Live Nation will begin it's own ticketing company in 2009 when it's contract with Ticketmaster expires at the end of the year. This is a game-changing move that will impact concert fans across the country. I'd like to tell you that fees will go down now that Ticketmaster has a major competitor, but I doubt it.

Now there is news that Live Nation also also signed up private management firm SMG, a company that runs theaters, stadiums, arenas and convention centers around the world, to sell all the tickets at their venues beginning next year. Live Nation and SMG were two of Ticketmaster's biggest clients and revenue sources. This is groundbreaking news in the entertainment business.

For an in-depth story on Live Nation and these new developments, check out this great article...

http://seekingalpha.com/article/95346-live-nation-on-music-track-to-increasingly-vertical-business

Jack Zink, longtime drama critic of the Sun-Sentinel, has passed away at the age of 61.

I first met Jack many years ago when I took over the Coral Springs Center for the Arts. We had lunch together in downtown Ft. Lauderdale and I enjoyed his candid personality and great knowledge of the theater business.

He was quite a man, charming, witty, and extremely smart. He could smell B.S. a mile away, and so, unlike many arts executives trying to strong arm Jack into running story on them, I shied away from that approach. Jack would have just smiled and tossed the press release anyways.

If the story was good, he would run it. If it was fluff, forget about it. I loved that about Jack. It gave him enormous credibility in my eyes. When he did feature our theater in his well-written Showtime column, I felt good knowing he approved of the way we ran our operation and deemed it newsworthy. If Jack wrote about ya, you knew you were doing a good job.

All of us in the South Florida area who love the theater will miss him greatly. He's probably reviewing a show right now in Heaven as I write this...Jack never stopped working.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/obituaries/sfl-flozink0819sbaug19,0,137151.story

Sad news to report this past Friday as Bruce Adler, one of South Florida's most beloved actors, passed away at the age of 63 after battling liver cancer. Ironically, the Coral Springs Center for the Arts had a January 2009 date on hold for a fundraiser for Adler to be hosted by many of his friends in the area.

For more information on the passing of Adler, Playbill. com has a great story which ran last week.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/119831.html

George Carlin, one of the most popular comedy acts of the past 30 years, passed away this weekend at the age of 71.

George's agent must have called me 10 times last season trying to line up a date for him here at the Coral Springs Center for the Arts as she routed him in Florida. Alas, we were never able to find an open date for him.

During my career, I booked George three times...and every time he sold out.

It's hard to be funny for 30 years...a lot of comedians don't last anywhere near that long. Towards the end, George became very political in his shows, some audience members couldn't handle it and walked out or booed. That was sad to see.

I will remember him most for the "Seven Dirty Words" and all his albums we used to listen to in the 1970s when I was a little kid. Me and my buddies would sit around in the garage on a hot summer day and recite the Seven Dirty Words over and over, laughing and giggling until my parents would come outside and tell us to knock it off.

George was quite the party guy and I remember going backstage at some of his shows...it was quite the scene if you know what I mean.

Hard living finally caught up with him.

This past weekend was a busy one with Father's Day, Tiger Woods and The Hulk dominating the headlines. In case you missed it, here's a breakdown of Sunday's Tony Awards for the best of Broadway this past season.

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=awardcentral&jump=article&articleid=VR1117987516

Are we ready for "Brokeback Mountain" the opera?

In the Big Apple? Check out this story...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/am-brokeback0608,0,5436173.story

Live Nation, the biggest concert promoter in the United States, is in negotiations with the City of Ft. Lauderdale to bring a mega concert festival to downtown on Memorial Day weekend. They are pitching this as an annual event to replace the now defunct Air & Sea Show.

Having lived near that area for nearly 10 years, traffic would be a nightmare for this type of event. I can see all the seniors locked up in their Galt Mile Ocean condos calling 911 about the noise levels, can't you?

http://encore.celebrityaccess.com/index.php?encoreId=132&articleId=26541