CRS 2017: Better Than Bacon, Nutella, And Sword Swallowing

It’s already February, and that can mean only one thing. Ok, wait, I take that back. It actually means a lot of things, like: Super Bowl; my wedding Anniversary; Valentine’s Day; President’s Day; Casey LoCurto’s 30th birthday; World Nutella Day; Read in the Bathtub Day; World Radio Day; Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day; Monta Vaden’s birthday; Sword Swallowing Day; and last, but certainly not least: National Bacon Day.

Oh yeah, and Country Radio Seminar (CRS) is almost here, too. It’s coming Wednesday, February 22nd through Friday, February 24th. One more, quick aside: the 24th is also National Bartender Day. What a convenient, wonderful coincidence that it falls on the final day of CRS. I mean, not that anybody drinks much at CRS…

As I do every year, and because I care deeply about your CRS experience, I’ve worked up a little preview of some anticipated panels on the agenda with the help of CRS Agenda Co-Vice Chair Greg Frey, who – in his spare time – dabbles in radio as VP/Programming & Operations for an outfit called Cumulus Media. Perhaps you’ve heard of them?

Frey, along with fellow Co-Vice Chair – Cox Media/Houston Dir./Sales Judy Lakin – and Agenda Chair – iHeartMedia RPM and Country WDXB/Birmingham OM Tom Hanrahan – has assembled a talented agenda committee, which together has cooked up a diverse and compelling curriculum for CRS 2017. Here are a few sessions Frey tells me he’s most excited about this year, starting with the next iteration of last year’s Women’s mentoring panel.

“We got such positive feedback out of that, and it was so well-attended, that we thought it was important to keep it on the agenda and add to it,” says Frey. “So now, we have the ‘Women Empowering Women’ panel in addition to the [Friday, February 24th] Women’s Mentoring Breakfast. I am really happy to see both of those on the agenda.” Set for Thursday, February 23rd at 2:30p (CT), the session features three sets of female panelists and their mentors, who will share how they met, why they clicked, and their takeaways from the relationship. These range from talent development, encouragement, career guidance, or recognizing strengths and/or opportunities that may not be obvious to a mentee.

Full disclosure: I was selected to moderate this panel, and after two calls prepping for it, I’m both honored to do this – I mean, I’m the only guy up there, so I’ll try not to screw it up – and excited about the ladies who will participate. Included are: Scripps VP/Programming and Wichita GM Beverlee Brannigan, RAB President/CEO Erica Farber, and Nashville Public Television President/CEO Beth Curely. All are impressive women who are dedicated to identifying potential in younger, rising industry talent, then helping them prepare for success.

Here’s Your Data Plan

“In this day and age, we have so many more metrics as far as how to gauge music, how to judge a hit song, or how to judge how a song gets familiar,” says Frey. “There are a few panels that do that – ‘Moving The Listeners And The Numbers That Count’ takes a look at how many spins it takes to familiarize a Country audience with a song and how does that compare to the Pop side. I think programmers can really learn a lot from that panel.”

Yup, me too. I talked to Integr8 Research President Matt Bailey, who has published many blogs in the past 18 months discussing this exact topic specific to Country radio. He’s on this panel, and when asked what he hopes to bring to this discussion, Bailey told me, “Programming a radio station is so complex; there are so many different data points and so many different agendas coming at you that you have to navigate. Sometimes, it is easy to lose sight of how the listener actually interacts with your radio station. I am hoping to bring some listener-driven data to help programmers make solid decisions about how long they should give new songs to catch on, when listeners are most interested in hearing new songs, and when it’s time to move on when a song has passed its prime.” This one is set for Thursday, February 23rd at 3:30p (CT).

If you love data and statistics, Frey says another session you’ll love takes place Friday, February 24th at 10a (CT) called “Dicing The Data.” In this panel, you can hopefully find out what information Shazam and Spotify provide radio programmers to help them in their music decisions. This one also spawned from a similar panel several years ago, when Stone Door Media Lab’s Jeff Green first talked about Shazam and how it can be used to identify potential radio hits. He’s back for CRS 2017 with even more data. I asked Frey if he feels radio is doing a good job of utilizing non-traditional, emerging tools –like Shazam – to evaluate music, or do we tend to default to familiar input when making music decisions?

“Shazam and other platforms are still pretty new,” advises Frey. “Even people who have been using them have only been using them for a year or two, max, I would imagine. There’s still a big learning curve with PDs on that front. I think there is a disconnect from the Country format with some of those platforms. For example, when you’re scrolling most Shazamed songs in the nation, you can go down 50 songs before you find the first Country song. So, I think it’s useful to know what it is and know how to use it, and maybe have it be a part of that decision making process, but it can’t be the end-all be-all at this point.”

Coaches Corner

“I’m excited about the ‘Coaching The Coaches’ panel, because I think we’re taking an interesting angle on it,” says Frey. “Usually, you see a bunch of actual coaches or Program Directors, and it’s good that they share their experiences on how to pull the best out of talent. But this year we’re taking talent and asking them, ‘hey, what worked for you?’ What was it that a coach did that really changed the way you do things or changed your perception of things? I think that’s gonna be a really interesting take and will provide other talent in the room with some interesting concepts – and some coaches or PDs with other concepts, as well.”

Full Disclosure part II, and no, I swear Greg and I did NOT choreograph this conversation: I’m moderating this one, too, and as Greg said, it’s a cool angle. We’re flipping the script from last year, when we had talent coaches (Steve Reynolds, Dennis Clark) teamed with college and pro football coaching legend Barry Switzer. They all talked about how to approach talent – be it the on-air or on the field variety. This year, the agenda committee knocked it out of the yard with panelists for “Coaching The Coaches,” booking syndicated personalities Ace & TJ; HLN “Morning Express” host Robin Meade; and ESPN lead college football commentator Kirk Herbstreit. I’ve done a prep call with this group, too, and share Greg’s enthusiasm – it should be great and takes place Friday, February 24th at 2p (CT).

Finally, and going back to Thursday for a moment, I noticed another session looking at Millennials this year – specifically, the Thursday, February 23rd, 3:30p (CT) panel called, “Capturing The Millennial Ear: Re-Thinking Our Traditional Medium for the Next Generation.” Last year’s CRS had a couple of panels on this topic, too. It feels like the way we’re looking at Millennials at CRS is similar to the way we first studied PPM ten or twelve years ago, when it emerged. I asked Frey if that was a popular conversation in the room when his committee was putting the panel together last summer.

“Definitely. While we look at 25-54 … well, the 25 year olds are Millennials now,” says Frey. “We have to know what their appetite is, where their heads are, what their tastes are – and more importantly, how do you reach them? There are some Millennials on the agenda committee, so that helps us see if this makes sense.”

I hope this preview has been helpful, but of course there are so many other panels and events to see and do at CRS 2017. Check out the full agenda on the CRS website here. Additionally, check out the official mobile app for CRS, available to download on iPhone and Android. The app provides attendees with an expanded CRS agenda, panel descriptions, speaker bios, integrated calendar upgrades, CRS after-hour activities, CRS TV video clips, and other event news. Users can customize the app to their own CRS schedule, rate the panels, and post updates.

Remember: CRS 2017 takes place Wednesday, February 22nd through Friday, February 24th at the Omni Hotel in Nashville – I hope to see all you there. This will be my 33rd CRS, and I’ll tell you from experience: It’s almost as great as bacon, and a helluva lot more fun than sword swallowing.