How Can They Afford All This Fun?

It’s been a while since Nashville based-music was this big. The Taylor Swift “Eras” tour is historic. Luke Combs’ stadium tour, and the one with George Strait and Chris Stapleton, are huge successes. When Morgan Wallen gets back on the road late June in Chicago, the millions and million in ticket sales will likely be historic.

Morgan’s sales/streaming chart reports every week get bigger and bigger, breaking records from the ’50s. Twelve weeks on top of the Billboard Top 200 breaks any record held by a Country music star. Taylor and Morgan own the Top 10 album charts these days.

Kenny Chesney had a big spring tour, and a handful of others are just getting started. Add the stars in Vegas, and these really are unique times. Award shows may be a troubled attraction for fans, but live, in person concerts are not.

It’s June, and time for the annual trek to Nashville for the original fan salute, Fan Fair, now called CMA Fest. Tradition in Nashville the last 10 years has been hard to locate, and this event’s origins are hard to find.

Fan Fair/CMA Fest is a big ole, spread out corporate-sponsored downtown, walk-until-you-drop, music galore festival. There’s no shortage of live music, let there be no doubt! The Country Music Association lists well over 100 artists playing from morning until late night all over downtown.

The weatherman always builds in some surprises. The extended forecast has the high in the 80s daily, with a 30% to 50% chance of rain all four days of the festival. You’d better be able to walk long distances and be heat tolerant! This is an outdoor event, for the most part.

Nashville used to be a reasonably priced town. That’s before it became an “it” city. Really, I know there’s two to a hotel room, maybe four, but downtown Nashville is expensive like New York City! June 8th and 9th, the Hilton Garden Inn Times Square South is $290 a night. Same dates at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Nashville: $332!

Nashville more expensive than NYC! Wow! This is not your mother’s Fan Fair on any level!

ABC turns the event into a prime time show later in the summer. They have their own agenda.

Radio stations come for a few days to interview mostly baby acts. ABC, I’m sure, wants folks to come in, but consolidation and the loss of audience to streaming is taking its toll.

The old Fan Fair capped the attendance at 13,000. You would, if you tried hard, have a star/fan encounter. You might need binoculars to see a big star at the new Fan Fair/CMA Fest. In addition to the annual softball game, there is now pickle ball. Oh, the times they are a changin’.

There has always been a breakout Fan Fair artist. No idea who that will be this summer. Billy Ray Cyrus was one of the biggest breakouts. That achy breaky Fan Fair weekend was crazy!

Many great memories of the original Fan Fair at the Municipal Auditorium, then onto the state fairgrounds, then the corporate-sponsored downtown.

Jake Owen’s new release, “On The Boat Again,” should be a smash. Another reworked song, but it’s a fan favorite just like Cole Swindell’s “She Had Me At Heads Carolina.”

AI, think about this: Artificial intelligence allows machines to model, or even improve upon, the capabilities of the human mind. We all need to read up on this.

iHeartMedia sent a note out to all staff this week about using AI on their network. They said they’d better not see any. They have their own AI coming.

What does this AI machine learning have to do with radio? We will soon find out. Read and watch everything you can on this, your job may depend on it. You need to get out in front of this train as fast as you can.