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Jones snags CMA award

When Brailey Jones, grandson of Jean and Charlie Jones of Sundance, became an on-air personality for Denver's KYGO country radio station, winning awards wasn't the first thing on his mind. But when he clutched the Country Music Awards (CMA) statue that recognized KYGO as the Major Market Radio Station of the Year, it was a lifelong dream come true.

"Personally, it was a huge milestone in my career. I grew up watching the CMAs on TV, hearing stations like KYGO win, and always wanted to be at a station like that one day to hear our name called by the CMA big-voice guy," Jones says.

"When I started at KYGO in 2018, I could never have dreamed we would actually bring one home as a station. KYGO has won Station of the Year four times in its 40-year history as one of the biggest stations in country music, so for me I was perfectly fine with just being a small part of such a legendary brand."

The broadcast award winners are usually notified around three weeks before the actual show, he says, and are normally then recognized during the show. This year, they did things a little differently due to the pandemic.

"Our program director and our general manager were the only ones who got to go and pick it up, and they did it in the CMA building on Music Row the day of the show – they even had to schedule their timeslot to pick it up, which was much different," he says.

"They did, however, recognize all the winners in the area before the show happened."

He did get to do a little celebrating of his own, though.

"My wife and I did go to Nashville for CMA week and got to spend some time with artist friends, who helped us celebrate, which I think was just as good as going to the awards," he says.

 
 
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