Looking Back: Cori Celebrates Her 4th Year Being Back On The Air In Bangor

You know those sayings "make something good out of something bad" and "when one door closes, another one opens"? That's kind of been my life since 2018.

And as I look back at the last few years broadcasting from the Townsquare Studios, here on Acme Rd. in Brewer--the place I started my career almost 20 years ago-- I realize these past 4 years have been a really big deal for me.

Let me explain.

I landed my first radio gig back in 2000, initially doing news on Q106.5 and then jumping into middays and then mornings on Z107.3. I felt like as much as I had no idea what I was doing, I also knew that what I was doing was exactly what I was supposed to be doing. Does that make sense? I felt like this was what I was meant to do. Talk and be weird.

I started off working with Chuck Foster. Eventually, I took my place as part of the John and Cori show, and that's where I stayed for many years. I practically grew up on the air in Bangor.

The job encompassed everything I was good at; making sense out of the chaos and strangeness of life with a good sense of humor. I also got to take people's minds off their problems for a short while. That's something I've always tried to do, from a very young age. And I got to work with some really incredible people.

To this day, my old partner John and I are still very close friends.

I turned 21 while working at the station. I got engaged on the air. And I eventually got married, all while working in radio.

When I ultimately decided to leave the Bangor area in 2005 and spread my wings, it was a hard decision because I didn't think I'd ever find that kind of a perfect situation again.

During the next several years, I was very lucky to work for some other great stations, both across the country and closer to home. All of those experiences were amazing and helped shape me as a person. I would often stop to appreciate just how grateful I was to be working in this business.

I still do that.

But as you know, life is in a constant state of change. And after working for over a decade on the air, I "retired" from radio in 2011 when my first daughter was born.

Truthfully, when I made the decision to leave broadcasting, I really didn't think I'd get the chance to ever get back in front of a microphone.

It was hard for me to think about shifting my purpose from entertaining and informing the masses to embracing motherhood until I realized the job was pretty much the same, it was just the audience was living with me and demanding snacks.

And so I spent the better part of the next decade having and raising 4 awesome kids.

I made the transition from media personality to homeschooling, stay-at-home mom with unexpected ease. All I ever wanted to do (aside from work in broadcasting) was to be a mom and to be as hands-on as possible while raising my kids.

And when my last baby was born in 2015, I thought I'd finally figured out this thing called life.

It's funny how the rug seems to get pulled out from underneath you, just when you think you've got life all figured out.

In 2017, I found myself a single mom to four kiddos, living inside of what felt like a tornado of chaos and emotion. I had no idea which way was up.

Doing the best I could to land on my feet, I found myself, after years of being a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom, suddenly in need of a job.

But I had been out of radio for years. The industry had changed.

Would I fit into the new way of doing things?

Would I still be relevant?

Could I even manage to form an entire sentence that made sense to adults, after such a long time dealing mainly with kids?

And speaking of kids...how would I manage working when trying to help my kids through this process?

It would have to be a pretty extraordinary situation.

As the Universe would have it (and this is where those old sayings come into play) something bad led to something good; one door closed and another opened.

My old colleague and partner, Chuck Foster, had fallen ill. And I got a call from the radio station asking if I would be willing to help out in his absence... on a temporary basis.

No one could have known that the worst would happen, and what was temporary would become permanent.

But it did. And I found myself in the position of filling some legendarily epic shoes.

The timing couldn't have been stranger, how it all came to pass. But taking over the afternoons, working with my old family once again, supported in my situation and my new family has been a humbling, inspiring, and beautiful experience.

It has brought this mom, who is just trying to survive like so many other parents out there, a sense of strength and peace.

In 2020, I even got the chance to do mornings again, on the radio station I'd grown up listening to, with a great new partner.

Not only am I able, once again, to do what I love so much, but I'm able to do it in a way that I can still be there for my kids.

I've found a way to relate to a new audience, and I was still able to entertain those who were used to get my weirdness from before.

I've learned that I've got this. I may not have it all figured out...but I've got it.

And I want to thank my co-workers, the old friends, and the new ones, for helping me transition back to life behind the microphone.

It feels like I've come back around, full circle. So, that's why I say that these years have kind of been a big deal for me.

Thank you all for being a part of my story, and for letting me be a small part of yours...or at the very least, allowing me to provide you with a brief moment of levity in whatever heaviness is going on in your world.

Here's hoping for many more years of fun ahead.

Thanks for tuning in. Together, we've got this.