MDA Names R.A. Clark as Executive Producer of 2012 Show

Longtime Academy of Country Music Awards executive producer R.A. (RAC) Clark has been named executive producer of the 2012 Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon, MDA announced today. The Labor Day weekend prime-time, three-hour show will air Sunday, Sept. 2 on MDA’s network of broadcast stations.

Clark, who has executive produced the ACM Awards on CBS since 1999, will oversee all aspects of the nationally televised program for the Association. Working closely with a staff and crew of entertainment professionals, Clark and the team aim to deliver A-list performances while showcasing families served by the Association who will benefit from donations supporting MDA’s unparalleled neuromuscular research and health care services programs.

“From our first meeting with RAC, we knew that he understood our need to tell the MDA story in a new way,” MDA Executive Vice President of Business Development Kevin Moran said. “We’re excited to utilize his talent and creativity to produce an incredible and fresh, entertainment-filled show that will resonate with our viewers.”

Clark’s additional credits include hours of television programming as an executive producer and producer for network shows on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CMT, FX and VH1, to name a few. Aside from the ACM Awards, his 2011/2012 credits include the “2011 CMT Artists of the Year” and the CBS special, “ACM Presents: Lionel Richie and Friends — In Concert.”

“I’m honored and thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the entire MDA staff, to not only produce a first-rate, entertaining and contemporary television special, but to relay the urgency that the public’s support can help save lives in the fight against muscular dystrophy,” Clark said. “The rich tradition that comes along with this iconic program is not lost on me and the television staff and crew, and we will do our part to respect and honor it.”

RAC was raised in Youngstown, Ohio, and now lives in Santa Monica, Calif., with his wife Eve Adair and daughter Sophia.

Source: Muscular Dystrophy Association

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CMA Pledges $10 Million to Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum?s Capital Campaign

By Bob Doerschuk

© 2012 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

CMA has pledged $10 million to “Working on a Building: Country Music Lives Here,” the capital campaign that will finance the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s expansion from 140,000 square feet to more than 350,000 square feet. This donation is the largest philanthropic gift in the not-for-profit, Nashville-based educational organization’s history.

In 1961, the CMA Board approved the establishment of the Country Music Hall of Fame to recognize noteworthy individuals for their outstanding contributions to the format. In 1964, CMA organized the not-for-profit Country Music Foundation (CMF) for the purpose of “establishing a museum and archives for the preservation and exhibition of historical and cultural materials and exhibits within the field of Country Music and to make the same available to students, researchers and the general public.” Continue reading

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