NASHVILLE (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — The Country Music Association held the annual Board of Directors election meeting in Nashville this week. The new Board year does not begin until Nov. 13, the day after "The 42nd Annual CMA Awards."
Taking over as President of the Board is Steve Moore, Senior Vice President of AEG.
"CMA is a very special organization," said Moore. "Some of its constituents are closely related. Some are not. Some are fierce competitors. But all of its members are connected. I venture to say that its strength goes back to the men and women who sit on the Board. The public would be very surprised at the amount of work the Board members give and how hard the CMA staff works to make this a meaningful organization."
Moore will be joined by former President and now Chairman Randy Goodman, President Lyric Street and Carolwood Records, in CMA's top two leadership positions.
Moore played trumpet in high school and went to Lamar University in Beaumont, where he studied to be a band director, but a Blood, Sweat & Tears concert changed his career plans.
"I was working construction in the refineries at night most of the time, because I put myself through college. About halfway through that, I wanted to go and see Blood, Sweat & Tears coming to the college, but I didn't have the money – it was $6.75," Moore recalled of the career-changing event. "I went to the back of the stage to see if I could get a job to see the concert, which I did. That's how I got introduced to the concert business."
He was hooked. Following college, Moore started a ticketing business delivering tickets from his VW to a handful of venues in Beaumont. He quickly moved on to Houston, working for Lone Wolf Productions, which managed ZZ Top. After honing his booking/management chops on the road, he left to start a booking agency called IBM Independent Booking Management. That's how he met Stevie Ray Vaughan and started booking and promoting the blues phenom.
Pace Concerts took notice of the aggressive concert booker and eventually hired him in 1985, booking theme parks including AstroWorld in Houston and Six Flags in Dallas. A year later he moved to Nashville to open an amphitheater on the outskirts of town known as Starwood. In 1992, he launched Moore Entertainment and continued to work with Country acts and blues festivals. After nine years, Moore sold his business to TBA Entertainment. He worked with the company for several years before a business collapse compelled him reinvent his business as Moore Entertainment Group, LLC, in 2004, when he created the CMT OnTour franchise. In April 2005, he entered a multi-year deal with AEG Live! and was named senior vice president.
An honored humanitarian, Moore is the founder and president of the Shalom Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing educational, nutritional and medical assistance to underprivileged children and their families in Guatemala. He and his wife, Charmione, have three sons, Remick, Sterline and Hunter. Moore still plays trumpet as a member of the Brentwood Baptist Church orchestra.
An organized succession in CMA's volunteer leadership was established in 2003. Four directors also serve as Officers of the Board, those being Chairman, President, President-Elect and Secretary/Treasurer. This move established a line of succession with the President-Elect moving to President and the President becoming Chairman.
These officers for the 2008-2009 term will be Chairman Randy Goodman; President Steve Moore; President-Elect Steve Buchanan, Senior Vice President, Media and Entertainment, Gaylord Entertainment; and Secretary/Treasurer Tim Wipperman, President of Equity Music Group. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
