CMA Music Fest is here!

Here we are again -- CMA Music Fest week in Nashville! I sure hope I get a ton of rest this weekend, because I'm gonna need it! We're PACKED with great events to broadcast -- 8 full days of CMA Music Fest madness! I'm telling you ... we're really proud of the lineup of broadcasts this year! Of course, we at XM pride ourselves on bringing fans great content that they can't hear ANYWHERE else, especially on their local FM radio stations! To that end, it always amazes me why radio stations all over the country do the same thing for every big country music event -- they send out their morning shows to broadcast from a big hotel conference room and play "musical chairs" with artist after artist. All the broadcasts sound exactly the same! Honestly, it doesn't matter whether it's the ACM Awards, CMA Awards, or CMA Music Fest -- it's all the same sound on FM radio.

You XM subscribers know that we try hard to bring the essence of each event to our fans. And there's no better example than CMA Music Fest week! NOWHERE else can you hear exclusive Fan Club parties and the star-studded benefit concerts! It's truly what "Fan Fair" week is all about -- artists getting as close as they can get to their fans. And for those fans who can't make it to Nashville, we're proud to be able to bring them those events through the magic of XM Radio!!

Even though the "official" CMA events don't start until mid-week, we get started on MONDAY this year with our first-ever broadcast of the IFCO Fun Fest Concert at the Ryman, a benefit for the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. It's their 40th Anniversary show, and we're proud to be part of the celebration! This show can really be considered as the original "Fan Fair" concert and we hope they're around for 40 more! Listen for live performances from Joe Diffie, Chris Young, Trick Pony, Aaron Tippin, and many more! It's a GREAT way to kick off our week!

Later in the week, we'll air Chely Wright's 7th Annual "Reading, Writing, & Rhythm" Benefit Concert, a TON of Fan Club Parties (Dierks Bentley, Phil Vassar, Rodney Atkins, Keith Anderson, Jo Dee Messina ... just to name a few), and another new event for XM -- the "Rhythm On The River" Concerts to benefit Musicians On Call. We'll talk more about each event here on this blog as the week continues.

So here we go ... buckle up and enjoy this ride with us! It's going to be a great one!

- Jon Anthony