We're just trying to sell advertising.
I worked for a couple of classic country station back in the 80s and 90s, so I have a pretty good knowledge and appreciation of the format. Unfortunately, those stations are no longer on the air because they were losing money.
Country music is a music rich in heritage and history, but unfortunately traditional country music is a niche format that appeals to a small but very loyal audience. Elements of pop and rock have long entered into the format for the simple reason of drawing in fans who otherwise are not country music fans. Chet Atkins said it best when he responded to country music traditionalists complaining to him about the pop oriented "Nashville Sound" he helped to develop. Chet's response was simple..."my job is to sell records". Keep that in mind about radio...our main job is to sell advertising. Playing Kenny Chesney gets us listeners and ratings which attracts advertisers; playing Little Jimmy Dickens doesn't. I appreciate country music's heritage but it doesn't keep me employed. Having a successful radio career is far more important to me than having a country radio career.
One further point. I don't always think its best to have announcers with an intimate knowledge of the format...especially on commercially minded stations...because that knowledge can lead to biases that prevents the announcer from playing what most of the station's audience wants to hear. In my position as music director, there's a lot of music out that I personally love but will never play simply because I don't think our listeners will like it. These days with the pressure to get good ratings and hold listeners through quarter hours, it's usually better to leave the music to a good PD and/or MD while the announcers concentrate on promoting the station and being entertaining between the songs. Eddie Stubbs is one of the best and most knowledgeable in the business, but WSM is in the unique position of being the Mother Church of Country Radio so they are geared toward serving their loyal audience more than anything else (but of course, that didn't stop the station's owners from almost pulling the plug on the format a few years ago).
> Thanks for your comments. It was good to hear from you!
>
> Now could you please get some Country music on your station?
> : )
>
> I think all 'Country' DJs or voicetrackers should take
> courses in Country Music. Perhaps at the stations expense,
> send the programmers to Nashville, and hook up with a man
> named Eddie Stubbs. I swear I have learned more from
> listening to him than anywhere else. He is gratified that a
> lot of younger people call his show. He seems like one of
> the few purveyors of the art form, and I love it when he
> reaches back. I never knew who the Louvin Brothers, Bales
> Brothers, Wilburn Brothers, or Del Mc Coury were.
>
> He took me from a Hank Williams, George Jones, and Patsy
> cline understanding of Country music to introducing me to
> all of these other artists. I've heard of Whiskey River by
> Willie Nelson, but I had never heard the Johnny Bush
> version. I knew about Gene Watson and Alan Jackson doing
> Farewell Party, but I never heard Little Jimmy Dickens, who
> not only recorded the song, but did it in a more speedy
> shuffle beat. Ricky Van did an album cut called "Somebody's
> back in town" but before Mr. Shelton did it, there were the
> Wilburn Brothers. (Now Nashville has not only forgotten
> about the Wilburns, but not even Ricky can be heard any
> more.) Eddie is one DJ who really loves Country music, and
> you can sense the love in his program, he loves Country
> music, and he gets the mic. hear him when WSM blankets the
> nation. DJs can learn from correspondence, just tune the
> radio to 650. (or catch their online stream, the pops of
> static on 650 make the music sound more authentic.) Do
> today's Nashville Pop DJ's and voice trackers even know
> anything about the history of Country music?
>
> Country Music is absolutely facinating! Nashville Pop is
> not. Country music is about the life experience of everyday
> people, in rural America. Even a man from Maine (Dick
> Curliss) can sing Country Music about how hard it is to
> drive in the Gainsville woods. Country music was even a
> California experience, as evidenced by the Bakersfield
> sound, of which Buck Owens emerged. I have no idea what the
> hell Nashville Pop stands for, beyond Jacksons, Grants, and
> Benjamins. (That's 20's, 50's and 100's) Anyone who knows
> Country music well, should instantly get offended when they
> hear Country as having to do with the 'redneck' experience.
> I have listened to some George Jones, Jim Ed Brown, and even
> Faron Young, and the English is much more cleaned up than
> today's music. That's what happens when an art form becomes
> commercialized.
>
> The substance is gone, because all that matters is the
> image. The experience, the subject.. they are out. The
> Country song used to put someone into the life of an
> everyday person. I feel what Hank Williams was going
> through. I am moved to tears when listening to some of his
> Luke the Drifter material. (It's best to listen to Hank with
> drink in hand.) My personal favorite artist of all time was
> actually a Western Artist. Opposite of Hank Williams, he did
> not smoke or drink, just had a weak heart.(He was the
> Western in Country-Western) Marty Robbins did the best job
> of putting the listener in several scenes of when the West
> was settled. The song El Paso is just a masterpiece, but
> then he could also switch sounds and come up with another
> Masterpiece (Like Devil Woman or White Sport Coat) His
> all-around ability to sing multiple genres makes him my all
> time favorite. (He got snubbed when determining the top 40
> men in Country music. 35 of those artists were less worthy
> in my opinion. Even if I'm wrong, you would honestly put
> Travis Tritt or the Eagles above Marty Robbins?) I mean when
> they were at the TOP 5, I really thought they were going to
> put Marty in there. But after the Top 2, I knew Johnny Cash
> had to fit in somewhere, and Hank Williams could not be left
> out. Still, how can you talk about 40 men in Country Music
> and leave out Marty Robbins? I'm biased. I'd even put Cal
> Smith above Garth Brooks. Cal wasn't all that great, but who
> could not love the social commentary in "The Lord Knows I'm
> Drinking?"
>
> But I am as optimistic as ever, that I will never have a
> problem listening to the COuntry artists that I prefer.
> Music is more and more available. I am my own music director
> with the Yahoo Music. I can skip the artists not worth
> listening to, and tell Yahoo to never play them again. It's
> really neat, and though they don't have everything that
> Eddie Stubbs plays, they are pretty darn good! I respect the
> view of the 65 year old person who saw Ernest Tubb live, now
> I just got to teach him to get on the Internet and plug into
> the multitude of possibilities.
>
> I do not pay dime one to listen to Country music, but I get
> a better variety than even a good Classic Country Station. I
> have yet to find a source better than Eddie Stubbs though.
> He is the man. Not only does he do the best job, but is also
> about the classiest in the business as well. The star of the
> Eddie Stubbs show is not Eddie Stubbs, but the artform
> called Country music. He handles the music with care, and
> his presentation is as good as it gets.
>
> Thanks for reading my diatribe.
>
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