page_title: Benny Hester
section_title: 1990s
hierarchical_section_title: Benny Hester / Roundhouse television series on Nickelodeon / 1990s
caption_attribution_description: Benny Hester with Roundhouse band and recording engineers
context_page_description: Benny Ray Hester is an American musician, singer, songwriter and recording artist. He is perhaps best known for his songs "When God Ran" and "Nobody Knows Me Like You", and for producing the groundbreaking tween/teen music-driven sketch comedy and dance television series Roundhouse on Nickelodeon. Hester received a television Cable Ace Award for the song "I Can Dream" and a collection of nominations for writing and producing a featured original song for each weekly episode of Roundhouse during its successful four-year run. He has written and recorded more than 25 number one and top ten songs.
  Hester's recording of his song "When God Ran" touched the consciousness of Christians worldwide, and is one of the longest running number one songs in Contemporary Christian Music history, number one for 13 weeks, and the number three song in the 60-year history of Word Records. “When God Ran” continues to be rerecorded by artists in many languages and musical genres, including adult contemporary, pop, rock, R&B, alternative, and Southern Gospel, making it to the top of the charts repeatedly.
context_section_description: From 1992 to 1996 Hester was Co-Executive Producer, Music Producer/Musical Director and Songwriter for the award-winning Nickelodeon/MTV Networks television series Roundhouse. He was nominated for seven songwriting and music producer awards, winning for “I Can Dream” (Cable Ace Award) and “Can’t Let Go” (Hollywood Foreign Press Youth In Film Award) in the best Original Song for television categories. He also received three television Cable Ace Award nominations for best Variety Special or Series as Co-Executive Producer of Roundhouse. 
  The twelve member triple-threat cast of Roundhouse received Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Youth Series or Variety Show as awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Youth In Film Awards.
  Hester is the recipient of the prestigious Ollie Award for Excellence in Television Programming for America’s Children, presented by the American Center for Children's Television.
  Benny Hester and record producer Howard Benson prepared the first Roundhouse Cast album for release on Irving Azoff's Giant Records (Warner Music Group). The Irving Azoff/Giant Records album masters contained six Roundhouse Cable Ace nominated tunes, including the Hester/Sheffield penned Cable Ace winner "I Can Dream". Nickelodeon exercised its 50% approval right by blocking the first of four Roundhouse cast albums, which included five solo artist spinoff options. Simultaneously, Nickelodeon withheld approval of the use of the cable channels name in association with the 30 city Roundhouse concert tour by Pace Entertainment Corporation's Pace Theatrical, a subsidiary of Live Nation Entertainment. The Disney Channel, under the leadership of former Nickelodeon employees, recognized the missed opportunity and jumped ahead of Nickelodeon in music driven television for the tween/teen market, eventually surpassing them in viewer ratings.
caption: Hester with the Roundhouse band and recording engineers, Universal Studios, FL and CBS Studio Center, CA, 1992 - 1996
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image ExifOffset": "90", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3193", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2370"}