10 Questions with ... Ken Tucker

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

There are few industry professionals who can boast of a fuller and more diverse resume then Wheelhouse Records VP/Promotion, Ken Tucker. After earning is degree in Speech Pathology at Ohio University, Tucker spent two years as a speech pathologist in Parkersburg, W.Va. He soon turned to radio (his initial college major), which eventually led him to record promotion at Warner Bros. Records. Tucker was part of the team responsible for the success of artists like Blake Shelton, Randy Travis, Travis Tritt, Dwight Yoakam, Faith Hill, and others. He then transitioned to music journalism, writing for trade publications Billboard and Radio & Records, and consumer-facing Country Weekly. Tucker also taught at Nashville's Belmont University, and, most recently served as Apple Music's Nashville-based music programmer. Now he's come nearly full circle, returning to record promotion with BBRMG/BMG imprint Wheelhouse Records, where he's starting his first week. Tucker was kind enough to sit down for "10 Questions," sharing past experiences, thoughts on how digital streaming has affected music consumption, radio's target demo, the challenge of breaking female artists, and, of course, his new roster of artists.

1. Ken, thanks for taking the time for "10 Questions." This week, you returned to the label promotion world as VP/Promotion for Wheelhouse. You previously worked records at Warner Bros. in what were arguably some of the glory days for that imprint. After a while away, what was exciting to you about coming back?

The one common thread throughout whatever I've done - whether it was radio or journalism, or working at Apple - the common thread for me has always been the championing of new artists. There's just something about that thrill. The staff and I were talking about that recently; the feeling of hearing, "No. No. No. No. No. NO," but then finally getting that "Yes!" Then, being in a concert arena and hearing thousands of people singing along with a song that you know you worked so hard to get exposed. That's really exciting for me.

Specifically, with Wheelhouse and Broken Bow, a lot of it had to do with the fact that it was Jon Loba that was talking to me about the job. Jon worked for me at Warner Bros.; he was our Coordinator. It feels like coming home, in a lot of ways. Not only with Jon, obviously, but with Carson James. I worked him when he was at WLWI in Montgomery, so I've known him for a long time. Jennifer Schaffer, I've known her for 20-plus years, and we worked together at Warner at one point. Chris Loss was the night jock in Myrtle Beach when I first met him. There are even two women at the label group who were students of mine at Belmont! It just feels like family, and it feels like coming home.

I did a lot of research about how BMG conducts its business. They want to be transparent and fair with artists. That appealed to me.

2. What a lot of people may not know is the diverse background you bring to this role. You have a 360-degree perspective - radio, records, trade journalism, consumer-faced publishing, and most recently, Apple Music's Nashville-based music programmer. How does that experience shape your approach to getting Wheelhouse music on terrestrial radio?

I don't know if I could specifically pinpoint one thing, other than the fact that I think I have a good overview of the business. I will say, and I've already talked about this some with staff and with Jon and Carson - one of the things that is, for sure, a commonality is that as a journalist, you're trying to tell a story. I think that's what a lot of what we do and will do at Wheelhouse, in terms of telling stories and building stories with our radio partners and hopefully stories with happy endings. It's that ability to share information. I'm not a B.S. guy, and I'm not a hype guy. I think the biggest change, probably, from the last time I was in a position like this is just the sheer amount of information that is now available. Obviously, SoundScan has been around forever, but when you look at Apple, Spotify, or Pandora - or any of the streaming services - just the amount of information that is out there and available to share with radio about how a record is doing, whether they are playing it or not.

3. What challenges do regional label reps face in 2018 that are different from when you worked music at Warner Bros.?

There's a lot of similarities. We are still talking about limited playlists, and limited opportunities, and trying to cut through everything that is out there. I was reading one of your "10 Questions" with Justin Case and him talking about, "Yes, we could expand our playlists, but that wouldn't solve the problem. There's just so much music - and so much good music - out there." I'm paraphrasing what he said. I think that challenge remains the same. I go back to what I said earlier in that we have got to be able to tell a story about these songs and records that we are passionate about and that we are working. We have to help cut through the clutter. It's a different period, but it's still the challenge of working with our radio partners to find a home for our music.

4. At the past two CRSs, a popular and high-scoring panel has been "The Matrix Of The Metrics." That panel is designed to help both labels and radio understand streaming data and how it can predict hit records at terrestrial radio. There is often a disconnect between those two entities. As an example, the Mason Ramsey has chalked up a ton of streams - more than several major artists combined - yet, radio has ignored it. Why is there such a huge disconnect on certain records?

That's a good question. One - and, this is a guess on my part, and I'm assuming it depends on the artist - but, it's a younger audience, for one thing, that is using streaming. Not exclusively, but it is a younger audience that is used to dealing with everything on their phone. There's a comfortability there with a younger audience. The other thing is, I think, that streaming services have so many more places to put music than radio does. There's multiple playlists for multiple genres, and there are just more opportunities to expose music. That gives more opportunity for someone like Mason, or whomever it is, to build up those streams and radio not touch it yet. It's interesting. The metrics are different with streaming, but some of them did line up with what was happening at radio, and others didn't line up with what was happening at radio.

5. I've seen data suggesting that the heavy users of streaming services still use radio, too. Do you feel that's true? And, are streamers following back songs to the radio, where programmers do a great job of curating a smaller library of songs and create critical mass for hit records?

Streaming is here, and it's growing by leaps and bounds and will continue to, but I still believe that radio, especially in the Country format, is still a very important part of the equation. You still see examples of artists who got their start via streaming or SiriusXM and got some notoriety and built a fanbase, but it wasn't until radio jumped on board that they really pushed their career to a new level. I think about Luke Combs, for example. I was supporting Luke Combs at both Beats and Apple Music, and I think he was getting played on SiriusXM, and he had a certain level of success. People knew who he was, and he could tour a bit, but as soon as he got signed to a major label, got that promotion behind him, and started having #1 songs, that's when he started playing to bigger and bigger rooms. That's not to say that streaming is not important and won't be increasingly more important, but as we speak right now in 2018, radio is still very, very important to an artist's career.

6. Having come from radio, promoted music to it, and recently having lived in a digital world, what do you think radio needs to know about discovery for its listeners? Also, can radio and services like Apple, Spotify, and Pandora co-exist, or will the be competitors fighting for users and ad dollars?

I think they can co-exist. As far as are they competing for ad dollars, I can't speak to that, because the two services I worked for - Beats and Apple - were purely subscription, and there were no ads. As far as what they can learn, I think it's just that their audience is - well, users for Apple Music were, at least - more open to new music than a radio programmer may or may not give them credit for. We saw that. And, of course, depending on the artist and depending on the genre, but you could see some quick acceptance, and you could see streams going up fairly quickly on artists that otherwise don't have a lot going for them and aren't being played by radio or aren't touring a bunch.

Country radio's best performing demo in the past seven years as been 18-34s. Why do you think this success has been sustainable and overtaken the traditional 25-54 cell?

It comes back to the artists. You've got so many talented, younger artists. It goes back to Taylor Swift, capturing that younger demographic. But, there have been a bunch of younger artists that have had that success. Whether it's a Thomas Rhett, or a Kelsea Ballerini or Runaway June. They are attracting a younger demo. It's interesting to me - and this is something I said long before I worked for Apple - but, we are a couple of generations in to users of iTunes, and I think particularly younger generations of users to iTunes and Apple Music and the like, they aren't necessarily tied to the idea of buying an album or to genres. When iTunes came along, it gave them the opportunity to say, "Oh, I like this song over here. I don't care what it's called - maybe it's Hip-Hop, or whatever. And, I like this song over here - maybe it's Alternative. And, I like this Country song." I look at my 16-year-old daughter, and her tastes are all over the place. The playlists she makes are very eclectic. Same with my 14-year-old son. With that younger demo, at some point genres go away. The industry wants genres, because we want to say that we are #1 on this Country chart, or this Rock chart, or this Hip-Hop chart. But, I think more and more, the younger consumer is not as bound by genres. And, we are seeing more blending in the music, too, with what is being put out by, particularly, today's younger artists.

7. Tell me about your roster and what excites you. For example, Granger Smith brings a unique skill set to the table, doesn't he?

Yes, absolutely. Here's a guy - or is it two guys? - who has a book coming out an EP. It's really exciting to work with him. I really like him. What a great success story from a guy who did it on his own for so long.

In this process of taking this new job and people sending me notes saying "Congrats" or whatever, there were a number of people who just - on their own - said, "You've got a smash in this new Runaway June" song. It was people from other labels, and people from radio, unsolicited. I'm excited to work with them.

I've spent some time with Walker McGuire, and those guys are really talented. We just have to find whatever the right song is for them. Obviously, Trace Adkins is a legend. I haven't talked to him yet, but I'm certain that he would like to still have hits at radio, and we will certainly pursue that. The guy is an amazing artist and actor - he's just so multi-talented.

With the roster, in general, I'm excited by their work ethic. These are artists who have reached out, who have texted me or emailed me and told me things like, "No one will work harder than I will to get our music played at Country radio." That's very encouraging.

And I haven't even talked about the staff, who are all amazing in their own way.

8. I want to circle back to Runaway June. They are an all-female trio on Wheelhouse, and that brings up the $64,000 question: why is it so hard for females to break through at radio? Did you see ladies struggle while curating music for Apple?

No. Not at all. I didn't really see that there was any pushback, specifically, for females. Not any way you slice it and dice it. At Apple, I had a lot more places to get things heard. I had more opportunities, maybe, to expose female artists, but, no, I didn't see any pushback at all.

9. Then, there's Craig Campbell. I know he's coming in-bound from Red Bow, and you might not have had a lot of exposure to him. But, this is a guy who has released some really under-appreciated songs in the past two years. "See You Try" is liked by radio, but a bit overlooked. Can you talk about how you'll get radio more on board with him?

Craig is another one who reached out to me and sent me a long text last weekend and said that he felt re-energized and is excited about the team. He was another one who said, "No one will work harder than me with radio. I'm on your side, and we're going to do this together." I am a fan, and I've been a fan of his for a long time, going back to my days at Country Weekly. I don't feel comfortable talking specifically about what's out there now, because I haven't surveyed the landscape enough, but he's a guy that you want to have a hit. He's had hits. He's obviously someone that radio loves.