Hawkeye in the Morning's Hawkeye and Michelle Rodriguez Win CMAs

Mark "Hawkeye" Louis and Michelle Rodriguez, the hosts of New Country KSCS 96.3 FM's Hawkeye in the Morning With Hawkeye and Michelle, got a special phone call from a special name to deliver the news that they'd won a Country Music Association award. And the cameras were rolling the whole time.

"They told us to stand by during show hours," Rodriguez says. "In the past, when we won the CMA's station of the year, it was Luke Combs who called us. So we were just standing by and saying get ready to record. [Hawkeye] sees the hotline ring and answers it in the middle of our break. We get off the air, then the person on the phone says, 'Hey guys, it's Lainey Wilson.'"

The morning radio duo looked shocked just to hear Wilson's voice on the radio. She had one more surprise for them.

"It's not every day we get a country music superstar calling us," Rodriguez said.

"I was just calling to check in and tell y'all congratulations!" Wilson responded.

That's when Hawkeye and Rodriguez learned they'd won the CMA's Major Market Broadcast Personality of the Year Award. ABC will broadcast the awards show on Wednesday, Nov. 8.

Hawkeye seemed to still be in a state of disbelief. Even after hearing Wilson deliver the news, he had to ask, "So Michelle and I, we won this award?" 

Hawkeye has been on the airwaves for 35 years and hosts the longest-running FM morning radio show in Dallas-Fort Worth. Rodriguez, who's been a radio broadcaster for nearly 20 years, joined Hawkeye's morning show in 2020. It seems unthinkable that it's taken this long for either to win a CMA award. But as Hawkeye reminds us, "This is the first time I've ever won this." 
The CMA win could be a good omen for other accolades for which they are nominated. The morning radio duo are nominated for the third consecutive year for a Marconi Award for Major Market Personality of the Year, along with The Ticket's George Dunham, Craig Miller and Gordon Keith and KPLX-FM's Jason Pullman.

"I was fine with just being nominated," Rodriguez says. "It's nice to be recognized. We never felt we were cool enough for it."

The New Country duo says they were so surprised because they've spent so much of their time off the air focused on helping their listeners and the DFW community with fundraisers for Cook Children's hospital and making sandwiches on Saturday mornings for the Feed the City gatherings held by Tango Charities.

"We do a lot of stuff in the community," Hawkeye says. "That's really where our focus is."

Programming director Mike Preston says having such a significant presence in the community they serve is an important priority for the station and its employees.

"Our ultimate mission is to serve the community in some redeeming way," Preston says. "This is just a confirmation that we're trying to live up to the mission of what our license says we're supposed to do."

This year also marks another milestone for the long-running country radio show. The Museum of Broadcast Communications announced last Tuesday it will induct former radio host Terry Dorsey as one of the 12 "legends" in its Radio Hall of Fame. Dorsey and Hawkeye hosted the long running Dorsey Gang show on 96.3 FM until Dorsey retired in 2014. Dorsey died the following year.

"He taught me everything I know about radio," Hawkeye says. "The fact that it happened all in one day, it's huge for the station."