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On Aug. 14, days after Oliver Anthony performed before thousands at the Morris Farm Market in Currituck County, N.C., Mike “Moose” Smith did something he hadn’t done in 40 years. The program director for 97.3 The Eagle, in nearby Norfolk, Va., aired the unknown singer-songwriter’s viral smash — “Rich Men North of Richmond” — once every hour. “That was called the Special Oliver Anthony Rotation,” Smith says. “My general manager called on Sunday and said, ‘What do you know about this guy?’ My music director was on vacation. I hand-scheduled it.”

“Rich Men,” a twangy country-folk song recorded on a single microphone somewhere on Anthony’s land in Farmville, Va., rails against high taxes and “the obese milkin’ welfare” and has become a conservative anthem, championed by Joe Rogan, Breitbart and country star John Rich. In the week of Aug. 17, it streamed 17.5 million times and sold 147,000 downloads, according to Luminate. Based on downloads and streaming alone, the song debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s all-genre Hot 100 chart. Some country radio stations have picked “Rich Men,” giving it 553,000 airplay audience impressions despite zero promotion the week of Aug. 17. From Aug. 18 to Aug. 21. If the radio-playlist trend continues, the track should make its debut on Billboard’s Sept. 2 Country Airplay chart.

Few radio stations, including 97.3 The Eagle, add new artists to their playlists — especially those with no label promoting it– but listeners were calling in to request Oliver’s track. “It makes it hard to ignore,” Smith says. “If our audience wants it, it’s our job to give it to them.”

Not every station has succumbed to the viral hype. The song has a rickety feel — not exactly a seamless transition from the slick Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs hits atop Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart. And “Rich Men” has been politically divisive, with progressive pundits decrying its conservative populism. Bruce Logan, operations manager for Hubbard Radio in West Palm Beach, Fla., hasn’t added it to his stations’ playlists. “We are talking about how we should approach it. It’s unusual,” he says. “In theme, it is certainly working man/woman blue-collar, which the format has a long history with. Sonically, it is closer to bluegrass than mainstream country.”

In San Jose, Calif., streaming-only country station KRTY hasn’t picked it up, either, because the track is unfamiliar and Anthony has no experience as a recording or touring artist. The station seldom jumps on hyped-up hits from American Idol or The Voice, according to GM Nate Deaton, its general manager.

“From a radio standpoint, that kind of thing is not really what we do best. I’ve never been big on the following-the-trend thing,” Deaton says. “We’ve always played songs we’ve believed in, too, and I’m not necessarily sure I believe in this song. I’m not necessarily sure it’s better than what I’m playing. Whose place do I take in the playlist?”

But some stations, big and small, have been comfortable with Anthony’s organic, do-it-yourself stardom, adding “Rich Men” to playlists within weeks of its release. Several stations owned by radio chain Audacy, including KMLE Country 107.9 in Phoenix and 100.7 The Wolf in Seattle, have given the track more than 25 spins apiece since it first aired Aug. 14. Stations owned by iHeartMedia and Cumulus have jumped on it less frequently, according to Mediabase. (An Audacy rep declined comment; iHeart’s rep did not respond to a request.)

Although he did not respond to follow-up questions about adding the song to stations’ playlists, Charlie Cook, vp country for broadcast chain Cumulus, said in a statement: “Americans are looking for answers to problems they encounter every day. While this song doesn’t offer solutions to those problems, it does verbalize the issues and has given listeners an opportunity to hear about their frustrations in a collective situation. Most of them can say, yeah, that’s how I feel, and they become part of a bigger movement to help them have a voice.” Just a few Cumulus stations have added “Rich Men,” beginning with New Country 101.Five in Atlanta, which spun it six times from Aug. 18 to Aug. 21.

In Santa Maria, Calif., Sunny 102.5 quickly added “Rich Men” on a “light” rotation of 20 spins per week — shortly after airing Jason Aldean‘s just-as-hyped-and-divisive track “Try That In a Small Town” (and, in the early 2000s, music by The Chicks after right-wing listeners burned the country trio’s CDs for criticizing President Bush and the Iraq War).

“If you don’t play it, you’re censoring the airwaves, I say,” says Jay Turner, program director for the station owned by smaller California-and-Southwest chain American General Media. “We’ve gotten very little, if any, pushback on either Jason Aldean or ‘Rich Men.’ None at all. I can’t see anybody pushing back on ‘Rich Men,’ because it’s real. It’s $5.25 to buy gas in Santa Barbara.

“My guess is it’s going to flash fast and it’s going to end fast. Stations aren’t going to be playing it forever. It’s not going to be in malls,” Turner continues. “It just sounds like hillbilly hick stuff. You put it up against a Maren Morris record, or a pop record, it sounds like you’ve gone back 30 years in time. But it’s a freaking great song. He’s pouring his heart out.”

Kane Brown released “Heaven,” a love-drunk single that practically radiates romantic bliss, in the fall of 2017. The following May, the track topped Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and climbed to No. 15 on the Hot 100. Despite this success, “we never tried to cross it over” to pop radio, says Martha Earls, who manages Brown. “In what world would you have an almost Diamond-certified single that you didn’t try to take over to pop? It was a different time. Back then, that opportunity just was not there.”

Today, Earls says, conditions are different — she “absolutely would” have promoted “Heaven” to the Top 40 format. “Let’s take it to pop [radio] tomorrow!” she jokes. 

This summer, country singles are finally starting to fare better on the Billboard Pop Airplay chart: Morgan Wallen‘s “Last Night” is at No. 5 on the latest ranking, while Luke Combs‘ “Fast Car” hit No. 20. (They also sit at No. 1 and No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively.) “Most Top 40 programmers are protective of pop music sounds,” says Steven Shannon, music director at KZFN in Moscow, Idaho. “It’s unusual to have two country songs out at the same time that are in the Top 20.”

With that in mind, “it’s nice to see more people being open to our format,” adds Chris Kappy, who manages Luke Combs. “I appreciate the fact that people can look at country music just like they look at any other genre.”

In the past, pop radio has flirted with country periodically but never really embraced the genre, suggesting that the success of Wallen and Combs could be another temporary blip. (Pop radio’s arms-length approach to country is part of the reason why, before this year, the last track to top both Country Airplay and the Hot 100 was Lonestar‘s “Amazed” in 2000.) “I guarantee that most Top 40 programmers are resistant” to adding country to their playlists, Shannon says. Sure enough, one pop PD tells Billboard, “I’d rather be playing hip-hop.”

As a result, country executives say they still only consider attempting a pop radio campaign in special cases. But shifts in the music landscape could point to a bigger role for country in the pop airplay mix moving forward. The genre’s audience is surging — country’s consumption has increased by a whopping 20.3% year-over-year in the first 26 weeks of 2023, according to Luminate, making its popularity tough to overlook. (By contrast, pop is up by 7.6%.)

Country singles get to shine on pop radio roughly once a decade, according to Guy Zapoleon, a veteran radio consultant. He is known in radio circles for his “10-year music cycle” theory, which divides pop airplay into three distinct periods: the birth phase, the extremes phase, and the doldrums phase. Terrestrial radio is currently very much in the doldrums — “the worst doldrums of all times,” Zapoleon declares — and during these periods, it’s customary for Top 40 programmers to cast around for hits elsewhere, roping in singles from country or the format known as “adult contemporary.” 

In the past, Zapoleon says, this has led to increased airplay for country at Top 40 for periods lasting two to three years. In 1963, Johnny Cash, Skeeter Davis, and Bobby Bare were beneficiaries of this trend; in 1974, programmers embraced Glen Campbell, Charlie Rich, and Mac Davis; in the early 1980s, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, and Eddie Rabbitt were added on to Top 40 playlists, boosted in part in the wake of the success of John Travolta’s 1980 film Urban Cowboy.

This context suggests that Wallen and Combs may be helping Top 40 through a rough patch, but that the dalliance won’t last. “If history is an indication, I think maybe this [playing more country at Top 40] might be just a trend,” says Matt Mony, program director for WYOY in Jackson, Mississippi. “It’s sort of like what we saw with all the sample-songs that we were playing” — think Bebe Rexha and David Guetta’s “I’m Good (Blue)” — “that’s starting to lighten up a bit.”

Country artists seeking Top 40 airplay don’t just have to win over pop programmers, they also have to worry about country programmers’ possessiveness. “In the past, there was a sense that if an artist crossed over from country they were leaving the format,” Earls acknowledges. With Brown, “we almost created two careers,” she adds. “We would have a song go to Top 40” — including collaborations with Marshmello, blackbear, and Swae Lee — but also “make sure that we released music to super-serve the country fans too.”  

Adrian Michaels, vp of innovation, radio, and streaming at BMG’s Stoney Creek Records, has been on an impressive streak with Jelly Roll, a 38-year-old who spent time in prison for dealing drugs, got out and built a budding rap career, and then turned into a country breakout. Jelly Roll is now starting to receive some pop airplay after enjoying success at both country and rock radio. “It definitely bruises some [programing] people when they see” artists move to other formats, Michaels says. “I get yelled at a lot. But the audience has a much bigger voice than a gatekeeper saying, ‘this belongs on this station only, because we’re the ones who broke them.’”

And that voice has gotten a lot louder lately. The runaway success of “Last Night” and “Fast Car” is taking place amidst an eruption of interest in the genre that Wallen and Combs call home. “We’re seeing a global moment for the genre right now, and that is opening up some space at other formats,” explains Stacy Blythe, svp of radio promotion at Wallen’s label, Big Loud. 

Those other formats may not be able to continue to look past country if that growth continues. “What I hope happens is that [pop radio programmers] see the numbers coming in on streaming, and if this [country song] is streaming as much as this [pop single], obviously that shows there are people out there listening,” Kappy says. “It’s contemporary hits radio. They should be playing the contemporary hits of the day.”

In addition, terrestrial radio’s role in the music ecosystem has shifted dramatically in the last decade in ways that might make the pop airwaves more hospitable to country. One key difference is that many young listeners have abandoned radio for streaming services and TikTok; a recent survey from the consultancy Jacobs Media Strategy found that the average age of radio listeners is around 55 years old.

This bodes well for the cross-format popularity of country, which the radio industry historically views as a genre favored by more mature listeners. “Another reason country is working so well at Top 40 right now is because we’re dealing more with women 25-plus, and that’s a really good fit for that genre,” Mony says.

And “as the Top 40 format continues to age up, programmers should consider country crossovers,” adds Cat Collins, a radio consultant and former vp of Top 40 and Hot AC for Townsquare Media.

Some radio experts also believe that the pop format has strayed from its roots in the past decade-ish as a platform that elevates all the hits, regardless of their origin. “The theoretical ideal of Top 40 is to play hits from across the spectrum of music, a notion that has largely faded, as most Top 40s have been sticking to a very narrow lane,” says Larry Rosin, president of Edison Research. Recent country singles that did well on pop radio — like Dan + Shay‘s 2021 hit “10,000 Hours” and Gabby Barrett‘s 2020 smash “I Hope,” both of which cracked the top 10 — gained access in part by incorporating Top 40 mainstays (Justin Bieber and Charlie Puth, respectively). 

Top 40 stations are going through a brutal period of low ratings; could the “narrow lane” approach be adding to the format’s troubles? For Zapoleon, it’s simply a matter of numbers: Country singles accounted for more than 20% of the year-end Hot 100 in 2022, but around 1% of the year-end Mediabase Top 40 chart. “That’s a lot of country hits Top 40 isn’t playing,” he says. “Hopefully they wake up.”

SiriusXM’s Hits 1 is one of five Top 40 stations already testing “Need a Favor,” a growling, lighters-up power ball from Jelly Roll that has spent multiple weeks atop the rock radio chart and is inside the top five at country radio. “We’re not waiting for campaigns to come in our direction,” says Alex Tear, vp of music programming for SiriusXM and Pandora. Too often, “radio is late to the game.” 

His peers may be more receptive to Jelly Roll this year than in years past. “I don’t want to jinx anything, but don’t be surprised if, by the time this comes out, you see [Jelly Roll] really popping up at Top 40,” Michaels says. “It’s a wonderful feeling for us to take somebody from Music Row here and have this much reach.”

The 2023 Country Radio Hall of Fame Induction Dinner and Awards were held Monday (July 10) at the Virgin Hotel Nashville in Music City’s famed Music Row area, as music industry members gathered to celebrate the induction of six new inductees into coveted institution.
This year’s on-air inductees were Trish Biondo and “Dollar“ Bill Lawson, while the off-air honorees were Pam Green, Charlie Morgan, John Willyard and Wade Jessen.

The Country Radio Hall of Fame was founded in 1974, and fetes those who have made significant contributions to country music and the country radio industry. Among the many sterling radio executives in attendance was one of the Country Radio Hall of Fame’s founding fathers, Chuck Chellman, who recently turned 90. Chellman was honored with the CRB’s inaugural president’s award in 1998.

WSM’s Bill Cody and Country Radio Broadcaster executive director RJ Curtis led the festivities.

Barbara Mandrell was honored with the 2023 CRB artist achievement award, which was presented to her by Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. The Country Music Association’s CEO Sarah Trahern called Mandrell a “groundbreaker for our format,” noting that Mandrell became a member of the Grand Ole Opry at age 23, is a three-time CMA Awards host, and is the first artist to win the CMA’s entertainer of the year in two consecutive years, in 1980 and 1981.

Mandrell is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, singer, entertainer, dancer, actor and author. She earned six No. 1 hits on Billboard‘s Country Songs chart, including “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed” and “One of a Kind Pair of Fools.” With her sisters Louise and Irlene, Mandrell hosted the popular television series Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters from 1980-1982. Mandrell announced her retirement in 1997, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

Yearwood also performed in Mandrell’s honor, offering a rendition of Mandrell’s 1979 hit “If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don’t Want to Be Right),” which had previously been a 1972 pop and R&B hit for Luther Ingram.

The performance took a cue from Barbara Mandrell’s enduring performance of “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” at the 1981 CMA Awards, when George Jones left his seat in the audience to join Mandrell in song. During Yearwood’s performance, Brooks “spontaneously” stood up, walking through the audience and joining Yearwood onstage to finish the song.

Yearwood honored Mandrell, saying, “You are a rock star and a pioneer and a bada–, and every male and female singer that has come after you owes you a debt of gratitude.”

Mandrell took the stage, and thanked country radio for the career-shaping impact it has had on her life.

“My whole career, it’s because you made it for me,” Mandrell said. “I did a lot of other things, too, but radio, in my life, the music business comes from radio. You don’t ever forget how important you on-air radio personalities are. I know there are people like me that entertain, but there was twice in my life and career that I was invited to go on-air for an hour and play like I was a radio personality. That is the hardest thing on earth. I have such high respect for all of you, but you just went to the moon — you have to constantly think of like five or six things at one time and you have to pay attention to anything that is going on in the world… I hold you in such high esteem and for you to feel positive about what I did means the world to me. You made my career and I love you with all my heart.”

CRB/CRS board president Kurt Johnson honored Scott and Julie DeVos (of De Lux Productions) with the CRB Presidents Award. The pair have helmed the musical performances that attendees see at the annual Country Radio Seminar for over 25 years.

“It all boils down to teamwork, and nowhere is that more true than in the world of event production,” Julie said. Scott agreed, telling the audience that accolade honors everyone they have worked with over the years to bring performances to life.

“We want to create events you speak of, the ones you had to be there for,” Scott added.

The late Wade Billboard in December 1994 as a senior chart manager, overseeing Billboard’s country, Christian, gospel and bluegrass charts, and playing a key role in developing the Hot Country Songs chart, which melds airplay, sales and streaming data. Prior to his work at Billboard, Jessen held a on-air role at KSOP Salt Lake City, before taking on the role of music director at WSM-AM in Nashville, the home of the Grand Ole Opry. After joining Billboard, Jessen also continued to work as a radio personality for the SiriusXM’s classic country channel, Willie’s Roadhouse. Jessen passed away after suffering a heart attack in 2015.

Members of Jessen’s family attended the Country Radio Hall of Fame ceremony to accept the honor on his behalf.

“He had a voice that was just made for the radio,” Jessen’s niece Courtney said in recalling her uncle. “He had a sense of humor like none else. We loved to listen to him tell stories in his ‘radio voice,’” his niece, Courtney said, recalling how Jessen made time to emcee their junior prom. “On behalf of the Jessen family, we would like to thank the Country Radio Hall of Fame for bestowing such an honor on our uncle. His accomplishments and his career will now be legendary…To our uncle, we love you and we miss you.”

Jessen’s spouse, Corey Jones, said, “While it has been eight years since we lost Wade, we remember the many heartfelt condolences we received from people throughout country radio and the country music industry … Thank you again to the Country Radio Hall of Fame for ensuring that Wade will forever have a place in the history of country radio.”

Ed Salamon honored Green, who was known as one of country music’s first female music directors, and saw career acceleration during a 13-year run as music director at WHN in New York. Green also worked with Joel Raab’s consulting company and served as sr. director of artist relations at United Stations Radio Networks, continuing in that role when the company was absorbed by Westwood One.

Willyard makes history as the first Country Radio Hall of Fame inductee to be honored primarily for voice acting/imaging. He has become one of country music’s most recognizable voices, having handled the voiceover work for the Country Music Association Awards for two decades. In 1991, he caught the attention of country radio consultant Rusty Walker, who recommended Willyard to his clients for imaging voice work. Willyard’s client list grew to more than 100 country outlets in all market sizes.

Willyard thanked those who have been instrumental to his career, and succinctly summarized the mission of both country radio and voice imaging—reaching the audience. “Touching a heart is golden — something no AI can do,” he said.

Marci Brown honored Biondo, who first interned at MTM Records before joining WUSN Chicago. Biondo first began in research and promotion at the station while still in college, before taking on board operator duties and eventually adding on-air work and ascending to the music director position. As a music director, Biondo earned the Billboard MD of the year honor in 1988. Biondo spent 14 years in mornings at WUSN, before taking on the midday role in 2006.

Biondo noted how much Mandrell’s hit “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” resonated with her, and how country radio first appealed to her with its themes of family and kindness. She also stressed the importance of “soaking up every moment.”

Bob Richards and Dave Kennedy honored Morgan, who previously served as a board president for Country Radio Broadcasters and currently serves as board chairman of the Country Music Association. Morgan began his career as an on-air personality at WFMS in Indianapolis, where he rose to handle mornings and programming/operations. In 2000, he became VP/market manager for the Susquehanna cluster, which became a Cumulus property. He took on Sr. vp, market manager duties for the Emmis/Indianapolis cluster (including Hank FM) in 2009. In 2015, he added market manager duties for the Emmis New York station group. In 2019, Morgan was named as Apple Music’s Global Head of Radio and Music Programming.

Morgan shared stories from many of his career triumphs and missteps over the years, before noting, “This journey has been filled with so many stories and memories,” Morgan said.

Tom Hanrahan introduced honoree Lawson, known for his 18-year role at WZZK in Birmingham, Alabama, as well as his work in the a.m. daypart at WDXB since 2002. Lawson was previously awarded the Tom Rivers Humanitarian Award during Country Radio Seminar in 2019, for his ongoing work in support of charities including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Lawson praised country radio, country music artists and the music listeners during his Country Radio Hall of Fame acceptance speech, noting the “personal relationship between stations, artists and listeners. Your audience in country music lets you into their lives.” He also thanked the country radio industry, saying, “Thank you for a defining moment of my life.”

A new study solidifies the belief that country radio has long been reluctant to play songs from women in general — and almost never plays two women artists back-to-back.

The study, by Jan Diehm of The Pudding and Dr. Jada Watson, is titled They Won’t Play a Lady-O on Country Radio: Examining Back-to-Back Plays by Gender, Race and Sexual Orientation. It pulls from the daily logs of 29 country radio stations in large market areas, analyzing 24-hour programming in each month of 2022 to see how often listeners of those stations could expect to hear back-to-back songs by women, artists of color and LGBTQ+ artists. Among the country radio stations included in the study were KKGO (Los Angeles), WUSN (Chicago), KKBQ and KILT (Houston), WKDF (Nashville) and WMZQ (Washington, DC).

The study found that at these stations, songs from women country artists were played back-to-back an average of 0.5% of the time. In data that is consistent with SongData’s findings regarding daypart programming, the majority of these back-to-back plays (46.1%) occurred in overnights (between midnight and 6 a.m.), while 19% were played during evening hours (between 7 p.m. and midnight) — time periods with lower listenership. In the intro to the study, an anecdotal sample is given, noting that if one had tuned into a particular (unnamed) station at 8:35 a.m. on Jan. 7, 2022, it would have taken over nine hours before hearing two consecutive songs from female artists.

“If you listen to this station non-stop from midnight to 11:59 p.m. today, you’d likely only hear three back-to-back songs by women, compared to 245 from men,” the report states.

“We’ve heard for many years that songs by women should not be programmed back-to-back — as we say in the study, it’s been part of industry rhetoric since at least the 1960s and was even written into programming manuals,” Watson tells Billboard via email. “But it’s one of those issues that is spoken about anecdotally and now we have this study to show not just that it’s true, but just how bleak it is for women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ artists at radio.”

The new report builds upon Watson’s earlier work, including her March 2021 study, Redlining in Country Music: Representation in the Country Music Industry (2000-2020), and an updated version released earlier this year.

“As a listener, it’s pretty easy to pick up on the bias in country radio when you can spend 20 minutes in your car and go without hearing a single song by a woman, let alone back-to-back songs by women,” Diehm tells Billboard via email. “So, I was expecting the worst, but it was so much worse than that. My hometown station is San Antonio (KCYY-FM), the station we used in the intro of the piece — [and] you know it’s bad when you start to think of a station that plays women back-to-back at 0.99% as one of the ‘better’ stations.”

Diehm added that while compiling the study, she and Watson brought in statistics professor Sara Stoudt, who ran 1,000 “coin-flip” simulations for each of the stations represented. “Even when accounting for the already low rate of plays for women, 17 of the 29 stations played fewer women’s songs back-to-back than you would expect them to if the plays were left up to chance,” she continues. “Not that I needed convincing, but it proved even further that these were absolutely programming decisions and not something that stations could talk themselves out of. That one-two punch of qualitative stories and quantitative data might just help move the needle.”

Moreover, the majority of songs from women that are played back-to-back are not current singles. “Gold catalog” songs (songs that are several years old) make up 36.2% of the back-to-back songs played by women, while recurrents (songs that have reached their peak on the station’s playlist but are still part of the station’s programming) account for 43.7%. Meanwhile, current singles from women artists accounted for just 20.1% of the small percentage of back-to-back airplay for songs performed by women.

The impact of current music from women being absent from country radio creates a harmful spiral that impacts other areas of women artists’ careers. It leads to fewer women signing to record labels, fewer women earning performance opportunities on major tours, festivals and awards ceremony slots and fewer women receiving awards nominations, the study asserts.

“It creates a culture where women are competing only against other women for an already teeny tiny amount of slots,” Diehm says. “Playing only ‘gold songs’ by women artists also means that you’re freezing them in time, not allowing them to grow or evolve, because heaven forbid we let a woman gain or hold power.”

Songs by women of color and LGBTQ+ artists were played even less on country radio — earning less than 1% of airplay last year. Songs by female artists overall earned 11% of last year’s airplay, with 10.97% of that low percentage of airplay going to white women and only 0.03% to Black and biracial women. The study further notes that only six solo Black women and one group of Black women have ranked on country radio charts since 1958. Meanwhile, LGBTQIA+ artists received just 0.13% of airplay in 2022.

“The bar for entry is high for new women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ artists. And then we’re left with this practice in which radio supports one woman at a time — and that duration for which white women are supported is becoming shorter,” Watson says. She adds that from roughly 2005 to 2014, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift received “sustained” support from radio and were responsible for a whopping 83% of the No. 1 songs by women during that period — and 55% of No. 1 songs by women over the last two decades in total.

While the above women artists still receive airplay (and Swift has transitioned to pop), Watson notes that since 2015, newer women artists like Kelsea Ballerini, Maren Morris, Carly Pearce and Lainey Wilson have received only “short periods of support,” adding that “the industry only lets one succeed at a time…This is a culture that limits space for white women and then tosses out their music once it’s peaked on the charts. They don’t even open the door to BIPOC women and LGBTQ+ artists.”

The report also offers historical insight, showing how female representation on country radio (specifically cataloged by Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart) rose from 6.5% in 1958 to a peak of 33.1% in 1999 (a time when the chart was based only on radio airplay). But in the decades that followed, charting songs by women artists plummeted to a low of 11.4% in 2015 (the same year that radio consultant Keith Hill made his now-infamous comments that compared female artists to the “tomatoes” in a male-dominated “salad”). The study notes that over the past seven years, the percentage of charting songs by female artists has averaged just 15%.

Though the Hot Country Songs chart now incorporates data beyond just radio airplay, the study shows that the numbers from the early 2000s correlate to Mediabase airplay data, which was used to calculate back-to-back rates of airplay in the study.

Going forward, Watson plans to continue studying the country radio format but is also interested in “thinking more broadly about the distribution ecosystem and exploring user engagement with Spotify’s recommender system.” She has also embarked on studying the Triple A format, which she notes has “a much different strategy for programming and is a format that has been a major launching pad for new artists of all genres.”

“Country music may be the closest to my heart,” Watson adds, “but examining representation in radio programming and charts of other formats is really important for understanding how these genre systems developed over time and work together within the larger industry ecosystem. Country isn’t the only format with these forms of inequity.”

Billboard has reached out for comment to a number of radio chains with country stations and will update the story as they respond.

Both country labels and broadcasters want to speed the advance of singles on the Country Airplay chart, though figuring out how to do that is a slow process.

A volunteer panel, spurred by a 2022 Country Radio Seminar session, reported on its progress during an April 20 CRS 360 webinar, concluding that stations need to generate 150 spins on most singles to gain reliable research about the song’s connectivity. Stations that limit a new single to overnights and play it only six times a week require 25 weeks to hit that plateau, one of several factors that slow the hit-development process.

Songs ranked No. 11-20 on the chart have the toughest time advancing, according to the panel’s research, in part because of the plethora of approaches by programmers. Reporting stations that commit early to a new single are sometimes ready to move on from particular titles just as slower-evolving stations are beginning to boost rotations. 

One partial suggestion, sure to meet pushback, was to use a smaller playlist, expose new singles more quickly in daytime rotations and make a decision at that 150-spin mark. 

The issue is more intense in country than any other format, in part because artists and their representatives have a stronger personal relationship with broadcasters and are more invested in succeeding on that platform — and in controlling the outcome.

“It’s the only format I’ve ever been in,” said McVay Media president Mike McVay, “where people call and yell at me for playing a song or beg me not to drop a song.”

Subscribe to Billboard Country Update, the industry’s must-have source for news, charts, analysis and features. Sign up for free delivery every weekend. 

Wade Jessen, an exacting and encyclopedic country music figure who oversaw the Billboard country charts for two decades, was announced March 13 as a 2023 inductee into the Country Radio Hall of Fame.
Jessen joined Billboard in December 1994, handling the genre’s charts during a difficult period of transition for the industry in which the introduction of streaming technology changed the way consumers experienced music. His work with Billboard included oversight of the Christian, gospel and bluegrass charts, and he played a role in the development of the groundbreaking Hot Country Songs chart — which blends airplay, sales and streaming data — reflecting significant changes in consumer behavior in 2012. Jessen died shortly after his 20th anniversary with the company, suffering a heart attack on March 5, 2015, less than a week after that year’s Country Radio Seminar concluded.

The Billboard charts job was the final entry on Jessen’s résumé, though it was hardly the only significant span in his work history. He held an on-air role in two different stints at KSOP Salt Lake City before taking the music director position at historic WSM-AM Nashville, the home of the Grand Ole Opry, in 1987. Even after he shifted to the chart position, Jessen continued to keep his radio voice in working condition, imparting his knowledge on SiriusXM’s classic country channel, Willie’s Roadhouse.

Jessen was one of six new members announced on the first day of this year’s Country Radio Seminar by Kelsea Ballerini along with the Hall of Fame’s co-chairs, consultant Joel Raab and Audacy/Detroit vp of programming Tim Roberts.

Joining Jessen as off-air inductees are Pam Green, Charlie Morgan and John Willyard. Newly announced on-air members are Trish Biondo and Dollar Bill Lawson.

Green came to prominence during a 13-year run as music director at WHN New York, a station that was among the genre’s first to employ research to connect with the nation’s most diverse local audience. She held a position with Raab’s consultancy and served as United Stations Radio Networks senior director of artist relations, continuing in the post after the company was absorbed by Westwood One. Along the way, she became one of country’s first female music directors.

Clockwise from top left: Trish Biondo, John Willyard, Charlie Morgan, Pam Green and Dollar Bill Lawson.

Courtesy of CRS

Morgan has a lengthy history with Country Radio Broadcasters, where he served as board president. He is the current board chairman for the Country Music Association. Morgan’s tenure was spent primarily in Indianapolis, where he worked on-air at WFMS, rising to program director for the station and country sister WGRL, en route to becoming vp/market manager for the Susquehanna cluster, now part of the Cumulus chain. Morgan shifted to rival Emmis/Indianapolis, including country WHLK, in 2009, adding stints at Emmis/New York and Apple Music, where he is global head of radio and music programming.

Willyard sets a precedent as the first inductee recognized primarily for voice acting and imaging. Boosted by 2012 Hall of Fame inductee Rusty Walker, Willyard became the central voice for more than 100 country stations, maintaining a similarly sized client list for more than 30 years. He has also handled the voiceover work for the Country Music Association Awards for two decades.

Biondo built her Hall of Fame credentials primarily at WUSN Chicago, beginning in research and promotion during college, segueing to board operator and eventually handling the microphone and the music director position. She spent 14 years in mornings before taking on the midday role. She also spent an early portion of her career in Nashville as an intern at MTM Records.

Lawson received the Tom Rivers Humanitarian Award during the opening-day ceremonies at CRS 2019 and returned to the winners circle this year for his work on-air in Birmingham, Ala. He spent 18 years at WZZK, with a decade in the a.m. daypart, and has held the same morning-drive role at WDXB since 2002.

This year’s class will be officially inducted during a dinner ceremony at the Virgin Hotel Nashville on July 10.

Country Music Hall of Fame member Alan Jackson has earned 26 No. 1 hits on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart hits since releasing his debut single, “Blue Blooded Woman,” in 1989. But the Georgia native says he initially didn’t think one of his signature songs, 1993’s “Chattahoochee,” would become a hit.

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Jackson and fellow songwriter Jim McBride crafted the uptempo song, which centers on two teens falling in love on the banks of northern Georgia’s Chattahoochee River.

Jackson recently appeared on his daughter Mattie Jackson’s In Joy Life podcast, where he explained, “A lot of my songs I write out of my life are true experiences, but at the same time they relate to other people. … When we cut that, it was a fun, uptempo thing about coming [of] age. I thought, ‘Well yeah, it’s a fun song and I like it, and people in Georgia are gonna like it. Nobody in the rest of the country, the rest of the world, don’t know what it is or care about it.’”

Jackson was wrong.

“Chattahoochee” was included on Jackson’s album A Lot About Livin’ (And a Little ‘Bout Love). The song not only became a four-week No. 1 Country Airplay hit, but also went on to win the CMA Awards for single of the year and song of the year. Now, 30 years after its initial release, the song is a stone-cold ’90s country classic and has been a mainstay in Jackson’s concerts for the past three decades.

“I learned right quick that everybody has a Chattahoochee,” Jackson said on the podcast. “It might be called something else, or might not even be a river at all, but the story was something people could relate to in their life, wherever they were from. So you just never know.”

Jackson also hinted that there could be new music on the way, following his 2021 album Where Have You Gone.

“Well, yes. I would hope so,” Jackson said. “I mean, I may not have toured much, but like I said, the creative part jumps out every now and then. I’m always scribbling down ideas and thinking about melodies, and I feel like there’ll be some more music to come, yes.”

Jackson said he finds songwriting “more fulfilling than anything,” adding that songwriting has helped invigorate his overall artistry and touring through the years.

“It’s like, you can be a singer and go out and tour, but it’s kind of like you’re just doing the same thing over and over,” he said. “When you make an album, or especially when you write a lot of the songs, that’s creating something. It’s a challenge, so it keeps you interested a little more. If I didn’t write, I think I would’ve gotten bored just singing a long time ago.”

In 1989, country radio — and the genre in general — experienced a seismic shift when Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt and Clint Black all released their debut albums in the same year.
Referred to collectively and reverentially as “The Class of ’89,” the movement brought a sea change to country music, ushering in an era of unprecedented growth and popularity.

Now a new crop of male artists is taking the charts by storm, leading industry executives to believe another watershed moment could be happening at country.

In a rare move, six artists all have their first singles sent to country radio in the top 35 of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart dated Dec. 3: Jackson Dean, “Don’t Come Lookin’” (No. 3), Bailey Zimmerman, “Fall in Love” (5), Jelly Roll, “Son of a Sinner” (8), Nate Smith, “Whiskey on You” (12), Corey Kent, “Wild as Her” (26) and Zach Bryan, “Something in the Orange” (33).

“It’s a paradigm shift we see in the format every now and then when there’s a crop of new artists that come in, push their way onto the chart and you can’t ignore it anymore,” says Tim Roberts, country format vp/brand manager for the Audacy radio chain.

“It feels unprecedented,” says Sony Music Nashville chairman/CEO Randy Goodman, whose roster includes Smith and Kent.

Preceded by acts like HARDY, who straddles country and rock, these artists are not only storming the airwaves, they’re setting records. Two years ago Zimmerman was building gas pipelines and posting original songs to social media. Shortly thereafter, Elektra’s senior vp of A&R/head of research and analytics Jacob Fain noticed “a quick moment” was happening on TikTok and helped sign him. In September, the 22-year old made history on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart when he became the first act to place three career-opening entries in the tally’s top 10 simultaneously since October 1958, when it became an all-encompassing genre ranking. (The chart now measures streaming, airplay and sales.)

A decade after bro-country hit radio airwaves, the new era of ronky tonk feels more like woe-country — that feel-good sound’s antithesis. Instead of uptempo beats and lyrics about a care-free lifestyle filled with girls, trucks and beer, these songs often display a rawer rock production with a brooding vocal delivery. Alcohol is used to drown one’s sorrows rather than for celebration. Troubles, they’ve got them — often with a side of heartache and a past they can’t escape.

“Nate’s very open with his lyrics about heartbreak and Bailey’s just 22, but he’s got his heart broken many times and both guys and girls are really connecting to the lyrics and music,” says Simon Tikhman, CEO and co-founder at Core Entertainment, who co-manages Smith with Kevin “Chief” Zaruk. The pair also co-manage Zimmerman with 10th Street Entertainment’s Chris Nilsson and Scott Frazier.

Warner Music Nashville co-president Cris Lacy, who works with Zimmerman (in partnership with Elektra) and Bryan (who’s signed to Warner Records with assistance from WMN) credits the acts’ authenticity for their success. “A lot of artists that come to town work into a system full of brilliant songwriters, musicians and artists, and it’s intimidating. Sometimes you shrink before you expand,” she says. “They came to town with the stories that built them – Zach with his military career and Bailey working on pipelines – and put the music out. It really wasn’t subject to any scrutiny or any rewriting or any trying to make it fit in a box.”

They also bring with them an edge that provides a counterpoint to the pop-leaning sound that has filled country radio recently. “It’s not that people don’t like pop country,” Roberts says, “but the format always needs balance. I think it’s a correction that we’re seeing and the audience is eating it up.”

“Country had started to feel very safe, not dangerous,” says Zaruk. “Now you’re seeing [rock] influences come in that you normally wouldn’t see. It’s not the typical dirt roads and tailgates.”

Some of the acts are experiencing crossover success on the rock charts as well. Jelly Roll’s “Son of a Sinner” peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart, while his “Dead Man Walking” reached No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Airplay. Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” climbed to No. 2 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. (HARDY’s “Sold Out” topped Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart in March, the same week “Beers On Me, his team-up with Dierks Bentley and Breland, was No. 4 on Country Airplay before ascending to the top spot).

Industry executives cite other reasons for the flurry of activity, including audiences opening their ears to new sounds following the pandemic. “Every research piece I saw during the pandemic said people don’t want to hear new music right now. They had other crap to worry about, like getting groceries and finding toilet paper,” Roberts says. “We’re in an era that’s post-pandemic, and people are feeling better from an emotional and mental standpoint and now do have an appetite for new music. And I think radio is smart enough to see it.”

Country radio, which tends to move conservatively, is also smart enough to see that some of these acts are earning massive streaming numbers and stations risk hesitating at their own peril. The country genre has been slower than pop and hip hop to adapt to streaming, but the numbers are steadily increasing. In his short career, Bryan has already earned 2.45 billion on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate, compared to 13.4 billion career streams for Luke Combs.

“Where I was really seeing it was on the country on-demand streaming chart,” Goodman says. “Just looking at the number of new entries there has been quite astonishing.”

RADIO PICKING UP THE PACE

Terrestrial radio, once the entry point for listeners to hear new music, now often follows streaming when it comes to musical discovery — building off momentum established first on Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok and other platforms. But Big Machine Label Group bucked current practice and went straight to radio with Dean’s “Don’t Come Lookin’” instead of waiting for other indicators to show the song was growing.

“When I hear that radio is a great finisher, there is a small part of me that gets offended, because it historically has been such a massive medium of exposure,” says Kris Lamb, Big Machine’s senior vp of promotion and digital. “Jackson crushes it live with acoustic shows. We could very economically take him to every tastemaker that would open their doors, so we thought, ‘Let’s let radio lead on this,’ and we started our radio tour at the beginning of the year.”

The results are a hit at radio concurrent with building streaming success. “Ever since the record has been inside the top 10 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, it’s taken on a new life of its own when it comes to on-demand streams, sales and consumption. I really do think it’s an incredible case study of how radio can lead the charge and break an artist,” Lamb says.

“Country radio is stepping out [and] taking risks on these artists,” Lacy says. “It used to be radio would ask us when we wanted to release [a song]. Now, they’re picking up the song and playing it, whether we are planning on releasing it or not. In Zach’s case we weren’t working [“Something in the Orange”] at all.” 

Similarly, Zimmerman went to country radio very early after being signed. “It was a risk, but we felt that this record was strong enough and the story was building so quickly, that we wanted to get the shot,” Fain says. “Bailey and some of the country records are moving so quickly almost like what you would expect out of a coastal signing. The genre is changing and evolving.”

Country radio is the last format where labels build new artists by sending them on expensive radio tours around the country to introduce them in person at various stations. (This step is considered so crucial that during the pandemic, BMG funded a high-tech studio that enabled new artist Elvie Shane to perform virtually for more than 120 individual stations in order to facilitate the one-on-one interaction with studio personnel). 

Not everyone’s taking the radio tour route though, and some of these acts — including Zimmerman and Smith — are letting metrics trump tradition because fans are reacting so strongly. “For the longest time, it was like, ‘You’ve got to go do the 20-week country radio tour [and] play for the programmers to build relationships,’” says Zaruk. “With analytics, it’s no longer, ‘Can you give us two spins at midnight?’ That’s old school. Now you go, ‘Hey, this song is streaming 5 million streams a week. Here’s 14 markets on DSPs where there’s 15,000 people a day listening to the song.’ You fire that info to radio and they’re like, ‘We have to play this song.’”

With Smith, Sony Nashville built a story by sending two other tracks to digital service providers (DSPs) before taking “Whiskey on You” to radio. “We said, ‘Look, this thing is exploding,’” Goodman says. “‘Put it in day parts and give it a shot and if it doesn’t work, we’ll move on because we’re seeing the consumption blow up and we’re making money.’”

Similarly with Sony’s Kent, radio stations moved quickly after they saw action on DSPs and SiriusXM’s The Highway with terrestrial stations in major markets like Los Angeles, Denver and Dallas leading the way. “Those are three of the five biggest stations. [They] typically aren’t going to jump on anything, until there’s a fully-orchestrated radio promotion campaign from a major label,” says Kent’s manager, Triple 8 Management founder George Couri. But bolstered by the fan response, the stations didn’t wait.

“When the music is this good and your audience wants it, you have to react to it,” Roberts says.

 It is early days and way too soon to tell which, if any, of today’s breakthrough artists become tomorrow’s superstars. “Staying power is always the test of time,” Roberts says, “but these people all seem very talented and capable of producing a lot more music.”

In the meantime, Cumulus Media vp of country Charlie Cook says this bumper crop of newcomers are taking advantage of the opportunities and resources that the class of 1989 lacked.

“They have an additional avenue that the class of ’89 didn’t have, and that’s going directly to the consumer. The people in ’89 had to go through radio,” he says. “We get accused of being gatekeepers sometimes. I think in this case, the gatekeepers have said, ‘Come on in, let me open this gate wider for you, and make sure that we give you space to grow the brand that you’ve already developed.’”