If 60% of the Human Body is Water, the Other 40% is Dick Clark.

As a young boy growing up in Cleveland’s inner city (to be fair, there was very little outer city back in the ’60s), my days and nights were filled with music.  Just as it has been for thousands of years.

But Dick Clark did something no one had done before.  He brought that music into the home – into the living room – and it was all about kids entertaining kids.  For the first time in forever, this entertainment, this rock and roll music was not for the adults, not for the parents, not for the grandparents.  It was for the kids.

It was for kids like me who carried a Jade transistor radio in his pocket everywhere he went.  Kids like me who managed to get his hands on a low-end reel-to-reel tape recorder and used it to tape every new song he heard on the radio so he could play it back – over and over and over again – until the tape finally wore out.

Dick Clark gave us more than music, he gave us a voice.  He gave us a place in the home.  A place in society.  He emboldened and empowered us.

Although most kids today are more likely to recognize Ryan Seacrest than Dick Clark, they owe their gratitude to the latter.  He opened the door and stood there holding it open for a long, long time.

Like, Cool Daddy-O.

Jim Sweeney

CEO & COO

Jim is a veteran of the agency industry and the founder of Sweeney. He is uncommonly passionate about the idea of creating and implementing insanely great marketing campaigns that achieve insanely great results. He pioneered the full-service, full-circle agency model and continues to forge new ideas in an ever-changing industry. And he is accessible to everyone about anything, seemingly all the time, serving as a mentor to all agency personnel and clients.