By Mark Coddington
mark.coddington@theindependent.com

The Comstock Music Series will host a country music event from June 5-8 and a rock music event from July 17-20, said Jim Proskocil of Plattsburg, Mo., owner of the former 2nd Wind Ranch and the concerts' organizer.

The events are not a continuation of Henry Nuxoll's well-known music festivals at the ranch, Proskocil said.

The permits and licensing for the series were approved Thursday morning by the state Department of Revenue, he said.

Proskocil said he will begin wooing sponsors immediately and hopes to launch a Web site and select a promotion company that would begin signing bands early next week.

With no acts or sponsors lined up and just two months until the first show, Proskocil acknowledged that this year's show would need to be scaled down from previous years.

But he hopes to use this year's events as a foundation for a full-scale series next year.

"My goal is to make it as healthy as possible and survive," he said. "There's no way we're going to put on a full-fledged greatest show on earth this year at Comstock."

Nuxoll's series, launched in 2000, included a country event, called the Comstock Windmill Festival, along with Comstock Rock and Godstock, a Christian music festival.

Proskocil said no Christian concert is planned this year, though the dates for one have been left open if sponsors and planners are interested.

The Christian show has consistently been a money loser in the past, he said.

"I would devote all the time I could if I knew it would break even," he said. "It has to pay its own way."

Nuxoll's concerts were a popular annual summer attraction in the area, but they lost steam in recent years.

The Nebraska Liquor Control Commission was reluctant to issue a liquor license for the 2006 events, citing reports by the Nebraska State Patrol about rampant underage drinking.

And Nuxoll was charged in September in Custer County Court with a felony for writing thousands of dollars of bad checks for the festivals.

Nuxoll has pleaded not guilty to the charge, and the case is pending.

Viaero Wireless signed on as a title sponsor last year but has since dropped its involvement, Proskocil said.

Proskocil said he expects bringing successful music events back to Comstock to take a lot of work, but as someone who grew up just east of the concerts' site, he called it a labor of love.

"It's just in your blood," he said.