SoGospelNews.com
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SoGospelNews.com is the internet's largest e-zine based on Southern Gospel Music.
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[edit] History
SoGospelNews.com - http://sogospelnews.com - was formed over 10 years ago by Deon & Susan Unthank, then of Southaven, Mississippi. The site was birthed from an email discussion group by the same name. The SoGospelNews email discussion list was created by the Unthanks after the Singing News shut down its extremely popular discussion list.
SoGospelNews started as a simple webpage listing artists, fans, individuals, etc. that were avid supporters of the newly formed SoGospelNews talk list. The site eventually took on printing news for Southern Gospel artists, and eventually took on reviewing the latest recordings from both signed and independent artists within the small genre.
Deon & Susan Unthank's family has now become involved in the site, as well as the addition of several staff writers. The website has now based operations out of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
[edit] Content
The site now contains Southern Gospel's largest message board forum, bi-weekly feature articles and interviews, bi-weekly album and DVD reviews, opinion columns, editorials, monthly artist articles, a free chat room, staff blogs, and much more in addition to reporting news daily. The website's weekly chart, which is a mixture of fan voting and radio airplay, is the industry's most respected weekly chart.
In addition, the site hosts an annual awards program, the SGN Music Awards Celebration, every April, and the SoGospelNews Fan Festival, which is a free week of concerts in the Nashville, Tennessee area featuring today's biggest Southern Gospel artists at the end of July every year.
[edit] SoGospelNews Fan Festival
The SoGospelNews Fan Festival is a week long series of concerts that is sponsored by SoGospelNews.com. The event is held the last week of July and has now expanded to five days of Southern Gospel music. The event remains free to the public and is designed to give Gospel music fans a chance to relax, get to know their favorite artists, and enjoy great Southern Gospel music. The event has featured some of Southern Gospel's most popular artists like the Crabb Family, Talley Trio, Gold City, Karen Peck and New River, Kingsmen, LordSong, Mike Bowling, Booth Brothers, Dove Brothers Quartet, The Imperials, McRaes, and many more.
[edit] SGN Music Awards Celebration
The SGN Music Awards were founded in 2002 by the staff of SoGospelNews.com. The award nominations are chosen by the staff of SoGospelNews.com and most of the winners are then chosen by the fans of the genre and readers of the site. In 2005, SoGospelNews.com held its first SGN Music Awards Celebration which brought in all the artists, industry professionals, and fans for an official awards ceremony. In 2006, SoGospelNews.com held a contest for the readers to name the statue that is presented to the winners at the Awards Celebration, in which "Ovation" was chosen as the winner. The Ovations are handed out on the last Tuesday in April every year.
