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Blair Garner is an American radio personality best known for his work incountry radio. Garner spent over two decades as a nationallysyndicated overnight disc jockey, first hostingAfter Midnite forPremiere Networks and thenThe Blair Garner Show forNash FM; in-between, he hosted the morningdrive time programAmerica's Morning Show, also for Nash FM.[1][2]
As a radio host andDJ, he won theAcademy of Country Music's On-Air Personality of the Year award in 2004 and 2006. Garner has also been nominated for the prestigiousMarconi Award and for Nationally Syndicated Air Personality byBillboard Magazine. Over his career, Garner has worked at stations across the country, includingDallas,Washington, D.C.,Houston,New York City andLos Angeles. He has also used the names "Skye Walker" (in New York) and "Blair Michaels" (in Los Angeles).[3]
Garner's programs focus on country music hits, along with recent music news and chat about pop culture. In addition, Garner is recognized as one ofNashville's best interviewers. Country music's top stars, includingGarth Brooks,Taylor Swift,Tim McGraw,Blake Shelton, andReba McEntire have made it a point to appear on Blair's show to promote their projects. Garner has also interviewed stars outside of Nashville, includingPharrell Williams,Pete Buttigieg,Zendaya,Pete Wentz,Kevin Costner,Gwyneth Paltrow,Lionel Richie,Henry Winkler,Joan Rivers,Kathie Lee Gifford, andWWE andUFC stars such asStone Cold Steve Austin,John Cena andBrock Lesnar.
From 1993 to 2013, Garner hosted a show he created calledAfter Midnite. The show amassed an affiliate base of over 300 American and Canadian cities. After three years of ownership, he sold the program toPremiere Networks. As of 2021, Premiere continues to use the name for its overnight country show, hosted by Cody Alan from 2013 to 2021, thenGranger Smith from 2022 onward.[4]
In 2009, Garner moved the show from Los Angeles to Nashville where he hosted the show until 2013, when he left to helm "America's Morning Show" forCumulus Media. That show launched initially in New York City onWNSH (New York City's Nash FM affiliate).
Cumulus Media (whose syndication companyWestwood One competes with Premiere) then took the morning show, into national syndication.[5]
In 2016, Garner's stepped away from the grueling demands of morning drive, and elected to return to his former overnight time slot with "The Blair Garner Show". Garner made the move after his young daughter complained of his work interfering with their family life.
In 2019, Cumulus Media blocked Garner from airing an interview with 2020 Democratic Party candidatePete Buttigieg.[6] Buttigieg is the first major party presidential candidate in asame-sex marriage. While Garner has discussed the challenges of hiscoming out to a country radio audience, he said that was not part of his interview with Buttigieg.[7] Garner instead put the interview onSoundCloud.
In July 2020, Westwood One announced that Garner's show was being cancelled, as part of a much-larger programming restructure. The show was last broadcast on August 9, 2020.[3] Once that news broke, Garner was then free to announce what he and his husband had been working on for two years behind the scenes—The Mulehouse. The Mulehouse is slated for an April 2021 opening, and is heralded to be the first-of-its-kind music/concert venue designed for worldwide live-streaming events.[8]
Garner has nine Billboard Broadcast awards, threeAcademy of Country Music’s “On-Air Personality of the Year” Awards in the national category (2004, 2006 and 2010). He's received four CMA nominations, a nomination for the prestigious Marconi Award, and is a member of both the National Radio Hall of Fame and the Country Radio Hall of Fame.