Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase have been the go-to source for Country music news and entertainment for 30 years, reaching millions of fans around the globe.
Each week, they host The Crook and Chase Countdown on more than 175 stations in the U.S. and Canada. The four-hour weekend program features Lorianne and Charlie as they present the top thirty songs, along with one-on-one interviews with the biggest stars in Country music. The Nashville-based program joined Premiere Networks’nationallineup in October 2009, and since then, has continued to grow and receive industry recognition, including numerous nominations for both CMA and ACM Awards in the National Broadcast/On-Air Personality categories. Widely regarded as two of the top interviewers and hosts in the industry, Lorianne and Charlie were inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame in 2013. That same year, Charlie was inducted into the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame. In 2017, Lorianne and Charlie were surprised on stage at the Grand Ole Opry as stars and the industry awarded them the Bob Kingsley Living Legend Award.
Their journey together started in 1983when Lorianne was hosting her own show on the ABC television affiliate in Nashville, and Charlie was hosting his own show on the competing NBC affiliate. Unbeknownst to either of them, a producer by the name of Jim Owens was watching each of them on their respective stations. Jim had a hunch that Lorianne and Charlie might work well together as a team reporting on Country music and its stars. At that time, there was no television show of any kind along that line.
In April of that year, Jim arranged a meeting for the three of them at the Opryland Hotel, where he shared his idea for the duo to host a new syndicated TV show called This Week in Country Music. Lorianne and Charlie took an instant liking to each other, and by June of that year, they had produced a pilot episode of the show. Jim was successful in selling all across the nation, and Crook & Chase debuted as a team in September 1983.
This Week in Country Music remained a popular syndicated show for two years before fledgling network TNN requested exclusive airing rights in 1985. It remained on TNN until the Country network folded at the end of 1999. During those 16 years, Lorianne and Charlie became two of the network's most popular and respected hosts, producing thousands of hours of programming, including The Crook & Chase Show, Crook & Chase Tonight, Music City Tonight with Crook & Chase, Celebrities Offstage, Funny Business, Today's Country, and countless award shows and specials. Much of their personal and professional history was documented in their 1995 book, “Crook and Chase: Our Lives, The Music, And The Stars.”
Since they first teamed up, Lorianne and Charlie have been involved in the production of television and radio programs on a continuous basis, making them one of the longest-running broadcast duos in the business.