Our Country: After long run in Los Angeles, Academy of Country Music Awards head to Las Vegas

Spencer Patterson

Tuesday, May 20, 2003 | 8:44 a.m.

So after 37 years in Los Angeles, just why are the Academy of Country Music Awards headed to Las Vegas this week?

In a nutshell, the show got too big for the nation's second-biggest city.

"The Universal Amphitheater is a great facility, but when you do a TV production and you're trying to do 18 acts on one stage, the problem is space. And we definitely had a space issue there," said Bob Romeo, Chairman of the Board for the Academy of Country Music.

"At a property like Mandalay Bay, every time I think I've filled up a room, they show me another room. It's like a place that never ends."

Wednesday night at 5 that "never-ending" venue, the Mandalay Bay Events Center, will host the ACM's 38th annual celebration. The three-hour event airs live on CBS on the East Coast and tape-delayed on the network at 8 p.m. locally (it can be seen on Channel 8).

If 18 performers in three hours sounds like a lot, it is the most ever on an ACMA broadcast. It's just one way the show is evolving as it makes its move to Vegas. "We have a new logo, new trophies, a new design to the set," Romeo said. "There seems to be movement by the board to make changes and modernize, and that led us to Vegas. Vegas is cool. Vegas is hip.

"We're looking at it not as an awards show, but a big concert with 18 acts, some of the biggest acts in country. We're excited about it."

Kix Brooks, one half of popular country duo Brooks & Dunn, also sounds enthusiastic about the show's new home.

"We are fired up," Brooks said in a recent phone interview from his group's tour bus, somewhere in Kentucky. "We love Vegas. I think we'd both live there. We're not huge gamblers, but we love the excitement of the town. And it's a good, safe place to have fun."

Brooks & Dunn, who will perform their current hit, "Red Dirt Road," on the show, are up for three awards: Entertainer of the Year, Top Vocal Duo and the Home Depot Humanitarian Award.

The pair took Entertainer of the Year honors in 2002, the third time they have won the prestigious award, but Brooks doesn't expect to hear his name again for that trophy Wednesday.

"I don't see us as having that much of a chance," he said. "I'm sure it's somebody else's turn."

Also up for Entertainer of the Year: Kenny Chesney, Dixie Chicks, Alan Jackson and Toby Keith.

Among the show's other top awards: Top Male and Female Vocalists, Top New Male and Female Vocalists, Album of the Year and Song of the Year.

Toby Keith leads all artists with eight nominations, followed by Alan Jackson (six), Kenny Chesney (five) and Trick Pony (five).

Two veteran country acts will also be honored Wednesday.

George Strait will receive a Special Achievement Award for recording 50 No. 1 hits, a feat he accomplished at age 50 last December when "She'll Leave You With a Smile" reached the top of the country singles chart.

Alabama, in the midst of its "Farewell Tour," will be presented with a Pioneer Award celebrating the band's 26-year career.

"We toured with those acts when we first got started. We have nothing but respect for them," Brooks said.

Strait and Alabama are also scheduled to perform. Joining them in a parade of the genre's biggest stars: Chesney, Jackson, Keith, Willie Nelson, Shania Twain, Wynonna, Darryl Worley, Martina McBride, Keith Urban, LeAnn Rimes, Diamond Rio, Terri Clark, Rascall Flatts and Montgomery Gentry.

Conspicuously absent from the Events Center will be the Dixie Chicks, country music's most controversial major act. But the trio will join the proceedings live via satellite from a previously scheduled concert in front of hometown supporters in Austin, Texas. It will mark the first time the ACMAs have connected a live remote act.

"The Dixie Chicks are probably the No. 1 act in our format. When would we not allow them to be involved?" Romeo said. "Some people will applaud, some people will boo, and I support their right to do either one."

For the second straight year, Reba McIntire will host the ACMAs. Among the presenters: Wayne Newton, Penn & Teller, Tony Stewart, Lee Ann Womack and Phil Vassar.

The Academy of Country Music is composed of approximately 3,000 people within the country music industry, including record executives, radio executives, songwriters, agents and members of the press.