Big news this week in Gospel Music!

Monday, Abraham Productions announced the addition of a new Board Member, Pastor Bill Bailey. President of API, Ray Flynn, said in the company’s press release, “We are very excited to have Bill Bailey as a part of our organization and look forward to the expertise he will bring to our group and provide further growth to API. We believe Bill will represent Abraham Productions well with our desire to present high quality concert events that are highly ministry focused.”

If you’re familiar with Abraham Productions and their events, then you’ll also recognize Emily Ann Roberts, an artist who appears on API’s events and concert tours. Monday, Emily announced that her boyfriend asked her to marry him and she said yes. Congratulations Emily!

Tuesday night, the Diamond Awards were held in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee at the Creekside Gospel Music Convention. For a list of artists who took home awards, you can read an article about the night on SGN Scoops website here —> Diamond Award Winners

On Wednesday, Lauren Conklin, who plays the fiddle for High Road released her first music video from her new instrumental CD. The piece is called Black Lake and was filmed underwater. Though it isn’t Gospel Music, I hope you can take a moment and watch it! On her Facebook page, Lauren said, “Trying to realistically look like you’re playing on a plastic toy [violin] while holding your breath and being weighted to the bottom of a pool was harder than I expected but I’m so excited and happy with how it turned out and can’t wait for you to see it!” Watch video —> here.

Sirius XM announced that their Southern Gospel Station, enLighten, would be removed from channel 65 to be replaced by Holly, a secular Pop station. Sirius promises that Gospel Music will return to channel 65 on December 5th, but until then, subscribers to XM will be without a channel to listen to Gospel Music with, especially in their cars. Sirius explains on their Facebook page that, “until then, you can still listen to us 24/7 online with our app,” but this proves difficult for people who want to listen in their car and don’t have reception to stream the app. Also, app streaming eats at your data, so unless you can afford an unlimited plan, most users may not be able to afford to stream music from the app using their smartphones in their cars. Fans who want Gospel Music returned to channel 65 immediately can leave a comment on the enLighten Facebook page here or call 1-866-635-2349 to request the return of our favorite Gospel Music channel.