Slim Dusty saw major metropolitan music radio stations abandon support for country artists, and despite record sales in the multimillions, after the 1950s, Dusty was rarely heard on-air outside regional centres in Australia. Dusty's 1957 hit "A Pub with No Beer" was the biggest-selling record by an Australian to that time, the first Australian single to go gold and the first and only 78 rpm record to be awarded a gold disc. (The "Pub with No Beer" is a real place, in Taylors Arm, not far from Kempsey where Slim was born.) In 1959 and 1960, Dutch and German cover versions of
Australian country music Love You and Tenterfield Saddler by Australian singer-songwriter Peter Allen as well as country classics such as "Banks of the Ohio" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads". In 1992, The Country Music Association of Australia was launched in Tamworth, New South Wales to encourage, develop and promote Australian Country Music. Slim Dusty was its first Chairman, John Williamson its Vice Chairman, Joy McKean was Treasurer, Max Ellis Secretary and Phil Matthews Public Officer. After negotiations, Tamworth's Radio 2TM agreed to hand over responsibility for the Golden Guitar Awards to the new body. In recent years, country music has consolidated its