weekly November 20, 2023, Issue 885
Inside The 57th CMA Awards
Exec. Producer Robert Deaton tells the stories behind the Nov. 8 57th CMA Awards. Congrats on another well-received show, and on winning the night. First thing I noticed was the new set; how did that come together? This is my 17th year and I’ve never said this before, but I thought it was the best looking show we’ve ever done. From set design to broadcast design to screen content, I was so proud of the whole team. Our Art Director, Alana Billingsley, loves this show and had worked under other set designers, but had never been handed the reigns to do the whole Robert Deaton thing. I wanted her to do it and I was really glad she wanted to as well. We wanted to change up the look of what is, first of all, the Oscars of country music. A lot of people are going to LED screens in sets, which is fine and looks good, but I wanted a real, honest-to-goodness architectural design where any screens were meant to support the architecture. The other big note for me is for years I’ve wanted to get rid of the center awards presentation area so we could have bigger performance stages. Just like when you make a record, negative space creates drama. Alana and I talked about that, which is how we came up with putting the presenter area far stage right. That gave us two stages that were so much bigger in scale. You’ve been quoted about second-year growth between hosts Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning. Are there any illustrative examples you can share? Whether you’re an athlete, a standup comedian, a musician or artist, the first time you do the CMA Awards, it’s a different thing. There’s a little bit of a deer-in-the-headlights moment. (continued on page 7)
Austin Powers Up: Big Loud’s Morgan Wallen (c) with iHeartMedia/Austin-San Antonio’s Jason McCollim, KAJA/San Antonio’s Alek Halverson, the label’s Kelley Bradshaw and KCYY/San Antonio’s Christi Brooks (l-r) at the Moody Center ATX.
Q3 CDM Drivetime Leaders
Following last month’s analysis of the format’s Q3 drive-time leaders in PPM markets, Country Aircheck has also compiled Country’s top performers from Nielsen’s 45 Continuous Diary Measurement (CDM) markets. While WUSY/Chattanooga was the leader in share for the total week, it did not claim the top spot in morning drive. For the first time since taking over mornings in July and October 2022, respectively, WIVK/Knoxville’s Joey Tack & Nancy Barger have the largest share in morning drive with a 12.4, nearly two shares above second place WKKO/Toledo’s Lyn Casye & Marco Nation. WUSY captured the bronze with Ken Hicks & Daniel Wyatt’s even 10 share. It’s been a big year for WUSY’s Melissa “Mo” Wagner & Greg “Styckman” Owens. They just took home the CMA Medium Market Personality of the Year trophy, they’re now hosting overnights across most Audacy stations (CAW 10/23) and they have the largest share in afternoon drive for the first time since Q2 2022. Mo & Styckman’s 12.5 is a full share ahead of WIVK’s Gunner, who slips from last quarter’s first place
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