Eddie Garcia Looks Back on His Three-State, Four-Day Charity Walk
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2021 JUNE 28 CountryInsider.com | Sign Up For Daily Email Here Carried Away: Eddie Garcia Looks Back On His Three-State, Four-Day Charity Walk. Steve Bogard says Eddie Garcia’s three-state walk from West Virginia down to Tennessee last week was only half the journey. Garcia, a co-host of the Premiere Networks-syndicated “The Bobby Bones Show” hiked 73.15 miles, inspired by a line in the 1997 George Strait hit “Carrying Your Love With Me,” which Bogard wrote with Jeff Stevens. But Bogard says he and Stevens wrote “Carrying Your Love With Me” with the idea that the song’s protagonist would soon return to the Mountain State. “Yeah, that’s definitely not a one-way trip,” Bogard tells Country Insider. (Continued on page 4) COUNTRY INSIDER TOP 5: “Whiskey Glasses” Goes 5x Platinum As RIAA Certifies Five Morgan Wallen Singles. Bill Hagy Talks About A Hall Of Fame Career In The Birthplace Of Country Music. GRAMMY Museum Awards Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum $20K For Recording Archival Project. Audacy Launches More Than 350 Digital-Platform Stations, Including “Jake Owens’s Tiki Tonk.” Consultant Scott Huskey: Make The Listener Feel Special. 1 | JUNE 28, 2021 CountryInsider.com Brooke Taylor Steve Wazz My Top 5 Male Middays My Top 5 Country APD/Mornings Songs Of All Time: WSIX Nashville, TN Bands Of All Time: WGAR Cleveland, OH 1. Tim McGraw - 1. Florida Georgia Line I Like It, I Love It 2. Luke Bryan - 2. Brooks and Dunn We Rode in Trucks 3. Dan + Shay 4. Bryan White - Sittin’ on Go 4. Old Dominion 3. George Strait - Carrying 5. Zac Brown Band Your Love With Me 5. Alan Jackson - Chattahoochee Audacy Introduces Hundreds Of Exclusive Digital-Platform Stations. Jake Owen is among the artists curating exclusive music stations for Audacy. The company has launched more than 350 stations across multiple genres for its digital platform. “Jake Owen’s Tiki Tonk” is billed as a playlist “meant for a good time” with music ranging “from Jimmy Buffett to Sublime.” Other country stations include “Grand Ol’ Legends,” “Texas Country” and decade-based “Country Classic” channels. “Exclusive stations underscore Audacy’s commitment to a roadmap of innovation, with many more features and interactivity to come over the coming months,” Audacy Chief Digital Officer J.D. Crowley said in a release. “96.1 The Ton” Drops On South Bend, IN, Today. Mid-West Family South Bend introduced W241AD/WQLQ-HD3 “96.1 The Ton” this morning at 9am ET with the Premiere Networks-syndicated “The Bobby Bones Show.” The station has Brooke Hunter in middays and Mark McGill in afternoon drive. McGill is a former morning host at Federated Media “B100” WBYT, which gets a country competitor in the Indiana market with the arrival of “96.1 The Ton.” “It was a weighty decision, but when you have the opportunity to have Tons of fun, you just go for it,” GM Bill Gamble said in a release. The translator had been simulcasting sports-talk WSBT-AM (960). RIAA Certifies “Whiskey Glasses,” Four More Morgan Wallen Tracks. Morgan Wallen picked up five new certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America last week. “Whiskey Glasses” becomes Wallen’s first 5x platinum single, while “Chasin’ You” and “Up Down” feat. Florida Georgia Line go triple platinum. Two tracks from Wallen’s 2018 “If I Know Me” album – the title cut and “Little Rain” — are now gold. Country Music Hall of Fame And Museum Receives $20,000 GRAMMY Museum Grant. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is receiving $20,000 from the GRAMMY Museum Grant Program. The Hall will use the money to assess, catalog and rehouse approximately 1,250 shellac and vinyl test pressings, including potentially unreleased recordings, donated by Country Music Hall of Fame record executive Art Satherley. The grant is part of $200,000 in grants awarded to facilitate research, archiving and preservation projects. 3 | JUNE 28, 2021 CountryInsider.com Eddie Garcia’s Three-State Walk. (Continued from page 1) Garcia agreed to the charity walk in May, claiming “It was the greatest thing, just seeing the support walking from West Virginia down to Tennessee of the communities that we were going through, wasn’t so far for someone truly in love. Now especially if they weren’t listeners of the show,” he he allows that he has re-thought his original says. interpretation of the song. “You walk, you think about stuff,” he says. “I started thinking that maybe Garcia had no experience with distance running or this is about a guy who is just going on a trip and walking. Runner friends offered helpful suggestions telling the love of his life, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be back.’” like changing shoes regularly and using moleskin to protect his feet from blisters. “I’d never heard of Garcia committed moleskin,” he says. “It’s like a big band-aid, but it to the walk on the gives you an extra layer of skin for your feet. Every condition that Bones’ time I changed socks I would change moleskin, and audience pledge that saved me.” $10,000 to National Angels, a foster-care Garcia rotated between five pairs of running shoes. organization. Garcia “When you change shoes, it rejuvenates your feet,” serves on the non- he says. Brooks supplied three pairs, National profit’s National Angels sent him a pair from HOKA, and he bought a Advisory Council, and pair of Saucony shoes. he and his wife foster “Those Brooks shoes were legit,” he says. “When two children. By the times were tough, those are the ones that got me end of that day, they had donated $30,000. By the through it. end of last week, the total had topped $275,000 — making Garcia reconsider the value he places on “All the shoes had a different feel to them. Some show stunts. had more padding, some had more arch support, some had more support around the ankles. The “If we’re going to do this again,” he says, “I would different kinds of shoes helped with different aim really high.” terrains.” On most days, Garcia changed shoes First Media Services “Kicks Country 106.3-107.7” about every 5 miles. WHKX/WHQX Bluefield, WV, near where Garcia “It was key, especially for the 25-mile day — that started his trek on Father’s Day, airs “The Bobby was the longest day,” he says. “The last five miles Bones Show,” but Garcia’s path took him through I probably changed my shoes twice, because after areas the show doesn’t reach over the air. That two miles it was hurting, didn’t stop listeners from tracking him down to say hurting.” hello as he walked along highways with executive producer Stephen “Scuba Steve” Spradlin trailing “Carrying Your Love With him in an SUV provided by Hyundai. Me” may have given Garcia the idea for last week’s walk, “Some people drove over but his passion for fostering an hour to come see children has a different me,” Garcia says. “People country music connection: would honk and yell my Jimmy Wayne. The singer of name or stop and want “Do You Believe Me Now” and “Stay Gone” once to take a picture.” spoke at Garcia’s church about his experiences Locals often stopped to growing up in the foster-care system. ask what he was doing. “He talked about the impact that his foster family When they offered to had on him, allowing him to play country music and give cash to the cause, live his dream,” Garcia says. “That inspired me to be Garcia pointed them to a foster parent.” the donation page on the show’s website. (Continued on page 7) 4 | JUNE 28, 2021 CountryInsider.com 2021 Country Radio Hall of Fame Inductee Bill Hagy. In an industry known for its extraordinary talkers, Bill a dinner. Hagy became a legend in country radio by listening. “Among Bill Hagy’s biggest advocates are record For more than 50 years, he has remained tuned in people, because they respected his programming to what his listeners want. “I want to learn as much ability, his dedication and his steadfast belief system as I can about the people that I want to listen [to our in what was best for that market, his listeners and that station],” Hagy tells Country Insider. “I want to learn radio station. about their likes, dislikes, habits, and to get to know them and see “He isn’t a big heat seeker. He is modest and doesn’t how they react to want any credit. He is very deserving, but would never things. Research campaign. It was a big surprise to Bill that he was even has been a very considered.” important tool Hagy knew as a teen in Bristol that he wanted to work in accomplishing in radio. He spent his time listening to 50,000-watt what we’ve done. stations such as New York’s WABC-AM, Chicago’s WLS- “We are not shy AM and Nashville’s WLAC-AM. “I liked to hang out at about asking radio stations,” says Hagy, who joined WXBQ in 1965, them what they a year before graduating high school. “I was fascinated think and they’re with all the stuff and records and these weirdo people.” not shy about telling us. It is a country market in While plenty of offers came from larger-market the Southeast — football, NASCAR, live music — it is stations, Hagy was content to remain at the top of good old country folks.