NASHVILLE, Tenn. --
Press Release

Veteran broadcaster and television pioneer Irving Cambridge Waugh, Jr., 94, passed into heaven Friday, April 27 following an extended illness. Waugh was born in Danville, Va., on December 8, 1912. Leaving high school after his sophomore year, Waugh worked his way around the world on a tramp freighter, serving as an ordinary seaman and crew messman. His most memorable experience was going ashore at Pitcairn Island and running the surf in a whale boat with descendants of the HMS Bounty at the oars.

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Returning to the States and his native Virginia, Waugh enrolled in what is now Old Dominion College, where he studied for two years. He joined the Provincetown Players to prepare for the theatre and played summer stock at Clinton Corners, NY and Atlanta, Ga. While appearing in the Little Theatre near his home in Norfolk, the young actor met the love of his life, Jean Hunt from Savannah, Ga., a fellow actor and a set designer and decorator. The couple wed in June, 1934. Waugh parlayed his theatrical training into a career in radio which, at the time, was "theatre of the air," joining CBS Radio in New York on The March of Time, a dramatization of the news of the week.

Waugh worked as a radio announcer and newsman for stations in Norfolk and Roanoke, Va., before arriving in Nashville in the early '40s, where he joined the staff of WSM Radio, an NBC affiliate. During the latter stages of World War II, Waugh served as a correspondent for NBC Radio, broadcasting from the Philippines, Okinawa and Japan. The day before the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the young broadcaster met with General Douglas MacArthur at his headquarters in Manila. At the conclusion of the interview, the legendary commander made a statement which Waugh was never to forget: "Man's inventiveness has outstripped his moral development. Civilization as we know it cannot survive another major conflict. This is the world's last chance."

Perhaps Waugh's most unforgettable experiences in the Pacific Theatre occurred on the first day of the occupation of Japan, when he landed with the 11th Airborne Division at Atsugo, and shortly thereafter, scored a beat on the other networks by making the first broadcast from Japanese soil. Waugh was aboard the U.S.S. Missouri with the military commanders from the United States and Japan for the official Japanese surrender ceremonies.

Following the war, Waugh returned to WSM as a member of the sales staff, becoming sales manager in 1948. When the National Life & Accident Insurance Company (WSM's parent company) launched Nashville's first television station in 1950, WSM-Channel 4, Waugh assumed the position of station manager and sales manager for both radio and television. He became vice president for television in 1958.

WSM's flagship radio show was the long-running Grand Ole Opry, which signed on the air in 1926, so in 1952, Waugh started the Grand Ole Opry Birthday Celebration, which later spawned the annual Disc Jockey Convention, Country Music Month and the Country Music Association. The same year, he arranged for 30-minute segments of country music to become part of NBC's Kate Smith Show, bringing Nashville stars to the major networks for the first time. In 1955, Waugh sold the Ralston-Purina Company a series of one-hour Grand Ole Opry specials, telecast on ABC-TV, which first brought the Opry to national television audiences.

In the mid-1960s, Waugh and Tree Publishing's Jack Stapp were approached by the Country Music Association for their help in securing sponsorship and network exposure for a proposed awards show. They interested Kraft Foods in the idea of a yearly televised special of country music awards, and the CMA Awards Show became the first music awards of any kind to be nationally televised. Kraft's sponsorship lasted for 20 years, and the Awards Show has grown from a program form that the major networks ignored to one of the highest-rated entertainment specials on television. Waugh also served as executive producer of the show until 1993, and was the first recipient of the CMA special award named for him in 1983, the Irving Waugh Award of Excellence.

In 1968, Waugh was appointed president of WSM, Inc., in which capacity he began the planning for the first facility specifically designed to house the Grand Ole Opry and major television specials - the new Grand Ole Opry House. A theme park - Opryland-was developed around the Opry House as well as an adjacent hotel. The new Opry House was inaugurated in the spring of 1974 with a beleaguered President Richard Nixon on stage for the opening. WSM, Inc. entered the hotel business on a major scale as Opryland Hotel's doors swung open in December, 1977. Today the massive hotel and resort has become one of the foremost convention hotels in the country and a Nashville landmark.

In 1972, Waugh prevailed upon the Country Music Association to join the Grand Ole Opry in creating an event specifically for the fans, and the annual International Fan Fair was born. The event, now known as CMA Music Festival, attracts thousands of music fans annually, and is the only event of its kind for any form of music.

After retiring as president of WSM, Inc. in 1977, Waugh was appointed Commissioner of Tourist Development for the State of Tennessee by Governor Lamar Alexander, a post he held for two years. Awarded an Emmy by the Nashville chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in recognition of his broadcast pioneering efforts, Waugh was a long-time board member of both the Country Music Association and the Country Music Foundation and was a member of the International Radio and Television Executive Society, the Hollywood Radio and Television Executive Society. As a long-time board member of his friend Dan McKinnon's North American Airlines, the born adventurer, undeterred by failing eyesight and heart problems, traveled around the world by himself and without a ticket, using only his North American ID, when he was 85. He enjoyed a lifelong interest in sailing vessels of all types, biking and golf, walking the course at Augusta National for the Masters until his 91st year.

Waugh was preceded in death by his wife of 70 years, Jean Hunt Waugh. He is survived by two sons: Whitney Hunt Waugh (Julie) of Nashville and Pendleton Cobb Waugh of Texas and California, and three grandchildren: Kimberlie (Barclay) Waugh Bloodworth of Brentwood; Whitney Hunt Waugh, Jr., Nashville and Jean Ellen (Craig) Waugh Spengler, Nashville, one great-granddaughter, Isabella Waugh, Nashville and three step-great-grandchildren, Benton, Caitlin and Lindsey Bloodworth, Brentwood. The birth of a great-grandson, Michael Cambridge Spengler, is expected within the next few days.

Funeral arrangements are pending.