CMA To Country Radio

[Retro]

In Today's Edition of Radio Ink, the columnist makes the assertion that it is getting harder and harder for Country Radio to break new artists.

How are the Country Stations doing in Boston, and nearby areas in regards to breaking new talent?

One Day Radiothon Raises Nearly $200K - Radio Ink

iHeartMedia Boston’s AM 680 WRKO raised over $192,000 during its sixth annual DAV Radiothon to benefit the Disabled American Veterans Department of Massachusetts. Since 2016, the Radiothon has raised over $800,000 to benefit veterans in the community.

radioink.com

 

[CTListener]

SiriusXM's contemporary country channel, The Highway, is crowing this morning about "finding" Carly Pearce and several other recent success stories. But a lot of SXM's "finds" never break through nationally on FM or even get signed to a major label. It's a tough business with a lot of acts who've been turning out hits for the better part of a decade or more, and all the hits stick around as recurrents for months.

I doubt WKLB, or WWYZ here in Connecticut, are breaking anything that every other station isn't also breaking. Elvie Shane's "My Boy" was a breakout hit, same with Lainey Wilson's "Things a Man Oughta Know." But I hear those songs on every country station I receive on my trips up and down I-91 and across I-84.

 

[Least]

So what your saying is that Country is starting to face the same issue that has plagued Rock and Alternative for awhile now.

 

[CTListener]

So what your saying is that Country is starting to face the same issue that has plagued Rock and Alternative for awhile now.

No, the exact opposite. Country radio knows what works and has a bunch of artists producing music that large numbers of people want to hear, and don't mind hearing all of them on the same radio stations. Rock and alt radio are hard pressed to find any current music that will appeal to anything but a subset of rock or alt fans. Dan + Shay, Luke Combs and Sam Hunt are making very different-sounding recordings, but you don't find country fans abandoning their local stations en masse over those differences.

 

[TheBigA]

In Today's Edition of Radio Ink, the columnist makes the assertion that it is getting harder and harder for Country Radio to break new artists.

It appears you linked the wrong article. This is the one about country radio:

A Clear Message to Radio From The CMA's - Radio Ink

(By John Shomby) My radio, music, and artist brethren. After watching the CMA Awards this week, I realize there is an issue we all must face. For those of us in country radio, I believe we received a message that our “seat at the table” is moving and it’s not closer to the front.

radioink.com

How are the Country Stations doing in Boston, and nearby areas in regards to breaking new talent?

It depends on what you mean by "breaking new talent." The Bull probably plays a few more new artists than WKLB. Not sure that's why people listen to radio. Not everything radio stations do with regards to new artists is done on air. Both Boston stations used to hold a number of listener-appreciation shows where they feature new artists. Those are on hold because of covid.

 

[Retro]

It appears you linked the wrong article. This is the one about country radio:

A Clear Message to Radio From The CMA's - Radio Ink

(By John Shomby) My radio, music, and artist brethren. After watching the CMA Awards this week, I realize there is an issue we all must face. For those of us in country radio, I believe we received a message that our “seat at the table” is moving and it’s not closer to the front.

radioink.com

It depends on what you mean by "breaking new talent." The Bull probably plays a few more new artists than WKLB. Not sure that's why people listen to radio. Not everything radio stations do with regards to new artists is done on air. Both Boston stations used to hold a number of listener-appreciation shows where they feature new artists. Those are on hold because of covid.

Whoops, sometimes my copy and paste will not copy the next link that I have tried to do. Admittedly, I did not double check to make sure that the new link was different. It is too late for me to fix it now. By bad!

 

[davideduardo]

No, the exact opposite. Country radio knows what works and has a bunch of artists producing music that large numbers of people want to hear, and don't mind hearing all of them on the same radio stations. Rock and alt radio are hard pressed to find any current music that will appeal to anything but a subset of rock or alt fans. Dan + Shay, Luke Combs and Sam Hunt are making very different-sounding recordings, but you don't find country fans abandoning their local stations en masse over those differences.

This week's CMA Awards show was a microcosm of the country world. Of course, the artists were the biggest and the songs among the best but there was no tune that I did not like hearing. Yes, some I liked more than others but they were all good.

That reminded me of Top 40 in the late 60's and through the 70's: the format had shed the apparent need to play MOR hold-overs as it did well into the 60's, and, yet, contained everything from bubblegum to disco in different years. The variety was fun, not polarizing.

And as an aside, the huge applause that accompanied The Brothers Osborn when they won the duo category shows that Country has awoken without becoming obsessively woke.

 

[TheBigA]

This week's CMA Awards show was a microcosm of the country world.

The ratings were basically unchanged from the year before:

MSN

During a recent interview with Billboard, Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern and CMA Awards executive producer Robert Deaton addressed awards shows ratings declines in general, with Deaton saying, “Here’s the thing, everything’s down…the way each demographic decides to consume the show is different. The younger demo is going to find the performances they want to see. And so, you have to look at it overall, from beginning to end, not just the night that it airs, but +3 [days], +7 [days]. Chris Stapleton and Justin Timberlake got 100 million views [after the 2015 CMA Awards]. Nobody really talked about that. In this day and age, it’s important that people come and see the show, but it’s equally important what happens after the show.”

As I watched, I could see the moments that were created to drive social media views and next day views. All of these shows are being built around that.