About Time To Start Those Gasoline Giveaways

Jimmy Carter...Happy Easter

If you are breathing you are dealing with the rise in gasoline prices ... from food to you name it, $5 dollar gas prices make everyone (except people who get free gas with their job) crazy!

TV/radio gas giveaways will be more popular than iPad2 giveaways this May ratings period. This might help radio somehow, but it's not a good thing.

After two Saturday nights in Vegas and many stops in California, I am wondering about the state of Country music. I'm not hearing it very much out in the world. All I hear is "Dynamite" and the "F -You" song.

Vegas seemed to always have a headliner Country star someplace ... Nope, not this last weekend. Garth was there the weekend before at $243.50 a ticket!

I see Taylor Swift buying a home in Beverly Hills, as she should ... I think her L.A. future is very bright. I know AN okie with a Hollywood show; Blake Shelton is our Peyton Manning right now. He is everywhere!

I wish him and THE VOICE well ... the "Idol" ratings are great, but musically hasn't that show hit a wall? This coming week the music is Carole King ... WIMPY!

Anyone else find it weird seeing Toby Keith with twirling dancers on "Dancing with the Stars"? "American Soldier" with dancing ... ewwwwww.

The standby "Hottest single guy in Country music" edition is out from Country Weekly. Chris Young wins. Okay ... re there any other single guys in Country music? These Country guys get married fast. In pop, not so much. Would Elvis, The Beatles, N'Sync, Backstreet Boys, Leo, The Jonas Bros, etc. ever worked as married guys? Probably not. What CD/downloading consumers girl/woman puts a married man poster on her bedroom wall..? A few, not many. IS IT IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND SINGLE COUNTRY GUYS?

The musical chairs being played on Music Row right now is weird. It happens in Hollywood, but this degree of partner swapping is not common. Just a lot of unusual stuff.

Music videos used to come out in time to promote a song's early growth ... Now they come out when the song is #10, if at all ... everything is changing ... the game plans, marketing strategy, the budgets.

See where former Nashville label owner/concert promoter Ronnie Gilley has pleaded guilty to federal bribery and money laundering charges? He tried to mix gambling and Country music. It blew up and took a lot of hillbilly wheeler-dealers with him. Country Crossing, BamaJam, a gospel label, etc. We native Bible Belt-born Alabama folks knew this was trouble, but what do we know.

IT SMELLED TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE AND IT WAS.... Jesus and slot machines don't mix. There's still a lot of Jesus in Alabama! Not going to name the HUGE names that fell for this, but the list is pretty long.

Like the money that left the building with Minnie Pearl's Fried Chicken ... Trying to make a quick buck outside your line of knowledge has proven again and again dangerous ... say Bernie Madoff?

Neal McCoy had to go to Cleveland to get his new record deal, but good for Neal ... never quits ... great performer...

Looked at the label rosters lately? Lots of new folks? Lots of new folks with no money to promote them the old school way. This may not turn out too well.

These are complicated times. YouTube stars ... My Space stars ... Facebook townhalls with the President ... Nine million followers of Justin Bieber on Twitter, but most Country stars won't do it.

And most don't do it right if they are into it. We are in such an old school ... real old school ... new kid culture people are lost all over.

Clouds for music. Physical sales going into the tank BUT vinyl ... the MOST music cool. Anyone who thinks they are know-it-alls, keep thinking.

It is a "figure it out as you go" time. But you have to be in the game to play. You have to get into the new culture ... GIVE some music away. Make your "radio" available any and everywhere. The basics still apply ... the basics of promotion and relating to the audience. Add value and you have even more things to consider. How do you explain a full audience at $243 a ticket for Garth?

How do you explain the madness around Lady Gaga this week? How do you explain 21 million people watching a soap opera-like talent show, "American Idol?" Things that seem to contradict the times. Old-fashioned things like a Madonna clone on steroids and a 2011 version of the Ted Mack Amateur Hour.

Radio is so cold outside morning drive ... for the most part on music radio. Budgets call for that, but how much automation and non-local programming can the business stand? That bill is going to come due soon. The merging of social media and the traditional broadcaster is coming soon ... it would seem.

Facebook is growing like a weed. Twitter is taking down countries (Egypt) ... Meanwhile has radio really come into the 21st century ... has MusicRow? Better think about it ... At some point you are trying to make Western movies -- and they sold all the horses and saddles!