Monday, 05/16/05

LAS VEGAS — Bob Romeo has a family farm back in Iowa, and the folks he knows there are well aware that he heads up a country music trade organization that puts on an awards show.

They aren't always sure, however, just which awards show it is that he helps bring to televised life.

''I don't think the fans at home know the difference,'' said Romeo, executive director of the Academy of Country Music, which puts on its 40th-anniversary awards show tomorrow (7 p.m., CBS). ''It's a constant struggle to brand the logo. There's the ACMs, the CMAs … . They're both three-hour shows. My friends in Iowa just know I work for the one in Las Vegas.''

Having moved three years ago from Los Angeles to Nevada, the ACMs wear ''We're in Vegas'' like insurance convention attendees wear ''Hello, my name is … '' name tags. The glittering desert city has helped give the show what it was lacking at the turn of the century: an identity.

The Country Music Association Awards — which are usually held in Nashville but will move to New York City for an appearance this November — are positioned as sober and meaningful, like the Oscars on twang. Country Music Television's Nashville-based awards show is over-the-top and heavy on performances and comedy. The ACM blends those extremes: it's intended as a blowout party where artists still sometimes get emotional about the outcome.

''The energy feels a little different at this show, mostly because it's in Vegas and it still feels sort of 'new' to have it out here,'' said Lee Ann Womack, who will sing I May Hate Myself In The Morning on the show tomorrow.

Four decades ago, the ACMs began as a West Coast reaction to the Nashville-dominated country industry. The show was a statement maker, asserting that California artists such as Buck Owens and Merle Haggard made country music as vital and commercially appealing as the stuff recorded in Music City.

As such, the academy was something of a rival organization to Nashville's CMA. They were both charged with furthering country music's scope and reach, but they had different notions about what sounds and artists deserved greater exposure.

''The West Coast faction felt they'd been overlooked by the Nashville side of the industry, which, as I understand it, is what precipitated the formation of the academy,'' said CMA Executive Director Ed Benson. ''But those days have long since passed. Now, there are more similarities than differences.''

Romeo agrees that the two trade organizations now seek to augment rather than to compete.

''Years ago, we represented the West Coast country scene,'' he said. ''But when you think of the country music industry now, it's Nashville. I support Ed and the CMA, and I hope they support us. The thing we've wrestled with here is: What makes this show different from the CMAs?''

Upon taking over as ACM director 1½ years ago, Romeo sought to identify and seize upon those differences. The ACM show now has more of a concert feel, it features a fan-voted award (unlike the CMA show, which is all industry voted) and it sponsors several fan-friendly, artist-intensive events during the week, such as a Vince Gill-hosted golf tournament, a celebrity motorcycle ride and a new artists' concert.

''They've capitalized by creating events and activities that allow the artists to be together out there,'' Benson said. ''They're trying to make the event more than just a television show.''

For most fans, neither the CMAs nor the ACMs are anything more than a television show, and the shows remain similar enough in intent and content to be mistaken for each other.

''Neither one of us has done a good enough job of making sure people can distinguish,'' Benson said. ''In a larger sense, there are too many awards shows, and that hurts our value. But in country music's case, it's good to have two shows on network television that are approximately six months apart. It's a great double dip.''