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Should New York's Country 94.7 Take the Lead and Play More Female Artists?

B

Barry

For years there has been controversy surrounding the fact that most country stations play more songs by male artists than by females. A new study by CMT television, which still plays some country music videos, asserts that listeners want to hear a more even mix of music by men and women.
As the country station in one of the largest markets, would it make sense for WNSH 94.7 to up the ratio of songs by female artists? It may start a trend, and give them a lot of positive publicity.

Country Radio Gender Inequality: http://www.insideradio.com/study-co...cle_a92dc758-52fc-11ea-b4f2-031b535ef6b7.html
 
I keep wondering why there has been so much criticism of country radio over this while rock and classic rock formats still get a free pass.

That's not meant as a defense of country radio by the way.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
I keep wondering why there has been so much criticism of country radio over this while rock and classic rock formats still get a free pass.

That's not meant as a defense of country radio by the way.
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Maybe because female artists were such a big part of country radio playlists during the '80s, '90s, and even into the first decade of this century. In fact, in the late '70s, there was a week when the top five songs in the Billboard chart were all sung by women, with a Crystal Gayle song at No. 1. (I'm trying to find the details, but my Google searches are so overwhelmed by all the recent bloviation on this topic that historical tidbits can't easily be located.) AOR never had a huge female presence -- Joplin, Heart, maybe Benatar (though she was primarily a singles act) -- so it's no surprise that classic rock radio today doesn't.
 
vchimpanzee said:
And wasn't it true that more women than men listened to country at one point? I can't remember if that's still true.
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It had been true that more MEN listened to country than women, even during those years that the female artists were getting much more exposure. This started to change in the '90s, especially with the rise of the "hat acts" and two very influential female artists -- Shania Twain and Martina McBride, whose songs resonated loudly with female listeners but could be off-putting to men. But overall, the male artists got a lot easier on the heterosexual female eye as the years went on, and the songs about partying and country-style loving appealed to women just as much as "That Don't Impress Me Much" and "Independence Day" had for Twain and McBride. It's gotten to the point that the male artists are what's keeping a significant portion of the audience faithful to the format, and that playing more women just for the sake of evening things up would drive much of that audience segment away without attracting more male listeners back to the format to make up the difference. And, of course, 25-44 female listeners are far more valuable to advertisers than 25-44 males, another justification for not rocking the radio boat.
 
BJSteigner said:
Maybe WNSH should balance the playlist and play 50% male and 50% female....
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Or perhaps we could just play the best songs by the best artists, regardless if they are male or female, and stop this liberal/progressive nonsense that has infected every aspect of our society. As a male country music fan, I would say about 90% of the artists I listen to are male and that is simply because I find their songs more appealing.
 
ansky212 said:
Or perhaps we could just play the best songs by the best artists, regardless if they are male or female, and stop this liberal/progressive nonsense that has infected every aspect of our society. As a male country music fan, I would say about 90% of the artists I listen to are male and that is simply because I find their songs more appealing.
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Ugh ... politics ... every damn thread.
 
Barry said:
WNSH 94.7 has no significant competition in the market from other country stations. So perhaps they could add more female artists to increase variety,
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Radio stations share audience with other radio stations in other formats. There is no format purity. They might share with WLTW or WCBS. Playing non-hits or bad songs just to meet a quota is never a good idea, no matter what the reason.

There's a lot of conflicting information in this survey, and it's really hard to predict how listeners will react based on what they say. If you survey people about food, you could reach the conclusion that people would want to eat healthy food if it was made available. Based on that, McDonalds added salads and other healthy entrees to their menu, and lost a lot of money, because people still ate Big Macs and large fries.

The fundamental fact we know about radio is people are attracted to the song, not the gender of the artist. The best example is "Heard It Through The Grapevine," which was released by both Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight. Both songs were major hits.
 
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There are a lot of research studies being presented at the annual Country Radio Seminar. Consultant Mark Ramsey said this with regards to playing more women:

The data indicates this is a fabricated controversy of more concern to the powers-that-be in the music industry and in headline-seekers than to the audience listening to Country radio. If you’re asking my opinion on the controversy I’ll give it to you. Listeners are tuning in for hits, not gender. Great songs, not songs by men or women.
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Read the rest of his comments here:

https://radioink.com/2020/02/21/research-country-programmers-do-not-know-their-audience/
 
TheBigA said:
There are a lot of research studies being presented at the annual Country Radio Seminar. Consultant Mark Ramsey said this with regards to playing more women:
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I am a "fan" of Mark's work and his analysis process.

This is not a radio problem. It is a music industry issue. Stations play hits; we generally don't care if the songs are by men, women, duos, trios or a tabernacle choir. If Mr. Ed could sing, and had a hit-sounding song, we'd play it just as we played singing nuns and chipmunks some decades ago.
 
ansky212 said:
Or perhaps we could just play the best songs by the best artists, regardless if they are male or female, and stop this liberal/progressive nonsense that has infected every aspect of our society. As a male country music fan, I would say about 90% of the artists I listen to are male and that is simply because I find their songs more appealing.
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But, I'll bet that if the record companies produced a few more hit songs by women, you'd enjoy them just as much... right?
 
DavidEduardo said:
But, I'll bet that if the record companies produced a few more hit songs by women, you'd enjoy them just as much... right?
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Correct. If I like a song I don't care if it's a male or female artist. I just think it's a ridiculous notion that we should add more songs from a particular gender just for the sake of equality or diversity. Ultimately radio stations are going to play the songs that sell. If this means fewer female artists then perhaps those female artists need to step up their game and produce more hits. I do not believe female artists are intentionally being discriminated against.
 
Guys, radio stations have the latitude to add and subtract songs based on gender, race and other factors. Let's remember the 1980s, when Z100 and WPLJ were battling for #1, not just among Top 40 stations but all NYC stations. Both stations had a very clear 50/50 rule for white artists and artists of color. You could set your watch by it.

WPLJ had a pattern of white-black-white-black-white-white-black-black. Z100 may have simply gone white-black-white-black all day long. Yes, all the songs were hits. But how they played them, and which songs got put into rotation faster, were part of the pattern. WPLJ, aiming more at adult women than Z100, also played more female artists. If Pat Benatar or the Pointer Sisters released a single, WPLJ would be on it faster than if it were Bon Jovi or Kool & The Gang.

The funny thing is that neither station put the 50/50 plan in, expecting to have a significant number of African-American listeners. They simply wanted an audience of mostly white, some black and some Latino. And this was the best way to achieve it.

Today, Country stations aim about 50/50 male/female in listeners. If Country Radio is motivated, it could do what WPLJ and Z100 did in the 1980s, setting up similar rotations.
 
Gregg. said:
If Country Radio is motivated, it could do what WPLJ and Z100 did in the 1980s, setting up similar rotations.
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The assumption being that playing artists of a certain gender will result in listenership that corresponds by gender? I don't think that's true. None of the research presented in this study indicates that.
 
Having worked on air at Country Stations in the 1970’s, 1990’s and early 2000’s there was an unwritten rule: never play 2 female artists back to back. Not because the stations were “anti-female” but if you followed Billboard (or whatever published rating of sales downloads or spins) there were (are) not that many female “hits” or charting songs. If I played 2 females back to back it might be 45 minutes to an hour before another female would come up in one the categories.

IMHO most country stations are just like CHR stations in playing hits or recognizable songs only for the “country oldies” categories. The record companies will produce whatever they think will sell. I am surprised that more female artists of all types of music have not used the internet to bypass the record labels when they can’t get signed by a major label. Also the internet can reduce the “bar and bad nightclub” time a lot of country artists have had to endure in the past which could be a major issue for any female in the business. I contend if an artist’s song has a large number of “downloads” they will get played on air. It will not mater male or female.
 
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