Garth Brooks started the downward trend.
I couldn’t stand the Billy Ray Cyrus “Achy Breaky” crap and that was back around 1992 and also assisted in the decline, imho. Mind you, I watched a lot of TNN back in the 1980s and 1990s and it’s kind of sad to look back at that time and know that stuff like that and a lot of other things about American life was just that much better back then. Loved watching the Jim Owens (Lorrianne Crook’s husband) produced shows on that channel and even once went to Nashville to see a live taping of “Music City Tonight” with Marty Stuart as guest.