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