Great American Country

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For other uses of this three-letter abbreviation, see Gac (disambiguation).

Great American Country

Owned by	The E.W. Scripps Company
Sister channel(s)	HGTV, Food Network , DIY and Fine Living
Website	Official Website
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV	Channel 326
Dish Network	Channel 167
Cable
Verizon FiOS	Channel 193
Comcast	Channels May Vary
Time Warner Cable	Channels May Vary
Charter	Channels May Vary
Cox Cable	Channels May Vary
Bright House Networks	Channels May Vary

Great American Country (or GAC), is a Nashville, Tennessee-based country music cable television network. As MTV Networks shifts its CMT channel towards a "country culture" format, GAC is making inroads as the network that plays more music than CMT, about 50 percent more, according to recent data from Nielsen Media Services. Its emphasis on music has led some artists to seek out GAC for promotional support of their work. In 2006, GAC's airing of "Precious Memories," a gospel music concert by country superstar Alan Jackson helped propel the resulting CD to platinum album status (certified by RIAA), even though country radio stations by and large declined to play the music. The network scored another coup in February 2007 by landing the first post-rehab televised interview with singer Keith Urban, along with excerpts from Urban's 2006 concert at Atlanta's Fox Theater.

In April 2007, GAC will air a two-part series featuring country music megastar Kenny Chesney, showing how Chesney oversees the development of his upcoming "Flip Flop Summer Tour." The special will reportedly give viewers unprecedented access to behind-the-scenes preparation for what is expected to be the summer's biggest concert tour by a single artist of any genre.

GAC is the exclusive television home of the legendary Grand Ole Opry. In March 2006, the channel carried a historic two-hour concert "Grand Ole Opry at Carnegie Hall," marking the first time an Opry troupe had performed on the famed New York stage since 1961.

GAC has been one of the fastest-growing cable networks for the past three years, and is currently available to more than 46,500,000 U.S. households via cable and satellite. In late 2005, Broadcasting & Cable, an industry trade publication, named GAC as one of TV's "Breakout Networks" heading into 2006, saying of the channel: "The emerging GAC is a younger, hipper version that respects Nashville's country roads but widens the boulevards."

GAC also carries a show called the "Master Series," hosted by WSM (AM) Radio DJ Bill Cody, that focuses on classic country artists from the 1980s to the early 2000s. Another daytime show, "The Edge of Country," hosted by singer/songwriter Kylie Harris, gives television exposure to bluegrass, Western, Americana and other alternative genre artists. Results from the channel's weekly "Top 20 Country Countdown" program come from fans who vote at its Web site, [1]

GAC debuted a new music program in January 2007 called "The Year." Hosted by country music singer Mark Wills, the one-hour show features what the network calls "historical fact and whimsy accented by that year's top country music videos."

Scripps Networks acquired GAC from Centennial, Colorado-based Jones Radio Network on Oct. 12, 2004. Scripps Networks, based in Knoxville, Tennessee, also owns popular lifestyle-oriented chanels Home & Garden Television , Food Network , DIY and Fine Living. The company is a subsidiary of The E.W. Scripps Company.