Sony Nashville's Gary Overton: 'If You're Not On Country Radio, You Don't Exist.'

Gary Overton

SONY NASHVILLE Chairman/CEO GARY OVERTON gave Country radio a major shout out in YESTERDAY’s (2/22) TENNESSEAN, while being interviewed about COUNTRY RADIO SEMINAR (CRS) and the year ahead for his label group.

“I can't think of one star, much less superstar in Country music, who wasn't broken by Country radio,” said OVERTON. “It's just a fact. That's where the active audience is. That's where they go to listen to it."

OVERTON, who heads up the NASHVILLE divisions for ARISTA, COLUMBIA and RCA, also spoke of the importance of CRS and the unique place it holds in the industry: “It's a time for us to have about 600 programmers, operation managers, station owners so we can tell them what our priorities are with our superstar artists and hear some of our new artists we can introduce them to. It's one of the most fabulous weeks. Not unlike CMA Fest, I can't imagine this happening in any other genre of music.”

He’s also enthusiastic about his roster in 2015, citing newcomers JOSH DORR (RCA), CAM, LOGAN MIZE (ARISTA) and CHASE RICE (COLUMBIA) as artists to watch.

And, OVERTON says rising stars CHRIS YOUNG and JAKE OWEN will have new music this year too. “Both those guys are in the studio right now. And I'll tell you there's not a greater joy in the world than when the artist calls and says, ‘Hey man, you want to come by the session and hear what we're doing?’ It was just flat out fantastic what I heard — it's so exciting.”

Read the entire interview here.

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