In Pictures: ACM’s Radio Row

Country artists and several of country radio’s top stations converged on T-Mobile Arena’s Lucky Live Lounge in Las Vegas recently, leading up Sunday evening’s 52nd annual Academy of Country Music Awards.

Top country superstars and new emerging talent – including Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert, Florida Georgia Line, Michael Ray, Jason Aldean, Maren Morris, Kelsea Ballerini, Little Big Town, Rascal Flatts, Trace Adkins, and more – plus pop group Backstreet Boys — engaged with 30 of America’s top Country stations, TuneIn, and Radio Disney and more.

In addition, Westwood One Backstage at the ACM Awards featured exclusive private backstage performances from Curb Records artists Lee Brice, Mo Pitney, and Jerrod Niemann, who performed Saturday evening, Broken Bow duo Walker McGuire, who performed Friday evening, and Valory Music’s Delta Rae, who kicked off backstage orientation Thursday night.

“Not only will those artists have their music exposed and heard, but for the stations, it creates more of a showbiz atmosphere,” Cumulus/Westwood One Sr. VP/Content & Programming Mike McVay recently told MusicRow of the radio remotes. “If you are a station and you are recording live back to your stations, you want the audience to have a feel for what is going on at the ACMs. You want almost that circus-like feeling, so having an artist perform at the end, so that the loud music is not interfering with everybody doing their local broadcasts, I think rewards the stations. It enables them to share with the audience what it feels like to be backstage at the ACMs.”