MONEY ... For Tickets ... For Ads ... For GAS!

Jimmy Carter on the road in Panama City, FL

If you look at this weekend's tour schedule, you would think these are the days of the best economy. Somebody has money! The tours seem to be doing okay -- and if they are not, no one is talking negative. More tours are lining up.

Miley Cyrus has several months of shows set up and the pre-sales through Mileyworld.com start June 8th ... regular sales June 13th. Prices are $40 to $80. Arenas and Wal-Mart is the sponsor. Clothes are coming to go with the tour and they are below $20 graphic T's, etc.

Heads up on their paperless ticket plan ... I don't think I have studied that enough, but read up on that.

Big question is this fan club ticket sales idea. Last time around we, as a family, joined the Miley fan club, it worked. Chesney pre-sales seem to work for decent tickets, too. Sort of a shame to have to add the additional expense, but that's the way it is.

Another concert jackpot is that using the cell phone or still camera to shoot VIDEO. Chesney, for one, doesn't seem to like that taping but it's hard to enforce. A total camera ban is possible, but that will be VERY unpopular!

Miley, Taylor and the Jonas Brothers are going all-out for the 'tween bucks. I can't think of ANY big-time Country act NOT on tour right now. Tim McGraw's not on the road in a big tour. but is playing a few dates. Carrie is off-duty, but the rest are out there. Can everyone survive nearly 10% employment in some areas? Smart people seem to say yes.

The weather is insane and that's a variable that has been worrying the show makers. Just this week, there's been lots of unseasonable rain. Just ask the Macon Cherry Blossom Festival and Montgomery's Jubilee about how rain affects concert business.

As the concert biz rolls out with big shows in Cowboy Stadium with King George and amphitheatres from Charlotte to Kansas City, the CMA Music festival is back in Nashville.

This is a crazy week with fans from around the world, and a convention of fair and festival buyers in the first part of the week. The huge nighttime concerts in the NFL Titan stadium are always first-class. Big names, as always, play a short set with the ever-watchful eye of the ABC TV specials cameras.

If it's not the weather, then it's the pesky gas prices. They have gone wild in the last three weeks -- up 50 cents a gallon. When you are buying diesel for a dozen buses and trucks, a 50-cent increase is a LOT of money. A LOT of money. The green folks may want everyone in a two-seater doodle bug. but the country moves with trucks and planes -- and gas hikes stall economic steps forward. No leadership in this area at all ... very sad if we are going through this AGAIN!

Look at the social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Brad Paisley starting his Twitter this week, as Taylor Swift stalled. TS had one twit in like six days. She was busy in the studio, but that's highly unusual for this high-tech maven. Jo Dee Messina plans a high-tech Twitter fan scavenger hunt during CMA Musicfest week.

Ray Stevens has a new CD .. .he is 70 and still ROLLING!

Another million-seller for Strait ... 33rd, I think... Who can keep count?

Radio ad sales have hopefully stabilized -- national and local. Despite all the constant negative national news, all reports from real people say stabilizing ... cars are actually selling ... Just need to fix the credit markets. Radio needs these car people back -- and back soon! Indications are this will happen soon. Credit seems dead ... that's bad still! All this has trickle-down to everything. Concert ticket sales ... radio ad sales ... jobs .... you name it...

On my mind all week ... the continuing demise of the physical newspaper. The trade publication and the local newspapers in the physical realm seem on the way to extinction -- and fast! That is still sad to me. I don't want to read a book on my computer, but maybe if that's all I ever knew, it would be okay. Something about this digital transition remain troubling. Wish we had a combination of the printed page and the screen. It seems we are heading in the total screen direction. I know I read everything on here now as it is. but it still doesn't feel right for the society. Picked up a Birmingham News and it was sick ... same for the Tennessean. The Internet can NOT support all those reporter/editor jobs. It's not a healthy thing for the country, but it is a cancer I don't can be fixed.

Think of how computers have totally changed your life. Think of how unstable these boxes still are. Viruses ... no connections in the rural areas. My 3g iPhone is a boat anchor on the Edge network this week at the beach. The service is great when it works ... The rural, small market people need fairness. They may be the real victims in this race to Star Trek World. The broadband policy needs to get going from the feds ... The digital TV switch happens in the next few days. That is still a mess.

How many people can afford a $3,000 Mac laptop? Yes, they have cheaper models, but is still costs hundreds to get anything and $50 a month to get the connection. A far cry from the working man being able to pick up and learn about the world in a 35-cent newspaper.

All this high-tech equipment is worthless without HUMANS to put content in them. And other humans to be able to have access.

These are complicated times. Very complicated.