50 And Still Smiling

We are in one awful Winter. The booking folks sending Luke Bryan into Fargo and St Paul this weekend might not get a bouquet of roses from the crews. Zero ... subzero ... I guess the locals are ready to party but the Nashville folks don't know what to think. This weekend George Strait is in Newark, Luke in Fargo and Brad in Dayton ... Country music served frozen!

Rascal Flatts at the Strawberry Festival near Tampa, I bet, includes a little golf. Sounds nice!

The new NBC late-night shows got a Country fix this week with Brad Paisley on Seth Meyers and Dierks on Jimmy Fallon. With the New York home base for the NBC shows, you still wonder how the booking policy will differ from the Leno tenure.

Still too early to guess that. The morning show wars will be bloody this Spring and Summer. Their street concerts are being booked now. ABC will try to use every bit of leverage they have with Country artists. Better keep an eye on that. Not smart to ignore NBC and CBS and, for that matter, FOX. Got to spread the love around. The balance is out of balance now and with the ratings very tight, the booking meanness could get really tough.

The loss of comedian Tim Wilson was felt by many this weekend. Heart attack. A road warrior comedian is not an easy life. Tim was one of the hardest workers. His NASCAR songs and "Garth Brooks Made Me Crazy" are classics. Thank God for YouTube. Go look up Tim Wilson. He had a finger on his audience's taste. I will miss him.

Another award show was added this week. They are infomercials. Every network wants to be where it's hot. NBC ramped up the Golden Globes when they saw the money being made for The Oscars. ABC created a music show when the Grammys were making huge bucks. It's how the networks roll. More Country award shows will give Country music more publicity. Simple as that. But no we don't need another award show.

The whole Seaworld controversy is a nasty one. Scotty playing there this weekend. He researched it and made the decision to play. Alan Jackson said yes as well. This falls into the "we shall see" category in the long run. Most show business types don't like to be around controversy. Others thrive on it. Stay tuned on this one.

2014 will be the year of the Country festival. New ones popping up all over. Red Fest in Austin looks good. The Key West songwriters, Gulf Coast Jam ... etc., etc. ... all good. The young fans of now live for these major outdoor parties. Baton Rouge, upstate NY, Washington State, Montana ... all over the place. Radio camp-outs for some; nothing easy about them from an on-air working perspective. An adventure.

How about that Cole Swindell? The #3 Pop album and #2 Country right out of the box. Good for him. Great story ... coming from the T-shirt table to the top of the charts. Hollywood script! Good for you, Cole!

March is here ... good ... wind over cold any time....