Country Radio Hall Of Fame Honorees Victor Sansone And Tim Wilson Inducted At 'CRS 2021: The Virtual Experience'

Wilson (l) and Sansone (r)

THE COUNTRY RADIO HALL OF FAME (CRHOF) began inducting members of its CLASS OF 2020 TODAY (2/17) during COUNTRY RADIO SEMINAR (CRS), starting with off-air honoree VICTOR SANSONE in the morning, and on-air honoree TIM WILSON in the afternoon. As previously announced (NET NEWS 1/15), the annual COUNTRY RADIO HALL OF FAME induction ceremony and dinner could not be held as a live event last year, so COUNTRY RADIO BROADCASTERS (CRB) is now featuring individual award presentations on each day of this week's "CRS 2021: The Virtual Experience."

Syndicated personality KIX BROOKS introduced SANSONE, and described him as "one of the good ones." In accepting his speech, SANSONE said, "Clearly in a year like this, the highlight of 2020 for me was this HALL OF FAME nomination ... I couldn't accept this without recognizing the people that I was honored to work with and a company that allowed me to grow for the nearly 35 years that I was with them. The staff at ABC's ATLANTA and DALLAS, KIX and EAGLE, KSCS and TWISTER, made our stations among the best in format, marked by years of market and format leadership. I salute them and the zeal in which they approach their jobs. It made mine easier."

SANSONE began his 34-year career with CAPITAL CITIES/ABC/DISNEY, first on the sales management side, and landed a management role in 1987 with KSCS/DALLAS. KSCS stayed atop the overall market rankings for 21 consecutive rating periods, and SANSONE repeated that success upon his move to WKHX/ATLANTA in 1997, with a 10-year run of similar ratings and revenue. SANSONE served on the COUNTRY MUSIC ASSOCIATION Board of Directors, eventually rising to President and Chairman.

Sharing advice to radio programmers, SANSONE said, "Be great at being local. Consultants are a great tool to help you sift through the signals you're getting from your listeners, but remember, it's your radio station, your community. Learn from other people in markets, sure, but find your uniqueness and your own instincts you have to trust."

In the afternoon, on-air honoree TIM WILSON was recognized by CRHOF Class of 2017 member TIM CLOSSON. WILSON spent 26 of his 45 years in Country radio as MD, PD and on-air personality for WAXX/EAU CLAIRE, WI, and has been recognized as CMA Personality of the Year, CMA PD of the Year, Billboard PD, MD and Personality of the Year, and won the NAB's MARCONI Award.

During his acceptance speech, WILSON said, "It's hard for me to believe from my beginnings back in the middle of IOWA where, really I was only hired because I had a first-class license, up through the 100,000-watt blowtorch WAXX, that I actually made it to the COUNTRY RADIO HALL OF FAME."

"That's the great thing about Country radio," he continued. "There's this 'we're all in this together, so let's succeed together' spirit."

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