Crazy Horse’s Reiser to Head Academy

Fred Reiser, who co-owns and books talent for the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana, has been elected president of the Hollywood-based Academy of Country Music.

“I’m looking forward to the challenges,” Reiser said Tuesday. “The academy always wants to do more in the way of increasing the quality and notoriety of country music in general.”

Reiser, whose club was named best country music nightclub of the year by the AMC in 1986 and 1987, will be installed Sunday at a board of directors meeting for a one-year term, through July of 1989.

The ACM was founded in 1964 as a West Coast answer to the Nashville-based Country Music Assn., which sponsors country music’s most important awards ceremony each fall. The 3,000-member ACM traditionally presents its own “Hat” awards each March at Knott’s Berry Farm.

Reiser said his duties as president will include helping to coordinate the ACM’s awards show, a celebrity golf tournament and other special events.

“Country music has surpassed lean years of ’85 and ‘86,” he noted. “Some people said that the fad was quote ‘dying off’ in the early ‘80s, but we’ve rebounded from that. Our concerts at Crazy Horse are a good example--this year is the best year we’ve ever had in terms of percentage of ticket sales.”