The Springer Mountain Farms jingle contest we told you about a while back is in its finale stage. The judges have narrowed the entries down to their favorite ten.

Now it’s your turn to be the judge. Visit the contest website on WSMonline.com, listen to the entries, and cast your vote. Nine of the ten entries are basically bluegrass in nature. Judging by the banjo that chicken is holding, I suspect they anticipate a bluegrass theme to win. Help make that happen by going over and voting for you favorite.

The voting remains open throughout this week. The winner will be announced by WSM disk jockey Bill Cody on Monday, June 23, 2008.

Springer Mountain Farms is no stranger to bluegrass music. The company sponsors the Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman concert series. The company is located in the Blueridge Mountains of NorthEast Georgia.

Searching for a new jingle for the business, the company decided to partner with WSM to allow creative types to submit their creations for consideration. Here’s the deal.

You write, and perform, a jingle for Springer Mountain Farms Chicken and submit either an audio or video recording, by mail or electronically. Submissions are handled by WSMonline.com. Judges will choose 5 of the submitted jingles for the contest. These five will be posted on the WSM website and the public will vote on their favorite.

The submission deadline is June 13, 2008. The top five will then be posted for voting and the grand prize winner will announced on June 23, 2008.

The grand prize winner will receive the following.

• $1,000 Cash Prize
• A Year’s Supply of Chicken from Springer Mountain Farms
• A Season Pass to this year’s Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman (presented by Springer Mountain Farms)
• A Recording Session at 650 AM WSM’s studio

In addition to the prizes listed above, the winning jingle will, of course, be used in advertising on 650 AM WSM as the official jingle for Springer Mountain Farms Chicken.

For official rules, and submission instructions, please visit the contest page at WSMonline.com.

This weekend’s Grand Ole Opry features a number of bluegrass acts.

Tonight’s (4/25) Friday Opry will include performances from Bobby Osborne, The Whites, Dailey & Vincent and Jesse McReynolds.

Saturday’s (4/26) show offers even more bluegrass, including a live television appearance by The Infamous Stringdusters on GAC TV. Look for them on Opry Live, which airs from 8:00-9:00 p.m. (EDT). The ‘Dusters’ set is scheduled about 15 minutes into the show.

It will re-air on GAC again at midnight Saturday (technically Sunday at 12:00 a.m.), at noon and 7:00 p.m. on Sunday (4/27), Wednesday (4/29) at 8:00 p.m., and at 12:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Friday (4/30).

The Whites and The Grascals will also be appearing on Saturday’s Opry radio show.

Both the Friday and Saturday Opry broadcasts are available over the air in the Nashville market on WSM AM 650, and simulcast worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com. They can also be heard live on XM channel 11 (XM Nashville), replayed on XM 10 (XM America) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

In a final Opry note, The Del McCoury Band is scheduled for Tuesday’s Opry show on April 29, which airs from 8:00-10:00 p.m.

Larry Stephenson will be celebrating the official release of his new Gospel CD, Thankful, this evening by joining Eddie Stubbs on WSM AM 650 in Nashville at 10:00 p.m. (EDT).

You’ll be able to hear the WSM debut of the music from Larry’s new release, and hear him discuss the songs with Eddie on the air. WSM’s signal reaches a large portion of the central US, and is also cybercast online at wsmonline.com.

Our review of Thankful was posted over the weekend, and can be read online.

There is yet even more great bluegrass and acoustic music available from your radio (and computer) today (2/29). Tonight’s - and tomorrow’s - Grand Ole Opry broadcasts feature a number of favorite performers.

The Friday Opry boasts performances from The Grascals, The Whites, Jesse McReynolds and The Del McCoury Band. It airs in the Nashville area (and much of the central US) on WSM-AM 650, and live online at wsmonline.com, from 7:00-11:00 p.m. (ET).

The Saturday Opry show features Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, Mike Snider, Bobby Osborne and The Del McCoury Band, and runs from 7:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Skaggs’ segment will also be carried on GAC TV ’s Opry Live at 8:00 p.m.

Once again, this weekend’s Grand Ole Opry broadcasts have much to offer bluegrass and acoustic music fans.

Tonight’s Friday Opry (1/11) will feature performances from Old Crow Medicine Show, The Del McCoury Band and Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys.

On Saturday, Del and Old Crow return along with Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press, The Whites and Rhonda Vincent. The televised portion on GAC’s Opry Live will include Rhonda, so be looking for that at 8:00 p.m. (EST) on GAC.

Opry Live will be rebroadcast on GAC Sunday (1/13) at 12:00 a.m. (midnight Saturday) and 12:00 and 7:00 p.m., and then again on Tuesday (1/15) at 8:00 p.m.

The Friday Opry is broadcast from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. (EST) and the Saturday show runs from 7:30 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. Both shows are available over the air in the Nashville market on WSM AM 650, and simulcast worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com.

XM Satellite Radio has announced that they will begin carrying the WSM radio’s Eddie Stubbs Show and the Tuesday, Friday and Saturday broadcasts from The Grand Ole Opry starting in October.

The shows will be carried live on XM Track 11 (Nashville), and XM also plans to make individual Opry performances available for broadcast on other channels that feature country and bluegrass music - like Bluegrass Junction (track 14).

The Opry shows will air each Tuesday evening at 8:00 p.m., on Fridays at 9:00 p.m. and Saturdays at 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. All times are eastern. They will encore on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 10:00 a.m. on XM’s classic country channel, America (track 10).

The Opry on XM will debut on October 20, which will be their 82nd Opry Birthday Bash. More details are expected soon as to the start of The Eddie Stubbs Show, which airs on WSM weeknights from 7:00 p.m. to midnight (Friday 9:30-12:30, after The Opry).

There’s been so much bluegrass on The Grand Ole Opry this past few months that I feel like I’m repeating myself each Friday when I point out who’s on. This week is no exception, with Mountain Heart performing on both the Friday and Saturday night shows from The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

If you have yet to catch their recently revised lineup - with new vocalist Josh Shilling front and center - and will be near a radio receiver or an Internet connection, you’ll have the chance tonight (2/16) between 9:00-9:30, and again on Saturday evening (2/17) between 8:00-8:30 and 11:00-11:30 (EST).

Also appearing on Saturday’s Opry broadcast will be Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys (8:30-9:00), Cherryholmes (9:30-10:00 and midnight to 12:30) and The Whites (9:00-9:30 and 10:30-11:00). All times are Eastern.

The Opry broadcasts can be heard online via streaming audio from the WSM web site, and their radio can be heard over a wide portion of the southern and central US at 650 AM. Friday’s show runs from 9:00-11:00 p.m., and Saturday’s from 7:30 p.m. until 12:30 a.m.

If you miss the live broadcasts (or audio streams) you can find selected performances posted on the WSM audio archives page by early next week.

The International Bluegrass Music Museum (located in Owensboro, KY) has just entered a promotional partnership with WSM-AM 650 (home of The Grand Ole Opry) and the Owensboro-Daviess County Tourist Commission to promote bluegrass music, the museum, and regional tourism.

Beginning tomorrow night, February 1, 2007, the Bluegrass Museum and the Tourist Commission will become sponsors of The Eddie Stubbs Show. The show airs three times weekly on Monday, Thursday, and Friday at 7 PM CT.

This is a natural partnership, a formidable union of the historic radio voice of bluegrass and the only international bluegrass museum in the world, preserving the history of bluegrass as it was in the beginning, capturing and gathering it now as it occurs. Eddie Stubbs has been of great assistance to the Bluegrass Museum as interviewer on many of our Video Oral Histories of bluegrass music’s first generation, including that of Earl Scruggs, sponsored by none other than WSM.

Gabrielle Gray, Executive Director of the Bluegrass Museum

The reciprocal nature of the partnership includes WSM as a sponsor of the museum’s annual music festival, ROMP. The festival takes place June 21-23, 2007 at the museum in downtown Owensboro and at Yellow Creek Park just outside town. More information about the festival is available here.

The museum and the tourist commission will have both sponsorships on Grand Ole Opry broadcasts which feature bluegrass artists, and banner ads on the station’s website.

WSM Broadcasts at 650-AM to 39 States and on the web at www.wsmonline.com

This weekend The Grand Ole Opry is celebrating their 81st Birthday, and they have some great bluegrass on both the Friday and Saturday night shows.

Later tonight, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder with special guest Earl Scruggs will perform twice on the WSM radio show. They’ll be on in the 8:30-9:00 and 10:30-11:00 p.m. slots (EDT). The Whites will be featured in those same segments.

On Saturday’s show, The Del McCoury band will be on in the 9:30-10:00 p.m. and 12:30-1:00 a.m. slots. Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press will be on in the midnight to 12:30 slot.

You can hear the Opry program live over the air (650 AM out of Nashville) or via online streaming, between 8:00 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. (EDT) on Friday, and between 7:30 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. on Saturday evening.

WSM also maintains an audio archive which includes both the Friday and Saturday Opry broadcasts. It seems that they only archive part of each Opry show, but you can access what they have on the WSMonline site.

This just in, and it happens today.

Tune in on Wednesday, October 5, at 1:45 PM (central) to hear The Grascals on 650 AM WSM’s first ever live broadcast from the station’s historic transmission tower house in Brentwood, Tenn. While there has never been a live broadcast from the building, the site has been the transmission point for the radio station and the Grand Ole Opry since October 5, 1932. Other special guests joining the live broadcast, which is part of the Opry’s 80th anniversary celebration, include Steve Wariner, Kitty Wells, Ralph Emery, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Chely Wright , Charlie Chase, Lorianne Cook, Dan Miller, The Wrights, The Jordanaires , Bud Wendell (Former President of Gaylord Entertainment), Cornelius Craig (Son of WSM founder Edwin W. Craig), Jimmy Wayne, Irving Waugh (Past WSM/NBC Announcer & Former President of WSM Radio), and more. The special guests will be sharing their memories of WSM and the Grand Ole Opry with listeners.

If you can’t tune in 650 AM WSM on your radio, you can listen online at wsmonline.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The audio stream is in windows media format. For Mac users you’ll need to have windows media player installed to play this stream.