Luck What You Made Me Do As the ACM Awards returned to Las Vegas for a post-COVID reboot, the 2022 ACM Radio Award winners found ways to celebrate at home and in Sin City. Y’all In The Family LARGE MARKET STATION WUBE/Cincinnati
Call Of Duty: KYGO/Denver’s Brian Michel (l) celebrates the station’s first-ever ACM Awards win with retiring SVP/ MM Bob Call.
Hubbard WUBE/Cincinnati PD/midday host Grover Collins believes it takes a village. My wife, Holly, and I went to Las Vegas and had the honor to accept on behalf of the station. Our Dir./Production, Joe Mason, and I have worked hand-in-hand on the editing process for our submission throughout the years, and it’s to the point that Joe knows what I’m looking for. I’m convinced that has a lot to do with securing the win. Adapt and innovate – that’s what WUBE did in recent years. We invented Virtual Field Trips, and The Big Dave Show morning team went places ranging from the zoo to the place where they make footballs for the Super Bowl to help teach kids schooling at home. We still did our 10,000 Toys For Girls & Boys with the Marines and Toys For Tots, but we also created the Virtual Toy Trooper website where people could easily pick a toy and use a Venmo page to raise thousands of dollars. Aside from the ACM Awards show itself, the best thing I saw in Las Vegas was the Silk Sonic concert – Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak. Definitely a hot ticket – in our audience alone we saw Dustin Lynch, TJ Osborne and Chris Stapleton. I also got to spend quality time with the Parmalee boys, who I’ve known for years, without being rushed. We had lunch, talked about the format and our families, but mostly geeked out about Stevie Ray Vaughn while sipping cocktails! A major shout-out also goes to Big Loud, who had a wonderful brunch and awards service just for the radio winners. That was very thoughtful.
First Case Scenario MAJOR MARKET STATION KYGO/Denver
Bonneville KYGO/Denver PD Brian Michel credits teamwork and tenacity for the station’s first-ever ACM win. I hope our community work stands out, specifically our yearlong mental health campaign. We have an incredible live and local airstaff, including Tracy Dixon (see page 7), but the rest of the team including Fizz, Sheena, Paul and Alicia deserve a lot of credit, too. That’s why this trophy lives in the KYGO lounge adjacent to the studios. During COVID, we curated live on-air concerts from the biggest artists when our listeners couldn’t attend shows. Most importantly, our team stayed committed to being in the building, doing it live every day, and creating the best local content possible. They were fantastic at monitoring their health and making sure the station was a safe place. A group of us traveled to Las Vegas. I was able to convince [Bonneville/Denver SVP/MM and Country Radio Hall of Famer] Bob Call to put his retirement on hold for a special weekend of talking radio and seeing the sights around Vegas. The ACM Awards show itself was amazing, from the production to the stadium. We also had a great time seeing Hardy at the winners’ brunch that Big Loud held for everyone. I’m not much of a gambler, but I played Buffalo Gold once and hit the jackpot! Too bad I only selected the twocent denomination, but it was still a couple hundred bucks. And yes, I walked away right then and there!
Must B Present: WUBE/Cincinnati’s Grover Collins represents the station staff at the ACM Awards show.
May The Fourth Be With You MEDIUM MARKET STATION WHKO/Dayton
Pros And Confetti: The WHKO staff celebrates its ACM win. Pictured (l-r) are Larry Hansgen, Aaron “Woody” Woods, Nancy Wilson, Chris “Kato” Hartley, Niki Mayakova, Jake “Jesse Lee” Magnotta and Ron “Nate Daniels” Otto.
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After several nominations over the past decade, Cox WHKO/Dayton PD Nancy Wilson found the fourth time was finally the charm. I was sitting in our studio getting ready for our daily team call when the news came over on my email, and I was like, “Holy sh-- you guys, we won!” It is nice to be nominated, but we were feeling a little bit like Susan Lucci with lots of nominations but never winning. The entire team was thrilled. We didn’t get to go to Vegas, but we had kind of a progressive celebration. We have a new GM who’s from the TV side, but he loves radio and is making sure we are cheering the win. It’s also been cool to hear from a lot of artists who have recognized us for this. We didn’t do anything differently this year. I think our consistency was finally enough for the committee. We never do things thinking, “Let’s make sure this is aimed at being an award winner.” We just try to do our best work, always. I could not be prouder of the entire staff, because this is truly a labor of love. We don’t have the luxury of a fulltime airstaff all day, but the staff we have is dedicated.