Benet's Back, and Rick's Got Him!

Benet's Back, and Rick's Got Him!

Dees Backstage Salutes 'Heart of America' Online

Chats up Hollywood Digerati During All-Media Fundraiser

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Just a few weeks ago, popular radio entertainer and "Weekly Top 40" host Rick Dees' first-ever Digithon motivated listeners around the world to help the Salvation Army's efforts in the aftermath of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, in the first all-media (radio, online, cable, satellite, IPTV) fundraiser ever held. Today, Dees takes his digital marching orders even further to provide an online berth for the new anthem of the "Make A Difference Today" project, 'Heart of America', featuring an exclusive interview with Eric Benet discussing his first album in six years, live at www.rick.com and www.digithon.com, with 100% of the proceeds of the single going towards Habitat for Humanity's efforts along the Gulf Coast. 'Heart of America' features Eric Benet, Michael McDonald, Wynonna Judd, Terry Dexter and the First Full Gospel Baptist Choir of New Orleans, and is produced by Tim Blixseth of Friday Records and Walter Afanasieff of Warner/Reprise.

The Dees Digithon event (broadcast, streamed and podcast live from the Digital Hollywood conference at the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica, California) features interviews with Ted Cohen, EMI Records; Michael Lewis, REAL D Entertainment; Tim Conway, comedian; Cary Harrison, Air America and GoHarrison.com; Dan Storper, Putumayo Records; Max Gail, actor, community technology activist; Jim Griffin, Cherry Lane Digital; Major George Hood, Salvation Army USA; John Spencer, Space Tourism Society; David Knight, Big Moving Picture; Steven Murray, BurnLounge.com; Gordon Lee, Smart SMS Corporation; C. Duvale Murchison, Terrence Coles, A Really Good Show; Victor Harwood, Digital Hollywood; and Marcia Zellers, American Film Institute's Digital Content Lab. Magic Matt Alan of Outlaw Radio, Kevin Dees of BurnLounge.com and Ann Serrano Lopez of Encanto Enterprises served as celebrity guest deejays, and musical offerings from Geoff Byrd, Jimmer Bolden, Chris Conner, and the Salvation Army Four round out the event. Terrestrial distribution of the broadcast was coordinated courtesy of Michael Horn of CRN Network and Doug Stephan's "Good Morning" show.

Says Dees, "We've unleashed the full force of our IPTV broadcasts to touch the lives of the victims of the costliest natural disaster of this generation in the U.S."

Visit The Digital Dees Network online at http://www.rick.com/ and http://www.digithon.com/.

Source: The Digital Dees Network

CONTACT: Kimberly King-Burns of convergenz/solutions, +1-818-761-5688, kkingburns@convergenz.com; or Anne Hedgpeth of MainGate Media, +1-866-568-5560, anne@maingatemedia.com, both for The Digital Dees Network

Web site: http://www.rick.com/ http://www.digithon.com/

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