Herman De Geyter new writer for Country Music News International

First of all, le me give you a short
introduction of myself.
I was active promoting country music on
a nationwide station (RADIO 2) in Belgium and had listeners all over
the country; plus some parts of Holland, France and Germany. All this
is a pre-internet period.
It has always been a veryhard struggle,
fighting for recognition of what I consider a very beautiful music.
Fans of country music bought what they were looking for in import
stores, thus beauting the official labels who were always late on
releasing new stuff.
A vicious circle with the only result
that few country albums were released in Belgium.
Trying to keep my programming up to
date I was forced to import hundreds of albums from the U.S.
In the 60’s til the 80’s I got my
music mostly from music publishing firms (mostly promo 45’s), so
were were always up to date .
We got lots of reactions from our
audiences, did some shows at amusement parks and quite a few shows at
our Radio 2 studio (always packed) People still remember those
beautiful shows with mostly Canadian artists provded to us by Kees de
Haan, another country pioneer.
The 90’s and joining the Country
Music Association made our future brighter. I visited Nashville in
1999 and got to know some executives at record firms.
But 2004 really made it happen for me,
I was able to visit the Opry backstage and met a lot of great
artists, had talks with them etc… My most memorable was in 2007
when I met Porter Wagoner just a month before he passed away.
It was also my last year for Radio 2
and for country music. Just like everywhere, they changed format and
there was no time left for country music.
Neverhtless in those days country music
stays a green restplace for music.
2007 I had to quit, just a few months
after I got an Award from the CMA for 40 years of service to country
music.
Later on, some tow years of making
programs (for free) for local station and during that time not
receiving ONE single reaction, it was time for me to quit.
See you later…
Herman,

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