GMA Calgary

Just woke up. Good sleep. Silly that a two hour time zone change would give me jet lag. Maybe not. Maybe I'm just plain tired.

Spend three days in Calgary at GMA Canada - gospel music association - hooking up with Canadian artists and radio peeps. Schmoozing is the main activity, although some seminars were also good!

While radio is my job and my hobby, my other hobby is working with artists. I'm not sure what my position might be; perhaps Professional Encourager. In a previous lifetime, I managed artists and I think I have a good sense of performance observation. Some people seem to agree and came to my seminar at GMA called "Why Some Artists Make It And Others Don't". I love giving that message and didn't get off stage without 20 questions.

Steve Taylor gave a session about the production of Sixpence's song "Kiss Me". He is a very colourful, animated, clever artist but unfortunately, after viewing the new movie "Blue Like Jazz", I wouldn't recommend it to a Christian audience. Way over the line of good taste for me.

My hero and first artist I heard playing Christian music, and thus my journey into the Christian radio industry - Geoff Moore - hosted a luncheon and sharing his experience as an artist. Geoff is ALWAYS great and an American who understands Canada and encourages us.

Hanging with my good friends Chris Bray, Dan Bremnes, Sean Dayton and Zach Havens was awesome. All of these guys are class acts. Then meeting new friends was cool - including Ash Militsala in "From Love To Forfeit" from Edmonton and David Millar from Cities Under Fire from North Battleford.

Friday night was the Covenant Awards - our version of the Grammy's. Most winning artists were not there to accept their award. Sidebar - most of my favourites did not evan win, despite substantial radio airplay. Zach Havens from To Tell dined with me and performed "Safe To Say" with the house band. Evan Duran from LIFE 100.3 presented an award at the Covenant Awards.

I took a side trip to CJAY and Virgin Radio (secular) and brought back some new radio ideas for LIFE 100.3. CJAY is owned by Astral with a great radio history in the market.

Gleaning ideas from their operation will certainly make LIFE back home a slicker product. After CJAY, my buddy Ryan took Evan and me to a burger joint, that is a walk-up/drive-thru, with NO INDOOR TABLES! So we sat outside at the picnic table, freezing and eating! Haha! Great time!

I suppose I've left out some of the best parts of the trip - thanks everyone who I connected with and chaffeured me around town!