Willyard Live From The CMA's

What's it like to be the king of the country radio voiceover world? John Willyard should know. John Willyard is the lead radio imaging voice on dozens of great country radio stations around the USA, and also happens to be the long running announcer of the CMA Awards show.

John gives us an inside look at the CMA Awards Show, and what it's like to be the lead announcer for country music's biggest night.

Friday evening, November 2nd -- drove from my home to Nashville to begin my six nights in Music City -- first at the old hotel we came to know so well when the shows were at the Grand Ole Opry. I've stayed nine years at the Courtyard Marriott on Music Valley Drive off Briley Parkway. Since it's so close to the Grand Ole Opry even though a bit further out than the Opryland Hotel, it's so easy to get back and forth quickly. This year I'll admit it was to save a few bucks for two nights before moving to the downtown Courtyard. Rackin' up those member points.

That first year, 1996, Junior Brown won Video of the Year and stayed at our hotel. I was such a greenhorn that I thought that was as big as George Strait staying there.

Saturday morning November 3rd -- put in a good run consequently having an energetic, fun and very smooth session at Seismic Sound in the NorthStar Studio complex with AD Sharon Taylor. Sharon's so professional, pleasant and fun to work with and has been a part of the CMA's for many years. This was our first session for the 41st CMA's and went about 3 hours. It was hard work, with special attention to the detail of hitting the artist names in the copy I was announcing on top of the already edited video packages that the viewer would see rolling right into commercial breaks, e.g., "Still to come, will Reba hand the final award of the night, Entertainer of the Year to Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, George Strait or Keith Urban? You can only find out on the 41st Annual CMA Awards right here on ABC."

When I work on synching my voice to the video roll I’m both looking at the copy and a monitor, usually a small one propped just above the copy stand. This year, however, I didn’t use a private booth but was situated in the control room with Sharon and the recording engineer near the right wall, and had the good fortune of having a giant screen on the back wall as my monitor. I actually liked recording that way – more than I thought I would.

Wondering why I had so much copy to record since I was handling only my part of the script it wasn’t until later that it sunk in there were going to be six segment hosts. No Brooks and Dunn. I still miss Vince as host. He was the soul of the show every year. Also what many may not realize is that virtually every announcement that’s done by one of the hosts or presenters I record first, covering the eventuality that they may not record their part by show-time. AND on the nomination packages we record three versions – short, medium and long so that during the show the time can be adjusted by using one of those options.

I made a comment in passing about being anxious to return to the Grand Ole Opry and I was told that it's never going back. The NYC departure in 2005 to Madison Square Garden was a polite way of leaving to engage a new venue so that more seats could be offered. That's why the Sommet Center's the spot. Because there's so many moving parts and is a gargantuan production it makes sense to use that arena's infrastructure as it can accommodate the largest show imaginable.

I’ve actually voiced fifteen CMA-produced shows. Besides the CMA Awards I’ve worked on the 75th Anniversary of the Grand Ole Opry, 40th Anniversary Show of the CMA (both from that arena) and a CMA Music Festival Special.

Many of the CMA production staff have been with the show for 20, 25, 30 even one, Talent Executive Jan Ray Suk, celebrating her 40 years! That means the 1st CMA show she worked on was the 2nd Annual and the 2nd co-hosted by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans when it was part of the Kraft Music Hall on NBC-TV.

Among the many talented production staff are people who’ve seen it all – from working on HeeHaw, Nashville Tonight, Ralph Emery’s shows, The Statler Brothers, Johnny Cash Specials, etc. Then there’s the production staff who are some of the finest musicians in the country who’ve appeared on projects from George Strait to Martina McBride to Tim McGraw.

I remember feeling satisfied as I drove away from that studio that my voice was strong (I had warmed up well) and that I was well (no cold). Having an illness like that is a bane to anyway who does this kind of work with their voice. And I always feel sorry for performers who have to work through it. I also avoid anyone I know is sick. Kind of like that Howie Mandell thing of not shaking hands. Perhaps I should go full tilt like he does. The 40th CMA I had some rare and odd (for me) Fall allergy and had to use an inhaler at one point during the first recording session.

Sunday morning November 4th -- I even got in a good run first thing. Nice relaxing morning with breakfast – headed a bit east of town to enjoy an afternoon of sunny but very gusty golf at The Hermitage. I highly recommended it. It was so windy that standing with driver in hand on the tee box the shaft was actually resonating (I think it was an E-flat).

Sunday night a little after 6 I headed to the live broadcast center in the Hilton Hotel across from the Sommet Center for MJI’s orientation. The live broadcasts would begin early the next morning via live ISDN lines provided by Premiere. I expected to reconnect with many friends over the years. Like Michael Azar who runs the technical aspect for the live MJI red-carpet show, live simulcast and post awards show. With him I’ve voiced many of their radio specials through the years. He was there at the Hilton along with Donna Hughes (last year’s CMA Media Achievement Award recipient) and John Weber of Premiere Radio. They led an interesting, informative and brief orientation. John then introduced me (surprised me as I was just minding my business) and I made a very brief greeting: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I've got a very important announcement....the bar is NOW OPEN!"

A group of us who didn’t go out for dinner trotted downstairs to the Hilton sports grill downstairs. Met old friends and made new ones. Among the table guests, KRST’s Eddie Haskell, Ann "Lipstick" Perkins, Willy D. Loon of KNIX's Tim and Willy, from K-FROG 95.1’s Tommy Frogman and Scott Frogman.

Monday morning – the week of the CMA Awards show. About 50 live radio shows inside the Hilton – with talent runners spiriting the important guests, making the interview rounds. Taylor Swift, Trisha Yearwood, Trent Tomlinson, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, Little Big Town, Dierks Bentley, Sara Evans, and many more. And that was just Monday morning. The buzz among the stations on site was really hot – about the upcoming show and about the artists they were getting access to. Got to visit with Pat and Tom of KNCI, The New Doctor Don Show of WYCD, Woody and the Wake Up Call from WCOL and was surprised with a live spontaneous bit as if I was introducing Sara Evans. Cadillac Jack and Kristen from KICKS1015 Atlanta had just started interviewing Sara about her role as segment host. Heard them say: “That’s the show announcer right there.” That got my attention then they “roped” me into coming over, seated next to Sara and prompted me “go ahead, how would you introduce her Wednesday night?” I “protested” at first insisting how could I do such a thing with the writers striking – and then just winged it. She played along so well. Live is fun!

Watched many of the technical rehearsals – Keith Urban, Martina McBride, Carrie Underwood. Individual rehearsals are done in the arena starting about noon Sunday before the show so that everything from camera blocking to audio (everything) can be rehearsed. Some artists will deliver a full voice passionate performance every time they rehearse, sometimes 5 or 6 times! Keith Urban was one such artist who impressed me in that way.


Tuesday, November 6th – enjoyed more artist rehearsals from Alison Krauss and Union Station, George Strait and the fun Brad Paisley song “Online” featuring a cute Sara Evans intro where she’s “interrupted” by the Brentwood HS Marching Band. I picked up a sheet of music that was left behind – the tuba part.

Tuesday night I had a call time of 5:30 at Seismic Sound Studios to revise several voiceovers. We were to redo all the "Reba McEntire" references to simply "Reba" (think Madonna and Cher). We practically effortlessly hit all the marks in the studio, being mindful of continuity in doing pickups and punch-ins to keep the flow of energy as well as voice quality the same. Then it was back downtown to meet up with the girls (my wife Debbie and our friend Kim) to walk into the artist entrance off the alley right into the presence of Mother Church of Country music - The Ryman Auditorium for “Tuesday Night at the Opry.”

Guests of my friend Steve Gibson, he’d invited us to enjoy the performance from the edge of the stage itself. Steve's one Nashville’s top studio guitarists and is heard on virtually every George Strait CD cut for the past decade or more as well as other top artist’s recordings. He’s also Music Contractor for the CMA Awards for the past several years.

What a magical night watching “Little” Jimmy Dickens, Clay Walker, Colin Raye and others. Ran into renowned drummer Eddie Bayers, a nine-time Musician of the Year nominee. We’d moved stage left after taking the walk behind that famous red barn backdrop that all the greats from Hank Sr. to Roy Acuff to Elvis have walked. The hair stands up on the back of one's neck knowing all who've trod this wood across the back wall.

Enjoyed Little Jimmy Dickens comedy routine (another stellar perfect delivery) watched him sing "Life Turned Her That Way." At that moment I was standing in front of Colin and from his reaction to Mr. Dickens introducing that Harlan Howard classic knew it was going to be a special treat for us all. Colin and I have always greeted one another with a big hug. He's one of the most gracious gentlemen in Country music.

Earlier Mr. Dickens was kind enough to pose for a couple of pictures in his private dressing room a couple of floors up an elevator and down a short hall. Our guest, Kim, is short as it is and yet the top of her head eclipsed the top of Mr. Dicken’s hat! Hard to conceive that he’s performed on that stage since 1948!

We made it back stage right just in time for the evening's Opry announcer, WSM’s Keith Bilbrey, to bring me up to the podium. Really surprised me! I knew well enough to make it short and get off. I think I said "Thanks, Keith, and folks, I hope you'll all be watching the 41st Annual CMA Awards tomorrow night on ABC!" I was delighted that the Ryman was a full house that night.

Wednesday, show day -- dress rehearsals began at 12:30 and went pretty smoothly with just two stop downs. By the end of the show that night I would have the headphones on for about seven hours, listening to the IFB communication in the left ear and the program line in the right ear. During dress rehearsal many of the presenters are stand-ins, local actors/actresses as well as having stand-ins accept the award “for rehearsal purposes only” as they say, after opening “the envelope.” By the way, through the years people have asked: “John, you know who the winners are in advance, don’t you?” No one knows except the accounting firm of Deloitte and Touche. There are many reasons I know this to be true.


The evening of the show started early for me as I had a 5:30 call time to record some new lines for later use. After, I headed down the halls (long walk) to the production office past milling crowds of artists, handlers, managers, talent runners, production team and music greats to check any last minute copy changes before the show. Ran past the Eagles, Lee Ann Rimes, Montgomery-Gentry, Miranda Lambert, Jessica Simpson being escorted, string players walking into a warm up room, Vince Gill standing against a quiet hallway wall near the office, memorizing his intro to "The Eagles" and Amy nearby.

On the way back to my booth which was near the back of the stage I almost ran right into Alison Kraus and Jon Waite standing at the green room doorway. She’s quite sweet (and tall) in person and watched me walk into the room rather inquisitively. In the back of this quite large “holding area” green room were the Station of the Year representatives and broadcast winners. I felt like being in a receiving line shaking the hands of so many I’ve worked with through the years – Joel Burke and Bob Call from KYGO, Kerry Wolfe from WMIL and Tom Goodwin and Craig Allen from KXKT and T. Gentry from WKXC. They were in a holding pattern to be taken onto the stage for the pre-telecast ceremonies where they would also pose for a picture which would later be incorporated into telecast.

Back in the booth watching the monitor with the headphones on, everything’s in place and I feel ready – pumped as never before. There’s no way to explain the adrenaline rush of hearing the countdown from the control room. Director Paul Miller -- “ladies and gentlemen, 10 minutes until show-time, please find your seats.” Then hearing Christine Clark Bradley counting down from 15 seconds to live air. What’s such an amazing feeling to me is the sense that after all these hundreds of moving parts being prepared and rehearsed individually it’s now all happening – no turning back – this is live television – and BIG. The first year about 40 million people watched all or part of the show. Who knows how many – feels like more will. Just feels that way.

To hear the excitement and rush in the director’s voice calling the shots – and know that it was because act one went off so perfectly and overwhelmingly. Our director was ecstatic over the Rascall Flatts opening since there were some amazing spontaneous shots (Joe Don with the crowd just behind him – so close). “Still Feels Good” with all those images from past CMA shows was thrilling!

Every lyric of every song performed is in the script along with important musical measure counts, “oohs” and “yeah’s.” These are necessary to the production as our AD actually down some of the measures within the song to indicate zooming in or out, panning, basically any camera movement. It’s really so well choreographed and orchestrated and begins with the individual artist stage technical rehearsal.

It’s fun to hear the great reaction from the control booth over a standing ovation that’s happening or a genuine favorable reaction to what someone says on stage, whether it was Taylor Swift’s sweet and funny acceptance speech or “Give it Away” co-writer Jamey Johnson saying his ex-wife deserved half this award to Kellie Pickler’s tears as she ended “I Wonder.”

At one point in the show 30 seconds before the commercial break was over one of the stage managers urgently said over the IFB to the director that Big and Rich weren't ready. I even felt a bit anxious since the show had been going perfectly. There are always contingency plans for the unexpected and they could've asked ABC to run an extra promo and "buy some time." Instead, about 15 seconds before Sara was to intro the boys, the words: "never mind, they're ready" was heard. I watched as the program came back live to see if Sara had to stretch at all. She glanced once stage left, welcomed the audience back and perfectly introed B & R -- everything went off flawlessly.

About two hours into the 3-hour show as we rolled into a commercial break it was said that we were about 1 minute and a half early. Those things have a way of working out (with acceptance speeches) because the show ended exactly when they wanted it to – on time - -and with plenty of Entertainer of the Year speech by Kenny Chesney.

When the show end credits faded to black the entire control room erupted into wild applause. Kudos down a list of names came next from AD Christine Clark Bradley.

Immediately after the show after making my way from the booth I greeted and congratulated Kellie Pickler, still near the stage, telling her “magical, just magical!” And congratulated “Whispering” Bill Anderson and Hall of Fame inductee Ralph Emery. Ralph and I now share the distinction of having voiced the CMA Awards 12 years each. That’s where the similarities end. HE’S a Hall of Famer! Deservedly so.

CMA Post Show party – we usually hit up one or two label parties but this year were pretty tired. Went to the official CMA party. We met a couple from Marietta (our home town) and Country radio programming consultant Rusty Walker, who’s always been such a supporter of my image voice-over work from the beginning. We did make our way to one small party across the street where several of the top level production staff were unwinding. It was a nice way to say goodnight and goodbye for another year.

Day after the show -- Every year the day following the live telecast I record a new page that’s a CMA recap used in a 90 minute cut-down Awards show for International release. For the first five years I used to stay all day in Nashville until the edit was done which would determine the copy needed. So now I just drive home as early as I can, do some studio work then a couple hours after arriving home one of the CMA staff emails the copy, I record one page, send an mp3 and I’m done until next year (hope there’s a “next year” for me). I’m not under contract but continue to get called up – what a blessing! It really is like a family. I’ve made so many close friends.

I recently got an email from a gentleman who used to be in radio management and now lives in Columbia, SC. He reminded me that it was 12 years ago that he recommended me to voice the CMA Awards. There must’ve been more people in my corner than I realized. Apart from those forces was that I’d invited Walter C. Miller, executive producer of the show since 1970, to dinner in Nashville about 4 weeks before the 30th Annual CMA’s. After a very noisy dinner in which I thought I’d lost him completely. I Fed Ex’d him a demo the next day showing how I’d approach the show voice-overs. I wanted Country to shine with a kind of “Hollywood” approach to the program (at least what I could contribute).

I’ve met one person in this business who’s told me he wants to do the voice-over duties once I’m done. It’s going to be tough wrangling it away from me. I don’t think there’s going to be enforced retirement. And a few years ago at CRS I met someone from an L.A. based talent agency who said they’d pitched one of their voice clients.

I’m very pleased and happy to give back to the Country industry that’s given me so much since 1991!

The first year I voiced the show I was assigned dressing room #8 – and these were the names on the door: Brooks and Dunn, Diamond Rio and mine. That year B & D came away with Dup and Entertainer of the Year honors. That was also the year the telecast was 2nd among 212 awards show and specials for the year -- 2nd only to the Academy Awards.

I don't know why it's taken so long but this year I felt more confident, relaxed, energetic, and had a feeling that I "belonged" on the show and among my peers. Funny – there are now twelve shows under my belt (leaded gold of course).

Read more about John Willyard on his website at JohnWillyard.com