Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc. is reporting a 3.5 percent year-to-year increase in attendance for CRS 2010 which closed on Friday (2/26).
This year’s CRS 2010 total attendance was 2,181, with 1,576 full registrants (attendees, exhibitors, panelists and sponsors) and 605 participant registrants. Participant registrants represent attendees that register for individual events or single day passes, but not the full three-day seminar. Last year’s CRS 2009 total attendance was 2,106.
“We are extremely pleased that CRS 2010 not only met our expectations, but exceeded them this year in many ways,” says CRB interim Executive Director Bill Mayne. “The attendance, sponsorship, participation, and enthusiasm were especially heartening. The level of artist talent was stellar, and the radio agenda panels were thought provoking and relevant. We were encouraged to see the Country Radio industry really get behind this year’s seminar, and our attendance figures show that. Every participant had the opportunity to walk away with valuable resources, relationships and ideas, and we look forward to continuing to improve the CRS experience as we move forward with this event for many more years to come.”
Several changes to the CRS agenda committee and CRB board of directors have been announced, including the creation of an additional CRS Co-Vice Chair position.
The newly elected CRB board officers and CRS agenda committee members are as follows:
CRB President: Mike Culotta (WQYK, Tampa, Fla.)
CRB Vice President: R.J. Curtis (Arista Nashville, Nashville, Tenn.)
CRB Secretary: Carole Bowen (WKIS, Miami, Fla.)
CRB Treasurer: Jeff Walker (The AristoMedia Group, Nashville, Tenn.)
CRS 2011 Agenda Chair: John Paul (Dial Global, Denver, Colo.)
CRS 2011 Co-Vice Chair: Clint Marsh (Talking Stick Communications, Warsaw, Ind.)
CRB 2011 Co-Vice Chair: Annie Sandor (Curb Records, Nashville, Tenn.)
“We feel it’s important to emphasize the sales side of Country radio at CRS 2011, so we have added another Vice Chair position to our agenda committee,” says Agenda Chair John Paul. “With the addition of Clint Marsh, we now have a Vice Chair who comes from the General Manager side of things, while the other Vice Chair, Annie Sandor, comes from the label/promotion side. With my experience in programming, we have nearly every angle of our business covered as we begin planning CRS 2011.”
The newly elected CRB board members are Jim Asker (All Access, Nashville, Tenn.) and Charlie Morgan (Emmis Communications, Indianapolis, Ind.). Both will serve three-year terms on the CRB board, along with re-elected members Becky Brenner, Joel Burke, Mike Dungan, Renee Leymon, Mike McVay, Joel Raab and John Zarling.
Continuing their terms on the CRB board are: Tom Baldrica, Carole Bowen, Natalie Conner, John Crenshaw, Mike Culotta, R.J. Curtis, David Haley, Clay Hunnicutt, Keith Kaufman, Scott Lindy, Bill Macky, Michael Osterhout, Royce Risser, Denise Roberts, Tim Roberts, John Shomby, Jeff Walker and Rusty Walker.
CRS 2011 will be held March 2-4, 2011, at the Nashville Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn. Visit www.CRB.org for more information.
Rowdy Times: Bryan Plans “Spring Break” EP; Hank Jr. Hits Nashville
/by MichelleBryan will promote the release with his second mini Spring Break Tour, set for March 7-8 in Florida. He is also currently on the road as the opening act for Jason Aldean’s Wide Open Tour.
Hank Williams Jr.’s Rowdy Friends 2010 tour will stop in Nashville Fri., April 23. Joining Hank for the party at the Arena are Jamey Johnson, Eric Church and The Grascals.
City Paper: WKRN Dismisses Brad Schmitt
/by contributorBrad Schmitt, who has served as an entertainment reporter for both The Tennessean and more recently for WKRN-Channel 2, was dismissed from the station on Monday (2/22) following a weekend DUI arrest. This was Schmitt’s second DUI in three years.
Matthew Zelkind, news director and station manager, told The City Paper that “Schmitt and News2 have parted ways.” He declined to comment further on personnel matters.
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CRS Attendance Up, New Board Announced
/by Sarah SkatesThis year’s CRS 2010 total attendance was 2,181, with 1,576 full registrants (attendees, exhibitors, panelists and sponsors) and 605 participant registrants. Participant registrants represent attendees that register for individual events or single day passes, but not the full three-day seminar. Last year’s CRS 2009 total attendance was 2,106.
“We are extremely pleased that CRS 2010 not only met our expectations, but exceeded them this year in many ways,” says CRB interim Executive Director Bill Mayne. “The attendance, sponsorship, participation, and enthusiasm were especially heartening. The level of artist talent was stellar, and the radio agenda panels were thought provoking and relevant. We were encouraged to see the Country Radio industry really get behind this year’s seminar, and our attendance figures show that. Every participant had the opportunity to walk away with valuable resources, relationships and ideas, and we look forward to continuing to improve the CRS experience as we move forward with this event for many more years to come.”
Several changes to the CRS agenda committee and CRB board of directors have been announced, including the creation of an additional CRS Co-Vice Chair position.
The newly elected CRB board officers and CRS agenda committee members are as follows:
CRB President: Mike Culotta (WQYK, Tampa, Fla.)
CRB Vice President: R.J. Curtis (Arista Nashville, Nashville, Tenn.)
CRB Secretary: Carole Bowen (WKIS, Miami, Fla.)
CRB Treasurer: Jeff Walker (The AristoMedia Group, Nashville, Tenn.)
CRS 2011 Agenda Chair: John Paul (Dial Global, Denver, Colo.)
CRS 2011 Co-Vice Chair: Clint Marsh (Talking Stick Communications, Warsaw, Ind.)
CRB 2011 Co-Vice Chair: Annie Sandor (Curb Records, Nashville, Tenn.)
“We feel it’s important to emphasize the sales side of Country radio at CRS 2011, so we have added another Vice Chair position to our agenda committee,” says Agenda Chair John Paul. “With the addition of Clint Marsh, we now have a Vice Chair who comes from the General Manager side of things, while the other Vice Chair, Annie Sandor, comes from the label/promotion side. With my experience in programming, we have nearly every angle of our business covered as we begin planning CRS 2011.”
The newly elected CRB board members are Jim Asker (All Access, Nashville, Tenn.) and Charlie Morgan (Emmis Communications, Indianapolis, Ind.). Both will serve three-year terms on the CRB board, along with re-elected members Becky Brenner, Joel Burke, Mike Dungan, Renee Leymon, Mike McVay, Joel Raab and John Zarling.
Continuing their terms on the CRB board are: Tom Baldrica, Carole Bowen, Natalie Conner, John Crenshaw, Mike Culotta, R.J. Curtis, David Haley, Clay Hunnicutt, Keith Kaufman, Scott Lindy, Bill Macky, Michael Osterhout, Royce Risser, Denise Roberts, Tim Roberts, John Shomby, Jeff Walker and Rusty Walker.
CRS 2011 will be held March 2-4, 2011, at the Nashville Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn. Visit www.CRB.org for more information.
CMT Promotes Lisa Chader, Anthony Barton
/by Sarah SkatesLisa Chader and Anthony Barton
CMT today announced the promotions of Lisa Chader and Anthony Barton, both to Senior Vice President.
Chader has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications from Vice President, Corporate Communications, CMT; it was announced today by CMT President Brian Philips. Chader is based in Nashville and reports to Philips. In her new role, she will continue to oversee the creation and execution of network publicity strategies for original programming, digital media, special events and corporate public relations policies across all CMT properties.
Chader joined CMT in 2005 when she relocated from Los Angeles, where she had been Director of Corporate Communications for MTV Networks, representing Comedy Central, VH1 and Spike TV. She served as unit publicist on such shows as the Emmy-winning series “South Park,” as well as “Chappelle’s Show” and such reality programming as “Surreal Life.”
With 20 years of experience in television publicity, Chader sits on the Executive Board of the T.J. Martell Foundation, and is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, PRSA, Television Publicity Executives Committee, Women in Cable and Leadership Music.
Barton has been promoted to Senior Vice President Integrated Marketing, from Vice President, Integrated Marketing, CMT, it was announced by Philips. Barton is based in Nashville and reports to Brian Philips and Jeff Lucas, EVP Entertainment Group Ad Sales, MTVN.
Barton joined the CMT Integrated Marketing team as Vice President in 2004. In his new role as Senior Vice President, he will continue to create innovative custom content for all CMT platforms that engages the audience, delivers measurable ROI and generates revenue for the network. Barton has worked with such high profile clients as Verizon, Bing and Nationwide Insurance on campaigns for the network’s biggest event of the year, the CMT Music Awards, as well as Paramount Studios, Warner Bros. and Fox Filmed Entertainment.
In his 14 years with MTV Networks, Barton has worked in several divisions. After splitting his time between New York City and Nashville, Barton relocated to Nashville in 2007. The Vanderbilt University graduate is a member of the Country Music Association and currently serves on the Board of the Brooks Fund.
Arnold Departs Show Dog – Universal
/by FreemanMusicRow has learned that Show Dog – Universal Publicity & Marketing Manager Tracy Arnold has resigned her post with the label, effective last Friday (2/26). Her new contact info is 615-478-4840 (cell) and tracykarnold@gmail.com.
ACM Noms Tomorrow, Fan Voting Open
/by Sarah SkatesFor the first time this year, fans have the opportunity to vote in the newcomer categories Top New Solo Vocalist, Top New Vocal Duo and Top New Vocal Group. Voting opened Friday, February 26 and continues through Friday, March 12 at 5 p.m. ET, at www.VoteACM.com. The ballot page is hosted on GAC’s website. Additionally, each of the nine finalists is featured on ACM Showcase 2010, now airing on GAC.
One winner in each of the three categories will be announced mid-March and will move on to compete for Top New Artist. Voting for that category will run April 1-18. The winner will be announced during the 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards telecast live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 18.
The final nominees in the Top New categories are:
Top New Solo Vocalist
Luke Bryan
Jamey Johnson
Chris Young
Top New Vocal Duo
Bomshel
Joey + Rory
Steel Magnolia
Top New Vocal Group
Eli Young Band
Gloriana
The Lost Trailers
Redneck Woman Gretchen Wilson’s Search For Radio Redemption
/by contributor[Nashville Scene] Just over a year ago, Gretchen Wilson looked into the abyss. Her third album, One of the Boys, had tanked, its singles stalling at 32, 35, and 53 in Billboard. The label team that had guided her 2004 debut CD Here for the Party to quintuple platinum sales had largely been swept away in the wake of a corporate merger. She had asked in mid-2008 to be released from her Columbia Records contract, but Joe Galante, chairman of parent company Sony Music Nashville, had declined, saying he wanted to launch one more album. Singles from that project had also gone nowhere and its release was in limbo.
Even when things went right they went wrong. After the label placed her “Work Hard, Play Harder,” in a promotional spot for Saving Grace, the Black Crowes sued, alleging she and co-writers John Rich and Vicky McGehee had ripped off the verse melody from their “Jealous Again.” And Wilson’s sprawling 300-acre Lebanon, Tenn., estate and the 30 people who made up her band, crew and staff, once symbols of just how far she’d come, were rapidly draining her resources.
“The lowest moment I’ve had,” she says, “came in January of last year when I had to take 12 of my employees off of salary. I hadn’t had a hit song in three years. The economy the way it is, the money going down, down, down, I just couldn’t afford them anymore, and I realized, ‘Wow. It’s all fading away here. What are the chances I’m going to be sitting here next January letting the rest of them go and closing up?’ I had to face that that was a possibility. And I had never been so broken up as I was when I had to have that meeting with them, because I just didn’t want to fail them.”
The pain and uncertainty would last for six more months.
“I saw her at a gig in Cincinnati on the Fourth of July,” says Wilson’s publicist, Craig Campbell, who was part of her original Columbia Records team, “and it was the most down I had ever heard her. She was frustrated. She thought she had turned in a good album and she was bummed about everything.”
“I don’t remember a regional rep from the label present at a concert for the last two years,” she says. “I had regionals there with other new artists but they weren’t there for me. That’s a stab. That hurts.”
Read more…
On The Cover-James Otto
/by contributorHometown: Benton City, WA
Birthday: July 29, 1973
Producers: Paul Worley and James Otto
Interesting Fact: I’m 6’5” tall and have a 3 lb Chihuahua…opposites attract.
Outside Interests: Vintage cars and trucks—I’m a major gearhead. I’ve got a 1960 Cadillac and a 1970 K5 Blazer.
Musical Influences: Ronnie Milsap, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Hank Jr., Al Green, Bob Seger. Country soul and rock ‘n’ roll baby!
Favorite Records: Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music by Ray Charles, Red Headed Stranger by Willie Nelson, Whiskey Bent & Hell Bound by Hank Jr., Al Green’s Greatest Hits, and Trouble by Ray LaMontagne.
Just two years after the release of his debut album, country music sensation James Otto is back with “Groovy Little Summer Song,” the lead single from his forthcoming sophomore album, James Otto. The track was co-written by Otto, Al Anderson and Carson Chamberlain, and co-produced by Otto and Grammy award-winning record producer and session guitarist Paul Worley. “This record is definitely a country soul album,” Otto says, referring to the sound that has come to full fruition on James Otto. “It’s something that’s always been inside me, because those are my two major influences. I’ve always heard that country soul sound when I listened to people like Conway Twitty and Ronnie Milsap and certain things by Kenny Rogers. But I also loved and grew up listening to a lot of Memphis R&B and soul music.”
Worley Establishes Hometown Cancer Center
/by contributorIn 2005, Worley and representatives of Hardin Medical Center and Hardin County Community and Healthcare Foundation joined forces to put a plan into action to open The Darryl Worley Cancer Treatment Center, which will now afford both radiation and chemotherapy treatment for cancer patients. The building will be located on the campus of Hardin Medical Center and is envisioned to allow cancer patients to receive therapy without the long drives currently required of many who need these treatments.
“It’s been our dream to build this cancer treatment center here in Hardin County for several years now, and the people of Hardin County and the West Tennessee area have done a lot to help make this dream a reality,” says Worley. “We have a really high cancer rate in our general area and all of our lives have been affected by the dreaded disease, so there is a lot of passion in this for everyone.”
“Having the capability to provide additional therapies here in Hardin County will save so many hours of traveling for patients,” says Hardin Medical Center CEO, Charlotte Burns. “I know it is this human side of combating cancer that has touched Darryl’s heart so deeply.”
Worley, who lost both of his grandfathers and one of his aunts to cancer, knows all too well the emotional and physical tolls it takes when a loved one has the disease. “I know what it cost when they had to go out of town for treatment,” Worley says. “I don’t want anyone else having to make those trips, adding to what they are already going through.”
The Darryl Worley Cancer Treatment Center has received a guaranteed maximum price of $2.0 million for construction of the building. The Hardin County Community and Healthcare Foundation, Inc. has taken on a mission of raising the construction costs, already raising over $1.6 million to date through donations and pledges. Of the money already raised, the singer’s own charity, The Darryl Worley Foundation, has made a $600,000 donation to the cause.
Del Casino Exposes Copyright ‘Gap’
/by adminCopyright Office Acknowledges Problem; to Extend ‘Notice of Inquiry’
The gap deals with Section 203 and Section 304 of the Copyright Act and could affect many songwriters and publishers in Nashville, said Del Casino, as he released his findings in a recent presentation to the Nashville Bar Association Intellectual Property Section held Wednesday at the offices of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI).
Casey Del Casino
Del Casino, who has been having discussions with counsel for the Copyright Office about this “gap” for nearly a year now, also advised the NBA IP Section, along with NSAI’s Bart Herbison, Executive Director, and Debi Cochran, Legislative Director, that he had just received an email from counsel for the Copyright Office, advising that they are preparing a ‘Notice Of Inquiry’ with respect to this “gap” in the termination rights provisions of the Copyright Act for release in mid-March.
Under Section 203, the exclusive or nonexclusive grant of a transfer or license of copyright or any right under copyright, executed by the author on or after January 1, 1978, is subject to termination and Section 203 further provides that:
“Termination of the grant may be effected during a period of five years beginning at the end of 35 years from the date of execution of the grant; or if the grant covers the right of publication of the work, the period begins at the end of 35 years from the date of publication or at the end of 40 years from the date of execution of the grant, whichever term ends earlier.”
Section 304 states that:
“In the case of any copyright subsisting in either its first or renewal term on January 1, 1978 … the exclusive or nonexclusive grant of a transfer of the renewal copyright or any right under it, executed before January 1, 1978 … is subject to termination under the following conditions: (3) Termination of the grant may be effected at any time during a period of five years beginning at the end of 56 years from the date the copyright was originally secured, or beginning on January 1, 1978, whichever is later.”
Del Casino said the gap is best illustrated by the question of when would the transfer of a copyright in a musical composition, created and published in 1979, which was written pursuant to a long-term exclusive songwriting agreement, dated January 1, 1976, be terminable and under which provision of the Act – Section 203 or Section 304.
“There are real world consequences to the confusion outlined in these two sections. The termination provisions of the Act are silent with respect to the termination of a transfer of copyright in a work, which transfer of copyright purportedly occurred, prior to January 1, 1978, in a work created, subsequent to January 1, 1978,” said Del Casino.
Del Casino studied and researched the provisions for about a year, originally acting on behalf of a client, who had entered into a long-term exclusive songwriting agreement with a publisher in 1976 and later created musical compositions in 1979, pursuant to the agreement. Del Casino said notices of termination were served upon the successor-in-interest to the original publisher by the original songwriter in February 2008, pursuant to Section 203 of the Act for the musical compositions, created in 1979.
“In passing the termination rights provisions of both Section 203 and Section 304 of the Act, Congress expressed its belief of the need for a safeguard to protect authors against unrenunerative transfers due to both the unequal bargaining power of authors and the impossibility of determining a work’s value until it had been exploited,” said Del Casino. “In light of these goals, it is our belief that this gap between these Sections renders the termination of certain transfers of copyright in certain works impossible … Many publishers will appreciate more certainty as to whether terminations are effective, not only so they can respond accordingly to terminations served on them but so they can properly asses the value of their copyright portfolios.”
Del Casino is Special Counsel with the Special Business Services Practice Group in the Adams and Reese Nashville Music Row office. He has extensive experience in handling intellectual property and copyright law matters for members of the entertainment industry including artists, record companies, songwriters, publishers, managers, producers and executives.