(Nashville, Tenn. – April 28, 2017) – Apart from the biggest award of the night honoring the Innovator of the Year, who will be announced in the coming days, The Innovation in Music Awards is proud to announce the 2017 Class of Innovation in Music Awards recipients and nominees. The award winners will accept their honors during the inaugural ceremony on Tuesday, June 6 at the Westin Hotel in Nashville, Tenn.
The 2017 Class of Innovation in Music Awards:
- Heritage Award: Mike McVay, McVay Media/McVay Syndication/ Listener Driven Radio
- Innovation in Music, Executive: David Macias, Thirty Tigers
- Innovation in Music, Artist & Creative: Shane McAnally, SMACKSongs
- Innovation in Music, Live/Touring: Brian O’Connell, Live Nation
- Innovation in Music, National Media: Leslie Fram, CMT
- Innovation in Music, National Radio: Bobby Bones, iHeartMedia
- Innovation in Music, Digital Media: Gogi Gupta, Gupta Media
- Innovation in Music, Digital Broadcast: J.R. Schumann, SiriusXM
As previously announced, this year’s Major Market Radio nominees for the Innovation in Music Award are Mark Anderson, WDSY/Pittsburgh; Johnny Chiang, KKBQ/Houston; Lauren MacLeash, KMNB/Minneapolis; Tim Roberts, WYCD/Detroit; Gregg Swedberg, KEEY/Minneapolis.
The Medium Market Radio nominees are Bev Rainey, KBQI/Albuquerque; Jon Reilly, WKLI/Albany; John Thomas, WRNX/Springfield; Sue Wilson, WQMX/Akron.
Finally, the nominees for the Innovation in Music Award recognizing Small Market Radio are Scott Donato, WGTY/York; Kory James, KPLM/Palm Springs; Rik McNeil, KJUG/Visalia; Dave Michaels, WQHK/Ft. Wayne.
The winners of all three Country Radio awards will be revealed during the inaugural ceremony.
Designed to celebrate those who have played a critical role in the development and advancement of the ever-changing music industry, the inaugural Innovation in Music Awards ceremony will recognize a number of industry leaders who are distinguished in the discovery and innovative strategy of driving forward the direction of today’s music landscape.
The awards ceremony will consist of acceptance speeches from the evening’s honorees, musical performances, and a short-form talk from an industry representative considered to be a bright, forward-thinker.
To learn more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact John Alexander at john@alexandermgmt.com or 615-480-8121.
Additional event information including how to purchase tickets will be released in the coming weeks, and available through www.innovationinmusic.net.
Click on name for Hi-Res Download
About Mike McVay: McVay is President of McVay Media and McVay Syndication, partner of Listener Driven Radio, and Co-Founder of McVay New Media. Known globally as media’s most influential media strategist, McVay serves as a consultant and advisor to radio stations, artists, singers/songwriters, Internet businesses, Networks, air talent as well as publications. Adding to his already impressive list of nominations, McVay has been recognized as Ohio Media Leader of The Year, Broadcaster of the Year from Cleveland Association of Broadcasters, Broadcast Consultant of the Year at the Radio Music Awards, as well as Broadcast Executive of the Year for Radio & Records Magazine for three years running, 2006-2008.
About David Macias: David Macias is the co-founder and President of Thirty Tigers, a diverse entertainment company that specializes in marketing services, music distribution, management, promotion, and publishing for independent artists. Thirty Tigers offers artists an alternative to the major label model, allowing them complete creative control and ownership of their music while giving them, on average, 70-75% of the income. This artist-friendly model has proven incredibly successful for both the company, which has seen a 20% growth year after year, and importantly, for artists, some whom consistently receive sizeable checks. His music industry background spans 35 years, starting in record retail in Florida and continuing on with stops at Arista, BMG, EMI, and Giant Records, before co-founding Thirty Tigers in 2001.
About Shane McAnally: McAnally is a GRAMMY Award winning songwriter and producer, known for his work with many of Nashville’s top artists. After success with Lee Ann Womack’s “Last Call,” McAnally narrowed his focus to on writing, eventually opening an independent publishing and management company in 2012 called SMACKSongs. In 2010, McAnally earned his first No.1 with Kenny Chesney’s “Somewhere With You” and has since written or produced 26 No.1s-and-counting. In 2015, McAnally was named Billboard’s Hot Country Songwriter of the Year and was featured on the cover of Billboard’s Nashville Power Player issue. McAnally has produced albums and songs for Sam Hunt, Kelly Clarkson, Old Dominion, Kacey Musgraves, Jake Owen and Midland. Most recently, McAnally was tapped to arrange and produce the ACM Award winning single “Forever Country” to commemorate the Country Music Association’s 50th anniversary. Earlier this year, he was announced as the co-president of Sony’s revitalized Monument Records, where he will serve alongside Jason Owen to guide 2017 music releases by Caitlyn Smith and Walker Hayes.
About Brian O’Connell: O’Connell is President of Country Music Touring for Live Nation. Meeting and developing young acts on the rise and seeing the creative process in gear are two of the fringe benefits O’Connell enjoys the most. His passion for the artist, live shows and the fan experience remains engrained in his award-winning career of more than 25 years. Developing the ultra-succesfull Country Megaticket, he has worked with Toby Keith, Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley, Jason Aldean, Florida Georgia Line, Lady Antebellum, Luke Bryan, Brooks & Dunn, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, Thomas Rhett and many more. He is a seven-time winner of the Academy of Country Music’s Promoter of the Year award – more than any other promoter. He is a four-time winner of the Country Music Association’s Talent Buyer/Promoter of the Year award. In 2013 was named Promoter of the Year by IEBA (the international Entertainment Buyers Association) and recognized by the industry’s leading tour source Pollstar with the 2006 Bill Graham Promoter of the Year Award, as well as the 2017, 2014 and 2013 Talent Buyer of the Year award.
About Leslie Fram: Fram currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Music Strategy at Country Music Television (CMT), where she oversees all music integration with the CMT brand for original programs, CMT.com and video airplay across all platforms. Negotiating vital partnerships with label and indie acts for exclusive content and premieres, she spearheaded new avenues to reveal and showcase on-the-rise talent, per the development of the digital series “Concrete Country” and the movement of “Next Women of Country,” designed solely to empower the female voices of country music. Fram also serves on the board of the Academy of Country Music and has received honors such as the TJ Martell Award, NARAS-Atlanta Chapter Heroes Award, and Lifetime Achievement Inductee in the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame.
About Bobby Bones: National radio host, stand-up comedian, best-selling author, chart-topping recording artist, TV personality, and philanthropist, Bobby Bones has built his career on the ability to multi-task, turning humor, honesty, and hard work into a self-made business empire. Dubbed by New York Times as “the biggest thing in country radio,” and by Forbes as “the most powerful man in country music,” reaching millions of listeners on more than 100 stations as the host of iHeartMedia’s “The Bobby Bones Show,” Bones has proven to be one of the genre’s most influential tastemakers, and was honored for a second time by the Academy of Country Music for “National On-Air Personality of the Year.”
About Gogi Gupta: Gogi Gupta is the Founder of Gupta Media, a digital marketing agency that specializes in media buying, creative design and technology solutions. A graduate of Cornell University, Gogi started his company over 12 years ago, with the goal of creating a better way to buy ads online. In 2011, Gogi launched smartURL, a global redirect service that automatically send users to the right place based on their location and device. It has revolutionized and streamlined the process of digital marketing, particularly in the music industry, where smartURLs are frequently used by major artists to announce their new albums to the masses.
About J.R. Schumann: J.R. Schumann serves as the Senior Director of Country Programming at SiriusXM. J.R. is responsible for all of SiriusXM’s country music programming, as well as channels in the Christian category and SiriusXM’s Elvis Radio. Before SiriusXM, J.R. was a top country programmer for major terrestrial radio groups. He joined SiriusXM from Cumulus Media, where he served as Operations Manager overseeing programming of KSCS and KPLX in their Dallas, TX cluster. Prior to that role, he served as Program Director for country music programming at Cox Media Group’s Orlando, FL cluster, overseeing operations of WWKA. In 2016, J.R. was included in Billboard’s Nashville Power Players List.
