GMA Week Diary – Saturday, April 24, 2004

Greetings from “Music City”! As registrants for this year’s Gospel Music
Week start to pour into Nashville for the official start of activities on
Sunday, the Tennessee capital had two major items on its agenda today – the
“Country Music Marathon” through the streets of Nashville and watching the
Tennessee Titans make their selections in the National Football League
draft.

Besides the opening of the National Christian Radio Seminar on Saturday, the
major event in Christian Music is WAYFEST 2004, the annual concert at the
Starwood Amphitheatre sponsored by WAY-FM. Third Day, TobyMac and Warren
Barfield are the featured acts of the evening while side stage concerts
during the day included Shaun Groves, Tree63, Todd Agnew and BarlowGirl.

We’ll do our best to keep you informed this week on the happenings from
Nashville.

NATIONWIDE RADIO COVERAGE OF GMA - Christian music radio listeners have a
good chance to hear from GMA this week as more than 15 stations, including
both K-LOVE and Air 1 Radio Networks, are broadcasting shows live from the
Nashville Convention Center. It looked like a radio tech convention as
booths were being set up throughout the center today.

CHRISTIAN MUSIC IN MAGAZINES – One of the highlights each year for
registrants is the availability of the Christian magazines from around the
country. You can go home with 20 pounds of magazines if you take one of
each.

Many feature Christian music themes in their current issues to tie in with
GMA. While they just putting out the magazines when I registered, I was
able to get a few and those that include music-related stories include
(listed in alphabetical order):
Billboard – 2-page feature on Praise and Worship called “Thank Heavens For
The Music”
Campus Life – Readers Choice Christian music awards and BarlowGirl
CCM – MercyMe: Tried & True featured on the cover
Christianity Today – Bill Gaither
Power Source – The Katinas and “Christian in the Entertainment Industry?
What It Takes”
Radio & Records – Annual Christian Formats Special
Wireless Age – Third Day, RJ Helton and more
Worship Musician – Rick Muchow: Purpose Driven Worship

We’ll check out the rest of the magazines tomorrow and let you know what
else is out there for your reading enjoyment.

IT TAKES A LOT OF PEOPLE – In addition to the full-time staff, more than 100
volunteers aid the Gospel Music Association in making things work this week.
Those of us who attend each year owe these volunteers a special word of
thanks for all the work they do to make this week work for all of us.

More tomorrow.



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Barry Smades
Prodigy Christian Music Newsrep

Psalm 61:8

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