Hi Gang:

The news got lost amidst all the hype and hullabaloo of the CMA Music Festival last week, but the man who first called me "Whisperin' Bill" passed away Wednesday night out in Branson, Missouri.

His name was Don Bowman, and I'm sure many of you remember him and the crazy, wacko songs he wrote and recorded for RCA back in the sixties and early seventies. A former disc jockey and the original host of American Country Countdown, he won the CMA's Comedian Of The Year Award in 1967. He would have turned 76-years old in August.

I first became aware of Don when he cut songs like, "Chit Akins, Make Me A Star," an obvious spoof about an unknown hick singer coming to Nashville and wanting the great Chet Atkins to turn him into a star overnight. Later, a parody on Red Sovine's "Giddyup Go" called "Giddyup Do-Nut" cracked the Billboard top fifty, in the days when country stations embraced and exposed comedy material.

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