Dick Barrie's
Country Music Website

The CMA Award

Without doubt the biggest surprise encountered by Dick Barrie in his broadcasting career took place on October 29th, 2000 around 4pm.

It was a big occasion to begin with - Dick was celebrating the 1,000th weekly edition of "It's Barrie Country" on Forth-AM, with plenty of callers, cards and e-mail congratulating him on reaching such a milestone - but the call he took just after his regular news bulletin that afternoon transcended anything he had expected at any point of his broadcasting life!

"REBA McENTIRE came on the line from Nashville" he recalls. "I remember thinking how really good it was of her, despite being such a huge star, to take time to call me in Scotland - as I thought - just to congratulate me on reaching the thousand-show landmark"

However, Reba had an even bigger show-stopper to offer Dick during their on-air chat that Sunday afternoon.

She told him that the Country Music Association (CMA) in Nashville had, from time to time, recognised the contribution of radio people outside the USA to the country-music industry - and Dick was to become the first Scot, and only the second-ever broadcaster in Europe, to receive the CMA's "INTERNATIONAL COUNTRY BROADCASTER" AWARD!

"Well" said Dick. "My gob had never been so smacked!"

Aided by Forth-AM Head of Music SCOTT WILSON (who had puzzled Dick by slipping into the studio as her call came in) Reba continued on air, telling Dick's delighted listeners just how important and prestigious this CMA Award really was - all the while accompanied by gasps and stuttered thanks from the usually-articulate host!

"I still cannot comprehend how, or why, the board of the CMA selected me, thousands of miles away in Scotland - which is by no means as lucrative a market for country music as other nations - to receive the Award" observed Dick a few weeks after the event.

"I've certainly put in a good few hours on air, and played thousands of songs in my twenty-plus years on Forth-AM, but to get a CMA Award, when the big names playing country on national UK radio haven't - that's real honour!"

"They do say that, to win something like this, you have to be awfully good, or awfully old" he mused. "Well, I'm not that good…….."