Premiere Radio Networks Keeps America in Touch with CMA Awards
Robert L. Doerschuk
October 29, 2008
When Premiere Radio Networks, the largest radio network in the United States, comes to Nashville to set up coast-to-coast, local-market coverage of the CMA Awards, you can measure their dedication by one simple statistic.
From the moment they flick on the lights at their broadcast headquarters until they wrap their post-Awards live show, the Premiere staff will brew more than 75 gallons of coffee for radio personalities, technicians, artists, record label executives, volunteers and other visitors, with hopefully enough left over to keep them going full-blast as well.
A week and a half prior to the CMA Awards, the first vanguard of Premiere's staff arrives in Nashville to unpack and inventory the gear they'll need to enable 50 radio stations to broadcast live interviews with Awards nominees and other Country Music notables. By the time on-air personalities and their crews start flying into Music City on Sunday, Nov. 9, Premiere has the radio broadcast area ready to go, a studio primed to send exclusive reports via satellite to local ABC television affiliates - and the first round of java percolating for the orientation meeting that evening.
Just a few hours later, around 4 o'clock on Monday, Nov. 10 morning, the first broadcasts begin for stations whose morning-drive shift starts at 5 AM on the East Coast. There's a slight lull from 11 AM until 1 PM, and then the action picks up again and runs until the end of West Coast afternoon-drive time at 8 PM - and so it goes the following day and into Awards day as well.
That qualifies the Premiere staff as marathon gold medalists - but their work began several months earlier, as the network created its "Road to the CMA Awards" vignettes, each offering highlights from the previous year's Awards. These four 60-second vignettes were components in a larger Labor Day special, hosted by Julianne Hough and filled with interviews and music by a wide array of artists. The special was sent to stations that will cover the Awards via Premiere's programming, thus stirring up interest in local markets in tandem with Premiere's promotions on "The Jeff Foxworthy Countdown" and "After MidNite with Blair Garner" while also setting the stage for their live radio coverage of the Awards and post-Awards activities.
"We're like the Thanksgiving Day Parade," said Ilycia Deitch Chiaromonte, Senior Director Events, Premiere Radio Networks. "We start work long before the show begins. And when the CMA Awards are over, we start planning for next year."
Premiere Radio Networks is the official radio packager of the CMA Awards, including a stereo-radio simulcast of the gala event. Stations working with Premiere to offer live coverage of this year's Awards include KAJA/San Antonio, KBWF/San Francisco, KCYE/Las Vegas, KEEY/ Minneapolis, KFDI/Wichita, KFRG/Los Angeles/Riverside, KILT/Houston, KMPS/Seattle, KNCI/Sacramento, KNIX/Phoenix, KRST/Albuquerque, KSCS/Dallas, KSSN/Little Rock, KTST/Oklahoma City, KUPL/Portland, KUSS/San Diego, KYGO/Denver, WAMZ/Louisville, WBCT/Grand Rapids, WCOL/Columbus, WDSY/Pittsburgh, WDXB/Birmingham, WGAR/ Cleveland, WGH/Norfolk, WGNA/Albany, WIVK/Knoxville, WKIS/Miami, WKLB/Boston, WKKT/Charlotte, N.C., WLHK/Indianapolis, WMIL/ Milwaukee, WMZQ/Washington, D.C., WPOC/Baltimore, WQDR/Raleigh, N.C., WQIK/Jacksonville, WQYK/Tampa, WRBT/Harrisburg, Pa., WSIX/ Nashville, WSSL/Greenville, S.C., WUBL/Atlanta, WUSY/Chattanooga, Tenn., WXTU/Philadelphia, WYCD/Detroit and WYRK/Buffalo.
Beginning Friday, Nov. 7, Premiere Radio Networks will present its "2008 CMA Awards Preview Special" hosted by reigning CMA Horizon Award winner, Taylor Swift. The four-hour radio special, which airs in advance of "The 42nd Annual CMA Awards," will feature music and interviews with top stars including Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Sugarland and Keith Urban, among others. The special will be broadcast to radio stations nationwide.
This year, Swift who is nominated in the CMA Female Vocalist of the Year category, is getting set to release her second Big Machine Records album, Fearless - featuring her current hit, "Love Story" on Nov. 11. It's the follow-up to her self-titled debut, which has been certified three-times Platinum and has yielded two No. 1 singles, including her six-week chart topper, "Our Song." Taylor has secured a place in history as the only female solo artist in the history of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart to score five Top 10 singles from a debut album. She is also the first female solo artist in Country Music history to write or co-write every song on a Platinum selling debut album.
In addition, Premiere Radio Networks will present a live broadcast of the CMA Awards telecast, Red Carpet interviews with the stars, as well as a live post CMA Awards broadcast with the winners, both hosted by Jack Ingram and Premiere Radio Networks personality Larry Morgan.
Ingram returns as co-host of "The 42nd Annual CMA Awards Red Carpet Reports" and "CMA Awards Post Show" for the third year. On Nov. 12, Ingram and Morgan will speak with fellow stars and nominated artists as they make their way down the Red Carpet to the Sommet Center in Nashville for "Country Music's Biggest Night." The Red Carpet Reports will air during afternoon drive on stations nationwide. Following the Awards, Ingram and Morgan will also return as co-hosts of Premiere's "CMA Awards Post Show," featuring the night's big winners.
Ingram has made his place in Country's mainstream with five consecutive hits from his breakthrough album This Is It, including the No. 1 "Wherever You Are" and the Top 10 tell-off anthem "Love You." As an artist who has built his reputation as the consummate live performer, 2008 has found Ingram energizing crowds on Martina McBride's "Waking Up Laughing Tour." Ingram's new single, "That's A Man", from his upcoming Big Machine Records album, is making its mark at radio now.
"The 42nd Annual CMA Awards" will be held Wednesday, Nov. 12 at the Sommet Center in Nashville, Tenn. The three-hour gala will be carried live by the ABC Television Network from 8-11 PM/EST, 7-10PM/CST.
Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood will co-host the CMA Awards and perform. Trace Adkins, Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, the Eagles, Alan Jackson Kid Rock, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, George Strait, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, The Wailers and others will perform on Country Music's Biggest Night. Visit www.CMAawards.com for updates.
Tickets for the CMA Awards are on sale now and can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com; (615) 255-9600; or at the Sommet Center box office, 501 Broadway (corner of Fifth Avenue and Broadway in Nashville). Ticket prices begin at $110 for Upper-level; $327.75 for Club-level; and $382.50 for Lower-level. Prices include sales tax but exclude applicable service/handling fees.
Fans can order the official CMA Awards Program book and merchandise including long and short sleeved T-shirts, hats, a vest, a mug and a commemorative Hatch Show Print Poster on the www.CMAawards.com online store.
"The 42nd Annual CMA Awards" is a production of the Country Music Association. Robert Deaton is the Executive Producer. Paul Miller is the Director. David Wild is the writer. The special will be shot in high definition and broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC's selected HDTV format, with 5.1 channel surround sound. Premiere Radio Networks is the official radio packager of the CMA Awards, including a stereo-radio simulcast of the gala event. American Airlines is the official airline of the 2008 CMA Awards. Chevy: The Official Ride of Country Music. Mary Kay is the Official Beauty Sponsor of the 2008 CMA Awards.
2008 CMA Close Up News® Service / Country Music Association,® Inc.
From the moment they flick on the lights at their broadcast headquarters until they wrap their post-Awards live show, the Premiere staff will brew more than 75 gallons of coffee for radio personalities, technicians, artists, record label executives, volunteers and other visitors, with hopefully enough left over to keep them going full-blast as well.
A week and a half prior to the CMA Awards, the first vanguard of Premiere's staff arrives in Nashville to unpack and inventory the gear they'll need to enable 50 radio stations to broadcast live interviews with Awards nominees and other Country Music notables. By the time on-air personalities and their crews start flying into Music City on Sunday, Nov. 9, Premiere has the radio broadcast area ready to go, a studio primed to send exclusive reports via satellite to local ABC television affiliates - and the first round of java percolating for the orientation meeting that evening.
Just a few hours later, around 4 o'clock on Monday, Nov. 10 morning, the first broadcasts begin for stations whose morning-drive shift starts at 5 AM on the East Coast. There's a slight lull from 11 AM until 1 PM, and then the action picks up again and runs until the end of West Coast afternoon-drive time at 8 PM - and so it goes the following day and into Awards day as well.
That qualifies the Premiere staff as marathon gold medalists - but their work began several months earlier, as the network created its "Road to the CMA Awards" vignettes, each offering highlights from the previous year's Awards. These four 60-second vignettes were components in a larger Labor Day special, hosted by Julianne Hough and filled with interviews and music by a wide array of artists. The special was sent to stations that will cover the Awards via Premiere's programming, thus stirring up interest in local markets in tandem with Premiere's promotions on "The Jeff Foxworthy Countdown" and "After MidNite with Blair Garner" while also setting the stage for their live radio coverage of the Awards and post-Awards activities.
"We're like the Thanksgiving Day Parade," said Ilycia Deitch Chiaromonte, Senior Director Events, Premiere Radio Networks. "We start work long before the show begins. And when the CMA Awards are over, we start planning for next year."
Premiere Radio Networks is the official radio packager of the CMA Awards, including a stereo-radio simulcast of the gala event. Stations working with Premiere to offer live coverage of this year's Awards include KAJA/San Antonio, KBWF/San Francisco, KCYE/Las Vegas, KEEY/ Minneapolis, KFDI/Wichita, KFRG/Los Angeles/Riverside, KILT/Houston, KMPS/Seattle, KNCI/Sacramento, KNIX/Phoenix, KRST/Albuquerque, KSCS/Dallas, KSSN/Little Rock, KTST/Oklahoma City, KUPL/Portland, KUSS/San Diego, KYGO/Denver, WAMZ/Louisville, WBCT/Grand Rapids, WCOL/Columbus, WDSY/Pittsburgh, WDXB/Birmingham, WGAR/ Cleveland, WGH/Norfolk, WGNA/Albany, WIVK/Knoxville, WKIS/Miami, WKLB/Boston, WKKT/Charlotte, N.C., WLHK/Indianapolis, WMIL/ Milwaukee, WMZQ/Washington, D.C., WPOC/Baltimore, WQDR/Raleigh, N.C., WQIK/Jacksonville, WQYK/Tampa, WRBT/Harrisburg, Pa., WSIX/ Nashville, WSSL/Greenville, S.C., WUBL/Atlanta, WUSY/Chattanooga, Tenn., WXTU/Philadelphia, WYCD/Detroit and WYRK/Buffalo.
Beginning Friday, Nov. 7, Premiere Radio Networks will present its "2008 CMA Awards Preview Special" hosted by reigning CMA Horizon Award winner, Taylor Swift. The four-hour radio special, which airs in advance of "The 42nd Annual CMA Awards," will feature music and interviews with top stars including Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Sugarland and Keith Urban, among others. The special will be broadcast to radio stations nationwide.
This year, Swift who is nominated in the CMA Female Vocalist of the Year category, is getting set to release her second Big Machine Records album, Fearless - featuring her current hit, "Love Story" on Nov. 11. It's the follow-up to her self-titled debut, which has been certified three-times Platinum and has yielded two No. 1 singles, including her six-week chart topper, "Our Song." Taylor has secured a place in history as the only female solo artist in the history of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart to score five Top 10 singles from a debut album. She is also the first female solo artist in Country Music history to write or co-write every song on a Platinum selling debut album.
In addition, Premiere Radio Networks will present a live broadcast of the CMA Awards telecast, Red Carpet interviews with the stars, as well as a live post CMA Awards broadcast with the winners, both hosted by Jack Ingram and Premiere Radio Networks personality Larry Morgan.
Ingram returns as co-host of "The 42nd Annual CMA Awards Red Carpet Reports" and "CMA Awards Post Show" for the third year. On Nov. 12, Ingram and Morgan will speak with fellow stars and nominated artists as they make their way down the Red Carpet to the Sommet Center in Nashville for "Country Music's Biggest Night." The Red Carpet Reports will air during afternoon drive on stations nationwide. Following the Awards, Ingram and Morgan will also return as co-hosts of Premiere's "CMA Awards Post Show," featuring the night's big winners.
Ingram has made his place in Country's mainstream with five consecutive hits from his breakthrough album This Is It, including the No. 1 "Wherever You Are" and the Top 10 tell-off anthem "Love You." As an artist who has built his reputation as the consummate live performer, 2008 has found Ingram energizing crowds on Martina McBride's "Waking Up Laughing Tour." Ingram's new single, "That's A Man", from his upcoming Big Machine Records album, is making its mark at radio now.
"The 42nd Annual CMA Awards" will be held Wednesday, Nov. 12 at the Sommet Center in Nashville, Tenn. The three-hour gala will be carried live by the ABC Television Network from 8-11 PM/EST, 7-10PM/CST.
Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood will co-host the CMA Awards and perform. Trace Adkins, Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, the Eagles, Alan Jackson Kid Rock, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, George Strait, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, The Wailers and others will perform on Country Music's Biggest Night. Visit www.CMAawards.com for updates.
Tickets for the CMA Awards are on sale now and can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com; (615) 255-9600; or at the Sommet Center box office, 501 Broadway (corner of Fifth Avenue and Broadway in Nashville). Ticket prices begin at $110 for Upper-level; $327.75 for Club-level; and $382.50 for Lower-level. Prices include sales tax but exclude applicable service/handling fees.
Fans can order the official CMA Awards Program book and merchandise including long and short sleeved T-shirts, hats, a vest, a mug and a commemorative Hatch Show Print Poster on the www.CMAawards.com online store.
"The 42nd Annual CMA Awards" is a production of the Country Music Association. Robert Deaton is the Executive Producer. Paul Miller is the Director. David Wild is the writer. The special will be shot in high definition and broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC's selected HDTV format, with 5.1 channel surround sound. Premiere Radio Networks is the official radio packager of the CMA Awards, including a stereo-radio simulcast of the gala event. American Airlines is the official airline of the 2008 CMA Awards. Chevy: The Official Ride of Country Music. Mary Kay is the Official Beauty Sponsor of the 2008 CMA Awards.
2008 CMA Close Up News® Service / Country Music Association,® Inc.
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