CRB Webinar Sheds Historical Light On Country Radio’s Gender Imbalance

CRS360

COUNTRY RADIO BROADCASTERS hosted the first episode in its new “CRS360” webinar series yesterday (5/23), tackling the thorny issue of gender disparity in Country radio airplay. STONE DOOR MEDIA LAB’S JEFF GREEN shared his historical research on female artists’ airplay and hit singles dating back all the way to 1974. He also analyzed female artist’s Top 15 and No. 1 hits compared to their share of releases between 2007 and 2018, in addition to taking a look at female artists’ Country streaming vs. airplay ratios.

Among GREEN’s takeaways: 
* Male country artists have always dominated Country radio airplay, getting 70% of the releases, 74% of the Top 15s and 78% of No. 1s over the past 45 years.
* The downward trend of 2011-2018 has happened before, back in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
* A slower chart further compresses opportunities for female artists, who must compete against a much larger roster of male artists, whether at Country radio or in the streaming world.

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY postdoctoral scholar RACHEL SKAGGS Ph.D. shared her own research, which had some better news, including the fact that songs performed by women are 135% more likely to be nominated for a Grammy Award in the Country Song of the Year category than songs by men, and 92% more likely to be selected as a best single in NASHVILLE SCENE magazine’s prestigious annual Country Music Critic’s Poll.

Moderated by SUMMITMEDIA’s BEVERLEE BRANNIGAN, the panelists also included CUMULUS/NASHVILLE’s JOHN SHOMBY. If you missed it, you can watch a video recording of the webinar here. The next webinar, on the same topic, will take place on TUESDAY, JUNE 11th at 1p (CT).

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