Country Music Star Joins IdleAire Team for National Roll-out

At a press conference held earlier today in Knoxville, TN, country music giant Trace Adkins joined executives from IdleAire Technologies to announce a unique partnership. The multi-platinum star, who performs more than 200 concerts across the country each year, will serve as a spokesman and advocate to communicate the benefits of IdleAire to the backbone of this nation’s economy – the long-haul truck drivers.

Already in 24 locations in 11 states and now being deployed in some 210 additional truck stops and fleet terminals in 35 states, IdleAire’s Advanced Truckstop Electrification (ATE®) system allows any long-haul truck driver to stop idling their truck to maintain cab comfort during mandated daily rest periods, or while waiting to load or unload. The system also provides electrical outlets and a variety of communications and entertainment options for drivers (see attached fact sheet). The only retrofit needed for any long-haul truck to use the system is a $10 window adapter.

Adkins first learned of the IdleAire system from his bus driver, an IdleAire member, who explained the benefits to him. "That’s when I knew this was worth looking into," Adkins explained. "I have a great deal of respect for drivers and I know how hard they work and how vital their work is." After talking with other professionals and climbing in a truck cab to personally review IdleAire's system, Adkins made the decision to serve as a communications link and spokesperson for the organization.

Adkins will make personal appearances throughout the year on IdleAire’s behalf and will videotape a wide variety of messages for delivery to drivers and fleets. In turn, he will have access to IdleAire’s own in-cab Trucking Entertainment Network (TEN), which includes an IdleAire-developed television channel dubbed TENCountry that delivers country music videos and other entertainment to drivers when connected to the IdleAire system.

IdleAire CEO, Mike Crabtree said the company was excited to have an individual of Adkins’ visibility and stature among truck drivers, who represent a core of country music’s fan base. "We anticipate that he will provide invaluable assistance in the company’s marketing efforts as we pursue our aggressive growth plan over the next 15 months."

"I’m extremely excited about my association with IdleAire because their system is exceedingly beneficial for so many," explains Adkins. "Not only does it improve the lives of drivers by providing the opportunity for better rest, healthier air and modern conveniences in the cab, but it also saves fleets the costs associated with idling, including fuel, maintenance and engine wear. It also greatly improves the air we all breathe and moves our nation toward energy independence, which benefits everyone, including my family."

In the past year, Adkins has sold more than 3 million records, with two back-to-back Platinum® certifications. The singer’s "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk Tour" has been selling out venues from Maine to Oregon and will wrap in April with a concert in Thousand Oaks, CA on 4/5. Adkins will celebrate a decade in the business as a recording artist for Capitol Records/Nashville with a new album this summer. For more information, www.traceadkins.com.

Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc. ® is once again getting ready for the official start of the Country Radio Seminar, this year scheduled for Wednesday, February 15, 2006. The seminar will take place during the second officially declared “Country Radio Week,” a resolution that was passed by the Council of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.

This is known as the market week for the Country industry as labels and vendors rollout their new products to radio during the week. Many companies use this time to plan other events as well to take advantage of all the people in to town for CRS. Country radio promotes Nashville tourism daily by broadcasting information about our city and attractions. It is the primary medium for the exposure of Country music, an endeavor that employs many Nashvillains as artists, writers and producers.

Ed Salamon, Executive Director of CRB, said, “There¹s nothing else like The Country Radio Seminar in any other radio format. This week nearly one thousand radio folks from all over the USA will come to town to learn what’s new in Country radio, hear the music that they may soon be playing and return home to talk about Nashville and Country music every day for the next year.”

CRS-37 provides continuing education, vital in this time of change, for industry professionals, artists, programmers, promotions, sales and media. The panel discussions and their panelists, along with the session topics, are decided by the CRS Agenda Committee. The committee is made up of program and music directors, artist and general managers, account and record executives and representatives from distribution companies, syndicated radio and internet companies from a vast range of Country radio stations throughout the United States.

In addition to the annual convention staples such as programming and promotion panels, research presentations, discussions, the town meeting, the working breakfast and others, the CRS-37 agenda will also focus on present critical and controversial industry issues.

CRS-37 will include over 30 presentations and panels where individuals get the chance to go one on one with industry experts, as well as luncheon and dinner concerts. It will provide attendees multiple networking opportunities at various day and after-hours gatherings as well as showcase some of Country music¹s best talent at live entertainment event events.

There are still a limited number of tickets available for the following three events:

On Tuesday, Feb. 14, the DJ Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction Ceremony will be in the Nashville Convention Center. The dinner starts at 6:15 p.m. and the ceremony begins at 7:15 p.m. There will be a Cocktail Reception at 5:15 p.m. Tickets are available at $75 per person at the registration desk at the Nashville Convention Center beginning at 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, February 14th until they are sold out.

On Thursday, Feb. 16, the Spring Town Meeting Package which includes admission for one day during the seminar, a panel discussion, performances and great networking opportunities. Registration for the package is only $100 onsite. The Spring Town Meeting is sponsored by BMI and CRS*Las Vegas.

On Friday, February 17, Radio Sales Day is the first time CRB has offered a separate full day's registration for Friday only. Registration for this special offer is only $300 onsite. Registrants will be able to attend a full day of CRS activities as well as Friday night's annual New Faces of Country Music Show.

The seminar will end with the New Faces of Country Music Show on Friday, February 17, 2006. The participating artists are Jason Aldean, Keith Anderson, Jeff Bates, Little Big Town and Hot Apple Pie. This year, the show will be hosted by T. “Bubba” Bechtel. This will be his second year in a row as host. .

Once again focusing on the schools of the Southeastern Conference, the run hit the Jupiter Bar & Grille in Tuscaloosa, the legendary 40 Watt Club in Athens and the Amsterdam Café in Knoxville. With all the proceeds from this year's mini-tour going to Habitat for Humanity - Home Delivery, Habitat's designated Hurricane Katrina relief effort, the always sweat-soaked, truly spontaneous shows gave as good as they got this year, in addition to having a special sentimental hold of the reigning ACM Entertainer of the Year.

“We'd been wanting to bring this tour to UT for as long as we've been doing it, because it's mostly about getting back to our roots as musicians, remembering every gig we ever worked too hard for too little money at -- yet had the absolute time of our lives,” says Chesney with a laugh. “But it's always really hard to keep a secret in your hometown, especially when your hometown is so small and such a part of you. We pulled it off -- and considering that the last time we played Knoxville, it was 67,000 people at Neyland Stadium, this was a whole other kind of rush. But it was cool… especially seeing how much and how hard everybody was into some of the songs from the album that haven't been singles yet, songs like, well, 'Smalltown'.”

While Chesney was busy rocking hundreds, 9 dates of his upcoming The Road & The Radio Tour went on sale - and were promptly gone! Well over 86,000 tickets were snapped up - including two shows in Grand Rapids, Michigan that were gone in 15 minutes, less than a 60 minute sell-out in Jacksonville, Austin and both Dayton and Pensacola blowing out one show and nearly going clean on a second. Though he still has one of the lowest ticket prices of ANY major headliner - “because I wanna make sure the people who wanna come and party with us can… and it's not the price of the ticket that's keeping them away. I've been there as a kid, and I try to remember…” - his sales for Saturday topped $5.5 million, getting the man who joined U2 and the Rolling Stones as one of the three highest earning acts of last year off a pretty good start on 2006.

“I love this song,” says Williams. “Gretchen, Donnie & Johnny, Kenny & John all did great!!! This song reminds me of the All My Rowdy Friends anthem that was started in the 80s and hopefully it will catch on too.”

Williams made his first stage appearance at the age of eight using his father’s name, songs and mannerisms. He debuted on the Grand Ole Opry at 11 and produced his first hit record at 14 with “Long Gone Lonesome Blues.”

Williams will make a special appearance at the 2006 Country Radio Seminar in Nashville to perform a ‘private’ show at the Country Music Hall of Fame for ABC Radio Networks. Radio attending the seminar should check with the folks at ABC Radio Networks or Asylum/Curb Records for the ‘special pass’ to attend this ‘private’ event.

In addition to the timeless music, host Keith Bilbrey, a Grand Ole Opry announcer with more than 30 years at WSM radio, brings remarkable insight into Country music’s history and heritage. Classic Country Today is where legendary songs and legendary artists come together.

Classic Country Today takes the place of Classic Country Gold, hosted by Kyle Cantrell, which has ceased production.

The new program is now a part of Impact Radio Networks’ popular Classic Country Weekends programming block, which also features Classic Country Rewind and 25 Years of Hits. Together these three programs take listeners on a five-hour musical journey from Country’s roots all the way through the #1 hits of the past 25 years!

”The Academy of Country Music strives to give artists a platform to express themselves musically,” announced Bob Romeo, Executive Director of the Academy of Country Music. “We are thrilled that Keith Urban has invited such legendary performers to join him at CRS-37 Music City Jam. Music Row will be talking about this night for years to come.”

”We’re very proud to be able to present this ‘one time only’ music event as this year’s Music City Jam, performed especially for the attendees of The Country Radio Broadcasters® Country Radio Seminar,” commented Ed Salamon, Executive Director of The Country Radio Broadcasters.

Heidi Heinz, Dir. of Marketing & Promotions says, “The students collected over $300 in pennies for our St. Jude Radiothon and presented them to Chad. The station raised over $507,000 in their most successful Radiothon ever”!

McDonald had spotted the guitar in the office of Eddie Bush’s publicist and walked in to take a closer look. Bush’s signature guitar model has a pearlized stallion in the place of the sound hole. One of McDonald’s daughters is a huge fan of horses and Eddie Bush gave him the guitar. “I always get a lot of compliments on my guitar,” says Bush. “But I’ve got to confess, when an artist like Richie McDonald from Lonestar compliments the guitar, it makes me feel great. I was happy to give him a guitar to take home to his daughter.”

Up next, Eddie Bush will be heading to Nashville, TN for CRS 37. He will be kicking off the radio seminar at his Texas Hold’em Tournament “Get Lucky” with Eddie Bush Party on Tuesday, February 14th located in the Ryman Room at the Renaissance Hotel. Doors will open at 9:30 p.m.

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This Week’s New Music Choices (Adds)

Chris Cagle Wal-Mart Parking Lot Capitol Nashville

Eric Church How ‘bout You Capitol Nashville

Cowboy Crush Hillbilly Nation Curb

Billy Currington Why, Why, Why Mercury

Scotty Emerick What’s Up With That ShowDogNashville

Faith Hill The Lucky One Warner Bros

“It’s a family recipe sort of thing,” says the handsome Texan. “We trade batches back and forth at big family get-togethers. Everyone has a different ‘secret ingredient’ and mine is the Tabasco. It gives the mix a little kick without setting your taste buds on fire. Plus, I always use Tobias Pecans (from Ellinger, TX). They’re the best.”

Nashville Star the nation top-rated Country music series, has landed Grammy award winning Gretchen Wilson and Billboard 2005 Comedy Artist of the Year Larry the Cable Guy to appear in the second episode of the hit talent search series, it was announced today by Libby Hansen, USA Network vice president of alternative series & specials.

"Gretchen and Larry each bring something different and exciting to the NASHVILLE STAR party," said Hansen. "We are in a great position going into season four with some of the most notable names in entertainment scheduled to take our stage." In the second week of Nashville Star, themed Redneck Revolution after Gretchen Wilson’s upcoming 2006 tour by the same name, the reigning CMA Best Female Vocalist will light up the stage with an opening performance of her highly-anticipated next single.

The contestants will perform various songs with similar redneck themes, and Larry the Cable Guy will contribute some Blue Collar Comedy from the judges table alongside show veterans Anastasia Brown and Phil Vassar.

After two days of the Cat Country Cares for Kids St. Jude Radiothon we are beyond excited to announce that we surpassed all goals set for this years radiothon and all previous records for the radio station and raised $103,469 for the kids at St. Jude!

The song and video are designed to raise awareness for adoption. We’ll be mastering the single this week, and it will be on your desk out there in radio-land very soon. Wayne will be actively promoting the single, so we hope we can have him on your show once the record is released. Having seen the idea start last summer, and seeing it take wings as it has is truly a breathtaking thing that will give you chills! There are too many artists to mention, but a few of the others on the track include Lila McCann, Hometown News, Jimmy Fortune, Mila Mason and Kevin Sharp. Thanks to all the artists, managers, and publicists who made this dream a reality!

9- 11- 10- Rodney Crowell- Say You Love Me- DMZ/Sony Rec.

"This is potentially the most widespread and flagrant violation of FCC rules in the history of American broadcasting," Adelstein said. "We've never seen evidence of such a systematic betrayal of the responsibility of broadcasters. It's a complicated and wide-ranging investigation."

PD Randy "Mudflap" Wilcox says, "This is just amazing. Florence is a small market, but we have loyal listeners in cities like Fayetteville, NC and Myrtle Beach, SC, and many of our donations came from those areas. Add that to the unprecedented generosity from folks right here at home, a fired up airstaff and the wonderful people at McLeods Childrens Hospital, and we get the wonderful result we've had here."

Broadcasting live for the three days were morning show personalities Mudflap & Mattie, midday host Chase Matthews, afternoon personality Ed Palmer, and assisting throughout all three days, night jock Austin Kelly. A check presentation will be made on television station WBTW News Channel 13 in June as part of the Children's Miracle Networks' telethon.