country radio seminar
As broadcasters begin assembling in Nashville this morning (Feb. 28) for the Country Radio Seminar, expect a lot of talk. About talk.
Radio personalities’ importance has been on the decline for decades. They used to pick the music on their shows. That privilege was taken away. Then many were encouraged to cut down their segues and get to the music. Then syndicated morning and overnight shows moved in to replace local talent.
But once the streaming era hit and started stealing some of radio’s time spent listening, terrestrial programmers began reevaluating their product to discover what differentiates it from streaming. Thus, this year’s CRS focus is talk.
“That’s what’s so important about this year,” says iHeartMedia talent Brooke Taylor, who voicetracks weekday shows in three markets and airs on 100 stations on weekends. “The radio on-air personality is sort of regaining their importance in the stratosphere of a particular station.”
Taylor will appear on a panel designed for show hosts — “Personal Branding: It’s Not Ego, It’s Branding!” — but it’s hardly the only element geared to the talent. Other entries include “On Air Personalities: The OG Influencers,” a research study about audience expectations of their DJs; a podcasting deep dive; and four different panels devoted to the threats and opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI).
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As it turns out, artifice is not particularly popular, according to the research study “On Air Talent and Their Roles on All Platforms,” conducted by media analytics firm Smith Geiger.
“Americans have very mixed feelings about AI,” says Smith Geiger executive vp of digital media strategies Andrew Finlayson. “This research proves that the audience is very interested in authentic content and authentic voices.”
Not to say that AI will be rejected. Sounds Profitable partner Tom Webster expects that it will be effective at matching advertisers to podcasts that fit their audience and market priorities. And he also sees it as a research tool that can assist content creation.
“If I’m a DJ and I’ve got a break coming up, and I’ve pre-sold or back-sold the same record 1,000 times, why not ask an assistant, ‘Give me something new about this record to say’?” Webster suggests. “That’s the easy kind of thing right there that can actually help the DJ do their job.”
CRS has been helping country radio do its job for more than 50 years, providing network opportunities, exposure to new artists and a steady array of educational panels that grapple with legal issues, industry trends and listener research. In the early 1980s, the format’s leaders aspired to make country more like adult contemporary, offering a predictable experience that would be easy to consume for hours in an office situation. The music, and radio production techniques, became more aggressive in the ’90s, and as technology provided a bulging wave of competitors and new ways to move around the dial, stations have been particularly challenged to maintain listeners’ attention during the 21st century.
Meanwhile, major chains have significantly cut staffs. Many stations cover at least two daily shifts with syndicated shows, and the talent that’s left often works on multiple stations in several different markets, sometimes covering more than one format. Those same personalities are expected to maintain a busy social media presence and potentially establish a podcast, too.
That’s an opportunity, according to Webster. Podcast revenue has risen to an estimated $2.5 billion in advertising and sponsorship billing, he says, while radio income has dropped from around $14 billion to $9 billion. He envisions that the two platforms will be on equal financial footing in perhaps a decade, and he believes radio companies and personalities should get involved if they haven’t already.
“It’s difficult to do a really good podcast,” Webster observes. “We talk a lot about the number of podcasts — there are a lot, and most podcasts are not great. Most podcasts are listened to by friends and family. There’s no barrier to entry to a podcast, and then radio has this stable of people whose very job it is to develop a relationship with an audience. That is the thing that they’re skilled at.”
That ’80s idea of radio as predictable background music has been amended. It’s frequently still “a lean-back soundtrack to what it is that you’re doing,” Webster suggests, though listeners want to be engaged with it.
“One of the people in the survey, verbatim, said it’s ‘a surprise box,’ ” Finlayson notes. “I think people like that serendipity that an on-air personality who really knows and understands the music can bring to the equation. And country music knowledge is one of the things that the audience craves from an on-air talent.”
It’s a challenge. Between working multiple stations, creating social media content and podcasting, many personalities are so stretched that it has become difficult to maintain a personal life, which in turn reduces their sources for new material. Add in the threat of AI, and it’s an uneasy time.
“What I see is a great deal of anxiety and stress levels, and I don’t know how we fix it,” concedes Country Radio Broadcasters executive director R.J. Curtis. “There’s just so much work put on our shoulders, it’s hard to manage that and then have a life.”
Curtis made sure that CRS addresses that, too, with “Your Brain Is a Liar: Recognizing and Understanding the Impact of Your Mental Health,” a presentation delivered by 25-year radio and label executive Jason Prinzo.
That tension is one of the ways that on-air talent likely relates to its audience — there are plenty of stressed, overbooked citizens in every market. And as tech continues to consume their lives, it naturally feeds the need for authenticity, which is likely to be a buzzword as CRS emphasizes radio’s personalities.
“Imagine having a radiothon for St. Jude with an AI talent,” Taylor says. “You’ll get a bunch of facts, but you’ll never get a tear. You’ll never get a real story. You’ll never get that shaky voice talking about somebody in your family or somebody that you know has cancer. The big thing that just will never be replaced is that emotion.”
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It’s telling that one of the most emotional moments during the Country Radio Seminar came when Darius Rucker and Brad Paisley led a large cast of artists in a cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain” at the close of the Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN) showcase at the Ryman Auditorium on March 14.
Just the day before, Garth Brooks had addressed the divisiveness in modern America and encouraged country broadcasters to use their place at the microphone to bring people together: “Unify. Find common ground. Amplify our similarities instead of our differences.”
In “Purple Rain,” the assemblage demonstrated what that looked like, bridging genres and backgrounds to deliver a song that obliquely embraces connection as the world comes to an end. The arrangement included fiddle and Dobro, a significant cross-format augmentation of a song with anthemic pop/rock qualities. Rucker and Dalton Dover brought Black voices to the performance, notable in a genre that went decades with Charley Pride as its lone African American star. And covering Prince meant that Paisley — who had performed a dark track about opioid addiction less than a half-hour before — was now playing an extended guitar solo on a tune originated by a man who had died of an opioid overdose.
Just as important was the mass of people onstage: Vince Gill, Tyler Hubbard, Parker McCollum, Kassi Ashton, Sam Hunt and Catie Offerman were among those lined up behind the lead voices. And while most of the nation has regained some level of normalcy after the pandemic, every sign of people feeling safe to get together remains heartening.
A year ago, CRS attendees were chided for slow-moving charts and a lack of individuality. The format hasn’t changed significantly since then, though a committee is working to resolve those issues.
Meanwhile, 2023’s three-day conference, based at the Omni Nashville Hotel, found programmers in seemingly better spirits. Some 57% of country listeners believe the music is better than it was just a few years ago, according to a NuVoodoo study. Even 52% of consumers who have been country fans for over 10 years — the kind of listener most likely to complain that current music pales in comparison with the good old days — say the new music is better. Jacobs Media president Fred Jacobs, in a “Fred Talk” titled “The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be,” also noted that 62% of respondents in a 2023 survey cited their appreciation of the on-air talent as a motivating factor for listening to AM/FM. That exceeds the 55% of respondents who cited the music as a contributing factor to their radio consumption.
Stations would be wise, Jacobs suggested, to develop on-air talent that successfully connects with the audience.
As technology becomes ever more dominant in daily life, it appears that interactions with people have greater value. Syndicated Audacy personality Josh “Bru” Brubaker, a Los Angeles-based 26-year-old whose radio background and TikTok skills have built a following in the millions, said in an “Okay Boomer” panel that simply being real goes a long way.
“Vulnerability and relatability has never been more important to our audiences, especially in Gen Z,” he said. “That’s something that we’ve been doing in radio ever since it’s been around, so play on our strengths. I think we overthink a lot of things. But those core things are what Gen Z is looking for. And we can use that to reinvigorate our audiences.”
That word “reinvigorate” is important, given that time spent listening to radio has dropped since the advent of streaming services. Brubaker recalled meeting a young fan who asked him, “What is radio?”
The medium, once dominant in American entertainment, faces a crowded field that includes audio and video streaming, satellite radio and broadcast and cable TV, plus streaming TV services and online games. The future will only grow more complicated.
Automobiles, where radio once dominated, are undergoing significant change. Jacobs showed images of pillar-to-pillar dashboards that manufacturers are designing with more in-car options than ever. FM radio, he noted, will need to up its visual game — taking advantage of logos and other graphic opportunities — to remain appealing to commuters. But AM radio faces a much bleaker future with the accelerating shift toward electric vehicles. The engines create interference problems, and AM is increasingly being booted from car interiors. Jacobs cited Ford specifically, though news site Axios indicated in a March 13 story that eight automakers — including BMW, Mazda, Tesla and Volkswagen — have dropped AM radio from their electric cars.
“After hanging around with automakers for the past 15 years, I don’t think they give a shit,” said Jacobs. “I think they’re going to make whatever they’re going to make, and AM radio is not a part of the future for them.”
One other change that could create structural issues for broadcasters is the adaptation of subscriptions. Detroit is toying with recurring payments, Jacobs said, that would bill owners monthly for heated seats, map updates or driving assistants. And he believes over-the-air radio could become yet another optional service rather than a standard feature.
Country’s future, as always, was on display at CRS. Mackenzie Carpenter infused ultra-Southern phrasing in the hooky “Don’t Mess With Exes” during the Big Machine showcase. Avery Anna fielded a tuneful kiss-off with “Narcissist” on Warner Music Nashville’s lunchtime stage, and Offerman applied a warm, intimate voice to the confessional “I Killed a Man” at the UMGN show.
Programmers were encouraged repeatedly during CRS panels to take risks and “think outside the box.” Much of the industry, it appears, is of a mind to simply make the box larger. The genre’s widening cultural representation and increasing blend of music styles suggest that country and its real-world stories have the potential to fulfill Brooks’ challenge, to become a unifying voice.
Whether that potential is fully realized is a question that can only be answered in that uncertain future.
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Kenny Chesney made an appearance at Country Radio Seminar in Nashville on Tuesday (March 14), offering insights into the key decisions that shifted his career into overdrive — propelling Chesney from a struggling singer-songwriter to a four-time CMA entertainer of the year winner, and one of country music’s most successful touring acts ever.
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During a session moderated by Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton, Chesney detailed the competitive mentality — influenced in part by his love of sports — that has led him to earn 32 No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hits and 11 CMA Awards wins. Chesney played to over 1.3 million fans on his 2022 Here and Now Tour, and is slated to begin his I Go Back 2023 tour later this month.
“The one thing that I think that’s helped me … sustain any kind of success is the idea that you either get better or you get worse,” he said, sharing advice he received from big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton. “He said, ‘You get 1% better or worse every day…’ I’ve tried to get 1% better as a writer, a person, a producer. That’s the mentality I’ve had over the years.”
Tennessee native Chesney also discussed his early career years, when he first signed with the country division of Capricorn Records and issued his debut album, 1994’s In My Wildest Dreams. Sony Music executive Joe Galante heard Chesney’s music and soon signed him to Sony’s BNA Records imprint, where Chesney released his sophomore project, All I Need to Know, a year later.
“Joe had never seen me perform, never saw me live,” Chesney said. “And thank God … I wasn’t comfortable in my skin as an artist then. And Joe signed me off of that [record].”
During the discussion, Chesney also recalled his disagreement with Galante over releasing “Don’t Blink” as a radio single. The song would be come a four-week Country Airplay No. 1 hit in 2007.
“When we released that song, Joe [Galante] and [former Sony Music A&R executive] Renee Bell really wanted that song released, and I hated it,” Chesney said. “I felt like it just touched every button you could possibly touch to get somebody to like a song and I hated it. We were at ABC Radio Networks in Dallas, and we were on the plane there, and I was in Joe’s ear the who two-hour ride about how much I hated this single choice: ‘It’s never gonna work, this is going to be the end of everything. I’ve worked really hard to be here and you’re gonna cut my legs off with ‘Don’t Blink.’’ I did my interviews and we are coming down the escalators and the lady at the front desk tells me, ‘I just love “Don’t Blink”!’ I looked at Galante and said, ‘You told her to say that.’” (“Don’t Blink” ended up being a four-week No. 1 on Country Airplay.)
Chesney noted that early in his career, even though he was notching hits, he had yet to set himself apart as a unique artist. “I was a lot like a lot of artists, honestly,” he recalled. “I was trying to be the newer version of George Strait. I think Garth [Brooks] would tell you the same thing, he loved George. That was the bar. I wore a belt buckle. I was trying to be that.”
By the time he released a Greatest Hits album in 2000, he had earned several top 5 hits and No. 1 hits. But he needed to make some key changes to stand out from the crowd. “Everybody knew the songs, but they didn’t know me,” Chesney said. “I had 16 songs in a Greatest Hits package, and then I would go play a fair or whatever and people would go, ‘Oh, that’s the guy that sings that song. Oh, he sings that, too.’ So they hadn’t really connected yet. But the moment I stopped trying to be George Strait, that was the moment my life changed. I started really writing songs. And my life in the Virgin Islands, I spent a lot of time writing out there.
Helton noted that from 1993, Chesney released a new album nearly every year, until a two-year gap between 1997’s I Will Stand and 1999’s Everywhere We Go, and a three-year gap to 2002’s No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems — with a cover conveying some of the beach lifestyle, “Island Kenny” branding fans would come to associate with Chesney.
“At one point you told me you were watching CMT and you saw video after video of male singers — hat, belt buckle — and you knew something had to change,” Helton noted.
“This isn’t a slam toward anybody, but I realized there were acts out there that felt the same way I did,” Chesney recalled. “We were all trying to reach for Strait. I didn’t have as good of a song as Tracy Lawrence had, with ‘Time Marches On.’ I just felt I wasn’t truly being authentic as an artist during that time. There was a phase, after Garth hit, where everybody wore the same shirt.”
Chesney said spending time in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he filmed music videos for songs including “How Forever Feels” and “I Lost It,” provided creative inspiration.
“I found myself writing songs about the characters and the people I met, their stories. As much of a marketing ploy as it looks like, it really wasn’t. It was just a huge part of my life.”
Chesney also discussed the balance of making music and also keeping his personal life private, in the era of artists documenting their lives 24/7 on social media.
“I just don’t feel comfortable going down that road,” Chesney said. “I work really hard to be this person, and I want to keep some sort of dignity and integrity intact, and not feel like I’m selling my soul to get higher in the consumption chart. I realize that, the person I am today, some things are fair game. One of the reasons I’m so private is when my life started to change and people started caring at a different level, the only thing I could keep to myself was the intimate details of my life. Now everything else is fair game. Can people talk about you? They make stuff up, they run with it, the media runs with it. People are really curious to know those intimate details, I get that. But the reason I’m so private is that if I don’t keep those details to myself, where do I go? What else do I have?”
Helton asked if the media attention surrounding Chesney’s marriage and subsequent annulment to actress to Renee Zellweger in 2005 heightened his sense of privacy.
“That changed a lot,” Chesney said. “What is interesting is we were playing stadiums already, and after that … I didn’t have social anxiety before that, [but] then you add our success and then you add that to your life and you have a little bit of social anxiety. And now, dealing with the way the world is today and how social everything is, and how information is transferred — yeah, you’d have to be crazy to want to be a celebrity today.”
Asked whether he enjoys being a celebrity, Chesney replied, “Not really. I enjoy certain things about it … I shy away from the celebrity thing. I say no to a lot of things that come my way that a lot of people might say yes to — it’s too celebrity-oriented in nature. I would rather be creating.”
Chesney signed with Warner Music Nashville in 2018, and is currently creating his next album for the label, noting that he’s nearly halfway done with the project.
“The next record is important — they are all important,” Chesney said. “No matter who you are or where you’re at in your career arc, every album is important. You want somebody to do something, you want somebody to be happy, you want somebody to chase their own dreams because of your music.”
Asked if he already has a first single prepared from the project, Chesney said, “Well, I could, but I’m trying to beat it.”
As Chesney nears his milestone 55th birthday on March 26, Helton asked how long he plans to keep touring at this level.
“I feel great and I still have the fire to go out there and give people every single thing I have,” Chesney responded. “Yes, as long as I can be creative and do what I do at the level that I do it.”
A year ago, Country Radio Seminar (CRS) gave broadcasters a wakeup call.
With the 2023 edition of the conference, it should become clearer if the industry is facing a new day head on or if it simply hit the Snooze button.
Panelists in 2022 lamented a four-year decline in listenership, a drop that overlaps with a system in which singles often take over 40 weeks — sometimes as much as 60 weeks — to run their course. By contrast, labels are increasingly gearing their marketing plans to streaming platforms that expose wider arrays of music and target individuals’ playlists with greater specificity. On the final day last year, Country’s Radio Coach owner/CEO John Shomby gave a TED Talk-style presentation that chided broadcasters for a nagging sameness and called for a committee of radio and music business executives to figure out a reboot.
As Country Radio Broadcasters revs up CRS again March 13-15, that chat continues to echo in the agenda at the Omni Nashville Hotel. Shomby’s CRS Music Committee — which generated 60-70 respondents in its first hour, according to CRB executive director R.J. Curtis — has been segmented into four overlapping subcommittees that will likely make their first reports in an upcoming CRS360 webinar. Meanwhile, the CRS presentations include several topics that address the issues that have brought the format to a crossroads — “Radio & Records: Redefining the Relationship,” “Just Effing Do It: The Rewards of Taking Risks” and “Fred Jacobs’ Fred Talk: The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be.”
“CRS should be a reality-check moment,” Curtis says. “I don’t believe our purpose is to just shake each other’s hands and high-five and congratulate each other on another great year because not every year is great. We’re facing a lot of different challenges, and I think it’s important for us to own them and figure out how to solve them.”
Country music has a long history with radio. March 2022 marked 100 years since Fiddlin’ John Carson became the first hillbilly act to perform on-air, on WSB Atlanta, and Jan. 4 represented a century since country was introduced on the medium west of the Mississippi River, via The Radio Barn Dance on WBAP Dallas-Fort Worth. Still, the genre never had a full-time station until KDAV Lubbock, Texas, debuted in 1953.
Radio ultimately became the primary method of exposing the genre’s new music. It went largely unchallenged in that position until streaming took hold this century. The new medium operates differently — pressing a Skip button allows a streaming listener to skirt individual titles while still listening to the playlist, whereas skipping a song on the radio requires changing stations. To preserve listenership in this era, programmers generally relied on safe measures that had worked previously, cutting the size of playlists and/or hanging on to proven titles for longer periods of time. Those solutions tend to pay off in the short run, but over the long haul, they can discourage extended listening among the most passionate music fans.
“They’re just afraid of making a mistake,” says Shomby of programmers’ dilemma. “It’s like a football team that just hands the ball off to one guy and he runs up the middle, and then you hope that somebody opens up a hole. There’s no [taking chances] — there’s no throwing any long passes, you’re not doing any double reverses or anything like that. You just run left. And that’s kind of the way I feel like our industry is at this point.”
Actionable Insights Group head of research Billy Ray McKim was among the attendees who signed up for the CRS Music Committee last year after Shomby’s presentation.
“Plenty of people talked about it for days and weeks, and I continue to hear people refer back to it,” McKim says. “He managed to tie a bow on it.”
McKim is now overseeing the subcommittee studying the life cycle of songs, generally aiming to speed the march of singles through national radio charts and energize the format. The issue is complex.
“There was this idea that we would spend a year and find a finite solution and move on,” says McKim. “What’s become even more clear through this process is there isn’t a simple solution. So I think that this committee will continue to live and evolve.”
Changing aspects of the industry will get center stage through much of CRS. Digital streaming, for example, has a full day of convention programming. CRS also offers a panel on “expansive inclusion” and an examination of evolving demographics in “Okay Boomer! A Conversation With Gen Z.”
CRS will continue to offer some familiar elements. Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney will be the focus of keynote artist Q&As, the annual research panel presents insights from a 700-song auditorium test, and the closing New Faces of Country Music dinner will feature Jackson Dean, Priscilla Block, Jelly Roll, Nate Smith and Frank Ray.
That latter event will include recognition of a new wrinkle in the convention. The last of CRS’ founders, Charlie Monk, died Dec. 19, and this will be the first year he is not at the seminar in some form or fashion. New Faces is expected to honor his influence, which is particularly fitting this year. Monk’s ability to process the past and anticipate the future should provide some inspiration for the industry as it moves forward: the “Mayor of Music Row” counted classic singer Frank Sinatra as his favorite artist, but often said his favorite single was whatever was No. 1 that particular week.
“He didn’t get stuck in one particular era, and that’s very evident by the amount of people much, much younger than him that called him a mentor and a friend,” Curtis says. “He sought out younger leaders in our format. He benefited from their knowledge and their way of doing business, and I think it was really impressive.”
Country music’s relationship with radio predates even Monk’s arrival. Programmers’ goal during CRS will be to create some forward movement for a platform that is still regarded as a key means of exposure for even the newest generation of talent.
“I come across a lot of young artists, and they still have that dream to be heard on the radio,” says Shomby. “I mean, it doesn’t get them as excited to have a song playlisted on Spotify as it does to hear their song on their local radio station. So there’s still something there that creates a passion for the format.”
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With Country Radio Seminar just a week away, key showcases are taking shape, with three record labels unveiling their lunchtime performance lineups and CMT announcing a handful of acts appearing at the first evening’s opening reception.
Brad Paisley, making his first CRS appearance since signing with Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN), will play during the label’s annual takeover of the historic Ryman Auditorium. Brantley Gilbert, Vince Gill, Sam Hunt and Cody Johnson are among the major acts officially in the mix during the three-day seminar March 13-15 at the Omni Nashville Hotel.
Newly announced entertainment lineups include:
• Warner Music Nashville sponsors the March 13 lunch that offers Johnson, Chase Matthew and Ian Munsick, with additional acts promised.
• The March 13 happy hour opening event will feature four acts associated with CMT’s Next Women of Country: Julia Cole, Ashley Cooke, Miko Marks and O.N.E the Duo.
• At least 14 acts are appearing at the lunchtime UMGN Ryman gig on March 14: Gill,Hunt,Paisley, Kassi Ashton,Boy Named Banjo,Brothers Osborne,Dalton Dover,Caylee Hammack,Tyler Hubbard,Parker McCollum,Kylie Morgan,Catie Offerman,Josh Ross and Darius Rucker.
• Big Machine Label Group hosts the March 15 lunch that will feature Gilbert, Danielle Bradbery, Mackenzie Carpenter, Riley Green, Chris Janson, Justin Moore, Shane Profitt and Conner Smith.
CRS previously announced the lineup for the closing New Faces Show: Priscilla Block, Jackson Dean, Jelly Roll, Frank Ray and Nate Smith.
Country Radio Hall of Fame member Charlie Monk, known affectionately within the Nashville music industry as “The Mayor of Music Row,” died at his home in Nashville on Monday (Dec. 19). He was 84.
During his 60-plus-year career, Monk impacted the careers of numerous artists, including Randy Travis, Kenny Chesney, Reba McEntire, George Strait, Tim McGraw, Miranda Lambert and Faith Hill. Monk was inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame in 2019.
Born Charles Franklin Monk on Oct. 29, 1938, in Geneva, Alabama, his career in entertainment began in high school in the 1950s, when he started sweeping floors at his hometown radio station WGEA. He quickly landed a weekend on-air shift as a disc jockey.
He went on to serve in the U.S. Army but was quickly drawn back to radio. He became a DJ on WTBF radio while attending Troy State University, followed by a stint on WKRG radio and television in Mobile, Alabama. He became program director and afternoon personality at WACT in Tuscaloosa, before returning to Mobile as a program director at WUNI. Monk would lead the station to become the top-ranking station in the market.
During his time at WUNI, he appeared as a guest announcer on WSM’s Grand Ole Opry. In 1968, he moved to Nashville and WMTS radio in Murfreesboro, where his free-form music and talk show for the station became the first daily radio broadcast from Nashville’s Music Row.
In 1969, he was a founder of Country Radio Seminar, an annual multi-day educational event which has offered networking and career growth opportunities for the music industry professionals for more than 50 years while also serving as a top showcase event for new and emerging artists.
Monk produced and hosted the annual New Faces Show for 40 years and in the process, helped launch the careers of artists including McEntire, Travis, Alabama, Brooks & Dunn, McGraw, Hill, Toby Keith, Jason Aldean, Vince Gill, Lambert, Strait and many others.
Monk also joined the staff of performing rights organization ASCAP in 1970 and began learning every aspect of the music business, while at the same time establishing relationships across the city’s country and gospel music industries.
In 1977, Monk became the Nashville chief of CBS Songs, which swiftly became one of Nashville’s top three publishers. He formed his own music publishing company, Monk Family Music Group, in 1983. He took a leave of absence in 1988 to spearhead the return of Acuff-Rose Music to the upper echelons of the industry, becoming the first publisher to win both ASCAP and BMI “Most Performed Song of the Year” in the same year.
In 1983, Monk signed a singer-songwriter by the name of Randy Traywick—now known as Country Music Hall of Fame member Randy Travis. Other songwriters and artist-writers Monk signed include Marcus Hummon, Holly Dunn, Jim McBride, Keith Stegall, Aaron Tippin, Chris Waters and Chesney.
Songs Monk published have been recorded by Travis, Tippin, Lonestar, McEntire, LeAnn Rimes, Tracy Lawrence, The Mavericks, Cheap Trick, Kenny Rogers, Sandi Patti, GlenCampbell, Otis Redding, Louise Mandrell, Trick Pony, Ike & Tina Turner, Led Zeppelin, and John Michael Montgomery. Monk also saw his own written song recorded by artists including Jerry Reed, Eddy Arnold, Pat Boone, Mandrell, Jimmy Dean, Charley Pride, Angelo Badalamenti, Travis and Charlie Chase.
After a more than three-decade absence, Monk returned to radio in 2004 to help launch SiriusXM in Nashville, hosting the morning show on Willie’s Roadhouse, as well as a weekend music and interview show on SiriusXM’s Prime Country until 2022. Monk also served on numerous music organizations. He was an alumnus and board member of Leadership Music, a lifetime director of the Country Radio Broadcasters, and a member of the Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music, and the Gospel Music Association. He also served as vice president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, vice president of the Nashville Songwriters Association International, vice president of the Gospel Music Association and local president of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
Monk’s honors include induction into the Country Radio Hall of Fame, The Alabama Music Hall of Fame, the University of Alabama College of Communication and Information SciencesHall of Fame and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame. He received awards from the Alabama House and Senate, Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc.,SESAC (1998 Publisher of the Year), BMI (Publisher for “Most Performed Song”) ASCAP (Publisher for “Most Performed Song”) and Nashville Songwriters Association International. Heearned a CLIO Award for commercial voice work, an Addy Award and awards and honors from the Mobile Press Register, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and theNashville Association of Talent Directors. In 2021, Monk became only the ninth recipient of the CMA’s Joe Talbot Award for “outstanding leadership and contributions to the preservation and advancement of Country Music’s values and traditions.”
A lifelong lover of University of Alabama football, Monk is survived by his wife of 63 years, Royce Walton Monk; Sons Charles, Jr. (Sukgi) and Collin (Grace); Daughters CapucineMonk and Camila Monk Perry (Scott); sisters in law Peggy Walton-Walker Lord (Larry) and Elsie Walton (Colin Hamilton); Grandchildren Sam (Christina), Nathan, Christabel, McKenna,Theodore, Ella, Walton & Douglas; Great-grandchildren Alexis and Sophia and nieces Clara and Linda and nephews Wayne, Brian and Chip.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to MusiCares, Community Care Fellowship, Calvary United Methodist Church, Rochelle Center or CreatiVets.
Leading into next year’s Country Radio Seminar, the nominees have been revealed for the New Faces of Country Music Show, which will be held March 15 at Omni Hotel Nashville, capping off the annual radio-focused seminar, which is slated for March 13-15, 2023.
Traditionally there have been five performance slots for the showcase, which provides a platform for rising artists to perform in front of country radio tastemakers. This year’s nominees are Priscilla Block, Callista Clark, Jackson Dean, Ernest, Jelly Roll, Frank Ray, Elvie Shane and Nate Smith.
The upcoming New Faces of Country Music Show will be held March 15 at Omni Hotel Nashville during CRS 2023. Voting for the final round of performers will open Monday, Nov. 28, and will be open through Friday, Dec. 2, at countryradioseminar.com.
Each year, five artists who have earned significant success at country radio during the qualification period (running Nov. 1 through Oct. 31 preceding the show) are selected to perform, based upon industry voting. Eligible voters must be full-time employees primarily involved with programming, promotion and distribution of country music, in the following company categories: broadcast radio, satellite radio, television outlets and digital service providers (persons with vested interests in individual artists or musical works such as labels, managers, agents, and publishers, are excluded from voting).
The first New Faces of Country Music show was held in 1970 and featured Jack Barlow, Jamie Kaye, Karen Kelly, Wayne Kemp, Lynda K. Lance, LaWanda Lindsey, Dee Mullins and Norro Wilson. Since then, a who’s who of country artists have performed on the show early in their careers, including Lefty Frizzell, Eddie Rabbitt, Vern Gosdin and Gene Watson. Reba McEntire, Alabama and Sylvia were among those on the 1980 lineup, while George Strait, Rodney Crowell and Ricky Skaggs performed at the event in 1982. Randy Travis and Marty Stuart were among the 1986 lineup, while Keith Whitley, Dwight Yoakam, Holly Dunn and Lyle Lovett were on the bill a year later.
Tim McGraw met his wife, fellow country singer Faith Hill during the 1994 New Faces of Country Music Show (that year’s lineup also included Toby Keith, Lari White, Clay Walker and John Berry). Keith Urban and Brad Paisley shared the 2000 lineup, Miranda Lambert and Eric Church were on the 2007 bill, and Taylor Swift and Luke Bryan were on the same bill in 2008.
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