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The iHeartCountry Festival Presented by Capital One is returning to Austin, Texas on May 4, featuring performances from Jason Aldean, Jelly Roll, Old Dominion, Lady A, Riley Green, Ashley McBryde, Brothers Osborne and Walker Hayes.
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The festival, hosted by iHeartMedia nationally syndicated on-air personality Bobby Bones, will once again be held at Austin’s Moody Center. Meanwhile, iHeartMedia’s country music stations will broadcast the event live in their local markets and on iheartradio.com on May 4 starting at 8 p.m. ET.
Reigning CMA new artist of the year Jelly Roll notched three Country Airplay No. 1 hits in 2023, and is currently nominated for two Grammys ahead of this year’s ceremony. Old Dominion just announced the upcoming opening of their bar Odie’s in Nashville, while Jason Aldean earned his first Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper in 2023 with the controversial “Try That in a Small Town.” Brothers Osborne, McBryde and Green each released new projects in 2023, while McBryde also earned the Groundbreaker award at Billboard’s Country Live conference. Hayes recently gave his 2021 smash hit “Fancy Like” a holiday remake with “Fancy Like Christmas.”
“We are so excited to bring the iHeartCountry Festival to country music fans again this year at Moody Center in Austin,” Rod Phillips, executive vp of programming for iHeartCountry said in a statement. “It’s always exciting to watch fans experience performances by so many of the top artists in our format, all on one big iHeart stage.”
“We are thrilled to offer our cardholders unique access to experience country music’s top talent at this year’s iHeartCountry Festival,” added Byron Daub, vp of sponsorships and experiential marketing at Capital One. “Country music is a big passion for our cardholders, so we are excited to offer an exclusive presale and special pre-event performance by Old Dominion.”
Tickets for the event go on sale to the general public on Jan. 26 starting at 1 p.m. ET here. Eligible Capital One Cardholders get exclusive access to presale tickets before the general public beginning Jan. 23 at 11 a.m. ET through Jan. 25 at 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT (10 a.m. CT). Additionally, Capital One Cardholders can add a Capital One Access Pass to their purchase to enjoy an intimate cardholder pre-event at iHeartCountry Festival featuring a special performance by Old Dominion, complimentary light fare and beverage, and more. Supplies are limited. Eligible cardholders can also redeem rewards for exclusive ticket packages on Capital One Entertainment.
Annie Nightingale, the pioneering BBC Radio 1 DJ, has died at 83. A statement shared Friday (Jan. 12) and attributed to her family says she “passed away yesterday at her home in London after a short illness.”
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Nightingale was the first female DJ on BBC Radio 1, where she started in 1970, ultimately becoming the station’s longest serving DJ. In 2010, Nightingale entered the Guinness Book of Records as the longest serving female radio presenter, a record she still holds. Her last broadcast was in late December 2023.
“Annie was a pioneer, trailblazer and an inspiration to many,” her family’s statement continues. “Her impulse to share that enthusiasm with audiences remained undimmed after six decades of broadcasting on BBC TV and radio globally.”
“Never underestimate the role model she became,” the statement went on. “Breaking down doors by refusing to bow down to sexual prejudice and male fear gave encouragement to generations of young women who, like Annie, only wanted to tell you about an amazing tune they had just heard. Watching Annie do this on television in the 1970s, most famously as a presenter on the BBC music show The Old Grey Whistle Test, or hearing her play the latest breakbeat techno on Radio One is testimony to someone who never stopped believing in the magic of rock n’ roll.”
BBC Radio 1 also reflected on Nightingale’s career and her impact. “Annie was a world class DJ, broadcaster and journalist, and throughout her entire career was a champion of new music and new artists,” Aled Haydn Jones, Head of BBC Radio 1, said in a statement posted to BBC Radio 1’s Instagram account. “She was the first female DJ on Radio 1 and over her 50 years on the station was a pioneer for women in the industry and in dance music. We have lost a broadcasting legend and, thanks to Annie, things will never be the same.”
Born near London in 1940, Nightingale began her career as a journalist and television presenter, later launching a line of clothing shops. She first came on the BBC Radio 1 airwaves in February 1970.
Nightingale is being widely celebrated, with BBC Radio 1’s other famous Annie, Annie Mac, writing on Instagram, “What a devastating loss. Annie Nightingale was a trailblazer, spirited, adventurous, fearless, hilarious, smart, and so good at her job. This is the woman who changed the face and sound of British TV and Radio broadcasting forever. You can’t underestimate it.”
Radio 1’s Pete Tong also commemorated Nightingale, recalling that “Annie was a pioneer, a trailblazer and a role model, who possessed a relentless passion to discover and champion new & groundbreaking music. During her career Annie championed everything from prog rock and punk to acid house, techno, big beat, breakbeat, dubstep and grime.
“Annie’s always been a massive inspiration for me in the sense that she carved out the path at Radio 1,” Tong continued, “proving you could have a career in radio by just staying in your lane and specializing in championing new and exciting artists. Play what you love. She wrote the book on what music radio could be.”
Selena Gomez can’t get enough Ariana Grande. While serving as a guest DJ on SiriusXM Hits 1 Wednesday (Jan. 10), the Rare Beauty founder gushed about her love for her fellow pop star’s empowering anthems.
“Here’s another song I love, Ariana Grande,” said Gomez on the show, just before queuing up the Wicked star’s 2019 smash “7 Rings.” “I cannot do anything fun without listening to Ariana.”
“I feel so empowered and I think she is incredible, and I just have so much fun,” added the Only Murders in the Building actress. “I’m the girl that’s playing Ariana all the time, and I think people kind of notice that, but I love it! I think she’s amazing.”
Two days after Gomez’s on-air shoutout, Grande released her comeback single “Yes, And?” alongside a choreography-filled music video. The “Calm Down” singer was one of countless fans to show her excitement when the Victorious alum first teased her upcoming seventh album on Instagram in December, officially kicking off her return to music after a yearslong hiatus. (Grande’s last album, Positions, came out in 2020.)
“FINALLY,” Gomez commented in all caps under an Instagram post from Grande of pictures and videos from the studio.
Meanwhile, Gomez is also gearing up to release her next album, which she’s been teasing for more than a year. Like Grande, the Emmy nominee hasn’t dropped an LP since 2020, with Rare debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in January that year.
In September, Gomez released what’s expected to serve as her upcoming album’s lead single, “Single Soon.” The track was produced by the star’s now boyfriend, Benny Blanco, and reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Whenever it arrives, however, Gomez’s next record might be her last. “The older I get, the more I’m kind of like, I would like to find something [besides music] to just settle on,” she said in a recent interview. “I do feel like I have one more album in me, but I would probably choose acting.”
“I wanted to be an actress, I never really intended on being a singer full-time, but apparently, that hobby turned into something else,” she added at the time.
Tyler Childers just notched his first top 50 country radio hit with “In Your Love,” which peaks at No. 50 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay this week — and his longtime supporter, fellow singer/songwriter and “I Remember Everything” hitmaker Zach Bryan, offered up some thoughts on the milestone.
Bryan expressed his frustration that Childers is just now, after releasing music for more than a decade and becoming one of Americana music’s biggest artists, seeing a song break through on mainstream country radio.
On X (formerly Twitter), Bryan wrote, “‘First Ever’ is f—n insane, one of the best songwriters to ever do it.”
As several of Bryan’s fans chimed in to agree, Bryan added another statement, this time taking a shot at radio and mentioning a smash hit from singer/songwriter Walker Hayes.
“Imagine being radio (whoever the hell that is), hearing [Childers’] ‘Shake the Frost’ and being like, ‘no no let’s go with the Applebees song,’” Bryan wrote, referencing a line in Hayes’ TikTok-dance-fueled hit “Fancy Like,” which reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2021 and stayed atop the Hot Country Songs chart for 24 weeks.
Imagine being radio (whoever the hell that is), hearing Shake the Frost and being like ‘no no let’s go with the Applebees song’ https://t.co/8ZWuBXoBYM— Zach Bryan (@zachlanebryan) January 9, 2024
“In Your Love” is from Childers’ sixth studio album Rustin’ in the Rain, which reached No. 4 on Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart and No. 10 on the all-genre Billboard 200 last year. “In Your Love” also peaked at No. 43 on the Hot 100 in December. The song is at No. 7 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart, where Childers previously had a top 40 hit with “House Fire” and saw his song “All Your’n” reach No. 16. “All Your’n” also reached No. 46 on the Hot Country Songs chart, which incorporates streaming data.
Since Childers released his debut album, Bottles and Bibles, in 2011, he’s earned an RIAA Platinum album with 2017’s Purgatory, along with two Gold albums (2019’s Country Squire and 2018’s Live on Red Barn Radio I & II) and steadily ascended to headliner status. In 2020, Childers earned the Americana Music Honor for emerging artist of the year. This year, Childers is nominated for multiple Grammys, including “In Your Love” being up for best country song, best country solo performance and best music video.
Bryan later clarified his statement after one X commenter criticized his mention of Hayes.
“not insulting anyone! Meant it with humor not malice, different strokes different folks was just bent about the first ever on mainstream radio thing my bad,” Bryan wrote.
not insulting anyone! Meant it with humor not malice, different strokes different folks was just bent about the first ever on mainstream radio thing my bad https://t.co/3LbcCSuHAr— Zach Bryan (@zachlanebryan) January 9, 2024
This year, Bryan has had his own smash hit, “I Remember Everything,” his collaboration with Kacey Musgraves. The song debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100, has topped the Hot Country Songs chart for the past 15 weeks, and is currently at No. 28 on Country Airplay.
Bryan and Childers have been chief among several more Americana, acoustic and/or roots-oriented artists, such as Dylan Gossett, Charles Wesley Godwin and Wyatt Flores, who have seen various successes on the charts and performance fronts over the past year or so, including leading a plethora of new festivals.
Radio company Audacy has reached a deal with a supermajority of lenders for a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy deal that will reduce its debt from $1.9 billion to $350 million, the company announced Sunday (Jan. 7). The agreement, first disclosed last week by The Wall Street Journal, will give Audacy’s debt holders equity in the reorganized company.
Chapter 11 proceedings began on Sunday in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Audacy filed a proposed plan of reorganization that incorporates the terms of the agreement with lenders. The company expects the court to hold a confirmation hearing in February and to exit bankruptcy proceedings once it receives FCC approval.
Some of Audacy’s lenders have committed to providing $57 million in debtor-in-possession financing — $32 million from a term loan and $25 million from an increase in an existing accounts receivable financing facility. The financing, along with the company’s cash from operations, will help Audacy maintain its operations and pay its employees, vendors and partners.
Once the plan is approved by the court, the terms of the current board of directors will expire and a new board of directors will be assigned. The plan of reorganization calls for the new board of directors to adopt a management incentive plan to reward employees and directors of the reorganized company. The plan will set aside 10% of new common stock for stock options, restricted stock, appreciation rights and other equity-based awards.
A 2017 merger with CBS Radio helped Audacy — then named Entercom — expand its business but also increased its debt load. The interest payments would have been more manageable in a growing business, but “the perfect storm of sustained macroeconomic challenges over the past four years facing the traditional advertising market has led to a sharp reduction of several billion dollars in cumulative radio ad spending,” David J. Field, Audacy chairman/president/CEO, said in a statement. “These market factors have severely impacted our financial condition and necessitated our balance sheet restructuring.”
The Philadelphia-based company’s portfolio of about 230 radio stations includes WCBS in New York, KROQ in Los Angeles, WFAN Sports Radio in New York and WBBM Newsradio in Chicago. Audacy’s podcasting brands include two studios, Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Studios, and Popcorn, an online marketplace for connecting creators and brands.
Sunday’s announcement eliminated nearly half of Audacy’s remaining equity value as the company’s share price fell 47.1% to $0.1058 on Monday. Audacy has traded over the counter since it was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in May. A 30-for-1 reverse stock split increased the share price from $0.07 to $2.13 on June 30, but the stock lost nearly all its value over the next six months as financial problems mounted.
Audacy is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after reaching an agreement with its lenders, according to a report at the Wall Street Journal. The prepackaged bankrupcy would be financed by the lenders, who would take ownership of the radio company following the restructuring, the report said.
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An Audacy spokesperson had no comment when contacted by Billboard.
Audacy, formerly named Entercom, is saddled by $2 billion in debt acquired primarily from its 2017 merger with CBS Radio. That deal expanded Audacy’s revenue but also increased its debt nearly fourfold from $468 million at the end of 2016 to $1.86 billion at the end of 2017.
The Philadelphia-based company’s portfolio of about 230 radio stations includes WCBS in New York, KROQ in Los Angeles, WFAN Sports Radio in New York and WBBM Newsradio in Chicago. Audacy’s podcasting brands include two studios, Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Studios, and Popcorn, an online marketplace for connecting creators and brands.
The company sounded alarm bells in May when it warned that a weak financial outlook could cause it to default on its debt. In an SEC filing, the company said “macroeconomic conditions” such as rising interest rates and depressed advertising revenue “have created, and may continue to create, significant uncertainty in operations.” As a result, its forecasted revenue was “unlikely to be sufficient” to maintain its debt covenants.
Third-quarter revenue of $299.2 million was down 5.6% year over year and in early November its fourth-quarter revenue was on pace to decline 9% from the prior-year period. Noting the company’s “current challenges,” CEO David J. Field said Audacy was in conversation with its lenders to recapitalize its balance sheet.
In recent months, Audacy has reached agreements with a number of lenders to extend the grace periods for interest payments from a credit facility and outstanding notes.
Audacy was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange the May for violating the exchange’s rules on minimum share price. It has since traded over the counter. Although a 30-for-1 reverse stock split increased the share price from $0.07 to $2.13 on June 30, the stock lost nearly all its value over the next six months.
On Wednesday, Audacy shares closed at $0.1896 per share, giving the company a market capitalization of less than $900,000.
Ruth Seymour, the hard-driving broadcast pioneer who transformed KCRW into a public radio powerhouse during her 32-year run at what was a sleepy Santa Monica-based station, died Friday. She was 88.
Seymour died after a long illness at her home in Santa Monica, former KCRW producer/publicity director Sarah Spitz announced.
The Bronx-born Seymour joined the FM station in 1977 as a consultant and became general manager a few months later. Her mission statement for KCRW was “to matter,” and she built it to be “singular, idiosyncratic, daring, independent, smart and compelling” — six words she employed over and over in her fundraising letters and on-air subscription drives.
During her tenure, KCRW became the West Coast flagship station for National Public Radio and launched a mix of news, talk, music, current affairs and cultural programming that included the signature music show Morning Becomes Eclectic; Which Way L.A.?, hosted by Warren Olney in the wake of the 1992 L.A. riots; Le Show, hosted by Harry Shearer; the political roundtable Left, Right and Center; To the Point; and The Politics of Culture.
“I believe we catch a lot of listeners by surprise,” she told the Los Angeles Times in a 1982 interview. “They tune in for one thing, just leave the radio on, and then find themselves wrapped up in something they didn’t expect.”
Through the internet and popular podcasts like The Business, hosted since 2009 by The Hollywood Reporter’s Kim Masters, KCRW gained a strong national profile and reputation before she retired in February 2010 and was succeeded by her onetime assistant, Jennifer Ferro, now station president.
“Ruth was singular in every way. She had a powerful vision that never wavered. There was a spirit in Ruth that no one else has,” Ferro said in a statement. “She didn’t just save NPR or create a new format — Ruth took chances and made decisions because she knew they were right. She trusted her gut. She broke rules and pursued excellence in ways that can’t easily be explained. She was a force of nature.
“Ruth’s legacy lives on at KCRW. She inspires us to be original, to host the smartest people, the most creative artists and to talk to our audience with the utmost respect for their intellect.”
The older of two sisters, Ruth Epstein grew up across the street from the Bronx Zoo. Her father was a furrier and her mother a garment worker, and the family didn’t have a telephone until she was 15.
She attended Sholem Aleichem Folk School in addition to public school and then City College of New York, where she studied one-on-one with the renowned Yiddish linguist Max Weinreich.
Seymour came to Los Angeles in 1961 to accompany her husband, the poet Jack Hirschman, who had landed a teaching job at UCLA after a stint at Dartmouth University, and she was hired as the drama and literary critic at the FM station KPFK. There, she interviewed the likes of Andy Warhol and Anne Sexton.
After freelancing in Europe for station parent Pacifica Radio, she returned to KPFK to serve as program director in 1971, and she produced a celebrity cast reading of selected scenes from the Watergate tapes with Shearer, Rob Reiner and, as President Nixon, Christopher Guest.
However, she was fired in 1976, a couple of years after the FBI had raided the station looking for a cassette from Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army that KPFK had put on the air.
When Seymour arrived at KCRW, it was owned by the Santa Monica School District, had just five employees and was operating out of two converted classrooms on a playground at John Adams Junior High School.
Seymour replaced the oldest transmitter west of the Mississippi with a new one in 1979. Also that year, she ran NPR’s new two-hour Morning Edition program three times each weekday starting at 3 a.m. in a bid to outmaneuver L.A.’s then-leading public station, KUSC. “That way nobody was going to have [the programs] when I didn’t have them,” she said.
She let Shearer do pretty much anything he wanted on his weekly one-hour program.
“Ruth was a towering figure in public radio, embracing a breadth of subject matter and styles that, frankly, does not seem possible anymore,” he said in a statement. “She imagined a listener who was endlessly curious, open to a wide range of opinions and music, and worked tirelessly to satisfy that listener. There will not be one like her again.”
Said Seymour in 1987: “Our audience always understood what we were trying to do. From the very beginning, we were regarded as slightly demented. Not exactly irresponsible but adventurous, interesting. And idealistic.”
She would get the station a new home in the basement of the student activities building at Santa Monica College, which licenses KCRW, in 1984. She also advocated for passage of a 2008 municipal bond that built the station’s first stand-alone building, now located on the campus of SMC’s Center for Media and Design.
In 1996, Seymour made KCRW the first station to carry Ira Glass’ This American Life outside of its home base, Chicago’s WBEZ. She also did interviews, including one with poet Allen Ginsberg in 1985.
“My favorite mental image of Ruth was during the first war in Iraq,” NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg recalled. “She put on a radiothon to raise money to send NPR correspondents to cover it (the great Anne Garrels and others). And to make her on-air pitches, she wore camouflage and combat boots! She knew it would be war to raise the funds, and she dressed for the challenge. I loved and admired her enormously and found her to be a great teacher and inspirer.”
The Times wrote in 1995 that Seymour ruled “with an iron fist … she is renowned for attracting and nurturing brilliant on-air talent and for swiftly cutting them loose if they step out of line or their Arbitron ratings slump.” In 2004, she would fire radio personality Sandra Tsing Loh after she said “fuck” on the air.
“Well, you’re not allowed to do that, especially if you use it as a verb, which she did, and especially if you use it as a verb on Sunday morning in the middle of Weekend Edition,” she recalled a few years later. (The engineer on duty, however, is supposed to replace an expletive with a bleep).
Seymour replaced Claude Brodesser-Akner as host of The Business with Masters, who heard from the exec minutes after she had been laid off by NPR during the 2008 recession. “She called me before I had even gotten into my car,” Masters recalled. “I didn’t know her. She said, ‘Sweetheart, are they meshuga? Their loss will be my gain.’”
During every Hanukkah from 1979-2007, Seymour hosted the three-hour live show Philosophers, Fiddlers and Fools, which featured Yiddish folk music, songs and stories and a memorial to the Holocaust. “I always broadcast the program on Friday evenings so I could bid my listeners a gut yontif,” she said in 2010.
Years after she divorced Hirschman, she changed her surname in 1993 to honor her paternal Polish-born great-grandfather, a rabbi.
Survivors include her daughter, Celia; her sister, Ann, and brother-in-law, Richard; her niece, Jessica; her nephew, Daniel; and cousins Anita and Greg. Her son, David, died at age 25 from lymphoma.
A public memorial service is being planned.
This story was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Groundbreaking Los Angeles-based disc jockey Jim Ladd, whom Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers immortalized in their 2002 song “The Last DJ,” died suddenly Sunday of a heart attack. He was 75.
A Los Angeles fixture, Ladd worked up and down the Los Angeles radio dial, including stints at KNAC, KMET and KLOS. He was considered the last freeform DJ in the country, allowed to pick his own song selections.
After leaving KLOS in 2011, he was quickly picked up by SiriusXM’s Deep Tracks channel, where he appeared until his death. Over the decades, he was well known for his interviews with such artists as John Lennon, Pink Floyd, Stevie Nicks and Led Zeppelin.
The Doors drummer John Densmore paid tribute to Ladd on social media, posting on X, “’The Last DJ’ has crossed the tracks. There wasn’t a more soulful spinner of music. The songs he played were running through his blood, he cared so much for rock n’ roll. Irreplaceable… a very sad day, which can only be handled by carrying his spirit forward.”
Densmore’s Doors bandmate Robby Krieger also posted, “Rest in peace, Jim Ladd. He was the best friend in radio The Doors ever had. Even when people forgot about us in the late ‘70s, he kept playing our music.“
Ladd started his career at Long Beach, Calif.’s KNAC in 1969 as FM radio was burgeoning and quickly established himself as one of Southern California’s leading rock voices. In an undated interview with Michael Simone, he said of his mentors and being at the forefront of FM radio, “We were inventing this thing as we were going along, so what I would say in radio [for role models], it is pretty much everybody that I’ve worked with that I’ve learned from or borrowed from. … As far as role models in my life, Martin Luther King would be one, and certainly when I was growing up, John Lennon and Jim Morrison were two others who had a great influence on me, as well as [Roger] Waters.”
Waters and Ladd had a long friendship, with Ladd playing a rebel DJ on Waters’ 1987 Radio K.A.O.S. album and touring with Waters on the Radio K.A.O.S. On the Road outing.
From KNAC, Ladd moved to KLOS in 1971 and then had stops at Los Angeles stations KMET, KMPC and KLSX before returning to KLOS in 1997, where he stayed for 14 years. As Billboard reported in 2011, when he was let go from KLOS after Cumulus bought the station, he signed off with Pink Floyd’s “Shine On Your Crazy Diamond.”
Ladd inspired “The Last DJ” song, which Petty told journalist Jim DeRogatis was “about a DJ who becomes so frustrated with his inability to play what he wants that he moves to Mexico and gets his freedom back.”
Flowers will be placed on Ladd’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 11 a.m. on Tuesday. He received his star in 2005. “His legendary voice and unparalleled contribution to the world of radio have left an indelible mark on the industry,” Ana Martinez, producer of the Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremonies, stated in a statement. “Jim’s passion for music and his unique ability to connect with his listeners will always be remembered fondly.”
SiriusXM is airing tributes to Ladd, who is survived by wife Helene, on Deep Tracks as well as other classic rock channels.
Starting a nonprofit radio station from scratch is enough of a cliff to scale in the digital era – even more so when you’re doing it in a famed music mecca like Memphis. How do you capture the essence of the city that nurtured Stax Records, Sun Records and influential heavy hitters from Al Green to Elvis Presley to Three 6 Mafia? For the folks behind WYXR, a station at 91.7 FM that’s now in its third year, you keep your ears open – to the city’s musical past, present and to ongoing feedback from the community. “We want give every Memphian, and person who cares about Memphis, an opportunity to say whether they enjoy our programming,” says Jared “Jay B.” Boyd, the station’s program manager.
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It seems like they’re hitting the right notes. From 2021 to 2022, the station enjoyed 50% audience growth. And on Saturday, Dec. 2, WYXR hosted its second annual Raised by Sound Fest. The 2022 fundraiser boasted an all-star salute to Memphis power pop icons Big Star, led by surviving founding member Jody Stephens. This year, Cat Power – whose Matador debut What Would the Community Think (1996) and breakout LP The Greatest (2006) were recorded in Memphis – headlined Raised by Sound, fighting through a cold to deliver an astonishing recreation of Bob Dylan’s infamous Royal Albert Hall concert from 1966. (Throughout the acoustic-then-electric set, Tennessee State Rep. Justin J. Pearson was grooving in the front row. Cat Power raised her fist in solidarity with the Democrat – who was briefly expelled earlier this year for participating in a gun control rally – more than a few times.)
Like the station itself, Raised by Sound Fest is situated in Crosstown Concourse, an old Sears distribution center that was transformed into a bustling hub of food, music and residential apartments in the late 2010s. The expansive space — which also houses the meticulously vintage Southern Grooves studio and the Memphis Listening Lab, a treasure trove for audiophiles — lends itself well to fortuitous run-ins. Prior to her acoustic solo set at the festival, Seratones singer A.J. Haynes chatted with Ari Morris, a mixer for Lil Durk and Moneybagg Yo. A few hours earlier, a WYXR volunteer ran into a supporter of the station whose son lives in Crosstown Concourse; she revealed she would be doubling her 2022 donation in honor of Shangri-La Records owner (and occasional WYXR host) Jared McStay, who died of cancer just last month.
The station officially launched in late 2020, but began gestating in 2019 when the University of Memphis approached Crosstown Concourse and The Daily Memphian, looking to shake up a university-affiliated jazz station at 91.7 FM. Robby Grant — part of the Memphis rock outfit Big Ass Truck, which formed in the ‘90s — initially got involved as a consultant, but was inspired to join the station as a founding partner; now, he serves as the executive director.
Boyd’s path to WYXR dovetailed with Grant’s. After returning to his hometown following a news reporter gig in Mobile, Ala., Boyd began writing for The Daily Memphian. Around that time, he was also drawing on his encyclopedia knowledge of local music history to create a playlist of Memphis-related songs for Crosstown Concourse. (People working in the building complained about hearing the same four-hour mix on repeat every day. To alleviate the issue, Boyd crafted a 21-hour playlist that’s now well north of 100 hours.) After interviewing Grant for a piece on the nascent WYXR, Boyd – who graduated from the same high school as Grant, just two decades later – began envisioning a more permanent role at the station. Before long, he became a founding partner and continues to operate as the station’s program manager.
Cat Power at Raised by Sound Fest
Andrea Morales
His DJ connections (Boyd spins as DJ Bizzle Bluebland) and Memphis-centric record collection helped inform some of the people he brought in as WYXR hosts. Pastor Juan Shipp, for instance, released gritty gospel records on his D-Vine Spirituals label back in the ‘70s (those 45s now fetch a few hundred dollars on Discogs). But he was essentially a whispered legend in Memphis music lore until WYXR put him back on the air for a lively Saturday gospel program — marking a second coming of sorts for the cult favorite.
Grant tapped his network, too – which included some recognizable names in the indie music world. “We wanted Memphis connections and some bigger names because it draws attention,” Grant tells Billboard. To that end, Wilco’s Pat Sansone — whom Grant played with in the project Mellotron Variations — got involved as a host, as did one half of MGMT. “Andrew VanWyngarden went to the same high school Jay B. and I did,” Grant says with a wistful smirk. “His band — not MGMT — used to open for my band.”
With WYXR broadcasting live from a studio in Crosstown Concourse’s main lobby, some of the bigger names brought out curious onlookers to watch the action (separated by a soundproof window, of course). Olivia Cohen, who used to watch VanWyngarden’s show in the lobby as a high schooler, now works as the station’s membership and community engagement coordinator.
The station also inadvertently facilitated a marriage (between members of the DJ collective bodywerk) and an unlikely friendship between Memphis hip-hop legend DJ Spanish Fly and local EDM-trap DJ Madeleine “mado” Holdford. “She was so nervous [when she met him],” Boyd recalls. “But we put their [Thursday] shows back-to-back and now they’re fast friends. One night they were having a Christmas dad-joke contest. This is a 29-year-old white girl and a 52-year-old Black man who’s known as a godfather of hip-hop. There are grown men who are afraid of Spanish Fly.”
He also points to Khi Da Godd, a young DJ who “a year and a half ago thought no one else liked house music in Memphis.” Fast forward to 2023: He hosts a show on Saturdays and recently met genre pioneer Larry Heard. “He’s bringing out other kids, and now they have a network and they’re getting gigs. They’re self-sufficient in a way they weren’t [before]. They’re finding commonalities with each other. I see those social connections happen all the time.”
It’s easy to see how the station’s vibe – passionate but informal, anchored by hosts who are authoritative yet loose – fosters relationships. When Grant swung by a late-night underground rock show helmed by author/journalist Andrew Earles, the Hüsker Dü biographer grilled his boss on whether the Cat Power/Dylan concert featured an audience plant shouting “Judas!” at the appropriate moment (it did not). And late on Friday nights, hip-hop DJ Nicole Covington sometimes veers off into detailed detours on wrestling.
“Robert Gordon, who is a documentarian and rock writer from here — his whole thing is, ‘I’m messing up the whole time,’” says Grant of Gordon’s anything-goes Tuesday show. “It’s a little bit of a bit, but it’s also true. Especially late at night.”
“My show [can go] off the rails,” Boyd laughs. “We don’t micromanage whether [the music is] old, new or otherwise – it’s really about curating the people. There are plenty of DJs who play way more cutting-edge music than I do, and it’s all about their tastes, their intuition.”
As the station approaches its fourth year, the WYXR team is hoping to raise even greater awareness of the station within the demographically diverse metropolitan area. “I want more buy-in from the community,” Boyd says, adding that “some of our hosts had no idea that this format of radio and opportunity existed” before he reached out to them. In addition to hitting pockets of Memphis that don’t normally tune into community radio, an ongoing challenge is keeping existing listeners and donors invested in the station’s success. “We’re more than a radio station – we’re an arts and culture organization,” Grant says. “We are a nonprofit. We’re not commercial radio. We have about a thousand donors who give on a yearly basis and a couple hundred monthly donors. [Our job is] keeping them engaged and letting them know what’s going on at the station – because there’s so much going on.”
Raised by Sound Fest, of course, is a big part of that. “From a fundraising point of view, we try to line up sponsors a few months before. For the fundraising concert, we price the VIP tickets in such a way where we can make money – and it was a huge success,” Grant shares of the 2023 edition, which raised 60% more than the inaugural 2022 festival.
“This year felt like we settled into the groove,” Boyd agrees. “People are assured that we have their best interests in mind when it comes to demonstrating how music can move this community.”
“It’s figuring out how to scale smartly,” says Grant, who is realistic about the fact that the station is unlikely to boast another 50% listener growth rate as it moves into 2024. “We have a podcast network we’re working on expanding. We’re archiving shows, working on the website and apps. Not everyone listens to radio the way they used to, so we’re trying to meet people where they are.”
“Music is at the center of our culture,” says Boyd of Memphis. “Tulsa, Oklahoma might be a nice place to live — there are business magnates there, you can see music there — but the feeling that you own music and are part of a music culture? It’s an asset of [this] community. People feel like they have collective ownership of the sound and what it means to us. The way some families connect over food, we connect over music.”
WYXR covered Billboard’s accommodations during the weekend of the Raised by Sound Fest.
Last week, during Spanish Broadcasting System’s third quarter earnings call, Albert Rodriguez, the company’s president and COO, announced that he was leaving his post. While the announcement came as a surprise, Rodríguez says that, after 25 years at SBS, he is leaving in good terms.
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“I’m going to stay on as a consultant during the transitioning period,” he told Billboard in his only interview following his announcement. “We’re leaving in excellent terms and I’m very appreciative to Raul [Alarcón],” he added, referring to the chairman and CEO of the company, to whom Rodríguez directly reported to.
Rodriguez is still evaluating his future plans, but will likely launch his own consulting company.
SBS is the formidable Latin media company whose suite of radio stations in the top markets in the U.S. include La Mega in New York, the most-listened to Spanish language radio station in the country, according to Nielsen. SBS also operates the AIRE Radio Networks, a national radio platform of over 300 affiliated stations.
Rodríguez joined the company 25 years ago, initially as a general salesperson, and climbed the ranks. In June, 2021, he was named president, making it the first time in 36 years that the company named a new president, and first time it was led by a non-family member.
Working with Raúl Alarcón, who he calls a “beacon” of the Hispanic community, was a major highlight during his long tenure at SBS.
“The team we built is like family [to me]. We have performed better than all our industry peers,” says Rodríguez. A point of major pride, he says, was the launch of the Aire network, “which has grown immensely in terms of revenue and content and distribution.”
“We served very passionately the Hispanic voice in America,” adds Rodríguez of SBS, noting that despite Hispanics making up 20% of the total U.S. population, they represent only 6% of the U.S. market’s total advertising budget for 2022, according to the Hispanic Marketing Council. Moving forward, he says, “I want to be a leader in developing and increasing share to the multicultural space.”