Friday news: Lia, countdowns, auctions and more...

Bucky Covington's debut CD will be released on April 17th. Bucky's music video is now available for online viewing at CMT.com and Yahoo Music. You can pre-order Bucky's debut CD at Amazon, Best Buy and Target, hear the full version of his single "A Different World" at CMT and GAC, or enjoy samples of songs from the CD at Bucky's official MySpace. An autographed copy of Bucky Covington can be pre-ordered at his official site or via his official fan club.

We had a great day on the syndicated-radio front yesterday--it started in the wee hours with Bucky's "A Different World" getting an amazingly positive "Pick It or Flick It" response at After Midnite, and ended with the sounds of Bucky's single and a sweet interview snippet on the Lia show. Requesting on those syndicated shows can be a perfect way to let the whole country in on a good musical thing--so pick up the phone and call. (And in the case of the lucky Bucky fan who won a nice gift-certificate prize on Lia, calling was lucrative as well. Congratulations!)

Bucky's TV blitz continues today with an appearance on GAC's Top Twenty Country Countdown (9 p.m. ET; repeat airtimes here). And if you missed him on yesterday's CMT Top 20 Countdown, never fear--the show repeats today at 1:00 p.m. ET. (Kathy at Team Covington has an excellent recap of Bucky's funny chat with Lance Smith; be sure to check it out.) There's a whole list of Bucky's upcoming appearances in this post--get that DVR ready...

Two interesting independent sites have recently added "A Different World" to their respective offerings. Chart Country features a fan-voted chart with an international flair--you'll find Canadian and Australian country artists as part of the mix. Bucky's single made a strong debut there; it entered their chart at #14 this week. And American Music Channel is an online country video site with all varieties of country music represented--everything from bluegrass to Americana--and Bucky's video is a new addition there. (He's everywhere, y'all...)

And in charity auction news, Bucky's been busy signing and donating memorabilia for worthwhile causes. The Opry Trust Fund auction (featured on the Opry home page) just started, and keep an eye out at CMT auctions for the "Bucky"brand pillow he signed to benefit the USO.



We'll wrap it all up with these handy voting links: stop over at the CMT Pure Country Pure 12-Pack video countdown and GAC's Top Twenty Country Countdown voting pages and give Bucky a boost, then send an email to country@wkml.com and suggest "A Different World" for WKML's "Top 5 at 6". Be sure to request Bucky at your local country station, too!

More very soon...