Monday news: Bucky Diaries, CMT Power Picks, GAC Nights and more

If you haven't already, hop over to USA Today, where Bucky's latest diary is posted. Hear about his Grand Ole Opry experience in his own words--it's a treat you won't want to miss. Be sure to leave Bucky a comment--he'll definitely want to know you're enjoying his weekly updates!

Edited to add: Tomorrow* evening's GAC Nights episode listing features this description:

Host Suzanne Alexander talks with Rodney Atkins, John Anderson, Neal McCoy, Bucky Covington, Craig Morgan, Taylor Swift, Luke Bryan and Montgomery Gentry.

Definitely worth a look-see for those lucky enough to have GAC in their cable lineup! The show begins at 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday, and repeats at midnight. And on March 21st, Bucky will be appearing on Live with Regis and Kelly--be sure to check your local listings for time and channel...

First and foremost, Bucky's "A Different World" has crossed that all-important Top 30 milestone on both the Mediabase Top 500 and weighted charts--and that makes our calls and email requests to our local country stations more important than ever. If your hometown country station is one of those "Top 30 and up" playlist spots on the dial (mine is), chances are good you'll hear Bucky sometime today or tomorrow, possibly during the evening or overnight hours. When you do, consider picking up the phone and letting them know you loved hearing Bucky's song...

Yes.com is a great way to keep up with what your area station has been playing and when. (It's also a great way to avoid the dreaded "calling up to request a song they played half an hour ago" awkwardness, too.) Simply type the call letters--or even the nickname--of your favorite station into the search box, and go!

We're still coming off the incredible high of Bucky's beautiful Grand Ole Opry performance, of course. If you'd like to catch up on recaps, stories and links to great photos, the ever-changing thread at the Fox boards has it all in one place! My good friend Kathy at Team Covington has a fantastic Fokti album full of sweet photos from the show, along with a few lovely shots of some of Nashville's claims to fame.

And the incredibly talented "Space2006" has a huge gallery of Opry photos posted at Yahoo--excellent shots of Bucky, Rocky (who I finally got to meet on Friday--what a gracious and kind guy), the pre-show gathering and the Opry performers. Enjoy! (She's also got a couple of very cool extras for you here and here and here that you'll want to check out...if those links expire, check the latest posts at the Fox thread for updates.) There's also a bonus group of shots from the Southern Women's Show in Memphis the next day, where Bucky signed autographs and took questions from the attendees. (Many thanks to the kind anon who shared these photos!) Lots more to come...check back often.

On the video front, it looks like that well-received Opry performance wasn't Bucky's only triumph this weekend--"A Different World" was also victorious in its second Pick or Flick challenge on CMT! You'll be able to catch a bit of the video on the Top 20 Countdown this week as it's presented as the winner; then look for a new challenger and get ready to dial again! Bucky will also be part of tomorrow's CMT Power Picks show, so go to the show's main page at 3 p.m. ET Tuesday afternoon and give those mouse-clicking muscles another workout. Voting for CMT's Pure Country Pure 12-Pack video countdown is in progress for this week, too; Bucky was #1 on the list last time around!

Over at GAC, the video for "A Different World" is moving on up--it's gone from about once a day to a couple of times daily, from the looks of things. If you'd like a spot on the Top Twenty Country Countdown to be part of the total, there's an easy way to help make it happen--vote here and give Bucky a boost! (And of course, there's still time to drop the folks at WKML a line and request Bucky for the WKML "Top 5 at 6", too.)

There are far too many good things happening to cover it all in one post--come on back for an update later today! More very soon...

*My apologies! The GAC Nights episode in question airs tomorrow, 3/13--I mixed up the date. Thanks, and get those DVRs ready!--Winnie