CRS 2018: First-Time Feedback

“Country Radio Seminar (CRS) - how do you even fit that experience into one or two paragraphs?”

That's the rhetorical question posed by Jenn Hays, morning co-host for KUPL (98.7 The Bull)/Portland, OR. Hays was one of three Rusty Walker Scholars attending CRS for the first time earlier this month. Also CRS first-timers and Rusty Walker Scholars: Mark "Haystack" Wells, PD at KCTY/Fayetteville, AR, and Jamie Jackson, Dir./Promotions at KRTY/San Jose.

I always enjoy talking with industry pros after their first CRS. I've been to 34 of them now, counting 2018 (go ahead, insert “old” jokes here), and while I've never once felt jaded or tired of it all, any one of us who has attended a few of these sort of knows what to expect. So, I asked Jenn, Haystack – which kinda feels odd addressing a fully-formed adult male as Haystack – and Jamie to send me their thoughts.

Jenn Hays, KUPL/Portland, OR

Hays was selected as a Rusty Walker Scholar in November while still at Townsquare Country KCTR/Billings, MT but attended CRS as a member of the KUPL staff, having scored the morning co-host gig in December. Coincidence? ... Hmm. Here are Hays's first impressions:

“I think the main thing to highlight is that being around a group of people who all have one common passion and goal is contagious. I’ve loved Country music and the industry – and its people and artists – my whole career, but being around thousands of others that also love it and want to promote it? Priceless. Experiencing first-hand just how much the artists really love what they do makes me want to be better at my job, because I know they rely on our stations to achieve their dreams. I have goals and dreams, and so do they. At CRS, I learned how we [each] go about them isn’t so different. I also learned that you’ve got to be genuine to who you are and hustle, hustle, hustle. If you do both, success is achievable!

I have been given the opportunity to meet all the people in our industry that made it happen and continue to make it happen. I’ve found people (besides those I work closest with) who can be lifelong mentors and cheerleaders. It’s incredibly encouraging to meet those people in the positions that – someday down the road – you would like to be in. Then, to have those people want to share how they got there, and then work with you to get there, that doesn’t happen everywhere. I’ve been fortunate enough to land in a position that I’m head over heels for; I’m living the dream. But, all in all, to see others living their dreams in this industry was worth everything – the plane ride, a week off work, money spent, no sleep, etc.”

Mark Wells, KCYT/Fayetteville, AR

Wells – I call him Haystack, since we're buds now – is a first-time PD at Bunyard KCYT in a small (#123) market. He told me his first CRS, while outstanding, wasn't completely what he expected. “I was pleasantly surprised by the positivity and encouragement from every direction. The vendors were courteous, the panels were informative, and the performances were outstanding, but the highlight for me was the Programming Mentoring Breakfast and a chat with Entercom’s Mike Moore. The opportunity to discuss this amazing business with one of its most experienced leaders was invaluable, and his positivity and encouragement is but one example of many such encounters had in Nashville. CRS was a wonderful reminder that radio has always been, and will always be, about people as much as it is about music. There is no more passionate and encouraging group of people than those in Country radio. Thanks again to the entire CRS Board for this opportunity. It was truly a blessing to attend CRS, and I hope it was just the first of many such visits.”

Jamie Jackson, KRTY/San Jose, CA

While a CRS-first-timer in 2018, Jackson has been with Empire KRTY for 16 years, working with GM/MD Nate Deaton as the Dir./Promotions all this time. Quick note to Nate Deaton: Dude, 16 years? Where have you been hiding this lady? Bring her back in 2019, will ya? Here are Jackson's comments:

“Everyone was so incredibly nice and welcoming. As a Rusty Walker Scholarship winner, we met the Board members on Monday (2/5). We were told that if we need anything, that we could look for them and ask questions any time we feel the need. I figure that it’d be standard for that. But, what really impressed me was that while out and about at different sessions or hangs, a lot of these Board members stopped me to ask how things were going and how I was enjoying it. It was just nice of them to take the time to do that.

I enjoyed the Smart Speaker and Streaming sessions. I think learning to utilize these assets in my world of promotions could be very beneficial to the radio station. I am a music lover; I love many different genres of music, but Country is my favorite. I saw and heard so much music in just a few days, but it was amazing, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It’s hard to pick a 'favorite,' but I would have to choose the Sony show on Tuesday night (2/6). I love the guitar pull style/acoustic events. I also really enjoyed the New Faces Show. As I said before, I am a music fan, and lucky for me, I work for Nate Deaton and KRTY, a radio station that embraces new artists and their music. I sang along with 95% of the songs played in the show, because I have seen and heard the music from these artists. While I really enjoyed each artist, my favorites were Lauren Alaina’s 'Three' and Michael Ray’s 'Her World or Mine.'"

As a longtime CRS board member, I'm so glad – and proud – that we began the Rusty Walker Scholarship program in 2013. Since then, it has enabled industry pros to attend CRS for the first time, with all-expenses paid. The program has introduced these recipients to a broader professional world than they perhaps previously knew, but it's also a yearly reminder to people like me – again, a 34-time CRS attendee – to once again appreciate how incredible the CRS experience is, and how enthusiastic people in our industry should remain. I know Rusty Walker would have been thrilled, albeit somewhat embarrassed (he was extremely humble), to see his name attached to such a wonderful program.

For those of you who aren't familiar with him, Rusty was an iconic, award-winning programmer and radio consultant – and a 2012 Country Radio Hall of Fame inductee – famous for championing and developing young, emerging radio talent both in front of and behind the microphone. The Rusty Walker coaching tree – a forest is more like it – includes yours truly and dozens of others in radio that all of us know. I mean, we're everywhere! I competed against him once, then worked with him on three different occasions; each of them was a rewarding experience, although working WITH Rusty was a lot more fun than competing with him, to be honest. That said, in both cases, I came away a much better programmer.

Follow Up To Last Week's "Christmas Wrap" Column

Switching gears now, remember last week when I talked with Mt. Wilson Broadcasters Country KKGO (Go Country)/Los Angeles Station Mgr. Michael Levine, who walked us through the station's holiday flip, which started November 20th and continued through Christmas day? After dipping 2.5-2.1 from November-December, KKGO surged 2.1-2.9 during the Holiday monthly.

I was curious to see how the station would fare in January, knowing that last year, KKGO dropped 2.8-2.2 from Holiday '16 to January '17. When January '18 monthly results arrived this week, KKGO settled at 2.4, off 0.5 from the Holiday survey. While down month-to-month, it's still an improvement year-to-year, and better than November's 2.1.

Overall, the all-Christmas flip seems to have borne similar fruit to last year (2016) for Go Country. The share was slightly higher (by 0.1), although KKGO – while gaining 309,400 cume persons during Holiday '17 – did not match levels from 2016, when the station increased its cume by approximately half-a-million. Additionally, KKGO's cume in January '18 was off by 413,000, landing at 1.1 million.

Meanwhile, iHeartMedia's longtime Christmas outlet, KOST, also came back to earth, shifting 11.9-5.5 Holiday-January and shedding 1.5 million cume persons in the process. Nonetheless, KOST retained its #1 market rank for cume in January, posting 3.7 million, which was just over its usual range of 3.2 million or so.

As Levine told me last week, he'll evaluate whether to try all Christmas for a third straight year in 2018, and he has all year to ponder the move. What he has learned from the past two years, though, is that KKGO will likely flirt with a 3.0 share in the Holiday month, gaining somewhere between 300,000 to 500,000 additional cume persons, and it won't come at the expense of KOST. And, while most Country stations take the Holiday month and toss it in a drawer after managing low expectations for advertisers, KKGO can show clients its positive results, possibly helping grow revenue in the 13th PPM month.