Net Neutrality
It is all the buzz in so many ears but overall not many representatives know what it really is, and what it could do to many different sectors of America. I wrote a essay on the matter for a Media Law class and it was posted to Synergy Advertising + Design website.
www.synergyad.com
Under Latest News

CBS Stations up for Sale

CBS announced that they are going to be selling some of their radio stations that are set in smaller markets. Seven of the 39 to count are country stations in Cincinnati, two in Kansas City, Columbus, two in Buffalo, and in Fresno.
The purpose of selling these stations is to maximize the performance in the radio stations in the larger markets.
This has raised some questions since they apparently are not selling other stations that are outside the top 25. For example a station in Hartford is ranked #50 and it is not up for sale.
There are also small market radio stations that are in cities that are similar size or smaller that are not being sold. For instance San Antonio and Austin have stations that are selling whereas Las Vegas and Charlotte are not.

Country Artist Sara Evans has released a CD in conjunction with Hallmark for a Mother’s Day promotions.
The CD is titled “Always There” and was made for Hallmark Gold Crown stores. Evans’ CD has special live and acoustic versions of Eva’s songs like ‘Suds in the Bucket’ and ‘Born To Fly.’ If you purchase three Mother’s Day cards you may purchase the CD for $7.95.
“No matter where we go in life, or how much we accomplish, I think we all need to know there's someone who's always there—watching out for us, sharing our dreams with us, saying a prayer for us," says Evans. "For me, that person is my mom. No matter how crazy things get, she's such a safe and wonderful place for me to land. And every day I remind myself, 'That's what you want to be for your kids—a safe place to land'." Sara is a mother of three.
Evans music is also featured in a Hallmark commercial.
For more information go to http://www.allaboutcountry.com/ or to see the commercial go to: www.hallmark.com

This is good public relations for Hallmark and Sara Evans. This is something that will allow mother's everyone to be able to relate to this country recording artist. She will be able to attract more of that type of audience. Also, since the CD is cheaper when people buy three mother's day cards that will increase the possibility that it will be given as a present and in turn will give Evans more exposure to possibly people that have not been exposed to her music before. Hallmark will be benefiting as well because this can bring people into thier store to buy the CD and will associate Sara Evans' music with Hallmark, and visa versa.

Country Music Association Music Festival Announces a Triple Header
The legendary Hank Williams Jr. along with Brooks and Dunn and the 2006 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Lynard Skynyrd will be performing live at The Coliseum in Nashville, Tennessee at 8 p.m. on June 8th.
All of the artists participating are donating their time, and are not compensated for their time. In return CMA donates half of the net proceeds to a program called “Keep the Music Playing,” used to support the music education in the Nashville metro area.
With Williams having legendary success with so many awards the show is sure to be amazing. His hits list includes "Family Tradition," "There is a Tear in my Beer," "A Country Boy Can Survive," and many more.
Brooks and Dunn set a record at the Houston Live Stock and Rodeo with 72,867 in attendance. With the pair selling over 28 million albums and winning 15 CMA awards their track record is nothing short of impressive.
Lynard Skynyrd is a southern rock royalty. While maintaining sold-out shows for more than 30 years, this group attracts people with their mixture of blues, rock and Country Music.
This is Nashville’s concert event of the year and a first for CMA Music Festival to have these three amazing entertainers bringing their unique and wildly popular stage shows to our fans,” said CMA Chief Operating Officer Tammy Genovese. “Add to that the incredible talents of our special guests and surprise artists and you will definitely have a night to remember. This Festival is building a reputation of presenting unique musical collaborations and this one features all our rowdy friends.”
For more information please visit:
http://www.cmafest.com/2006/general/press_release_detail.asp?re=519&year=2006
For ticket information visit http://www.ticketmaster.com/

Charlie Daniels along with Dave Price to host Iraq Troops

Charlie Daniels along with The Charlie Daniels band in will be performing on the ‘Early Show’ tomorrow on CBS as a part of Charlie Daniel’s ‘Start and Stripes’ tour. This is the second journey that Daniels has made to perform for the troops in Iraq. Along with the band CBS talent Dave Prove will be in Iraq.

“Daniels and Price have both been part of individual tours for Stars for Stripes,” says organizer Judy Seale. “I am thrilled that they will both be making their second journey with us to visit and perform for the troops.”

This is a prime example of positive public relations because the band and CBS emcee are going over to the troops in Iraq and entertaining them and reaching out. This will appeal to not only service men and women but also with people that have relative in the armed forces, and possible listeners of the band. Also, CBS emcee will be getting press for their positive role in the performance. This will give positive spins on many different demographics consisting of country music listeners, people who watch CBS ‘Early Show,’ service people and their families and more.
For more information go to All about Country at www.allaboutcountry.com

2006 Country Music Awards Held April 10th
The award show, hosted by Jeff Foxworthy, was held in downtown Nashville, Tennesee. There where many acts as well as an one in honor of the late Buck Owens. There where performances by Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Toby Keith, Gretchen Wilson, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Sugarland, Brooks & Dunn and Trace Adkins, and Hank Williams Jr. presented CMT's Johnny Cash Visionary Award.
Foxworthy has hosted many awards shows but felt different about the CMAs.
"That's actually a fun show to do," he said. "A lot of those awards shows have theater seating and are kinda stodgy. That one, man, they let people come right up to the front of the stage and everybody's standing up. Last year, everybody that was performing came backstage and said, 'Man, that's like doing a concert.' It was just fun."
Some of this year's winners consisted of Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, and Kenny Chesney.
I know that this type of release is a postive PR for the entire country community. Once a year during award shows people will get together and sing thier songs, recieve awards, and pay tribute to people that are no longer with us. This gives people that look into the music industry with the feeling that they have a voice as to who gets recognition where it is deserved. All of the work done throughout the year can pay off with the fact that an award was given to them for a job well done with thier performances. This creates postive outlooks for people that might not have listened to thier music in the past. Also, further exposes current listeners to show them that thier music choice is what many others are listening to and appreciate as well.
For more information on the CMAs please visit www.cmt.com

2,000 Family, Friends, and Fans Attend Buck Owens’ Funeral

With the alter covered in flower arrangements and a standing room only funeral, Buck Owens’ memory lives on in fans, family and in young musicians that Owens’ served as mentors for. They spoke about advice and how candid Owens was to them about their talent and career.
Brad Paisley spoke of how great a business man Owens was, and Dwight Yoakam said how he was told that his ability to hit a low note was all he had going for him. All of his critiques where left in those young artists memories and in the hearts of fans and family alike, always affecting the world around him.
Owens was not only a good business man but also very generous. When the church needed a new van he donated one, also was a supporter of the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
A country legend, father and mentor passed away, someone who made a difference in many people’s lives.
This is a wonderful example of public relations. How people that have gotten to know each other through past experiences and stayed in touch, this is past networking and media relationships. These people genuinely did care and took what other people in the field said seriously. A country legend has past away and the response from not only the family and fans but from the people he was a mentor to make people notice what an impact a person can have on others.
For more information go to www.cmt.com

Hall of Fame Member Buck Owens Dies
Music hall of fame member and radio station owner Buck Owens died Saturday morning at his home in Bakersfield, CA. The reason of his death is unknown at this time but his family said it was in his sleep.

Owens was born August 12, 1929 in Sherman, Texas. He and his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona in hopes to find a better life for themselves. Later they moved to the San Joaquin Valley, in California to do farm work. Owens found a way out of his family’s poverty through his music.

In 1951 he moved to Bakerfield, CA and soon enough Owens was a member of ‘Bill Woods & The Orange Blossom Playboys’, one of the hottest honky tonk bands. Owens started playing the Fender Telecaster guitar, and soon he was doing recording sessions for Capitol Records, but unfortunately did not bring any hits.

Owens moved to Tacoma, Washington where he started a career in broadcasting, where he had a live TV show, was a part time DJ, and even played gigs in the local area.

Buck Owens returned to Bakersfield until his death this past Saturday.

“From 1962 to 1968 Buck released a series of #1 records that established him as one of the greatest country entertainers of all time.” –www.buckowens.com

This is a great example of a press release because it tells the country community that an icon has passed away. This will not only affect Owens’ family but all the fans and people that have worked with him.

Country Artisits Support the Human Rights Campaign Dinner

Lee Ann Wolmack gave a short performance sold out performance of 625 people at the 11th annual Human Rights Campaign Equality Dinner. The dinner and performance was in order to raise money for the benefits of gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender people. Wolmack preformed and donated things for silent auction for additional funds along with Emmy Lou Harris and Big and Rich. There where also corporate sponsors consisting of Bridgestone Tires, First Tennessee Bank, WTFV-TV/Nashville, Wells Fargo and CMT.

This is a great source of PR for the performers and people that made silent auction donations because some people can view country music as extremely conservative and this shows that this music genre is something that is broader then whiskey, guitars, and trucks. Many artists also donated memorabilia, but where unable to attend. With people performing and supporting this benefit others can follow in their footsteps and provide more respect to that unparticular community.

The corporate sponsors can benefit with the fact that they support this community. This can bring in more consumers.

More information can be found at: http://www.cmt.com/news/articles/1526627/20060320/womack_lee_ann.jhtml?headlines=true

Music Row Not Above Payola Schemes
Music row radio companies have been hit with lawsuits regarding payola schemes that involves Entercom Communications that runs 105 radio stations. Allegedly the radio stations have been involved with illegal 'spins' for money or presents from record companies. In particular Universal South, according to emails, gave one station a $2,500 laptop for their 'spins.'
This is horrendous PR for the country music industry, Entercom Communications and the record labels involved.
The country music industry sometimes is thought to be a little more honest then maybe Pop or Rap. However, this does show that the music business is the music business no matter what genre you are in. This PR, I think, will turn some people off to those stations that are allegedly involved. Entercom Communications will go through some crisis PR because they are going to have to rationalize or show the law what their employees have done. This can hinder future business transactions because people might feel that they can trust the company as much as before since they where brought into scrutiny. Some companies would not want to get involved since they may not want to look bad or get pulled into a legal battle.

For more information you can go to the Twang Town USA website at http://www.twangtownusa.com/cgi-bin/NewsScript/newsscript.pl?record=676

Memorial Day Weekend of Music for the Troops

Original Country Radio Network in working in a memorial day to remember May 26th- 29th. In Fort Worth, Texas, OCRN is putting together a show that will go for four days in support of the service men and women overseas. There will be no charge, except to bring items to send overseas to our armed forces, more information can be found at the OCRN website listed below.
The line up will consist of people doing karaoke or solo songs during the day from noon to 4 p.m., and the headliner will play every night from about 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. It will be at The Finish Line and they are donating thier facility as donation to the event.
This is good PR for the station OCRN because it gives people more knowledge about what they are as well as good PR for the fact that they support thier service people overseas fighting. Since OCRN is a soley internet based radio broadcast, and they reach people around the world, and the millions of listeners only heard of OCRN by word of mouth this will allow for a bigger fanbase that can bring more people into tuning into OCRN.
For more information you can visit the website and scroll down, http://www.originalcountryradio.com/news.html , or call the Texas office (972) 775-8527 and ask for Larry Simpson.

Ireland Castle to host 'Midlands' Country Festival

Ireland will have a two day country music festival that will consist of 36 acts on three different stages over the course of two days. The event that is called 'Midlands' is going tobe held at a 17th century castle that Co Meath the last week in July 2006. Themusic will be on from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. over the two days wit 18 acts each day.
The music genre is country and is going to be hosting names like Kenney Rogers who ahs not played in Ireland for more than a decade. Rogers will he healining the show opening day and Van Morrison, who is releasing a country album the next month, will be after.
When it comes to food good barbeque will be served to the music comers instead of the bugers and chips.
This is an article from the Ireland Times online edition. It is public relations for obvious reasons. First, it is communicating with the country audince about an upcoming festival that will be held this summer at a 17th century castle. It is also PR for the headliner Kenny Rogers who willb e preforming and since he has not preformed there for more than a decade he will be exposed again to that particular geographical area allowing for the possibility of mroe fanbase. I think that it will be great PR for the tourist industry in Ireland, showing thier culture and love of country music. It will show people that they are more than there stereotype.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-2036337,00.html

Original Country Music and Public Relations

This Blog is going to be devoted to Public Relations aspect of Music, mainly Country. I will be posting information regurding this topic for my Public Relations class. I will involve any concerts, benefits, and sometimes even maybe scandles relating to the stars or the circumstances.

Billy Keeble to Help Curtis Potter Benefit

Texas singer Curtis Potter and his wife have been going through some tough times being in the hospital and Mr. Billy Keeble is stepping up to take on a benefit. Keeble is planning a fun day of music at Melody Oaks Ranch in Priddy, Texas February 26th starting at 2 p.m. The acts have been calling from all over the lone star state including Tracie Lynn, Trey Wilson, Claude Grey, Justin Trevino, and many more.
if you want more information you can log onto www.originalcountryradio.com we have loads of information on there for you!