Lorianne Crook To Be Honored At 15th Annual Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum

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Award-winning TV and radio host Lorianne Crook will be honored by The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum at its 15th annual Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum on Aug. 15 in the museum’s Ford Theater.

Crook will discuss her more than 40 years in media during an in-depth interview with museum writer-editor Angela Stefano Zimmer. The annual forum, which began in 2007, recognizes music industry leaders who continue the legacy of trailblazer Louise Scruggs, a formidable businesswoman who helped set professional standards in artist management.

Crook, who was one half of the hosting duo Crook & Chase, as well as a television and radio producer and writer, was born in Wichita and raised primarily in Nashville. She began her TV career at Wichita Falls, Texas’s KAUZ-TV and Nashville’s WKRN-TV, where she wrote, produced and hosted two national award-winning health and medical documentaries, as well as the nightly entertainment news program PM Magazine.

In 1983, country music TV producer Jim Owens—whom Crook married in 1985—enlisted Crook and fellow local television personality Charlie Chase to co-host a weekly country entertainment show, This Week in Country Music, first syndicated and then on The Nashville Network (TNN). In the four decades since, the pair have co-hosted several different country music news shows, specials and award shows, as well as a long-running radio show. Crook and Chase currently co-host and executive produce a weekly radio show for iHeart Media/Premiere Networks and a podcast.

Crook is also the president of Jim Owens Entertainment, Inc., which owns and manages Crook & Chase programming and archives, as well as the TNN brand and more than 10,000 hours of its historic country television and radio programming. She was inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame in 2013, and received the Grand Ole Opry’s Bob Kingsley Living Legend Award in 2017.

She has also received numerous accolades and nominations from the Academy of Country Music, Country Music Association, the New York Film Festival and other honors for her hosting, production and scriptwriting work. In 2023, RadioInk magazine named Crook among the most influential women in radio for the tenth time.

The 15th annual Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum program is free and open to the public, and tickets can be reserved here.

Lorie Hollabaugh
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