Cole retired and had been living on Oak Island since 2007, off the Cape Fear River on the North Carolina coastline. His pop culture memoir, "Sh-Boom! The Explosion of Rock 'n' Roll (1953-1968)", has been published by Morgan James. It has been nominated for the 2010 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. Cole made a personal appearance at the annual Long Island Radio & TV Day in April 2010, and also at the New Jersey Rock Con later that year. Clay appeared at the Friends of Old Time Radio Convention in Newark, New Jersey in October 2010.