CMA Awards History – Dale’s Daily Data

The 45th annual Country Music Association awards is tonight broadcast live from Nashville.

The very first CMA awards in 1967 weren’t even televised.  Eddy Arnold was Entertainer of the Year. Jack Greene was the Male Vocalist and had the Single, Song and Album of the Year with “There Goes My Everything”. Loretta Lynn was the Female Vocalist back in 1967.

The following year, NBC taped the show and broadcast it several weeks later, then finally in 1969 it was shown live.
NBC had the first four CMA’s, then it switched to CBS in 1972 where it stayed for the next 34 years until ABC took over in 2005. That first year on ABC the CMA experimented with a move to New York City and held its award show at Madison Square Garden. But other than that one year the awards show has always been in Nashville, first at the Municipal Auditorium, then the Ryman Auditorium, the Grand Ole Opry House and finally Bridgestone Arena.
The first CMA awards had 10 categories including Comedian of the Year. The comedian category was discontinued in 1971.

The video category was added in 1989.

Kenny Chesney and Garth Brooks each have won Entertainer of the Year four times.

Reba McEntire leads with the most female vocalist wins with four.

Vince Gill and George Strait have won the male vocalist five times.

Vince has also hosted the CMA’s a record 12 times. Tonight will be the fourth in a row for Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood.

SOURCE: wikipedia