BROWNSBURG, Ind. — In a ceremony that lasted three hours, featured two extra hours of liner notes, and still refused to play anything currently on country radio, John Rabold, host of Crossroads of Americana, was crowned King of the Crossroads at the recent Folk and Americana Music Convention.

The title, last awarded in 1974 to a man who once played Gram Parsons at a gas station and then refused to leave, comes with a crown fashioned from old vinyl, a ceremonial four-way stop sign, and the sacred duty of reminding the world that Top 40 country is not, in fact, Americana.

Rabold accepted the honor from what organizers described as “the Rabold Estate studio in the heart of Brownsburg,” a location so official it now appears on maps as “that place where the Honky Tonk Drinking Set starts whether you asked for it or not.”

“I had this idea back in the 1990s,” Rabold said, adjusting a sash that read No Current Chart Hits Allowed. “I was going to call it Smokestack Lightning. Then life happened. Careers happened. I drove through North Carolina in 2017. Five years later the four-way opened. Now they gave me a crown. I assume this means I have to keep doing the Outlaw Album Side.”

Convention officials said the vote was not close. Rabold’s show, currently heard on “53 stations and in 10 countries,” according to the same press release he has used since it was 22 stations and 6 countries, beat out several strong contenders, including:

• A man who only plays The Byrds if they are the exact right Byrds
• A woman who once almost played a new Margo Price song and then decided the old one was better
• An entire panel that spent 90 minutes defining “Americana” and still ended with “whatever you want to call it”

The coronation itself followed traditional folk protocol. Delegates gathered at the four-way. Someone played “Bethesda Breakdown” by the Wright Brothers Overland Stage Co. as the processional. A listener-submitted five-song Outlaw Album Side was performed in full. Then, as required by unwritten law, the Honky Tonk Drinking Set began, and several attendees who had come for “just one more song” were not seen again until Thursday.

“What will not be at The Crossroads is current Top 40 Country,” Rabold reminded the crowd, a sentence he has now said so many times it is being considered for the state motto of Indiana, the actual Crossroads of America, which he never lets anyone forget.

Supporters praised his range. In a typical week the new king will move from Gram Parsons to Johnny Cash, Buck Owens to The Jayhawks, Charley Crockett to Willie Nelson, then drop in Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band because they are from around here and that is how you run a proper four-way. Detractors, mostly people who wanted to hear the song that is number one this week, were last seen trying to find the Top 40 tent, which organizers had intentionally not built.

When asked what he planned to do with the power of the crown, Rabold was characteristically modest.

“Same thing I do every week,” he said. “Three hours. Traditional. Outlaw. Country-influenced rock. Alternative country. Indiana artists. No chart country. And if a listener sends in an album side, we play the album side. The four-way stays open.”

The Folk and Americana Music Convention closed with a second-line that somehow turned into a Merle Haggard medley. Rabold was last seen heading back to the estate in Brownsburg, crown slightly crooked, already pulling records for next week.

Long live the king. And please, for the love of the four-way, do not request the song that is on the radio right now.