Cassadee Pope and Tucker Beathard present Trophies at “Rolling Stone Live Nashville”
NASHVILLE – The 2016 CMA Media Achievement Award was presented to Beville Dunkerley and Joseph Hudak of Rolling Stone Country by Country artists Cassadee Pope and Tucker Beathard backstage at “Rolling Stone Live Nashville,” an industry-packed event held Tuesday.
“We are incredibly honored to be recognized with CMA’s Media Achievement Award. When Rolling Stone Country was founded in 2014, we wanted to provide a platform for an eclectic mix of Country Music’s finest artists, and we’re thrilled to have that acknowledged with such a prestigious honor. We also want to extend a special thank you to all of our talented contributors. This is an award for them, as well,” said Dunkerley and Hudak in a joint statement.
“Joe and Beville have done a fantastic job building the Rolling Stone Country brand and broadening attention for the format with their readers – and they accomplished that ambitious mission in two years,” said Wendy Pearl, CMA Vice President of Corporate Communications. “They are very deserving of this honor.”
This is the second time that Dunkerley has been awarded the CMA Media Achievement Award. In 2010, she was acknowledged for her work at TheBoot.com. Dunkerley started her career at Nashville’s CBS affiliate station as a news writer and associate producer. She went on to Music City’s famed WSM Radio, where she co-hosted a top-rated morning show.
Through the years she has worn many hats, including at AOL Music where she was a writer, editor, artist relations coordinator, video segment producer, AOL Radio personality, and AOL Video host. While at AOL, she co-founded The Boot, which became the No. 1 Country Music site on the internet in less than a year. When AOL Music shut down and The Boot was sold, Dunkerley was immediately hired by Rolling Stone and helped the iconic magazine start its very first genre-specific website, Rolling Stone Country.
Joseph Hudak began his journalism career as a copy editor at TV Guide magazine, working his way up to senior editor and helping relaunch the iconic title as a full-size, full-color publication in 2005. While at TV Guide, Hudak began to write about Country Music in earnest, and upon exiting the magazine after 12 years, he moved to Nashville, joining Country Weekly magazine as managing editor. Now senior editor of Rolling Stone Country, he heads up the Nashville bureau of Rolling Stone, overseeing Country and Americana while also contributing to the flagship website’s pop and rock coverage.
The CMA Media Achievement Award was established to recognize outstanding achievements in the media as they relate to Country Music. Print and internet journalists, columnists, authors, and editors; television writers, producers and bookers; and syndicated radio reporters are eligible to win this Award.
A task force of industry publicists nominates a slate of five candidates for consideration by CMA member publicists. The publicists select the winner, which is presented to the CMA Awards and Recognition Committee, and then approved by the CMA Board of Directors.
Past winners of the Media Achievement Award include:
1982 Jack Hurst
1983 Neil Hickey
1984 Dolly Carlisle
1985 Red O’Donnell
1986 No Award
1987 David Zimmerman
1988 Robert K. Oermann
1989 Bob Claypool
1990 Dick Heard
1991 No Award
1992 Mark McEwen
1993 Lynn Lester
1994 Judy Massa
1995 Clay Smith
1996 Tisi Aylward
1997 Jay Orr
1998 Chet Flippo
1999 Hazel Smith
2000 Neil Pond
2001 Harry Chapman
2002 Jim Patterson
2003 Denise Quan
2004 Alanna Nash
2005 Mark Bracco
2006 Donna Hughes
2007 Storme Warren
2008 Monica Escobedo
2009 Cynthia Sanz
2010 Beville Darden
2011 Ashley Dvorkin
2012 Jennifer Meyer and Ray Sells
2013 Deborah Evans Price
2014 Chuck Dauphin
2015 Cindy Watts
