Far be it from us to look down on a new business. We hope all new businesses work. As you may know, Gretchen Wilson and Columbia (Sony) Records have parted ways last week. This week Gretchen announced she is going to start her own label….Redneck Records…….Seriously. For her sake we hope it works for her. Sony was supposed to release a new album on Gretchen in June. If they did, nobody knows about it. I was looking forward to hearing it since we are Gretchen fans. However, we are of the opinion that she has found the right producer in Blake Chancey.

 Football season is almost upon us. Being here in Nashville, I am a Vanderbilt University and Tennessee Titans fan. However, my blood runs black and gold for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Speaking of football, our friend Dale Carter of Kansas City’s country KFKF has been chosen to be the Stadium Announcer for the Kansas City Chiefs. He’ll do a great job. Dale will make a few bucks and have the best press box seats for the Chiefs games.  Congratulations, Dale. For several years, Dale headed up the voting committee of the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame.

As you all know, radio is the engine that makes money for the music industry. There has been a move underway for the past year to have stations pay artist royalties. It is coming to a head quite quickly. This is a very monumental happening. If it passes, it could run smaller stations out of business. We lifted this from Bill Hennes’ “All About Country” daily publication: