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In This Issue (5/18) 

"He walked to every single bandmate, thanking and congratulating them one-by-one. That’s real star power."

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Radio Vision

Lainey-Wilson51826.jpg 4X4XHappy Birthday To U: Broken Bow's Lainey Wilson celebrates her birthday (5/19) at the label's ACM brunch. Pictured (l-r) are manager Mandelyn Monchick, the label's Jon Loba, Wilson and Audacy's Tim Roberts.
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Swing Music: Nashville Harbor's Greylan James draws a crowd during ACM Lifting Lives' Country On The Green at TopGolf in Las Vegas Friday (5/15). Pictured (l-r) are Audacy's Mark Anderson and Justin Cole, James, and the label's Scott Borchetta, Jimmy Harnen, Ryan Dokke and Jay Cruze.

Scotty-Kay51826.jpg Dan + Kay: WUSN/Chicago's Scotty Kay (c) with Dan + Shay's Shay Mooney (l) and Dan Smyers at the ACM radio remotes.
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Poolaroid: The Opry NextStage Class of 2026 at ACM Next Wave: Country’s Beach Bash. Pictured (l-r) are ACM's Kylie Goudreau, the Opry's Dan Rogers, Dasha, Vincent Mason, Emily Ann Roberts, Tyler Braden, Hudson Westbrook, Alexandra Kay, Graham Barham, Willow Avalon, host Ashley Cooke, the Opry's Jenn Tressler, ACM's Haley Montgomery and the Opry's Lexi Lampkin.

B-Dub51826.jpg Dub Step And Repeat: ACM Award winners Riley Green (Music Event) and Bryan "B-Dub" Washington (National Daily On-Air and Weekly Personality) at the radio remotes.
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All I Have To Offer: Honoree Stephanie Davenport (Warner Records Nashville) with past honoree Shannon Sanders (BMI) at the I’m Just Me: A Charley Pride Celebration of Inclusion brunch hosted by Amazon MGM Studios, Amazon Music and the ACM in Las Vegas last week. Additional honorees (not pictured) were MTSU's Beverly Keel, Compton Cowboys, Warner's James Marsh, Rolling Stone's Joseph Hudak and artist Moriah.

Tucker-Wetmore51826.jpg She's A Casino: ACM Best New Male Artist of the Year Tucker Wetmore (l) with Country Top 40 With Fitz at the ACM radio remotes in Las Vegas.
Neil-Medley51826.jpg Re-Signage: Songwriter Neil Medley renews his deal with River House Artists and Sony Music Publishing Nashville. Pictured (l-r) are RHA's Lauren Lieu and Zebb Luster, Medley and RHA's Kayla Adkins.
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Chart Chat: Red Street's Walker Montgomery plays for Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center patients and staff in Las Vegas as part of ACM Lifting Lives and Musicians On Call's Bedside Performance Program. Pictured (l-r) are MOC's Katy Epley, ACMLL's Taylor Wolf, Montgomery and MOC's Abby Tannler and Emiley Roye.

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Insta-Damn: MCA's Vincent Mason is presented a gold plaque for "Damned If I Do" backstage at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Pictured (l-r) are Lost Highway's Vinny Masino, Music Soup's Max Motley, Dark Room's Nina Lee, King Publicity's Avery King Smith, Mason, Music Soup's Sean LeWow, King Publicity's Christina Bosch, Interscope's Austin Max and Champ Mgmt.'s Matt Musacchio.

garth51526.jpg Friends In High Places: Garth Brooks (l) celebrates surpassing 200 million certified units with Ben Farrell’s daughter, Ella Grace; Varnell Enterprises’ Jim Varnell; and Farrell’s wife, Autumn (l-r).

Top Stories

Riser House Adds Allen As EVP, Ups Three
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Industry veteran Shane Allen has joined Riser House as EVP/Promotion & Artist Brand Strategy. The company has also promoted nine-year company veteran Megan Stottlemyer from Label Manager to VP/Label Operations, VP/Streaming & Strategic Partnerships Alex Heimerman to Head/Marketing & Label Strategy and Dir./Business Affairs Jason VanAuken to VP of that department.

Most recently with Eric Church's SiriusXM channel, Outsiders Radio (CAT 11/28/22), Allen previously spent six years at Columbia, where he was SVP/Promotion, joining from the VP/Promotion role at Capitol/Nashville. Allen joined Capitol in 2007, left for a short stint with Red Light Management at the begining of 2009, then returned to Capitol in August of that year. When the label merged with UMG/Nashville in 2012, he held that title for all four of UMGN's imprints. Reach him here.

Stottlemyer joined Riser House full-time from an intern position in Jan. 2017, was named Product Mgr./Marketing Head that July and promoted to Label Manager in 2022 (CAT 11/18/22). Reach her here. Heimerman joined Riser House last year from The Trenches (CAT 6/3/25), with previous stops at MCA and Red Light; reach him here. VanAuken has been with the company since its launch in 2017; reach him here.

May 13, 2026 Share
CMA/Disney Extend Broadcast Relationship Through 2032
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The Mouse That Built Me: The CMA and Disney have extended their broadcast relationship through 2032 for The CMA Awards, and the CMA Fest and CMA Country Christmas annual specials. The six-year extension on the companies' existing 20-year relationship adds a live Disney+ stream to this year's 60th Annual CMA Awards (11/18), alongside the ABC telecast. The CMAs were previously available to stream on Hulu the day after the broadcast. "As I prepare to retire at the end of the year, ensuring CMA is strongly positioned for the future has remained one of my highest priorities, and I’m incredibly proud of what we've built together," says CMA CEO Sarah Trahern.

May 12, 2026 Share
March CDM Ratings
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Rocket City Rise: Here are select Nielsen Audio Continuous Diary Measurement (CDM) ratings for March 2026 (three-month rolling average, 1/8-4/1/26) compared with January and February. Ranks (in parentheses) are among subscribers. Unless otherwise noted, all figures are Persons 12+, Monday-Sunday, 6am-midnight.

Chattanooga, TN
(Market 93)

WUSY Audacy
13.0 (1) - 10.7 (1) - 8.6 (1)
WUUQ Bahakel Classic Country
3.8 (5) - 3.8 (4) - 3.3 (5t)
WOGT Cumulus 
Does not subscribe.

Huntsville, AL
(99)          

WDRM iHeartMedia
8.3 (1) - 11.0 (1) - 11.9 (1)
Largest share since Winter 2017.
WWFF Cumulus
Does not subscribe.

Jackson, MS
(125)
WMSI iHeartMedia
2.8 (9) - 3.7 (8) - 4.0 (6)
Largest share since Oct. 2024.
WUSJ New South
3.8 (7) - 3.4 (9) - 3.3 (8)
WHJT New South Classic Country
2.1 (11) - 2.0 (11) - 2.0 (10)
Madison, WI
(88)   
WMAD iHeartMedia
6.5 (3) - 5.9 (3) - 5.9 (2t)
WWQM Mid-West Family
1.7 (13) - 2.5 (11) - 3.1 (8)
WJVL
Big Radio
N/A - N/A - 1.4 (12t)
May 12, 2026 Share
Recent Stories
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May 15, 2026 Well Preserved: The 25 sound recordings selected this year for preservation by the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress include... Read full story
May 15, 2026 Reve News: Urban One, parent company of KKBQ/Houston and WLHK/Indianapolis, has reported Q1 net revenue of $77.7 million, a decrease of 15.8... Read full story
May 15, 2026 Signage: Solon Holt has signed with Trenches/Republic Records, which released his single, "Sad Country Songs," today (5/15). Holt wil support ... Read full story
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May 15, 2026 Bits & Pieces: Vince Gill accepted the 2026 Ken Burns American Heritage Prize at a May 6 event at the American Museum of ... Read full story

 

 

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2026 ACM Voter's Guide
A quick reference guide to the 2026 ACM Nominees



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The CRS 2026 Print Special featuring: Hey-Hi, AI: Emerging Uses
Best CRS Takeaways Ever
Label Contacts
New Faces
Travis Daily: The Interview



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Inside This Issue: 

MC-Yay At Ryman Lunch
Disruption Junction
You Look Like You Love Me
The Day Ahead

 

 

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