Alistair Cooke
Beach Walk Insights - Volume 1, Issue 26 - Play time 2m 05s
Lots of people gathered around their radios every week to listen to Alistair Cooke's 'Letter from America'. The longest-running radio show to date, for 58 years each was as articulate and as well scripted as the previous. Although on many different topics - like these videos - each fitted a common format.
Alistair Cooke started 'London Letter' when he lived in England. Initially, it was a weekly broadcast for NBC. He moved to America in 1937 and established a relationship with the BBC overseas. A forerunner of 'Letter from America' was broadcast intermittently from 1938 until interrupted by the outbreak of World War Two. The programme we recognise as 'Letter from America' started post hostilities, and 2,869 episodes later, Cooke's 15 minute weekly broadcasts have left a lasting impression on many.
Alistair Cooke's 'Letter from America' was remarkable in many ways, however, consistency was one of its hallmarks. Mark LeBlanc, is a fellow speaker and highly respected business colleague of mine, and he puts it like this:
"Consistency is the card that out-trumps every other card in the deck."
I'm sure you've heard, "start now, use what you have, do the best you can". Do that. Then do it again, and again, and again.
Enough said.
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