5 Reasons I Love Talent Competions

There's nothing more exciting than seeing local talent in competition with each other. Let's face it, the greater Binghamton area has always had a rich talent pool of talented people. It must be due to those long Southern Tier winters!

The next few days are really heating up with the Visions Hitmaker Challenge with the Semi Finals Wednesday night at the Oakdale Mall and and the finals a week from Wednesday at Tioga Downs Casino.

Here is why I like the Visions Hawk Hitmaker Challenge so much:

1) Competition Is Fun. In addition to a expert panel of 3 local judges with a strong music background, this year's Visions Hitmaker Challenge is voted by listeners, Hawk Country Club members and thousands of our Facebook and Twitter followers. It's a nice cross section of selecting the best of the best.

2) Two free midweek concerts. When was the last time you said there is nothing much going on in the middle of the work week? If you're tired of reruns on TV or you're a little short on cash, then plan to join us for the semi-finals Wednesday night at 7 outside of Penney's and Visions Credit Union at the Oakdale Mall in Johnson City All 5 semi-finalists will sing live. From here, 3 will be selected to appear June 10th at Tioga Downs Casino in Nichols.

3) Streaming. We had so many people tune in to last year's Hawk Hitmaker Challenge stream from Tioga Downs Casino, we decided to stream both the semi-finals from the Oakdale Mall Wednesday night and the finals at Tioga Downs on June 10th! Check the Hawk web site 981TheHawk.com, closer to show time to see it as it happens.

4) Huge Prizes. Each year this talent competition gets bigger and bigger. In addition to cash prizes, the top winner of the Visions Hawk Hitmaker Challenge will actually open for our Toyota Country Lights Festival, in front of thousands of fans at NYSEG Stadium here in Binghamton, rubbing elbows with Frankie Ballard, Eric Paslay, Craig Campbell, Austin Webb and Sundy Best. Pretty cool!

5) Extreme Exposure. Winners of these local musical competitions have been known to go on to bigger things, including Norwich favorite Kaitlyn Jackson who went on the impress Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connick Jr. of 'American Idol.'

Get to know our 5 very talented semi-finalists a little better by clicking HERE and best of luck to everyone!