[3] He then worked a variety of jobs including a soil surveyor, a proponent of the Rural Electrification program, even a stint as a carny, where he depended on making sales to succeed.

Gay was a disc jockey, concert promoter, artistic talent scout/manager, owner of radio and television stations, and music executive.

Gay persuaded Frank Blair,[1] the program manager of WARL, a radio station in Arlington, Virginia, to let him do a half-hour show at noon each day.

Gay had the business sense to register his program's name as a trademark, an important factor in measuring his financial success.

[4][6] The endeavor was very successful, growing to a three-hour program that was syndicated across the United States and to some international markets on the Armed Forces Network.

Gay began broadcasting a televised version of Town and Country Time on WMAL-TV in Washington D.C.[4] while continuing to syndicate the audio portion to the more than 1800 radio stations signed on to his network.

[4] By 1956, Town and Country Time was airing in 50 urban markets, including Spokane, Tulsa, Houston, Los Angeles, and Detroit.

Gay had amicably severed all ties with WARL, giving his full attention to his own enterprise and was a leading contender for Billboard's Tycoon of the Year award, with an estimated annual gross of $2 million.

In March 1956, Gay booked a young, relatively unknown singer, who was described as a "devastating combination of Frankie Laine, Johnnie Ray, and Billy Daniels" in Dorothy Kilgallen's syndicated column.

Gay called for a meeting in his hotel room with Wesley Rose, Hubert Long, and Dee Kilpatrick, to discuss the defunct Country Music Disc Jockey Association.

[13] Now called the Founding President's Award, recipients include Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, Martina McBride, and Brad Paisley.

The induction states that he played "a seminal role in transforming what was still called "hillbilly" music into a modern entertainment industry in just one decade from his base in the Washington, D.C.–Virginia area".

He was the first to harness the commercial potential of country music, via radio and television broadcasting, in both local and national markets.

The museum is home to a commemorative plaque honoring Gay, which states that he "brought country music to the big city and made it a multi-billion dollar industry".