Bobby Newton

In the 1990s, Bobby Newton, from Gene Autry, Oklahoma, launched a tabloid newspaper called "Rope Burns", with the objective of promoting cowboy life. Western music and stories on the various music and cowboy poetry festivals springing up around the country became main features of the newspaper. It began as a quarterly and soon became a bi-monthly periodical, circulation of which grew to approximately 10,000 before the end of the decade. Through the newspaper, news of Western music-related events and CD releases reach many thousands of readers on a regular basis, a major contribution to the promotion of Western music.

But the newspaper has not been his only vehicle for promoting Western music. In 1995, he established the "Academy of Western Artists" (AWA) and conceived the idea of a national Western Awards event to draw national media attention to Western arts, with music as the key element. To boost the profile, he obtained the rights to use the name of Will Rogers in connection with the awards, and the statuette presented to each year's winners is the image of Will Rogers in one of his most famous poses. The first Will Rogers Awards event took place in 1996 and the event has been held every year since. It has been very successful in attracting national media attention, with Western music and artists being written up in such prestigious magazines as "Billboard" and "American Cowboy", among others.