NEW YORK (CNN) - Miss America is waving goodbye to Atlantic City, N.J., organizers of the pageant announced Thursday.

The Atlantic City Convention Center and its famed boardwalk has been home to the 85-year-old beauty-turned-scholarship contest since its inception.

The Miss America Organization asked the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority to release it from its contract in order to "ensure the pageant's continued vitality and growth," said Art McMaster, president of the Miss America Organization (MAO).

A location for next year's Miss America broadcast has not yet been determined.

"The decision to leave the pageant's longtime home in Atlantic City was made after extremely careful deliberation and with the highest level of respect for the countless friends, volunteers and fans of the pageant," McMaster added.

Jeff Vasser, executive director of the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Association, stated, "We did not undertake this decision lightly. In view of the financial considerations facing MAO now and in the future, we respect MAO's decision to start fresh. We wish the pageant well. Atlantic City will always remain the pageant's home and we relish our 85-year history together."

The Miss America Organization's corporate headquarters will remain in Atlantic City.

The ABC network dropped the Miss America Pageant last year after a continued ratings decline. The world's oldest televised pageant was picked up in June by cable's Country Music Television (CMT) network, which is averaging about 300,000 viewers in prime time this year.

CMT is based in Nashville, Tenn., and is owned by Viacom (Research).

"We needed to find a better partner, one that better understands our values," McMaster told the Washington Post after the move to CMT was announced. "CMT's audience is the heartland of America; that's the same type of loyal audience 'Miss America' has enjoyed; they respect the traditions and values of this organization."

CMT's vice president of programming, Paul Villadolid, said, "Miss America is an important institution that really appeals to heartland sensibilities."

The Miss America Organization is the world's largest provider of scholarship assistance for young women, providing more than $45 million in cash and scholarships, according to the organization.

Villadolid and McMaster have offered few details about how they plan to handle the talent portion of the competition, which last year was all but wiped out in ABC's effort to revamp the show in the ratings hunt.

Under terms of the television deal, announced in June, CMT has telecast rights for two years with the option to pick up the show through 2011. The Miss America pageant will be moved to January from its traditional air date in September.

Miss America was originally conceived in the 1920s by Atlantic City businessmen as a gimmick to keep vacationers in town past Labor Day, according to the Miss America Organization. The January date is needed to give the organization and CMT time to plan for show changes and for a marketing and promotional campaign, Villadolid explained.

CMT has said it plans to add behind-the-scenes programming leading up to the pageant's telecast -- programming that will let viewers get to know the competitors. Plans are to run the build-up programming on CMT and VH1; both cable networks are part of Viacom-owned MTV Networks.

-- from CNN Entertainment News

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