Questions or press releases contact @ P. O. B. 271238-Nashville,TN 37227

Email: intlcma@aol.com Fax: 615-612-7613

Permission to Copy or reprint is granted to all, where credit is given.

Writer/Editor: Kathy Sue Loudermilk, Vice-President

Record sales are based on two things. First, there is radio. Radio plays the music, creates new stars, and new demand for CDs, cassettes, MP3 discs etc. The major record companies have a strangle hold on American radio. By paying consultant fees and speaking fees etc, they have gotten around the laws against payola. They shower money and favors on large market radio programmers. These large market programmers set the trend, for mid and small market radio. Songs from the top 40 "Billboard" charts are all most American radio programmers play. The fact that "Billboard" magazine is owned by Time Warner, who also owns Warner Records and other major music companies, never seems to be noticed. Second, there is distribution. Even people who want your music, can’t buy it if they can’t find it. The majors have the record distributors trained to expect to buy music, on a 90 day consignment. They order what they want, and pay for what they sell in 90 days. Only major companies have the money to manufacture a million CDs and wait 90 days, to be paid. Small companies just can’t compete, on such an unleveled playing field. By controlling radio and distribution. they have us locked out and expect to keep it that way.

Technology is about to blow their control all to hell! Their control of distribution is already crumbling around the edges. The internet and high quality MP3 audio has made it possible for people to sample and buy your music. There is still a problem with finding your web site. With over 200 million web sites out there, it is hard for someone just surfing the internet to find your web site. There are things you can do to get listed on the major search engines, but it is a full time job to stay near the top. If your page isn’t in the first 20 sites pulled up, you have little chance of being found. The major search engines regularly change the rules. One day they favor sites with 10 to 20 total pages. The next day it may be sites with over 50 pages. One time they count how many links your site has to other sites. The next time they may count how many other sites have links to yours. One day they favor sites that only feature one thing. The next day it may be sites that feature a variety of things. An expert web master can cover all the bases and stay near the top. But, remember you are up against experts, who work as full time web masters. They are determine to bump your site down and keep theirs, in the top 20. This is why we have a web site available to our members. By pooling resources, we can afford a full time expert web master. radiocountry.org is getting about 3, 000 visitors per week. A lot of that is because our webmaster is among the best. He is so expert that RealAudio sends him advance copies of their new programs so he can help get the bugs out, before they are released to the public. But; in addition to a great webmaster, we have hundreds of great members. They put "Please Visit, www.radiocountry.org" bumper stickers on their cars. One member put 30 on semi-trailers at his son’s work place. They have rubber stamps and stamp the slogan on every piece of mail they send. The site is advertised in various music and general interest magazines. Some of our record company and promotion members are putting a 30 second announcement at the beginning of each CD they send radio. Some of our radio members are playing those. All of this is designed to let everybody on the internet find our site. When they find our site, they find our members’ music. Our site has been up less than 2 months. Already we get about 3, 000 visitors per week. That figure will continue to rise. We have our own host computer and more bandwidth than we need. If hundreds of people were downloading music from our site, at the same time, it would not crash. We are going around their distribution channels and we will get better at it, as time goes by.

Americans listen to radio, in their cars. This is why stations put their best and highest paid disc jockeys, on during morning and afternoon drive time. Cable radio and satellite radio, in your homes have had little effect, on the industry. There just aren’t many people who listen to radio, at home. The technology that will forever end their control of radio is just around the corner. In their 2001 models, all three of the big American car companies plan to offer satellite radio, in their cars. Two satellite companies are getting ready to offer satellite radio programming. Each plans on providing 100 channels, of programming The expected cost is less than $10, per month. Folks this will do to radio, what cable did to television. In a little over a year, two companies operating 100 channels each will require 4, 800 hours of radio programming per day. They will have to have 33, 600 hours of radio programming, each week. Each month, they will need 144, 000 hours of radio programming, per month. In their first full year of operation, those two satellite companies will use 365 X 4, 800 hours of radio programming. My math says that equals 1, 752, 000 hours of radio programming. Do you believe they will offer 1, 752, 000 of top 40 "Billboard"? If they offer the same thing that is currently available, why would anybody pay $10, per month.

Cable television started with a dozen or so channels of programming. HBO operated only a few hours each day. Compare the beginnings of the cable television industry to where it is, today. If satellite radio follows a similar growth path, how long will it be before there are 3, 4 , or more satellite program providers? How long will it be, before other countries launch their own satellites?

The demand for high quality radio programming is about to create an explosion that will send a shock wave throughout the industry. The sheer force of the explosion will knock down walls and open doors. New doors will be created. How many television actors and actresses were employed, by the 3 networks? How many are now employed, by the new channels, which cable created? If the current country music industry can employ 10, 000 artists, writers, producers, publishers, musicians, promoters and etc. , how many new ones will be needed? Think about it people!

We are on the verge of the biggest change that has ever hit the music industry! When people hear you on the satellite radio programs, they will want to buy your albums, t-shirts, and photos. They will want to join your fan clubs and read about you, in music publications. New magazines and newsletters will appear by the dozens. They will need one central internet location to help them find your music, merchandise, and fan information about you. We intend to be that central location! www.radiocountry.org is a simple easy to remember location. In less that two months, we have made it one of the best known most visited country music sites on the web. We intend to continue aggressive promotion of the site and our members. We invite you to join us, in preparing for the many wonderful opportunities that lie ahead.

According to an article in Nashville’s daily newspaper, Ed Benson, Jr. chief major label flunky at their C. M. A. is considering closing FANFAIR. They say the fairgrounds is just not equipped to handle the tremendous crowd of 20, 000 or more country music fans who gather, for the annual event. They have considered moving it downtown to the new taxpayer financed (105 million dollars) Gaylord Entertainment Center. However; the center is used for hockey games and the playoffs might run into June. Parking would be a problem and feeding 20, 000 people would create other problems. The spin is that FANFAIR has grown so big and became so successful under King Ed’s wise leadership, that the best thing to do is close it down.

Excuse me! Does somebody think Nashville’s merchants, hotel owners, restaurant owners, and residents are really so stupid they will believe, this hogwash? When is the last time you saw anything closed, because it was too successful. Ladies, when is the last time you decided the man in your life was too handsome, too considerate, too wealthy, too loving, and too accomplished as a lover; so you had no choice but to close the relationship? Give it a rest! At the start of the 90’s, FANFAIR was successful! It was growing in attendance every year. You couldn’t get a motel room; unless you reserved it months in advance. A few years ago, FANFAIR tickets went on sale in January and were sold out months before the event date, in June. Last year, tickets were still available when FANFAIR opened and were not yet sold when it was over.

Several years ago, FANFAIR attendance peaked over 30,000. That was the last year the non - major label artists were somewhat welcomed. It was the last year the IFCO show was a part of FANFAIR. Loretta Lynn was the headliner at the IFCO stage and drew a bigger crowd than any of the major label CMA’s pet artists. Their solution to the problem wasn’t to change the direction their pet artists were heading. Their solution was to move the IFCO show away from the fairgrounds to a much less attractive location downtown. Their solution was to make it even more difficult for a non-major label artist or company to get approved for booth space. Their solution was to attempt to force pop music down the throats and into the ears of country music fans. As Gomer Pile once said, "Surprise! Surprise!". Country music fans don’t like it. There ain’t a darn thing wrong with pop music. There is room for all sorts of music. Nashville has a very successful blues festival, and many country music fans support it. The difference is that nobody has tried to tell us that B. B. King is country. Country music folks are funny that way. We like to be told the truth and we are inclined to call things what they are. We know that once hay has passed through a horse, it just ain’t right to keep calling it hay! It’s good fertilizer and has it’s uses, but it just ain’t hay anymore. In other words, for some darn fool reason, we get upset when somebody pees on our legs and tries to tell us it’s raining!

Country music events are popping up all over the place, and they are growing. Suzie Cantu’s C. M. O. A. show draws folks to Las Vegas and gets bigger each year. Bob Everhart’s Traditional C. M. A. festival draws thousands of folks to Avoca, Iowa. The town’s population swells from less than 2, 000 to about 10, 000 every Labor Day. Folks drive from Texas, California, Tennessee, Florida and other far away points. They gather in the middle of miles of Iowa corn fields to hear and play real country music. The Nebraska Country Music Foundation had their 19^th annual show October 10^th through October 16^th, in Hastings, NE. It gets bigger and better every year and is about 100 miles, from the nearest airport. It is 20 miles from the nearest interstate highway, but attendance keeps growing. Jason Hawkins and Jennifer Foxx had their 7^th annual King Eagle Awards Show & Festival October 1^st and 2^nd , in Nashville. People were there from Norway, Holland, Belgium. Germany, Canada, and all 50 states. Colonel and Mrs. Bill Foster started their The Best Of Texas show, in 1998. The 1999 show was sold out to standing room only. Entertainers from Germany and Denmark were on the show. It was broadcast on Danish television. It has outgrown it’s location! It has become too successful! Bill’s and Helen’s solution was to move it to a bigger location next year, and have a spin off show in Germany, for 2001. I guess they just ain’t as smart as the major label CMA. If they were, I reckon they would a closed it!

The major label CMA tries to have it both ways. First, they try to tell us that country music sales and popularity is down. Then, they try to tell us FANFAIR attendance has dropped from over 30, 000 to about 20, 000 and is so successful they may have to close it. Folks, the major label CMA took country music and passed it through their greed and egotism, what came out has more in common with hay that has passed through a horse than it does country music.

One final thought on the amount of fertilizer being spread, by the major labels and their CMA. How many of you remember the movie, "Victor Victoria" ? The story line was about a female who impersonated a male impersonating a female. A lady pretended to be a man, and became a highly successful female impersonator. Art copying life is a frequent and well known fact. Life copying art is much less common, and therefore more worthy of comment.

Highly successful people have at least one thing one thing in common. The ability and desire to get ideas from unusual sources is common, to most successful people. We all recognize the amazing marketing success, of Garth Brooks. So the fact he took an idea from a movie is, not surprising. It does surprise me that nobody seems to have noticed. He has recently released a rock CD. On the cover, it says "Garth Brooks, as Chris Gaines" . Folks, what we have here is perfect examples of life copying art and thinking as a successful person. What we have here is a rock singer impersonating a country singer, who is impersonating a rock singer. His success in marketing records is a proven fact. We should expect this latest twist to be successful, as well. No doubt, Chris Gaines will smash several guitars into unusable bits and take great pride in given the resulting useless junk to admiring fans.

Changes At, www.radiocountry.org

If your business is involved in country music, as a production, record, promotion, music publishing, state country music association, songwriting association, country music theater, or etc; you are invited to have your home page at our site. Our site is currently receiving about 3, 000 visits, per week. There are many places to put your home page, but having up and having it found are very different matters. Our site is rapidly becoming the best known country music site, on the web. We invite you and your company, to be a part of it.

If you are have a radio show and are currently reporting to our chart, we will put one of your programs on the internet each month free. We will need a CD recording of your program, a photo, and a short biography. Each month you will need to send us a new program, on CD.

New singers, writers, and features are added almost daily, at our web site. Our full line music store went on line recently. You can find great deals on stereos for car and home, instruments, sound equipment, CDs, tapes, videos, and more. We have entered into a joint marketing agreement with a wonderful western gift store. The bricks and motor store is located in Deadwood, SD where Wild Bill was killed. He was holding aces and eights, which came to be known as "the deadman’s hand". Wild Bill and Calamity Jane are both buried, near the store. They have a great line of native American arts and crafts, hats, boots, and other gifts, for the country folks in your life.