Hunters Bay Radio Top 20 Countdown" show, and his shows were always entertaining. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of music and his interviewing skills were excellent. Last summer, he interviewed Jose Feliciano, as well as Blood, Sweat, and Tears front man, David Clayton Thomas. On a community radio station like Hunters Bay Radio, James was the prominent voice of the station, and he was an inextricable member of the community.

I met James when I first walked into the radio station back in the early part of 2014. At that time, I was extremely self-absorbed and nervous about performing some of my original songs live on the air. I met him briefly, along with station manager, Jeff Carter, but I did not really grow to know the man for another year. When I began to host my "Lyrical Workers" show on Thursday nights, James was running the board for the Thursday night “Live Drive” shows which aired an hour before my show began. We got to know each other then and I really grew to love him. James was so affable, intelligent, and such a wonderful storyteller. We developed a close friendship. We had something in common; we were the only two Americans at the station. There have been many tributes to James Carroll thus far, and one need look no further than his JAMES CARROLL - A TRIBUTE page on Facebook to see how universally loved he is. I came into his life as it was ending, but I see why so many people loved him from so far back. There are some people who simply shine brighter than the rest of us, and that intangible quality is difficult to put into words. James always made me feel significant, and I will miss that humble, interesting, intelligent, and loving man, deeply.

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Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED