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Val Gingrich and Courtney Potts with keepsakes - guitar, program and ticket
Barb Kelly photos, except where noted |
Toni Lucas
Mountain Radio was one of five radio stations chosen throughout all of Canada to have an open-door pass to the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) Music Week and Awards that took place in Edmonton, Alberta from September 4 - 7. DJ Courtney Potts was one of Mountain Radio's representatives. "This is not an understatement, this was a life changing experience for me, as a DJ," said Potts, "one of the biggest events I have ever been able to take part in. The amount of people that I was able to meet and talk to, honestly, my head is still reeling."
Potts got to meet George Canyon, Tom Cochrane, Paul Brandt, Gord Bamford, Jess Moskaluke, The Lovelocks, Aaron Pritchett, Chad Brownlee, Kira Isabella, Lindsay Ell, and many more. Some she interviewed, some she talked to, and many signed her guitar or program.
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Brett Kissle and Courtney Potts
*Brett Kissle photo |
Potts had a guitar that she kept at the Mountain Radio booth at the event. "I had every artist that came and talked to me come and sign my guitar. The rest of the weekend, I brought my CCMA program with me and had people sign my program." When asked if she was going to play the guitar, she said, "Well that's the funny thing, I don't play the guitar, at all."
The night before she was going to music week Potts was visiting with friends Val Gingrich and Chalmer Steiger. "I said it would be really great if had something and could get all the artists to sign it when they come to my table on Friday, and my friends gave it to me, which was very nice of them." Her friends offered her an acoustic guitar that they had in their home, saying that they had not used it for years. "It is a beautiful guitar, and it's even in tune. I have to thank them so much for giving that to me. That's going to be my memory, for years to come. I am going to keep forever and ever and ever. This is the biggest event of my radio career to this point, and maybe ever. I am going to hang this guitar on my wall, I have my CCMA Awards ticket, and this program. I am always going to remember the fantastic time I had in Edmonton, 2014. I have become a country music fan 10 times more than I was when I left on Thursday."
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| Gord Bamford and Courtney Potts |
"One of the main things that I was able to walk away with was that what I noticed about the Canadian Country artists is that they are really appreciative of their fans and country radio, whether it is small town radio, like us at Mountain Radio, or a big city station. It made me feel like I was a part of an integral totem pole of fans, radio DJ's, artists, promoters, and album sales directors. If any one of us were pulled out of that totem pole, it would all come crashing down to the floor."
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Courtney Potts and Kira Isabella
*submitted photo |
"The artists are so appreciative of their fans, it was really heart warming. You don't hear that from other music genres, not that I've noticed. It was really an eye-opener how humble almost all of these country music stars really are. You could walk right up to any of them and I did not hear one of them refuse a picture, or an autograph, or an interview from anybody." She said that it was very welcoming atmosphere. "It's kind of like a family reunion for some of these country music stars. For one weekend, everybody is in one place. They get to catch up, and see what everybody else is doing."
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| Tom Cochrane interview |
Potts recommends that country fans that have the opportunity should try to attend this event. "You get to hear so much new country music from unsigned artists that are trying to make it big. We will see some of these artists, no names right now, but a couple of years from now they might be doing radio tours and coming here to the Crowsnest Pass."
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Potts with The Lovelocks
Ali Raney and Zoe Neuman |
"There was one group that I was lucky enough to interview, they were the CCMA Discovery Winners. Two lovely ladies, 'The Lovelocks'. They were a shining star of the weekend. Their first single 'Teardrop Tattoo' went to number 2 on iTunes the day it was released. That is something that is huge. They will be dropping a new single really soon, and I am going to make sure that I have that new single so that I can share with the fans, and my listening audience." At no time was Potts so star-struck that she forgot that she had an obligation to her audience, as well. She said that they did a lot of live cut-in programming. "I wanted share this experience with my audience, the Mountain Radio listeners and make them feel like they were right there with me."
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| Lindsay Ell and Courtney Potts |
"The CCMA's are very important to our country music artists. It is a very big honour just to be nominated or to take home one," explained Potts. Mountain Radio went at the invitation of CCMA, who subsidized a lot of the related costs of the trip. "It was a new proposition that the CCMA directors came up with to subsidize small radio stations so that we also have a chance to be part of these great events. Only 5 radio station from all across Canada were chosen, and luck for us at Mountain Radio we were one of those five. I was able to get into absolutely everything, which made this experience so much more almost dream like because there wasn't anything I couldn't be a part of. Thanks the CCMA directors. I hope they keep doing this. I've come back with a whole different sense of purpose, almost. I'm just raring to go. This is something I'm going to remember for the rest of my life. It was the best time of my live, I have never had so much fun. Country music rocks!"
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| Courtney Potts and Jim Rankin |
"The future of country music: Oh man, we've got it in the bag. Watch out States, because I think we are going to be taking over the charts here in the next three to five years for sure."
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| Courtney Potts and Steven Lee Olsen |
Courtney Potts is a DJ for Mountain Radio 94.9 FM. She has a live broadcast that is soon to be expanded to run from 6:00 am - 11:00 am Monday through Friday and hosts a best of show on Saturdays 7:00 am to 10:00 am.
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