We Owe Jon Pardi an Apology

Dear Jon Pardi:

We here at KICK FM owe you an apology. A big apology. We are all big fans of you. California Sunrise was a great album. We've loved spinning your hits these past few years, and we're elated that you've hit #1 twice.

But we underestimated you yesterday. You see, when we locked in our picks for the CMA awards, the four of us all picked different artists for New Artist of the Year. None of our picks were you. I picked Luke Combs, Sam on mid-days went Brett Young, afternoon guy Michael went Lauren Alaina and Digital Manager Ben opted for Old Dominion. After we locked in our picks, I looked at all of them and said, "You know Jon Pardi is going to win, right?" Half joking, as it would be cruel twist of irony. Half serious because lets face it, you've had a dynamite year and totally deserved it.

But that's the problem. New Artist Of The Year, along with a few other categories last night, were just stacked. There was no right answer, there was no wrong answer. There was no wrong pick to who was the Best New Artist. If the CMAs went Luke Combs, it would have been the right pick. If the CMAs went Lauren Alaina or Old Dominion or Brett Young, it would have been the right pick. But the CMAs went with you, Jon, and it was the right pick.

As we have had you perform on our fair shores before, and interviewed you across our airwaves, we consider you a friend of the station. And as a friend, we should never have underestimated you. You deserved New Artist of the Year. You will deserve your eventual wins for Album of the Year, for Single of the Year, for Male Vocalist, Music Video and Entertainer of the Year. Congratulations on this year's win. You deserved it.

I hope there are no hard feelings.

Sincerely,

Brodie and the KICK-FM Staff

P.S. I'm really digging She Ain't In It.