Comments on: Fan Awards: Song of the Year

By: Jim Gerdes

Jim Gerdes — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:03:38 +0000

I have always felt that the voting for SOTY starts too early. With internet voting, etc there is no need for it to start in about April for the convention awards time in September. Voting should begin in July with the final voting in August.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:48:34 +0000

Sorry I meant #21

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:48:07 +0000

#6 I wouldn’t say they sing it better than anyone else…that is an opinion. I actually prefer the Kingsmen version.

By: Daniel J. Mount

Daniel J. Mount — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:22:46 +0000

It is the latter; there isn’t any predetermined list.

No, I don’t believe you are allowed to list every song that reached top 80 during the charting period—only the ones that were initially sent to radio during that period.

By: Yolanda

Yolanda — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:19:56 +0000

Using DJPhil’s suggestion. How would that work? I’m drawing a blank. When the initial ballots come out for SOTY, aren’t there songs already listed on the ballot to choose from? Or is that left blank and the fans fill in the song they would like. I hope it’s the latter. You can’t list every song that reached the top 80 during the voting period?

By: Daniel J. Mount

Daniel J. Mount — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:01:08 +0000

None of us is challenging the fact that the Booth Brothers won. We’re just discussing the detail—perhaps an arcane detail to most, but one that can be quite important—of whether the eligibility rules should be revised.

By: Linda Higgins

Linda Higgins — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:32:11 +0000

Can’t you just accept that the Booth Brothers won it and let it be. Everytime I go to a concert that is all I hear how much everybody loves this group. It may have been recorded years ago but everyone agrees that they sing it better than anyone. After all they walked off with 6 awards. That should tell you guys something. God is blessing these young men so much !!!!

Blessings,
Linda

By: David Bruce Murray

David Bruce Murray — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:48:03 +0000

I like DJPhil’s idea better than my initial idea. Throw out the release date consideration and make the chart the sole criteria for eligibility. That way, there’s no question.

The fans have no idea about release dates. The current voting requirement expects fans to know something they can’t readily confirm.

This is a Singing News award presentation, so there’s nothing wrong with tying the eligibility to the chart…very loosely, though…so that fans can express their opinion without carbon copying the chart.

By: David Bruce Murray

David Bruce Murray — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:44:16 +0000

Another change I’d like to see made is waiting until the second ballot before voting on the Song Of The Year.

That way, the eligibility period could be June-May rather than April-March.

There is no need to vote on the SOTY on the first ballot, because the SOTY category is not narrowed down to five from the initial ten.

The reason for voting later is that a song hitting the top of the charts in the first five months of the year might actually have a chance to win in September…thus making the “Song Of 2008″ or whatever year a song that actually got airplay during that year rather than the year before.

By: RD

RD — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:06:22 +0000

To Andrew S, there will never be a correlation between the radio charts and the fan favorites simply because the radio charts do not accurately represent fan requests for airplay. The charting system is too screwed up. I think the fan awards is probably a more accurate measurement of what the fans want. Thus, I believe DBM would be correct in his surmise that we would see more of the older songs getting votes should the rules be changed.

Also the Booth Brothers Pure Southern Gospel cd was not released on Spring Hill records. It was released after they signed with Spring Hill, and after their debut project, but they had an agreement that allowed them to still record independently for table projects. Originally it was a table project available only from the Booth Bros. and as far as I know thats the way it still is. Springside Marketing shows the same graphics, just a different picture for the cd cover. The original cover picture is still shown on the BB website. The cd was released in 2004.