The Country Music Association will unveil key findings from its 2008 Country Music Consumer Segmentation Study during a free Town Hall meeting Tuesday, April 28 from 2:00-4:00 PM/CT in the Boone Crockett Room at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Nashville. The meeting is free and open to CMA members and their invited guests. The research project was the largest and most comprehensive look at the country music consumer in the CMA’s 50-year history. The Town Hall meeting will also include an opportunity to discuss “next steps” and ways to incorporate the findings into constituents’ individual business plans. The study offers information on media consumption including country record sales, radio and touring, as well as media usage and consumer analysis culled from a phase one sample of 7,000 individuals; a second sample of 1,850; and 10 focus groups from three regions of the country. In addition, findings from a followup study to determine the impact of the current economic crisis on the country consumer will be presented. The meeting will also include the introduction of an algorithm that CMA members can apply to their own consumer databases. The algorithm is a set of 14 screening questions that will enable the user to replicate the segmentation study in their own research vehicles to identify core and potential country consumers with a minimum of 75 percent accuracy, enabling members to use their marketing dollars effectively and efficiently.

“Giving our members the tools necessary to analyze the enormous amount of data we collected and make it applicable to their day-to-day operation is the logical next step,” said CMA Chief Executive Officer Tammy Genovese. “From booking agents to artist managers to record labels, there is something for everyone who relies on the country music consumer in this study.”

Seats to the free Town Hall meeting are limited and are available to CMA individual and organizational members only. Attendees may also bring a limited number of guests to the event based on the level of their CMA membership. CMA members who would like to attend must register online, and they can do so here.

The Board of Directors of Leadership Music has announced that Garth Brooks, Jim Foglesong and Allen Reynolds have been selected as the 2009 recipients of the Leadership Music Dale Franklin Award. The three prominent country music figures, whose careers intertwined when Brooks signed to Capitol Records with Foglesong at the helm, and Reynolds produced his groundbreaking albums, will be honored at a gala tribute banquet on Sunday, August 23, at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Nashville. The Dale Franklin Leadership Award, named for the first Executive Director of Leadership Music, was created in 2004 “to recognize music industry leaders who exemplify the highest quality of leadership and leading by example.” Brooks, Foglesong and Reynolds join previous Dale Franklin Award winners Tony Brown (2004), Gerry House (2005), Emmylou Harris (2006), Frances W. Preston (2007), and The Bradley Family; Owen (posthumously), Harold, Jerry, Connie and Patsy (2008).

Loretta Johnson died Monday, April 13, following a long battle with multiple myloma. She was 67 years old. With sisters Loudilla and Kay, Johnson was the co-founder of the International Fan Club Organization (IFCO). Begun in 1967, IFCO’s annual concert and get-together was the precursor of Fan Fair (now known as the CMA Music Festival). The IFCO show proceeds are always given to charities. The organization also gives out the annual Tex Ritter Award to deserving music-industry figures. The sisters created the original Loretta Lynn Fan Club, being attracted to the star because of the two Lorettas sharing the same first name. It became a model for country-music fan organizations, which led to the formation of IFCO. In recent years, the sisters have particularly concentrated on up-and-coming country artists.

Visitation for Loretta Johnson will take place Monday, April 20, from 9:00 a.m. to noon at the Clark Funeral Service in Beaver, Oklahoma. The funeral service will be at the town’s Baptist Church at 2:00 p.m. with burial to follow at Mountain View Cemetery in Elmwood, Oklahoma. In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions to The Loretta Johnson Medical Fund Contribution Account, Bank of America, 133 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37027 OR mailed to IFCO – Loretta Johnson Medical Fund, P.O. Box 40328, Nashville, TN 37204.

Because of Loretta’s illness, the sisters have not been able to plan an IFCO concert for this year’s CMA Music Festival. Promoter Rod Harris has announced instead a show billed as, “For the Love of IFCO, a benefit for Loretta Johnson.”  It will take place on June 9 at The Nashville Palace.

Steve Buckingham, Senior Vice President of A & R for Vanguard Records and The Welk Music Group, is leaving the company after eleven years. With Buckingham’s departure, Vanguard Records will shift A&R responsibilities for the label to the company’s Santa Monica Headquarters. While at Vanguard and sister label Sugar Hill, Buckingham signed, and in some cases produced, artists including Levon Helm, Dolly Parton, John Hiatt, Mindy Smith, Linda Ronstadt, Joan Osborne, Shawn Mullins and George Jones’ imprint, Bandit Records. Before moving to Vanguard/Welk Music, Buckingham was VP of A & R and a producer for Columbia Records/Sony Music for ten years.

“Those of us who have been in the music business for many years know that when ‘someone is exiting a label to pursue other opportunities,’ it usually has other meanings,” Buckingham said. “The simple truth is that my position was eliminated. Despite this outcome, I am grateful to Larry and Kevin Welk for the opportunities they gave to me.”

Buckingham can be reached by email at DanEdog@AOL.com