US Country - R.I.P.

Just a reminder that today is the last day for you to enjoy the 80's and 90's country music featured on U.S. Country. At midnight Eastern tonight, the channel goes to Strait Country for the next 2 months.

I will be back to give the channel a proper obituary later, but didn't want you to miss the chance to record some programming on your Inno, Helix, or MyFi should you need to.

The first song to ever play on U.S. Country was "American Honky Tonk Bar Association." The last song to play on U.S. Country will be "The Dance."

Bragging on my blog readers~!

I was alerted by our friend Carrie in the Jacksonville Convention & Visitors Bureau that I needed to check out the travel section of the Tennessean yesterday.

Indeed, her hard work paid off in the form of an above-the-fold, front-page-of-the-travel-section story on how to make a "Three Day Escape" to Jacksonville. Sounds good to me! The only thing that would have made this story better was some beach pictures, because I personally could spend 3 days laying on the sand listening to the ocean.

Roadtrip anyone?

Tag -- I'm It!

Derek, has tagged me. (Nice to meet you!)

The rules are:
1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

What I was doing 10 years ago:
Directing 6 and 10 news at the NBC station in Nashville, trying to figure out how to get into country music programming, decorating our new house, and chasing after a toddler.

Five things on my To Do List today:
1. Write the Phil Stacey Driver's Ed
2. XM Programming Conference Call
3. Get evaluation for Root Canal
4. Edit George Strait RDRS
5. Make green beans for Room In The Inn

Snacks I enjoy:
Chocolate, topped with chocolate, and a side order of chocolate

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Buy a house on the beach
Fund some amazingly cool charity project in Delaynie's name
Take Delaynie to New Zealand
Buy a house on the beach in New Zealand
Set up a Mass Comm scholarship at my alma mater
Trust funds for the kids and grandkids

Three of my bad habits:
1. Hitting the snooze button several times a morning
2. Not washing my makeup off before I go to bed
3. Obsessively checking my email

Five places I have lived:
1. Farmington, IL
2. Normal, IL
3. Bloomington, IL
4. Morton, IL
5. Nashville, TN

Five jobs I’ve had:
1. Waitressing (You name it, I've served it)
2. Selling local tv commercials (hated it)
3. Directing local tv news
4. In house TV director for Nashville Predators
5. Radio producer

People I'm tagging:
I'm not sure I know 5 people that have blogs... so I may have to randomly search the net and find people. (Volunteers accepted!) Stay tuned.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

T.G.I.F.!!!

Staring a list of notes to come back to....

The Driver's Ed from HELL. Some of you saw the blog entry I put up. Once I got that out of my system I felt better. So I took it down. LOL Worst. Press Kit. Ever. Seriously, I could write a book on what was wrong with the material I got from a record label for a Driver's Ed we recorded early this week. And the recording session didn't go much better. Not going to be a fun edit.

An hour and a half with Brooks & Dunn - There were restrictions on what tour dates we were allowed to talk about when, and I didn't take good notes on that, so we're just not going to talk about the tour, k? They're doing one. Go see it, it's going to be cool. They're going to do an acoustic thing on a 12 foot pod out in the middle of the audience and change up the set for that every night. That was inspired from their Australian trip. They have a book in progress... Ronnie was incredibly sunburned... and the next single is going to be "Put A Girl In It." They're performing with Keith Urban on the CMT Awards -- "Raise the Barn."

My favorite B&D moment though, might have been when Ronnie said he'd talked to Reba the day before, and she'd told him that the ACM Entertainer of the Year was going to be voted on by the fans. (That was news to him.) Ronnie said that would be really interesting to see how that would play out once they announced the 5 nominees.

ACM Nominees were announced 3 weeks ago. LOL

The best written bio of the week award goes to... former American Idol contestant Phil Stacey! And I told him so. He had a great bio. And he was a really good interview. We got his album hot off the press, the morning after it was mastered, under all sorts of restrictions, so I can't talk about it. He'll be on Driver's Ed the end of April when his self titled debut CD hits stores.

The Keith Anderson party I never got around to telling you about - has the album release date been published? Keith did an industry showcase at 3rd & Lindsley, which is where the photo I put up was taken. He pretty much did the same show we saw at CRS, without Foster & Lloyd, with one additional song. (I Need a Hug? Something about hugging. I got a couple of hugs that night, if that counts for anything.) It was a small crowd, maybe 100 people. Good food. David Lee Murphy and Craig Wiseman were there... some radio folks, some media folks, Keith's girlfriend and her mom. The album has been pushed back again from the last date I'd heard - it's now a late June release.

Josh Gracin on ShortCuts this weekend - listen for the Garth mentions! There were a couple of them, I can't remember exactly what now. Phil Stacey has a GREAT Garth story... be listening for that show so you can learn what Garth song caused him to join the Navy! That's the power of music.

Celebrity Apprentice - Kudos to Trace for his performance on that show. He really came off looking good, and doing country music proud. The point where his girls came in and he got all teary... definitely a side of Trace I hadn't seen. HOWEVER -- all that said... and yes that tabloid guy was an ass... if the show is about being a business apprentice, and the goal was to find the most business minded person, who could raise the most money for charity, then the right decision was made, IMHO. Yes he was ruthless, but Donald Trump didn't get to be a gazillionaire by being Mr. Nice Guy. And really, Trace won big with all that exposure. And now, thankfully, my wading into the Reality TV waters is over.

RIP US Country - that's going to get it's own blog entry. Along with the scoop on my new, yet old, gig.

5th grader for sale. Cheap.

Closed Circuit to Carrie in Jacksonville!

This morning, Gerry House (WSIX) did a thing on the radio about how the first thing to go post-merger would be their show, (which I highly doubt) because nobody listened to them on XM.

So he asked for - and got - calls from XM listeners from everywhere, including Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana and New York.

I sat there listening just SURE I was going to hear someone saying their name was Carrie and they work in the Jacksonville Convention & Visitors Bureau and they listen faithfully every morning. Where were you???? LOL

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I know y'all have nto been able to sleep at night wondering what my garden looks like. So here you go. The first few pictures are the "Before" -what it looked like when I came back from the cruise. Perhaps someone can explain why you'd plant a row of daffodils along the sidewalk in the grass. Next year they'll be somewhere else, for sure. The last four pictures were taken at the end of our work day on Saturday.

We added pine bark mulch, a trellis and climbing rose bush, pansies, and hanging baskets. Drug out the bird bath and some feeders. And gave the tree a little character. Hopefully in a few weeks it will all bloom and be pretty. Not sure if we'll have roses this year... guessing probably not.

Update on The M Word

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Department of Justice Monday approved a $4.4 billion merger between Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (XMSR), ending more than a year's speculation as to whether the deal would be allowed to go ahead.

The Department of Justice's antitrust division said in a statement it had concluded that a merger between the only two satellite radio companies posed no harm to competition.

The approval removes a major regulatory hurdle to the deal going forward, it now requires the green light of the Federal Communications Commission.

Just gonna say this while I still can, without risk of getting fired.... ;-) Our country programming kicks their country programming's ass. And that's been fun.

Busted!

I totally got busted trying to take a picture of our hot waiter, Vijay. So he leaned in to the nearest guest and mugged for me.

Lots more photos from my trip below. Hope y'all had a great Easter weekend. We completely re-did our front garden Saturday... I now ache in places I didn't know I had. The fun thing about having a new (to me) house is that you have mystery plants popping up out of the garden. I came home from the cruise to discover a zillion pink, purple and white hyacinths blooming, along with some totally random daffodils. There are a few things I'm unsure about - are they weeds or could they be flowers? Time will tell.

I will have garden photos later in the week. (They don't really compare with hot waiter pics, sorry.) To get pics off my camera I have to put my SD card in my work camera, and it's being used to take pics of our new studios, which, I'm told, are now in progress! So hopefully I'll have photos of them to share soon as well. Yay!

Onboard the Carnival Valor

The Bahamas

St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.

St. Maarten (The Dutch Side)

Running Away to the Ocean

Just a few random pictures to share. St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and 2 at sea.

Funniest thing today... the woman at the Red Cross was putting me through the "what foreign countries have you been in lately" quiz before I could give blood, and when I said St. Maarten she asked if I had been anywhere else in Europe.

I told her I hadn't been to Europe, I'd been to the Carribbean. And she told me there was 2 St. Maartens, and they were spelled differently.

I didn't tell her that they were on the same island.

Photos You Don't Show Your Husband

Double dating
with your co-worker...
but this time
you're sharing the date...

Mmmm......
to quote Amy Paige

"that's a Manwich!"

(I am resisting the urge to make further comments that might not be family friendly enough for this blog...)

A Tibetian rug you fall in love with in the Virgin Islands...
Because you know it will look awesome in front of your fireplace...
So you buy it...

and ship it home...


Actually... Gary's seen the picture ...of Keith.

Grascals in the House!

Our favorite bluegrass band is in the studio right now, pickin' songs from their forthcoming album. I have been the official photographer of the Grascals today... Jamie gave me control of his camera during their session... heh heh heh...

Delaynie is here on Spring Break, when they're done playing,she wants to meet Garth's fiddle player. Will let you know how that goes. . .

Mission Accomplished! Sharon -- I just realized she's wearing your shirt! :-)

Jimmy actually remembered meeting her a zillion years ago, one of the very first times they were in to the HOF.

Miami

Just some random photos I took while wandering around Miami. I really enjoyed my day there. Some very cool skyscrapers. Jacksonville photos are below.

Meanwhile, back in the real world...

Calgon... take me away! Back to where someone turns down my bed and leaves chocolates on my pillows... where the sun is shining brightly, the water is turquoise blue, and hot waiters pull out my chair and bring me lobster....

Taking a break from the intense Josh Gracin submersion I've been in (writing a ShortCuts episode that we're cutting TODAY) to refresh my brain and update you on a few things going on back here in Music City.

Bill Anderson Visits with the Statler Brothers is airing TODAY on XMX channel 2, so I'm told. I haven't had a chance to listen, but hope to on my way to the orthodontist.

Highway 16 Driver's Ed with Ashton Shepherd debuts today at 3pm ET - airs again Thursday and Sunday. This will forever be known between us as the "Miss Clairol Driver's Ed."

I no longer look like a Lobster, I'm now the color of a baked potato. My tan lines, however, have tan lines. But it's too cold here to show them off anyway.

Legs are much better too, thanks. One of the downfalls of those 2nd degree burns was that I'd registered to do a 5k for Komen on board ship - "On Board for the Cure." But I was in too much pain to run. That would have been awesome though - our ship had an outdoor running track and the weather was perfect. I'm bummed I couldn't do it.

Also - I caught Celebrity Apprentice last week for the first time. Trace did good!
Looking forward to seeing the next 2 shows.

Still haven't mentioned my souvenir to Gary... he worked late last night so I barely have seen him since returning home. But no, to answer a couple of questions, it's not a tattoo. LOL. It's much bigger. And more expensive. And is probably going to be delivered in the next 48 hours, so I should probably confess tonight...

Hello from Jacksonville !

Hello from Jacksonville! I'm only here for about an hour and a half, the airport is apparently out in the middle of the forest. I have yet to see the city or the ocean, hopefully I will have better luck on my flight out. I will be in Nashville by lunch time. Reminds me of that Josh Turner song he had on his first album, called Jacksonville. Wish I could spend "a few more days in Jacksonville..." listen

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Didn't plan on hangin' out in Florida

Never was to good at standin still

Suddenly it's lookin' like I'm gonna

Kill a few more days in Jacksonville

<- This is the art I mentioned in the comments of the previous post. It hangs in the Jax airport above the escalator going down to baggage claim.

Hola from Miami!!

I'm baaack~! Kind of. Holed up at the J.W. Marriott in Miami, which is quite possibly the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in in my entire life. And I've stayed in some very nice hotels. Computer in the room, so I can get all caught up on work, and a big ole flat screen tv on the wall. I might stay here forever.

We had the most amazing week at sea... I can't wait to tell you all about it, and share photos. The only small downside is that I got 2nd degree burns on my legs, which are swollen up like crazy. Note to self: SPF 15 not quite strong enough for the Carribbean.

The ports were all awesome - once again I loved St. Maarten the best. We had perfect weather, the group we traveled with was amazing... and I should have a pretty good radio show out of it all when I get a studio to edit it in.

And oh yeah... I bought a little... souvenir... from St. Thomas that I haven't told my husband about... Yet.

I am blogging from the...

I am blogging from the ocean probably 45 minutes also coast of Miami. How cool is this? It is beautiful here, the weather is awesome and we are sailing, we are at sea. We are sailing at sea! That's what we're doing. See ya. listen

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