Reality Aircheck

I'm not sure divulging this gets me in trouble or not, but once again this year, I'm a judge for the annual CMA Broadcast Awards, which recognize excellence for Country radio stations and air personalities in our format.

It's an honor to be part of the team evaluating these entries, something I've been asked to do on and off for many years. I'd never reveal what category (Station, Personality, or market size) is assigned to me; that would be inappropriate and unfair to those entering. But, I am comfortable saying most of what I've heard so far this year is mostly uncomfortable to sit through; painfully average at best, and – in most cases – aspiring to the level of "meh."

To be fair, it's hard to capture the full essence of a radio station or personality in a five-minute audio composite. As I said earlier, I've been judging Broadcast Award entries for a while, dating back to my time programming in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Antonio. During the past 10 years or so, I've noticed what I consider an alarming trend in the audio presentations that is both irritating and disturbing. In almost every case, particularly in the Personality categories, these entries are so overproduced – utilizing so many imaging, audio, and voice drops – that any semblance of a morning team or solo jock's true selfhood, heart, soul, or shred of human substance, for that matter, is too deeply buried in white noise.

Are these airchecks slick, fast-paced, and professionally produced? Yes, 100%. Do they sound larger than life? Absolutely. But, are they real, genuine, and heartfelt? Not in the least. When you ask anybody about Country music and its delivery system, Country radio, the word storytelling is almost universally mentioned. The best Country songs tell great stories – even during a time where our music skews very Pop, leaning more on studio tricks, drum machines, catchy hooks, and far-too-many chorus chants, our format still excels in the art of storytelling.

For years, so has our on-air talent. The really great personalities on Country radio (every format, really) know how to make a connection with the music, listeners, and their community. Great talent understands that being truly open and willing to demonstrate the full range of human emotions – happy, sad, fun, funny, empathy, fear, anger, surprise – is the ultimate trust builder, which can lead to a loyal tribe of loyal listeners and a long, successful career.

But, instead of demonstrating some of the above when seeking industry recognition, it appears most talent want to do a lot of name-dropping. I've lost count of the gratuitous number of artist sound bites included, so we'll all know how much our stars are their buddies. There are snippets of interviews, too; most are short, out of context, and fail to demonstrate whether the talent and the artist had a real conversation or not – one that had substance. All I know is they stopped by, whether live in studio, or via a five-minute satellite tour. If I'm a listener and Luke Bryan is on your show, I want to hear several adults having a digestible conversation where I can learn something new about Bryan. Instead, what I'm hearing is on-air talent trying to steal the spotlight or working to harvest a golden soundbite for their five-minute CMA or ACM aircheck.

Something else that stands out for me on these entries – and not in a good way – is the way-too-loud, phony, over-laughing. I love to laugh, and it's a scientific fact that laughter is contagious. But, stop for a minute and think to yourself: what does it really take for you to belly laugh so hard that the sound of it permeates every corner of a room? (Cue “Jeopardy!” theme).

Aaaand, we're back! The answer: a funnier than shit, outrageous, spontaneous event that creates an involuntary, uncontrollable physical reaction. How many of those in a day have you actually had? In a week? In the past year?

There's always one cast member doing the phony laughing. Unfortunately, based on what I've heard lately, it's usually a female voice, and that is a tragic waste of valuable perspective our listeners desperately need. Have we so miserably failed to evolve ourselves beyond a female co-host cast as the laughing-on-cue machine, even in 2018? For some confounding reason, we as a format can't establish a sustainable female artist presence or voice in our music presentation. The least we could do to compensate is feature strong female points of view with the spoken on-air presentation. Actually, I know strong female air personalities are out there executing great radio every day, but I wouldn't if all I heard were most of the entries I've judged in recent years.

I listen to as much Country radio as possible, trying to stream stations out there when I'm able. Not only do I know we are capable of better, we ARE better than what's being presented as our finest work in these Award entries. Most of them give judges no idea of what stations or shows are like on the regular. Some people have told me when they drive across the country and listen to radio, there's a generic quality to the music, stations, and personalities. Try judging a CMA or ACM entry sometime. With a few exceptions, there's such a lack of individuality, compelling, sticky content, and honest feeling to these entries, that I'm almost to the point of suggesting we also establish a category recognizing the production/imaging directors in our format, instead of personalities. The real talent I'm hearing demonstrated is from those putting together these whiz-bang, five-minute demos.

The aircheck portion of a CMA Station or Personality entry is worth 40 points, a higher value than any other component, which includes ratings (25), biographical (10), and community involvement (25) information. I agree 100% with that disproportionate scoring level. I'm a very tough judge when it comes to the audio presentation, rarely if ever awarding a 36-40 "excellent" score. My version of “excellent” is the 27-35 "good" range, and most are falling in the upper "average" (18-26) area lately. I'd like to see the aircheck length expanded so judges can live and breathe radio stations a bit more.

By the way, judges are invited to help in this process, and the ones I talk to – like me – take it seriously. They are investing in the time to listen, read, and absorb materials from a radio station or personality. If you've entered, please be assured that whoever is evaluating your submission is spending quality time with it. But, know this too: they're hearing what I'm hearing, in terms of the over-emphasis on production versus content demonstrating actual humans on the air.

We're in an amazing era where there's a ton of audio sources to choose from. It's a given that streaming services can play endless sets of music that go deeper than terrestrial radio playlists. You can find whiz-bang, rapid-fire production and white noise all over the place – if that's your thing. Country radio has always been wonderfully nuanced, injecting the right dose of reality, compassion, and humanity with the best stories and songs. Spend three hours listening to your local Country station and its air personalities, and those qualities are still there. I just wish we'd return to representing those difference-making nuances when trying to earn the well-deserved recognition from our industry peers.