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In This Issue (5/11) 

“Ready with a capital R.”

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Radio Vision

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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.

cj51526.jpg You're It For Me, Money: Nashville Harbor's Caroline Jones gathers a group after her Whiskey Jam Welcome performance at Ole Red in Las Vegas. Pictured (l-r) are Country Aircheck's Chuck Aly, the label's Sandi and Scott Borchetta, producer Ric Wake, the label's Jimmy Harnen, Jones and the label's Ryan Dokke.
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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).
Zach-John-King51426.jpg Oil Gig: Sony Music Nashville’s Zach John King at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium. Pictured (l-r) are WFMS’ Brooks O’Brian and Matt Malone, WUBE/Cincinnati’s Grover Collins, King, WHKO/Dayton’s Nancy Wilson, WBTU/Fort Wayne, IN’s Randy Alomar, the label’s Anna Widmer and WLHK’s Nick Jordan.
Ashley-McBryde51426.jpg Girls Gone Wild: Warner/WRN's Ashley McBryde (l) with Katie & Company's Katie Neal.
keithurban51426.jpg Cause Only You Can Love Me This Highway: MCA's Keith Urban (l) with SiriusXM The Highway's Cody Alan.
Luke-Combs51326.jpg Ain't No Love In Oklahoma: Columbia's Luke Combs (c) with the label's Christy Garbinski, iHeart/Oklahoma's JJ Ryan, American Country Countdown’s Ryan Fox and the label's Nicole Walden (l-r) in Norman, OK.
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Howdy, Radio Partners: Big Machine's Cole Goodwin (front) says "Howdy" to radio partners and their families in Florida. Pictured are WKRO/Daytona Beach's DJ Tremble, guests Emerson and Jordan, WWKA/Orlando's Melissa Quinones, guests Sherry Stanley and Paul Stringfield, WQYK/Tampa's Launa Stringfield, WPCV/Lakeland, FL's Julie Kay, WQIK/Jacksonville's Scot "Froggy" Langley, guests Lisa and Caden Langley, the label's Liz Gregg Santana and WIRK/West Palm Beach's Nick Rivers.

Meghan-Patrick51326.jpg The Golden State: Riser House's Meghan Patrick with the label’s Roger Fregoso and KSON/San Diego's Jessica Chenoweth (top) and Fregoso, KNCI/Sacramento's Sonia Jimenez and Chad Rufer (bottom, l-r) at Country In The Park.

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
Recent Stories
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 'Til You Grant: During a visit to a local Las Vegas hospital (photo below), ACM Lifting Lives kicked off the 2026-2027 grant cycle with a&... 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
May 15, 2026 Tour Support: Braxton Keith launches his 12-show Real Damn Deal Tour July 25 in Silver Spring, MD, after wrapping his current This Ain’t My First... Read full story
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
May 15, 2026 Signage: Singer/songwriter/producer Brock Phillips signs with Big Loud Records and Local Hay Records. Pictured (front, l-r) are LHR's Dallas Smith, ... Read full story
May 14, 2026 You've Got A Highway: SiriusXM’s The Highway (ch. 56) will become ACM Awards Radio tomorrow (5/15) through Sunday (5/17), when a pre-show will begin ... Read full story
May 14, 2026 Björn Again: RTL Group Exec. Dir./CFO Björn Bauer has been named CFO for the soon-to-be combined BMG and Concord (CAT 4/28). He will be based in ... Read full story
May 14, 2026 Tour Support: Josh Turner has added 20 more cities to his This Country Music Thing Tour, including Memphis, Knoxville, Jacksonville, Fort Worth and ... Read full story
May 14, 2026 Wedding Belle: Lainey Wilson and Devlin "Duck" Hodges tied the knot May 10 at Ruskin Cave in Dickson, TN, with the bride in an Oscar de la ... Read full story
May 14, 2026 Bits & Pieces: Veteran music executive and songwriter Shelby Kennedy has published a book for aspiring artists, songwriters and entrepreneurs ... Read full story
May 13, 2026 Early Riser: "I'm extremely grateful to [label founders] Matt Swanson, Jennifer Johnson and Mitchell Tenpenny for the opportunity to be a ... Read full story
May 13, 2026 Reve-News: Beasley reported Q1 2026 net revenue of $42.6 million, down 12.9% from $48.9m the same period last year. Accounting for the sale of its ... Read full story
May 13, 2026 Mt. Rushmore State: Connoisseur Media is selling six Watertown, SD stations to Riverfront Broadcasting, including Country KSDR and Classic Country ... Read full story
May 13, 2026 Sam Seaboard: Syndicator Seaboard Networks has launched the weekly Classic Country show Studio 39 With Steve Bauer, which is available to stations via... Read full story
May 13, 2026 Tales From The Crypto: The 2027 Grammy Awards will air live from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles Feb. 7 on ABC, Disney+ and Hulu, marking&... Read full story
May 12, 2026 Iconography: Cumulus is selling Classic Country WWFF/Huntsville, AL to religious broadcaster Radio Training Network as part of a reported $2.45m deal ... Read full story
May 12, 2026 Bits & Pieces: Riley Green has signed on to occupy one of the big, red chairs on the next season of NBC's "The Voice," sharing on social media, "I... 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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