Scott Borchetta Receives 2025 CMA Irving Waugh Award of Excellence: ’I Truly Did Not See This Coming’

The Country Music Association awarded Big Machine Label Group founder, chairman and CEO Scott Borchetta the 2025 CMA Irving Waugh Award of Excellence on Wednesday (Nov. 19) ahead of the 59th Annual CMA Awards. Borchetta was surprised with the industry honor on the red carpet by Riley Green, a Big Machine Label Group/Nashville Harbor Records & Entertainment artist (and winner of three 2025 CMA Awards).

Borchetta was also a 2025 CMA Awards nominee in the musical event of the year category as a producer, along with Jimmy Harnen and Dann Huff, of Green’s “Don’t Mind If I Do,” which reunited the singer with Ella Langley. It was Borchetta’s second CMA nod. He was first nominated in 2013 as a producer on Taylor Swift’s Red, an album of the year nominee.

“Scott has played a pivotal role in shaping Country Music’s modern era,” Sarah Trahern, CMA’s CEO, said in a statement. “I’ve watched him navigate this industry with remarkable clarity and conviction — championing emerging talent, supporting legacy artists and investing in ideas that move our genre forward.”

“I truly did not see this coming,”Borchetta said. “A sincere thank you to our extraordinary CEO, Sarah Trahern, and all on the CMA Board for this incredible recognition. Irving Waugh was a true visionary who did so much for Country Music and its culture, and I’m humbled to stand on his shoulders alongside so many who continue to shape and inspire the world of Country Music.”

Big Machine Label Group is home to such stars as Thomas Rhett, Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, Carly Pearce, Mötley Crüe and Sheryl Crow. As an executive producer, Borchetta has championed projects such as the 20-track Petty Country and the Grammy-winning documentary Glen Campbell… I’ll Be Me.

Waugh was a radio and TV executive who was active from the late 1940s through the early 1990s. He first joined WSM-Nashville as a radio announcer in 1941. In the late ’40s, after serving in World War II, he returned to WSM and began a career that included positions as commercial manager, GM, vp and president of WSM’s radio and TV operations. He died in April 2007 at age 94.