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Throughout my forty three years of Broadcasting I've credited Lonnie Bell from KOYN in Billings, Montana for introducing me to the future of music. So often radio people get locked up in what's hot right now. That vision into what could become is too difficult to enter. Lonnie was an all out fan of this new band on the Nashville scene. It was Alabama. To this day I can still hear Lonnie telling me to pay attention. Take notes! Know where you were the day you played every new song from Alabama. I caught the band live in the latter part of the 80's at the old Charlotte Coliseum. Finally got to share not one but two conversations with them. They were that band that Lonnie wanted me to never take my eyes off. Which is why it hurt really bad when word got to me that the music world had lost Jeff Cook from Alabama. The strange coincidence? Two hours later we lost Lonnie Bell.