Radio Vs. Records

In  a couple of weeks I am going to be on a panel at the Country Radio Seminar with some of the biggest names in Country Radio/Country Records.  I was on this panel last year and I believe that I made enough noise to be asked back.  Joe Galante, Scott Borchetta, Marc Chase, recording artist Jewel, and John Rich from Big and Rich.   The gathering will be facilitated by Brian Mansfield of USA TODAY.

I am not mentioning these folks to be a name dropper ,only to point out that this is a big deal.  Because it is such a big deal I have been thinking…and I mean at 3 AM,  laying in bed trying to think of witty and earth shattering points to make.  I am pretty witty…that won’t be a problem.  Earth shattering is another thing.

Country radio had a pretty tough 2007.  Particularly in the second half of the year.  Not all Country stations had bad books but too many did.   I don’t think that all of these country radio programmers got dumb overnight.   I don’t think that Country music got unpopular overnight.

I do think that we have taken the backseat to other media both on the radio and record side.   The only news I hear about the record industry, in the mainstream press, is how bad things are in the business.  The only thing I read about radio, in our own trades, is how bad the business is. Oh, there are some new players coming into the business…on both sides…but the overwhelming news is how bad things are.

We are not  marketing our stations the way we have in past years.  This hurts both the stations and the artist because most of the time stations use artists on billboards and in their TV spots to sell the frequency.  So when stations stop marketing the artists are not out on billboards or TV.  Now, WYCD in Detroit uses billboards and uses the artist’s images and they do pretty well.  They beat  WDTW pretty handily, who also use artist images.  Does this raise the profile of Country Radio in Detroit where there is room for only one winner? Maybe first guy in wins.

Now let’s focus on the music.  Radio gets “worked” to play more current music.  More new artists. Yet month after month the listener tells us that there are less than 10 artists that make a difference.  There will be stand out songs and there are acts that “break through”  with great music yet are not able to “break through” to the top of mind superstardom.    I think of Craig Morgan, Rodney Atkins and Dierks Bentley, who have two or three hit records a year, and are great artists and very radio friendly, but still can’t be depended upon to “open a movie”.  We love them in house but they have not yet smashed through.

I am writing this the week before the Oscars are handed out so I don’t know who is going to win but I can tell that  while Will Smith, Mel Gibson, Angelia Jolie and Tom Cruise are not nominated if I were Paramount Pictures I would bank on any of those actors before anyone who is going to win this coming weekend.

Craig, Rodney and Dierks may very well be the formats BIG stars in the coming years but today we have to be a bit more conservative.  Of the BIG stars today there is no hesitation on radio’s part to play the new product.  Heck, we had three Kenny Chesneys, two Tim McGraws, a couple Rascal Flatts songs, two from George Strait, etc. Huge opening weekends for all of those acts.

Okay I have taken the long road to say that radio and records MUST work together to make stars off the air too.   Look how many spins Craig, Rodney and Dierks got last year but they have not broken through.  This is not radio’s fault.  Radio is willing to play the up and coming acts but the record industry has not been able to elevate these acts beyond radio play.  Radio gets some blame for failing to market, as I stated earlier.

Country radio is the one lock step format on radio.  One hundred percent of the panel ( and most likely the remaining 1500 or so stations) are playing the same songs at the same time.  My math is not great but  1600 stations times 5 times per day is 8000 plays per day from Seattle to Miami.  Not even that damn gecko gets this kind of exposure.  Did I mention that this is 8000 plays a day for about 5-6 weeks on a Power current?  

If company A advertises product B 8000 times a day over a 6 week period reaching , what 100 million people?, and can only sell 100,000 pieces that company is going out of business pretty damn soon. Sound familiar?

Anyway I have a couple more weeks to come up with something earth shattering…