FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)–“Country Crossroads” host Bill Mack received a Grammy award Feb. 26 during the nationally televised 39th annual Grammys from Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Both the radio and television versions of “Country Crossroads,” a 30-minute weekly program, are produced by the Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission.
Mack’s song “Blue,” recorded by 14-year-old singing sensation LeAnn Rimes, was named “Best Country Song.” Rimes won “Best Female Country Vocal Performance” for “Blue” and also took “Best New Artist” honors.
Mack had been nominated for two Grammy awards — “Country Song of the Year” and “Song of the Year.” The latter award went to a team of songwriters who penned “Change the World,” performed by Eric Clapton.
Mack wrote “Blue” in the late ’50s. Sung by Rimes, of Garland, Texas, the song went to number one on the sales charts the first week of release in the summer of ’96.
Mack has been host of the radio version of “Country Crossroads” 24 years. The syndicated program is currently carried on 773 stations.
The TV version of the program, which is different than its radio counterpart, began airing in January 1994. It is carried on FamilyNet, the RTVC’s broadcast television service, and by ACTS, the commission’s cable TV service. ACTS programming is aired on the Odyssey Cable Channel.
Known as the “dean of country music disk jockeys,” Mack has been with Dallas radio station WBAP since 1969. His all-night program is heard throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico via The Bill Mack Trucking Network, a satellite affiliation that includes four 50,000-watt clear-channel stations: WBAP, WJR in Detroit, KBOI in Boise, Ida., KTWO in Casper, Wyo.
Over the years Mack has written a number of songs that have been recorded by such artists as Dean Martin, Conway Twitty, Ray Price, George Strait.
He was inducted into the Country Music Disk Jockey Hall of Fame in 1982.
For 10 years he was announcer for Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys on both radio and television. He also hosted comedian Bob Hope’s 80th birthday party.
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