Throughout its first two decades, the Country Music Association developed formidable skills in promoting Country Music to gatekeepers in the business community, politicians on Capitol Hill and a fan base that was growing throughout the world. Partly as a result, the number of Country radio stations increased dramatically, album sales soared, the CMA Awards added new categories and Fan Fair attendance exploded.
As the 1970s drew to a close, the Country Music industry had plenty to celebrate. Roy Clark, The Oak Ridge Boys and Don Williams performed at "Country Comes to Monaco," the first Country Music concert held in Monte Carlo, staged to benefit Princess Caroline's "Year of the Child" charity fund. Willie Nelson and Charley Pride presented President Jimmy Carter with CMA's first Special Award to honor his support of Country Music.
Corporate America extended its embrace of Country Music in 1979 with "Kool Country on Tour," a 15-city tour sponsored by Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation. Fan Fair drew a record number of 14,000 attendees in June; the Talent Buyers Seminar set a record as well, with 360 registrants in October. And 280 new Country radio stations opened for business in 1978-'79.
"It was the beginning of the Alabamas of the world," said Joe Galante, Chairman, Sony BMG Nashville, and a CMA Board member from 1978 through 1990 and again from 1996 to the present, as well as its President in 1983 and Chairman in 1986. "Ronnie Milsap and Dolly [Parton] were having hits. People were seeing success with these Country crossover records and beginning to get into the format. A lot of guys said 'I like the format. I like the sound of the music.' They converted over, and CMA was good to enlist them immediately as part of the membership."
To keep step with the needs of its constituency, CMA underwent a restructuring in 1979. "We engaged a firm out of Washington, D.C., to come and study the situation," said Jo Walker-Meador, longtime Executive Director of CMA, who had been looking to hire someone to serve as associate executive director - a move that the Washington firm supported.
Culminating a national search, the position was given to Ed Benson, who had been Senior VP of Artist and Writer Relations at The Benson Company, a family-owned record and publishing business that specialized in gospel music. Benson, CMA Chief Strategic Officer who will retire from CMA in August, credited Frances Preston, former President and CEO of BMI, for suggesting that he talk with Walker- Meador about the job.
"The boom was going on, and the CMA Board felt they needed to structure the organization to take the growth and popularity of Country Music throughout America and internationally," Benson said. "To be able to do that, they wanted to set up a new structure. They felt Jo needed a No. 2 person. They had to be thinking about, 'What if something were to happen to Jo?' They had no fallback."
Benson wasn't the only key staffer to come onboard during CMA's third decade. Bobette Dudley, CMA Senior VP of Operations, was hired in 1986, a week before that year's Fan Fair. And CMA CEO Tammy Genovese began her career in 1985, as Administrative Services Coordinator.
Genovese recalled attending a No. 1 party for Alabama shortly after starting her job at CMA. "I remember thinking, 'This is where I need to be. This is me,'" she said, with a smile. "It wasn't just the excitement of being around the artists and that awe, although I still am in awe of artists and their accomplishments because they are truly special people. It was just the atmosphere of being in a creative environment. These people are talented and very blessed with a gift that not everybody has, and I respect that so much. For me to be able to work on the business side of it, they give me a lot of motivation and a lot of drive to do the best I can. I just love it."
"I really am proud of the people that have become part of CMA," said Walker-Meador, who retired in 1991.
Elevated in part by the popularity of the "Urban Cowboy" film, released in 1980, the Country Music boom grew to the extent that registration for Fan Fair had to be shut down in 1981 after the event reached the Municipal Auditorium's maximum capacity of 15,000. "In fact, it was beyond maximum capacity," Benson recalled. "You could only fit about 10,000 people in there for a show, so there were 5,000 people who had to be doing something else at the time a show was going on."
To keep up with this demand, Fan Fair relocated to larger quarters, the Tennessee State Fairgrounds, in 1982. Not all fans were happy about the move, though. "They hated it," Walker- Meador said. "They didn't want to leave Downtown Nashville because there was so much going on down there that they could participate in. The Municipal Auditorium was air conditioned, so that was another thing. But once they got out there [to the Fairgrounds], they really liked it."
"It allowed us to grow even further," Benson added, to the point that by 1987 Fan Fair was drawing 24,000 people. "The event all along was growing by word of mouth. People were coming and having a good time, and contrary to popular belief, it wasn't the same people who come back every year. We started researching and doing exit interviews, and found about 50 percent of the crowd were first-time attendees every year."
Much of Fan Fair's explosive growth could be attributed to the expansion of Country radio and the changing nature of the target audience, according to Walker-Meador. The May 1982 issue of CMA Close Up cited a study that found 44.5 percent of all radio stations in the United States and Canada were programming Country Music; these included 329 new Country stations that began broadcasting that year. "The music during that period really began to appeal to a younger crowd," Walker-Meador said. "It fed off of word of mouth - younger people coming and telling other friends all about it."
As Fan Fair expanded, so did its parent organization. CMA Close Up changed from newsletter to magazine format. A branch office opened in London to help support Country Music's expansion into overseas markets. CMA continued to lobby Capitol Hill on behalf of the intellectual property rights. Home taping was a hot-button issue at this time, and CMA led the fight against its impact on the income of songwriters and publishers.
The CMA Awards was growing too, with television ratings on the rise and the event earning acceptance as the prime showcase for Country artists. In 1981, CMA presented Terri Gibbs with the first Horizon Award, now known as the New Artist of the Year Award. And in 1985, to acknowledge the escalating importance of video as a creative and promotional device, CMA added a Music Video of the Year Award, with Hank Williams Jr. and director John Goodhue announced as its first recipients.
The CMA trophy itself was changed, from wood to its current form as a crystal statue with a bronze medallion. "It was made of walnut, and we changed to crystal because the man that was furnishing the Awards said that at the time, walnut was becoming extremely scarce," Walker-Meador said. "He couldn't get any more walnut, so we changed to crystal. I think everyone likes crystal a lot better."
A new logo appeared as well, which, with a commemorative stamp and a television special sponsored by Kraft, marked CMA's 25th anniversary in 1983. "That was a great time," said Walker-Meador, who recalled President Ronald Reagan and then- Vice President George H.W. Bush attending the television taping at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. "On the show, you can see Vice President Bush mouthing the words to The Oak Ridge Boys' hit 'Elvira.'"
He obviously wasn't alone. After somewhat of a slump in the mid '80s, the format began to bounce back as CMA neared its 30th anniversary in 1988.
2008 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.
As the 1970s drew to a close, the Country Music industry had plenty to celebrate. Roy Clark, The Oak Ridge Boys and Don Williams performed at "Country Comes to Monaco," the first Country Music concert held in Monte Carlo, staged to benefit Princess Caroline's "Year of the Child" charity fund. Willie Nelson and Charley Pride presented President Jimmy Carter with CMA's first Special Award to honor his support of Country Music.
Corporate America extended its embrace of Country Music in 1979 with "Kool Country on Tour," a 15-city tour sponsored by Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation. Fan Fair drew a record number of 14,000 attendees in June; the Talent Buyers Seminar set a record as well, with 360 registrants in October. And 280 new Country radio stations opened for business in 1978-'79.
"It was the beginning of the Alabamas of the world," said Joe Galante, Chairman, Sony BMG Nashville, and a CMA Board member from 1978 through 1990 and again from 1996 to the present, as well as its President in 1983 and Chairman in 1986. "Ronnie Milsap and Dolly [Parton] were having hits. People were seeing success with these Country crossover records and beginning to get into the format. A lot of guys said 'I like the format. I like the sound of the music.' They converted over, and CMA was good to enlist them immediately as part of the membership."
To keep step with the needs of its constituency, CMA underwent a restructuring in 1979. "We engaged a firm out of Washington, D.C., to come and study the situation," said Jo Walker-Meador, longtime Executive Director of CMA, who had been looking to hire someone to serve as associate executive director - a move that the Washington firm supported.
Culminating a national search, the position was given to Ed Benson, who had been Senior VP of Artist and Writer Relations at The Benson Company, a family-owned record and publishing business that specialized in gospel music. Benson, CMA Chief Strategic Officer who will retire from CMA in August, credited Frances Preston, former President and CEO of BMI, for suggesting that he talk with Walker- Meador about the job.
"The boom was going on, and the CMA Board felt they needed to structure the organization to take the growth and popularity of Country Music throughout America and internationally," Benson said. "To be able to do that, they wanted to set up a new structure. They felt Jo needed a No. 2 person. They had to be thinking about, 'What if something were to happen to Jo?' They had no fallback."
Benson wasn't the only key staffer to come onboard during CMA's third decade. Bobette Dudley, CMA Senior VP of Operations, was hired in 1986, a week before that year's Fan Fair. And CMA CEO Tammy Genovese began her career in 1985, as Administrative Services Coordinator.
Genovese recalled attending a No. 1 party for Alabama shortly after starting her job at CMA. "I remember thinking, 'This is where I need to be. This is me,'" she said, with a smile. "It wasn't just the excitement of being around the artists and that awe, although I still am in awe of artists and their accomplishments because they are truly special people. It was just the atmosphere of being in a creative environment. These people are talented and very blessed with a gift that not everybody has, and I respect that so much. For me to be able to work on the business side of it, they give me a lot of motivation and a lot of drive to do the best I can. I just love it."
"I really am proud of the people that have become part of CMA," said Walker-Meador, who retired in 1991.
Elevated in part by the popularity of the "Urban Cowboy" film, released in 1980, the Country Music boom grew to the extent that registration for Fan Fair had to be shut down in 1981 after the event reached the Municipal Auditorium's maximum capacity of 15,000. "In fact, it was beyond maximum capacity," Benson recalled. "You could only fit about 10,000 people in there for a show, so there were 5,000 people who had to be doing something else at the time a show was going on."
To keep up with this demand, Fan Fair relocated to larger quarters, the Tennessee State Fairgrounds, in 1982. Not all fans were happy about the move, though. "They hated it," Walker- Meador said. "They didn't want to leave Downtown Nashville because there was so much going on down there that they could participate in. The Municipal Auditorium was air conditioned, so that was another thing. But once they got out there [to the Fairgrounds], they really liked it."
"It allowed us to grow even further," Benson added, to the point that by 1987 Fan Fair was drawing 24,000 people. "The event all along was growing by word of mouth. People were coming and having a good time, and contrary to popular belief, it wasn't the same people who come back every year. We started researching and doing exit interviews, and found about 50 percent of the crowd were first-time attendees every year."
Much of Fan Fair's explosive growth could be attributed to the expansion of Country radio and the changing nature of the target audience, according to Walker-Meador. The May 1982 issue of CMA Close Up cited a study that found 44.5 percent of all radio stations in the United States and Canada were programming Country Music; these included 329 new Country stations that began broadcasting that year. "The music during that period really began to appeal to a younger crowd," Walker-Meador said. "It fed off of word of mouth - younger people coming and telling other friends all about it."
As Fan Fair expanded, so did its parent organization. CMA Close Up changed from newsletter to magazine format. A branch office opened in London to help support Country Music's expansion into overseas markets. CMA continued to lobby Capitol Hill on behalf of the intellectual property rights. Home taping was a hot-button issue at this time, and CMA led the fight against its impact on the income of songwriters and publishers.
The CMA Awards was growing too, with television ratings on the rise and the event earning acceptance as the prime showcase for Country artists. In 1981, CMA presented Terri Gibbs with the first Horizon Award, now known as the New Artist of the Year Award. And in 1985, to acknowledge the escalating importance of video as a creative and promotional device, CMA added a Music Video of the Year Award, with Hank Williams Jr. and director John Goodhue announced as its first recipients.
The CMA trophy itself was changed, from wood to its current form as a crystal statue with a bronze medallion. "It was made of walnut, and we changed to crystal because the man that was furnishing the Awards said that at the time, walnut was becoming extremely scarce," Walker-Meador said. "He couldn't get any more walnut, so we changed to crystal. I think everyone likes crystal a lot better."
A new logo appeared as well, which, with a commemorative stamp and a television special sponsored by Kraft, marked CMA's 25th anniversary in 1983. "That was a great time," said Walker-Meador, who recalled President Ronald Reagan and then- Vice President George H.W. Bush attending the television taping at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. "On the show, you can see Vice President Bush mouthing the words to The Oak Ridge Boys' hit 'Elvira.'"
He obviously wasn't alone. After somewhat of a slump in the mid '80s, the format began to bounce back as CMA neared its 30th anniversary in 1988.
2008 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.
