Get To Know CMA Board President Charlie Morgan

By Deborah Evans Price

Radio can carry a person down many different roads, and over the course of his distinguished career, Charlie Morgan has traveled them all. From his early days as an educator to his New York years working in the hip-hop format, to his current post with Apple Music, this year’s CMA Board President has relished every unique opportunity. 

“It truly was an obvious path for me,” Morgan tells CMA Close Up. “The high school that I ultimately ended up teaching at is also the high school that I attended, and they had a radio station in their vocational school. As many, many decades ago as that was, I remember walking through that radio station thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh! This is it. I’m going to spend every waking moment in high school inside this radio station,’ which I essentially did, and then ultimately came back and became the instructor at that program.”

Before returning to teach, Morgan spent his college years working for a small AM station, which fed his love of radio. The Indiana native went on to spend the bulk of his career based in Indianapolis, working primarily in the Country format. “I’ve just been in the Nashville Country Music community my whole adult life. It’s a four-and-a-half-hour drive down I-65 from Indianapolis. I can do it with my eyes closed,” he says with a smile. “For 40 years, I’ve been in some way connected with a Country station, whether it was on air, programming, operations managing, market managing or overseeing markets.” 

Morgan took a detour musically and geographically when an opportunity arose to move to New York City in 2016, working in hip-hop and R&B as Senior Vice President/Marketing Manager with Hot 97, WBLS and WLIB. “The company I worked for owned those stations and was needing some help,” he recalls “My daughter was already living there, and we said, ‘Well, if not now, when? Let’s go do this!’”  

In March 2020, he took a job with Apple in talent development that eventually led to Nashville. “How lucky at an advanced stage in somebody’s career to get a chance to learn from what I would argue is certainly one of the most influential and thoughtful companies on the globe today. That’s just seemingly too good to be true,” he says. “Having operated in the broadcast industry for all those years, to now get a chance to say, ‘OK, let’s look at this from a completely different angle, surrounded by really bright, talented, creative people’ — what’s not to love?” 

Currently leading the Music Programming Team for Apple Music, Morgan now makes his home in Music City. When he initially took the post at Apple, he planned to work in New York. That changed when the pandemic forced people to work remotely. “We were like many of the New Yorkers who fled the city,” he says of returning to Indiana, where he and his wife still owned a home. “While we loved our time in New York, it reminded us of some of the things we loved about that kind of living — having a patio, being able to hop in your car and just run to Target.” 

In 2021, they purchased a home in Nashville. “The rest of that happy story is both of my adult children have since moved here, so for the first time since my oldest went to college, all of us are living in the same city,” he shares. “We think the universe has told us that this is where we’re supposed to be.” 

Morgan sees his role as CMA Board President as completing a circle. “I was shocked and fortunate to win the CMA Broadcast Award in 1989 for Large Market Personality of the Year. That was early in my radio career. It was unexpected and just transformative for me,” he says. “Having that experience with CMA all those years ago, and now getting a chance to serve in a capacity like this, to continue the work and build on the amazing things that have come before me and try to shape it and support it moving forward, it’s a full-circle moment.” 

Country radio has been a rewarding road for Morgan, and when asked what resources have impacted his career, he’s quick to answer: people. “The Country community is full of people who give their experience and advice freely. I’ve been able to work with and be friends with really amazing people who serve as a resource,” he says. “My advice is to join organizations that you care about and then really embrace the network that you’re building there. 

“CMA is a great example of an organization that puts people together who have a shared interest but a completely divergent slice of that shared interest, from touring to labels to writing to publishing to performing to radio,” he continues. “If I can help what I view as the definitive and the most important organization for the Country Music industry continue to be relevant and valuable to all the people who make their living in this business, that’s a humbling privilege. I’m not really sure why me [as Board president], but I’m happy it is because what an honor to be able to be a part of the group that does the things that CMA does.” 

In the wake of the pandemic, Morgan feels the future of Country Music looks bright. “There definitely feels like there is a renaissance in general for live music of all kinds, and you have to feel really excited about the creative work that was done in this period of not being able to tour,” he says. “I feel like that’s the roots for what’s going to be a real renaissance period for Country Music.”